35. Executive Function Coaching: What Is It and Is It for You?
Episode 35
Whether you’ve heard the term “executive functions” before or it’s new to you, the truth is that everything we talk about here on the Learn and Work Smarter Podcast is under the category of executive functions.
In this episode, I teach you everything you need to know about executive function coaching, including:
✅What executive function coaching looks like for students
✅ What executive function coaching looks like for working professionals
✅ How to decide if executive function coaching is something you could benefit from
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The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I am choosing not to spend my time fixing them. :)
Executive function coaching: What is it and is it for you?
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[00:00:00] Hello there. This is episode 35 of the learn and Work Smarter podcast. If you are new here, welcome whether you are listening on a podcast app or watching the video version on YouTube. I am so glad you found me. And if you have been around the block with me for a few episodes so far welcome back to you too.
And I hope that the reason that you are back with me is that you are liking the podcast, right? I'm honestly having so much fun and all of your likes and comments and subscribes when you follow the show, that makes me so happy.
Today's episode is a little bit different from some of my other episodes.You probably noticed that [00:01:00] most of my episodes are about skills and strategies and mindset around well, learning and working smarter. This episode is going to be just a little bit different because it's still about learning and working smarter, but it's more, I'd say an education based episode.
I get a ton of questions about today's topic and it's actually the fancy name for what we already talk about every single week here in the podcast.
And you can probably already tell from the title of this episode, that we are talking about executive functions. Specifically, we're talking about executive function coaching, and could it be for you?
I'm going to explain what it is, hopefully that will give you enough information for you to assess whether it's something you could benefit from.
Now if the word executive functions means nothing to you, no problem. As I said, it is a fancy name for all of the things that we're already talking about on this podcast. So stick [00:02:00] around, take some notes and let's get started.
So I have two children who are currently 12 and 13, and that means that I find myself at a lot of community and school and social events with people I don't know. And I'm sure, you know, these kinds of events are full of questions like “what do you do for work?” And it seems like such an easy question was such an easy answer, but I don't think that answer is that simple for my industry.
And a recent social interaction I had just a few weeks ago put me in a situation where I had to [00:03:00] explain to someone what I do for a living. And I found myself at a crossroads.
Do I just tell people point-blank that I am an executive function coach? Or do I give the generic answer, which is, you know, educator. So here's the thing. I am by profession, education and experience an executive function, coach. I have a master's degree in special education.
My specialty is ADHD. I was a high school special education teacher for years. I was a vice president of a tutoring center. And I taught test prep in the private school sector.
And yes, this was all before and while building my SchoolHabits executive function coaching business.
So, what do all of these things have in common? Everything that I've spent my life doing- what's it have in common? In other words, it's obvious I am an educator. Yes, but what am I really.
And the answer, as I said, is that I am an executive [00:04:00] function coach. In my day job when I am not making YouTube videos and writing blog posts and recording podcasts or making content or interacting with the students inside of SchoolHabits University,
I am in my office, which is in the downtown of an adorable little town in Massachusetts working with my private clients for one hour sessions. I do this for seven hours straight, sometimes eight hours, Tuesday through Thursday and half days Fridays. All right. And what am I doing with these clients who are in grade five through adulthood?
I am providing executive function coaching.
So let's start with some simple vocabulary, not some simple, but some, you know, baseline vocabulary: executive functions.
What are executive functions? We all have them. Our executive functions are a constellation of skills that are controlled primarily. In the prefrontal cortex of our brain. And they enable us to [00:05:00] operate independently.
There's other brain parts that are involved as well, but primarily prefrontal cortex. These are the skills that are involved with time management, organization, task initiation, impulse control, working memory. Emotional regulation, flexible thinking attention, focus. You catching some themes here?
These are all the exact same topics that I talk about in my YouTube videos for schoolhabits channel, and here on the learn and work smarter podcast and my blog as well.
In other words, time management, organization, task management, motivation, productivity and working memory and study skills.
Right? This is what we talk about all of the time here. So, if you can imagine these are some pretty darn important skills for students in school and for working professionals in the workforce. In fact, they are pretty darn important for anybody at all. Who wants to operate independently and reach goals. Of [00:06:00] any kind. But I personally stick to the context of academics and the professional space here on the podcast.
So that's what we're going to talk about. Anyways. I mentioned earlier. Then my area of expertise is ADHD. So, what does ADHD have to do with executive functions? Well, people with ADHD require more support with their executive functions due to differences in neurology and biology. And various areas of the brain specifically that prefrontal cortex that I mentioned. Now people without ADHD can also struggle with executive functions because in reality, These are all skills we're talking about here.
