Forgetfulness isn’t failure. It’s feedback.
This reframe emerged in a recent coaching series with a neurodivergent client through PricklyPear—and it shifted everything.
They had internalized years of criticism about missed details, forgotten steps, and “not being focused enough.” But what we uncovered together was this:
➡️ It wasn’t about carelessness.
➡️ It was about how ADHD affects retrieval, not intelligence.
➡️ And it was time to stop fighting recall—and start designing for how their brain actually works.
Through our sessions, we reframed memory challenges into something more compassionate and powerful:
- Don’t rely on short-term memory. Build systems of meaning.
- Understand the concept—don’t obsess over facts.
- Treat “ephemeral knowledge” like what it is: useful for now, not forever.
This client went from feeling “incompetent” to recognizing that their mind is deeply capable—just wired differently.And once they embraced conceptual learning, redundancy, and joyful structure, things began to flow.
At PricklyPear, we believe this is what inclusive coaching looks like: Helping leaders understand their wiring, redesign their work habits, and rewrite the stories they’ve been told about what success should look like.
Let’s stop pathologizing forgetfulness. Let’s start listening to it
#ADHDAtWork #NeurodivergentLeadership #ExecutiveFunction
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