Executive Function and ADHD Coaching for Busy Professionals Who Can Never Seem to Catch Up
I'm Shari Black, ICF-PCC. With 25 years in executive leadership and operations, and my own ADHD, I help knowledge workers and entrepreneurs across Canada build the systems their brains actually work with, so the important work finally gets done.
Free, 3 Minutes
ICF-PCC CERTIFIED
25 YEARS BUSINESS LEADERSHIP
ADHD LIVED EXPERIENCE
VIRTUAL COACHING
An executive function coach works with professionals to understand and address how their brain manages attention, task initiation, planning, and follow-through. Shari Black is an ICF-PCC certified executive function coach offering virtual ADHD and executive function coaching to knowledge workers and entrepreneurs across Canada, based in Ontario. If you're a high-achieving professional who struggles to get traction on your most important work, you're not lacking discipline. You're working against your cognitive patterns. Executive function coaching addresses that directly.
An executive function coach works with professionals to understand and address how their brain manages attention, task initiation, planning, and follow-through. Shari Black is an ICF-PCC certified executive function coach offering virtual ADHD and executive function coaching to knowledge workers and entrepreneurs across Canada, based in Ontario. If you're a high-achieving professional who struggles to get traction on your most important work, you're not lacking discipline. You're working against your cognitive patterns. Executive function coaching addresses that directly.
When you're responsible for outcomes, people and
decisions, getting and staying focused can be hard on your brain. Let's address that.
The way your brain manages work under pressure is running past its limits, and no planner, app or willpower is going to change that. This isn't about motivation. It's executive function.
Your brain is doing exactly what a brain does when it's carrying too much. It stalls. It avoids. It defaults to the loudest demand or the easiest win instead of the most important one.
When more than three things compete for your attention at once, with no clear way to sequence them, your executive function doesn't slow down. It stops. And the work that actually matters keeps waiting.
That's not a character flaw. That's a predictable, well-documented pattern, and it has a solution.
I spent 25 years in the same high-stakes roles you're in now. Former CEO, Executive
Director, franchise owner. I know from the inside what it costs to be fully capable and still not be able to get to the work that matters.
A Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report, drawn from nearly 10,000 leaders across 93 countries,
found that professionals spend 41% of their working day on tasks that create no organisational value. The
leading drivers? Cognitive overload and constant context-switching.
Source: Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends
WHAT CHANGES
Imagine this instead.
You open your laptop Monday morning already knowing exactly what you're doing first. No dread. No scanning. Just starting. No wasted ramp-up.
You move the work that actually matters - not just the work that is loudest or seems the most urgent. People stop chasing you for follow-ups.
You close your laptop at the end of the day and mean it. You did the priority work you needed to and then some.
Someone asks how you stay so consistent. And you actually have an answer.
You trust yourself again
WHAT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING
This isn't a motivation problem.
It never was.
You don't need to work harder.
You need to understand how you think, processand function - so
the way you work finally matches who you are.
Does the work you're most responsible for keep getting pushed aside? I see you, because I was you.
There's a reason why it seems like nothing is working. And it's not what you think.
I'm Shari Black — an Executive Function and ADHD/Habit Coach (ICF-PCC) based in Ontario, working with professionals across North America.
I spent 25 years in private sector and nonprofit operations, HR, and executive leadership. I've sat in the roles my clients are in. I know what it feels like when the work you're most responsible for keeps getting pushed aside by everything else.
That's not a willpower problem. And it's not your fault. I built Black to Basics because I couldn't find anyone who was approaching this the right way.
THE PATH FORWARD
Coaching that gets you Back to Basics so that you're in
control of work instead of being controlled by it.
Find Your Executive Function Pattern
Eight questions. Two minutes. You'll walk away knowing exactly which pattern is getting in your way - and what to do about it
Stop the Spin Session
A single focused 60-minute session that shows you exactly what's breaking down - and gives you one clear next move.
"BASIC" Private Coaching
The BASIC Method is 5-phase private coaching engagement — built to move you from chronic overload to reliable follow-through on work that actually matters.
COMMON QUESTIONS
What you're probably wondering
What is an executive function coach?
An executive function coach works with adults to identify why focus, planning, task initiation, and follow-through consistently break down, then builds practical systems to address those specific patterns. It is not therapy and it is not generic productivity advice. It is targeted, brain-based work that looks at how your cognitive wiring affects your ability to do the things that actually matter.
How is executive function coaching different from therapy?
Therapy tends to focus on understanding why you think and feel the way you do. Executive function coaching focuses on what happens when it is time to actually do the work. We are building systems, not processing the past. Many clients work with both a therapist and a coach and find the two approaches complement each other well.
Do I need an ADHD diagnosis to work with an executive function coach?
No. Many of my clients have a formal ADHD diagnosis and many do not. What matters is whether you are experiencing executive function challenges: difficulty starting tasks, losing track of priorities, feeling chronically behind despite working hard. Coaching can help regardless of whether you have a diagnosis, and regardless of what is driving the pattern.
Can executive function coaching help professionals in Canada or the US who are already high-performing?
This is exactly who I work with. Most of my clients are accomplished, credentialled people who have built successful careers and still feel like they are one missed deadline away from falling apart. Executive function coaching is not remedial. It is for people who want their output to match their actual ability, and who are tired of compensating for it.
Ready to stop running on empty?
Start with the free Executive Function Pattern Quiz.
Three Minutes.
You'll know which pattern is getting in your way and what to do about it.