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HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

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MANAGING YOURSELF

Overloaded Circuits

Modern office life and an increasingly common condition called "attention deficit trait" are turning steady executives into frenzied underachievers.

Underperform n

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by Edward M. Hailowell
vid drums his fingers on his desk as he scans the e-mail on his computerscreen. At the same time, he's talking on the phone to an executive halfway around the world. His knee bounces up and down like a jackhammer. He intermittently bites his lip and reaches for his constant companion, the coffee cup. He's so deeply involved in multitasking that he has forgotten the appointment his Outlook calendar reminded him of 15 minutes ago. Jane, a senior vice president, and Mike, herCEO, have adjoining offices so they can communicate quickly, yet communication never seems to happen. "Whenever I go into Mike's office, his phone lights up, my cell phone goes off, someone knocks on the door, he suddenly turns to his screen and writes an e-mail, or he tells me about a new issue he wants me to address," Jane complains. "We're working flat out just to stay afloat, and we're notgetting anything important accomplished. It's driving me crazy." David, Jane, and Mike aren't crazy, but they're certainly crazed. Their experience is becoming the norm for overworked managers who suffer - like many of your colleagues, and possibly like you-from a very real but unrecognized neurological phenomenon that 1 call attention

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MANAGING YOURSELF
panicand guilt. Facing a tidal wave of tasks, the executive becomes increasingly hurried, curt, peremptory, and unfocused, while pretending that everything is fine. To control ADT, we first have to recognize it. And control it we must, if we as individuals and organizational leaders are to be effective. In the following pages, I'll offer an analysis of the origins of ADT and provide some suggestionsthat may help you manage it.

deficit trait, or ADT. Caused by brain overload, ADT is now epidemic in organizations. The core symptoms are distractibility, inner frenzy, and impatience. People with ADT have difficulty staying organized, setting priorities, and managing time. These symptoms can undermine the work of an otherwise gifted executive. If David, jane, Mike, and the millions like themunderstood themselves in neurological terms, they could actively manage their lives instead of reacting to problems as they happen. As a psychiatrist who has diagnosed and treated thousands of people over the past 25 years for a medical condition called attention deficit disorder, or ADD (now known clinically as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), I have observed firsthand how a rapidlygrowing segment of the adult population is developing this new, related condition. The number of people with ADT coming into my clinical practice has mushroomed by a factor of ten in the past decade. Unfortunately, most of the remedies for chronic overload proposed by time-management consultants and executive coaches do not address the underlying causes of ADT. Unlike ADD, a neurological disorder thathas a genetic component and can be aggravated by environmental and physical factors, ADT springs entirely from the environment. Like the traffic jam, ADT is an artifact of modem life. It is brought on by the demands on our time and

Attention Deficit Cousins
To understand the nature and treatment of ADT, it's useful to know something of its cousin, ADD. Usually seen as a learning disability inchildren, ADD also afflicts about 5% of the adult population. Researchers using MRI scans have found that people with ADD suffer a slightly diminished volume in four specific brain regions that have various functions such as modulating emotion (especially anger and frustration) and assisting in learning. One of the regions, made up of the frontal and prefrontal lobes, generates thoughts, makes...