Time management, task management organization, right? These are all skills. And what do we know about skills? They can be taught and you can learn them. And some people have not been taught and they need to still learn them. Okay. So all of that to say that almost every person with ADHD requires some kind of executive function support. Either with all of the executive functions or maybe [00:07:00] just with the emotional side of things, maybe with the more tactical side of things, it depends. But you don't have to have ADHD to benefit from learning executive function skills.
Now, I don't mention this on the podcast much at all.
I don't think I actually have it all, but I've created and published the executive function journal and the executive function journal companion guide. It's a 90 day journal that targets and builds core executive functions. The companion guide is for parents and educators who want to facilitate the child's use of the journal. No, it is not another journal that just collects dust on your shelf.
As it's created specifically to target executive functions through self-awareness. The link to the executive function journal website is in the show notes. Or the description box, or you can go to ExecutiveFunctionJournal.com. The reason I am bringing that up is it's just an example of one way that somebody could seek executive function support.
Listening to this podcast is another way. Enrolling in SchoolHabits university is another way, as that is [00:08:00] at its core, an executive function curriculum. Or aligning with the topic of today's episode, somebody might seek out executive function coaching. And that is what we're going to dive into. Now executive function, coaching is the most hands on and the most personalized way to learn executive function skills.
It's not for everybody, but it is for many. And honestly, executive function coaching works beautifully in conjunction with other executive function supports. I know this is not a plug for my executive function coaching services. Believe me, because at the time of this recording, I have a significant wait list for students like nearly a year or more. So for working professionals, I also have a waitlist, but that moves quicker than the queue that I have for students.
So Okay. So I'm just to reiterate, I am not encouraging you to hire me as your coach. You know, I would love to do that, but currently at the time of recording, I am at total capacity. And that is [00:09:00] why I have created all of these other supports for you all:
the executive function journal, the SchoolHabits, university online course, SchoolHabits university for education. Uh, curriculum for school systems, as well as my schoolhabits website and YouTube channel. And this podcast.
My point here is to teach you about executive function coaching in general. So that you can determine for yourself whether it's something that you might benefit from. Okay. The reason I think this will be a helpful, helpful. Helpful. Episode is because I constantly introduce my self to people. And as I said, you know, what social events and school events and community events, and I'm always met with blank faces
when I say I'm an executive function coach. So I figure, wow, this is not, you know, like standard language. So I figure let's do a little education here on the podcast.
So executive function coaching for students looks different than it [00:10:00] does for professionals. Keep in mind, I have my own methods of running my private coaching sessions that might differ from other executive function coaches. My personal methods are based on 20 years of experience.
Like I said, a master's degree in special education. And well over 3000 one-to-one clients. And I tell you that only to encourage you to do your research independently, okay. If you're looking for an executive function, coach. Anybody can call themselves a coach these days in any category. But when we are talking about executive functions, that is a very specific set of skills that requires an expert. So do your research and check the credentials. Of who you are researching, what is their education? What is their experience?
What is their approach? All right. There is no official executive function coaching certificate. You know, that's recognized by any medical association or anything like that. So [00:11:00] don't fall for that. But I would say advanced degrees in education, either a master's or a PhD level in special education, maybe psychology, um, or maybe some behavior specific fields, things like that. All right.
So let's start with students. Most of my weekly roster is full of students from fifth grade through graduate school. And executive function coaching, the way that I operate my sessions involves explicitly teaching executive functioning skills as they apply to a, student's a very real curriculum. Let me explain this in detail and talk about why this is so important.
Okay. If you're looking for an executive function coach, I want you to find someone who does it this way. If you are seeking executive function coaching, there is a good chance that you struggled with working memory and task management and task initiation and organization and things like that. And that means that learning these skills in isolation without seeing how they apply in real life can be a nearly insurmountable challenge. [00:12:00] So I will have a student bring in their device and bring in their assignment notebook, and I teach them time management skills as we set up their calendars together. And then every week we are checking in and we're opening up the digital calendar and making sure things that are locked and loaded as they should be and working to build systems and habits around using a digital calendar to make time visible.
If a student has a ton of missing assignments, very common. Okay. We are going to work on those assignments together at the same time that I am teaching. Task management skills, such as breaking down long projects, like essays, writing to discrete steps and teaching them how to add those individual steps to specific days ,in their assignment, notebook or homework planner.
Right. Checking the digital calendar to make sure there's actually time and a day to work on these things because task and time management work together. You know that. If a student has a test to study for, I am teaching them legitimate study methods using their [00:13:00] actual study material. So at the end of our session, Not only have they studied and learned the material, the test is, you know, gonna test them on, but they're also leaving with a handful of study strategies that they know work for them and their unique brains. I personally work with my students on a weekly basis.
So it's one hour, once a week at the same day. Same time. They're standing appointments. Executive function coaching- hear me out on this one- is not a one-time achievement that you earn a check mark for when it's done, you set goals and we set those goals together and we work to meet them. But executive function coaching for students is the long game. Now the reason for that is that learning skills is one thing.
