What happens when the mask comes off?

In this episode, Coach Cathy dives into the unique challenges faced by high-achieving professionals with ADHD who feel pressured to conform to traditional leadership molds. Through her personal story of exhaustion and the breaking point that led her to quit her executive role, Cathy shines a light on masking—the exhausting effort to hide your struggles and maintain a polished facade.

She unpacks the toll this takes on your mental bandwidth, decision-making, and ability to lead authentically. Cathy offers clear insights into the signs you might be leading from survival mode, why understanding ADHD is a game-changer, and how small, strategic shifts can help you lead with clarity, sustainability, and alignment with your values.

Whether you’re feeling stuck in the cycle of burnout or navigating your next leadership transition, this episode will leave you with actionable steps to recalibrate your approach in a way that works with your brain, not against it.

00:00 Introduction: What does it mean to lead with ADHD? 01:09 Personal Story: The moment the mask shattered. 01:31 Understanding Masking: Why it’s so draining and its impact on leadership. 02:46 Survival Mode vs. Authentic Leadership: Recognizing the signs. 04:56 Reflecting on Leadership and ADHD: A new lens for aligned leadership. 07:05 Steps to Aligned Leadership: Practical strategies to start leading differently. 08:37 Invitation to Connect: Learn how ADHD-informed coaching can help you lead authentically.

If you’re tired of performing leadership and ready to step into authenticity, this episode is for you. Tune in to reclaim your energy, find clarity, and lead in a way that feels true to who you are.

Feel free to reach out if you’d like to have a conversation about how you can work together. Schedule a call using this link.

"I know what I need to do, but I don't trust that I'll do it when I need to do it."

If that sentence lands, this conversation is for you.

In this episode of Refined Leadership: ADHD Lens, I sit down with Dr. Russell Ramsay, one of the leading voices in adult ADHD and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. We talk about his new book, Once I Get Started, and the cognitive theme he believes runs beneath much of adult ADHD: self-mistrust.

This is not a productivity conversation. It is a conversation about what actually happens between knowing what to do and doing it — and why that gap shows up so often for capable, high-performing professionals.

What we explore:

• Self-mistrust as a possible central cognitive theme of adult ADHD, and how it shapes self-worth, decisions, and follow-through
• Why ADHD is better understood as a performance problem than a knowledge problem
• Motivation as an emotion, and why deadline pressure stops being a sustainable strategy
• Self-regulatory efficacy: why some people disengage early, and what protects against it
• How thoughts, feelings, and behaviors operate as a braided cord rather than a linear chain
• People-pleasing, social capital, and why ADHD professionals may overestimate their relational debts
• Procrastivity, or productive procrastination — when it is adaptive, and when it is avoidance
• Taskidermy tasks: the items that keep reappearing on your to-do list without moving forward
• The SAP Method: Specific, Actionable, Pivot Points for getting unstuck
• How CBT for adult ADHD differs from CBT for depression or anxiety, and why the implementation focus matters
• Masking, intentional self-presentation, and the difference between coping and concealment

This episode offers language for patterns that often go unnamed at work — and a more grounded way to think about why standard advice keeps falling short.

About Dr. Russell Ramsay: Dr. Russell Ramsay is a psychologist who specializes in the assessment and psychosocial treatment of adult ADHD. He has lectured internationally, published widely, and authored six books on adult ADHD, including his most recent, Once I Get Started. He is a CHADD Hall of Fame inductee.

Pre-order Once I Get Started by Russell Ramsay, Ph.D.: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/783710/once-i-get-started-by-russell-ramsay-phd/

Connect with Cathy Rashidian: ReadySetChoose.com

Resources:

Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) Symptom Checklist Instructions

https://add.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/adhd-questionnaire-ASRS111.pdf

In this episode of Refined Leadership: ADHD Edition, I’m sharing the story of two career-defining decisions I made at the height of my corporate leadership roles—both of which I now realize were driven by ADHD.

On the outside, they looked like bold, deliberate moves. On the inside, I was in fight-or-flight mode, making fear-based calls that brought short-term relief but long-term consequences.

You’ll hear:

• How ADHD traits like impulsivity, emotional intensity, and uncertainty intolerance can influence leadership decisions under pressure

• Why big life transitions (like parenthood) can magnify ADHD tendencies at work

• The difference between acting from clarity versus acting from discomfort

• What I wish I had done differently—and how you can apply those lessons in your own leadership role

If you’ve ever left a role, made a major career move, or passed up an opportunity only to later question the decision, this episode will give you tools to pause, assess, and choose with strategy, not stress.

If you are at that tipping point—knowing something needs to change, but not sure what—this is where a pause can change everything. My ADHD-Powered Clarity Pit Stop is a focused, one-on-one session to help you slow down, see the full picture, and make your next move from strategy, not stress.

You can learn more here → ADHD-Powered Clarity Pit Stop

Subscribe to our new YouTube channel here: Get leadership insights through the ADHD lens