Have you ever watched someone struggle through a one hour meeting and then spend five hours in deep concentration on something that genuinely engages them?
ADHD is a neurological difference in how someone regulates attention, energy, and impulse. That contrast between the meeting and the deep focus is an example of how it can work.
Someone being visibly restless. Someone else perfectly still on the outside and racing on the inside. Someone talking fast and jumping between ideas. Someone going quiet because they are processing several thoughts at once. Someone being consistently late. Someone who is obsessively early because they have built systems to make sure they are never late again. Someone who gets more done while moving than they ever would sitting still at a desk.
Many people with ADHD were not identified as children. Especially women, and especially people who did well enough at school that nobody looked closer. The identification often comes later in life, when earlier coping strategies stop being enough.
In the workplace, what we see most often is a gap between someone's ability and their consistency.
So if you are seeing both potential and frustration in the same person, it is worth paying attention to. Especially if that person is you.
Have a human conversation. With your colleague, manager, coach, mentor.
Workplace adjustments are often straightforward. Start with understanding the individual, not the label. Adjustments can be flexible and differ between colleagues with the same diagnosis. Clearer priorities instead of open-ended task lists. Permission to work in bursts instead of forcing a steady pace. Check-ins that are short and regular instead of long and infrequent. Flexibility on when the work gets done, not whether it gets done.
Most of these changes make teams work better for everyone.