But learning how to apply those skills in a particular context, so let's say like senior year of high school, that is another thing. And then when you have to learn how to [00:14:00] apply those skills to another context, like freshman year of college, That's an entirely different thing. So, yeah, that means I often work with students for years. Until they're able to apply their skills independently into various contexts with very little support from me.
Okay. So if you're a student listening to this, how would you know if executive function coaching is for you? Or if you are a parent listening to this, how would you know if executive function coaching is for your child?
The answer? Look for patterns. You look for patterns in skill gaps. You look for gaps that exist across multiple contexts in school and outside of school. All right, so let's just take time management, for example, that's something that all of my clients struggle with.
If you, if you're the student or if you're a child, if you're the parent, um, struggles to estimate how long [00:15:00] tasks take, is always late to things, can't seem to leave the house on time, whether it's for school or karate or whatever. , and save things to the last minute, all the time, across multiple contexts and multiple classes because they can't match the complexity of a task to a realistic amount of time it takes, then they could benefit from executive function coaching.
Because that is a gap in time management skills.
And, you know, I probably should have led with the most obvious sign that someone could benefit from or indicator, I suppose, that someone could benefit from it executive function coaching is if they have ADHD. In the context of students who attend public school, for example, You could look for a language on the IEP or individualized education program that specifies that you or your child could benefit from executive function support.
Oftentimes that's written into the IEP. You do not [00:16:00] need an official diagnosis of any kind ADHD or otherwise to benefit from executive function coaching. Again, my friends, executive functions are key academic and working skills that every single person on this planet. Uses on a daily basis to achieve goals. All right. Now let's talk about what executive function coaching looks like for adults.
And then we will get into, is this for you? So, again, speaking from the way that I run my sessions, I work with working professionals of any age across any industry. I also work with adults who are not working outside the home per se, but are instead managing the home and could use support, you know, running that operation and balancing their own personal goals in that. Again, this is more evidence as to why executive functions are seriously some of the most essential skills that we could possibly ever have.
So same thing with students:
coaching sessions are one hour with adults. But these are usually [00:17:00] less frequent. Occasionally if I have a client who's going through.. I don't know maybe a challenging transition at work, maybe going back to work after a long period of time off or changing jobs or feeling overwhelmed, we might meet weekly for a period of time, but otherwise it's usually every other week or once a month.
Why is this? So executive function coaching at the adult level doesn't involve the sort of like putting out fires vibe, but that coaching students involves.
And what I mean by that is that literally every single week that I see, let's say I don't know a student I'm going to make it Johnny. Right. Every single week that I see Johnny, he has something new that he needs to learn to tackle. A knew essay, a new test, a new, you know, new assignments, more papers he needs organized, more emails have come in that he needs to learn how to manage. On the other hand, adults typically have bigger projects that aren't changing with the same frequency that the students [00:18:00] are dealing with.
Right. And so for the most part, we are focusing on building and creating systems that will support their executive functions. Which will in turn, help them manage their work projects and their tasks and their spaces. The systems do not often have to change much with the exception of, you know, some tweaks now.
And again, in order to add novelty, because that's a primary factor in motivation; that's something everyone can benefit from. Right. And then sometimes we have to make changes when their professional or personal circumstance changes, but which I said is much less frequent than it is for students.
So, let me give you an example of a recent, recent coaching session I had with a working professional. If you're listening to this and you are one of my clients and you recognize this scenario as you, do not worry, I am not going to say your name and I'm not going to see the name of your company.
Okay. You know, that. So, this is a woman that I meet with once a month. There have been a few times that we would meet weekly during transitions and periods of, you know, particular [00:19:00] overwhelmed, but for the last two years or so, it's been about once a month. She works in human resources in a software company.
And in our time together, she's had different roles in human resources, like different job titles, I guess, but she's always generally been in HR. She first came to me looking for simple ways to get better organized at the office. The person in the position that she filled. So the person like who had the job before her but left had essentially no digital or physical organization systems at all,
so my client. We're going to call her Megan. Inherited total chaos. And she did not know where to start. Now Megan suspects that she has ADHD, but she has no formal diagnosis. And after working together for so long, I also agree that she has ADHD, but I'm not going to consider that relevant here. So, but someone in her position would be really challenged and overwhelmed with trying to create systems out of pure chaos.
All right. So we work [00:20:00] together to organize her physical space. And this is done with Megan via zoom because she doesn't live in my state, but she'd take pictures of her space. We'd talk about her preferences, her strengths or weaknesses. And we created a workspace that supported her. And then we tackled her digital space next. We assessed what system she was currently using, what was already in there, which, let's face it was like none.
And then we assess her strengths and our weaknesses in her natural work tendencies. And we created a digital organization system that works for her. Now, essentially that could have been the end of our work together, but then we moved on to task management. Because we realized that a lot of her stress and anxiety throughout the week was not just due to the disorganized space. And we figured that out cause a lot of her stress and anxiety remained somewhat high still once we clean up her spaces. So we had to keep going to figure out what other areas she was like getting snagged on. So I was able to coach Megan through another self assessment of, okay. [00:21:00] What's currently working? What's not working? What are the friction points?
A question I love to ask my clients is what would all of this look like if it were simple? What would all of this look like if it were simple? And then we created a system. She, you know, uses it for three to four weeks. I give her homework to evaluate snags or friction points between sessions, and then we meet again and we meet make tweaks when needed. It turned out that another key area that needed attention from Megan was task management.
That is so common with my, uh, working professionals. So this was just organization and task management but our sessions have spanned this. In my example. But our sessions have spanned every executive function system over the past two years together. She logs into our session. I ask her some questions about the stuff we worked on in the prior session.
And then she brings to the table, anything that's stressing her out or on her mind or not working or working well. Okay. Or [00:22:00] anything that she needs help with. And then we work together to solve it at the same time that I'm teaching her the actual executive function skills so that she can.. You guessed it... work smarter.
Now, this is just one example of one client in one industry.
But if that singular example got you thinking, oh my gosh, I need that then executive function coaching could be for you.
Even if you could, you know, expand on that example with me and think of another area that you need help with, maybe email management, right? Figuring out how to create a system that works for you when you work some days at home and some days at the office. Then executive function, coaching is for you.
I have one client who travels for like two weeks out of every month.
It's so hard for him. He goes all over the place and he comes to me for help creating work routines when he's literally in another time zone and still trying to do his job. Without all of the resources that he has at his home base. Okay. That's that's tough. I'll [00:23:00] say this again too. If you have ADHD, executive function coaching would almost definitely be helpful to you.
Now, I said at the beginning of this episode that I run my executive function coaching sessions the way that I run them. I make them extremely tactical and practical. And I work with these students' very real curriculum and assignments. And I work with a professional's very real and personal and specific work projects and work issues.
It's not me sitting across the table from someone saying, this is how it's done and, you know, in theory and go figure out how to make it work for you.
That does not work. Other executive function, coaches might have their own way of coaching. I know some who worked with clients for just a limited amount of time. Um, some that require clients to complete worksheets and homework and all of the things. And that might absolutely work for people. And that's what you have to figure out for yourself. Right.
But I am of the belief that if someone requires [00:24:00] executive function coaching, They need exactly that. And not all of the additional hoops to jump through an extra assignments from me. I explicitly teach the skills and strategies based on my individual client and what they need. And I teach them how to apply those skills and strategies to their very real school work or life scenarios.
Now, there is another element that I need to add here, because this varies among executive function coaches, but I can't complete this episode without talking about anxiety and the therapeutic elements of executive function coaching.
If you have zoned out, I want you to tune back in right now and come back to me for this, please. If somebody is struggling with executive functions and there's disorganization and lack of time management and there's procrastination and forgetting tasks and all of that, then there are either academic or professional consequences. And often personal embarrassment and shame and a hefty, hefty dose of anxiety. [00:25:00] So it is impossible for me and it would not be right of me to conduct executive function coaching sessions without a therapeutic approach.
All right. Executive function, coaching is not at all about the grades. It's not about the promotion. It is about you. The human. And you are more than your tasks and your calendar.
And so if this entire discussion about executive function coaching has piqued your interest but you are struggling with mental health or anxiety or depression or maybe, um, a learning disability and feelings of shame and anxiety and anything in that category of like heavy holding me back, then please seek an executive function coach
who sees the big picture and is not just about teaching you how to create checklists. 'cause let me be loud and clear. Executive function coaching is not just about checklists. [00:26:00] You know I love a good checklist and they can be super helpful, but that is not a panacea to address. Everything that someone with executive function deficits is dealing with. Okay. So even after hearing myself record this episode, like in the moment right now, I'm still not sure that I have decided how I want to answer the question: what do you do for work?
Do I say executive function coach? Do I say educator? I feel like I still don't know. You know, maybe I will answer with something slightly provocative, like I teach people how to learn and work smarter. Just let that land in the conversation space. We'll see, I'll let you know what I decide. If you have, uh, maybe ideas for how I should answer the question what do you do for work, let me know, leave it in the description box if you're watching this on YouTube.
Shoot me a DM. Do we say, shoot me a DM? Send me a DM? write me a DM? I don't know. On [00:27:00] Instagram I'm @SchoolHabits. And with that, my friends, I want you to promise me that you will never stop learning.
