Glossary of Terms

Welcome to your guide to clarity. This glossary defines the core concepts and specialized language we use at Anchored for Growth to help operational leaders transform chaos into clarity and overwhelmed operators into anchored, strategic leaders.

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Anchored for Growth (AFG) Specific Terms

Every effective framework has its own language. These terms are the foundational concepts of Anchored for Growth, reflecting my unique philosophy and the specific tools we use. Understanding them will help you quickly grasp the essence of building a calm, focused, and highly effective operational leadership approach. They are the keys to unlocking an Anchored mindset.

  • Anchored Leader: An operational leader who consistently provides stability, clarity, and focus for their team and organization. They transform vision into reality with resilient systems, strategic execution, and a calm, confident mindset, acting as the bedrock for sustainable growth.
  • The Anchor & Balloon: Our core metaphor for the ideal Founder/CEO and COO partnership. The “Balloon” (often the Founder/CEO) is the visionary, full of ideas, creativity, and expansive energy. The “Anchor” (the COO) provides the grounding, structure, and focused execution needed to guide that energy toward a specific destination, preventing the balloon from drifting aimlessly.
  • Collaborate, Collaborate, Dictate: Our framework for effective decision-making that moves beyond weak compromise. It emphasizes deep collaboration to find a new, collective solution. If consensus cannot be reached after a genuine effort, the designated leader (often the Integrator/COO) makes the final, informed decision, ensuring progress continues.
  • The Fixer’s Trap: A common pitfall for COOs and Integrators, where they instinctively try to solve every problem or do every task themselves, often out of efficiency or a desire for control. This ultimately makes them a bottleneck, preventing team development and scalable growth.
  • The Idea Dock: A simple, centralized, and accessible system (such as a shared document or project board) for capturing all new, unprioritized ideas. It honors a Visionary’s divergent thinking by providing an immediate “parking lot” for creativity without derailing current focus or operational priorities.
  • The Unstoppable Partnership: The result of a Founder/CEO and COO who have achieved deep alignment, clear role definition, and effective communication. They function as a cohesive, high-performing unit that consistently translates vision into reality and drives exponential growth.

ADHD Terms

Understanding ADHD goes beyond medical labels; it’s about recognizing how your unique brain wiring impacts your leadership style and operational effectiveness. This section clarifies common ADHD traits from the perspective of a COO, helping you leverage your strengths and build systems that support your challenges, turning them into superpowers.

  • ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder): For a leader, this often presents as a brain wired for creativity, divergent thinking, and high-energy “sprints.” It can also mean struggling to maintain focus on routine tasks, feeling overwhelmed by administrative details, and wrestling with time blindness/optimism.
  • ADHD-Friendly Systems: A way of working that leverages the ADHD brain instead of fighting it. It involves building simple, visual, and external systems (like checklists, project boards, and “Idea Docks“) to support the brain’s challenges with working memory, organization, and task initiation.
  • Emotional Dysregulation: The experience of feeling emotions more intensely and for longer periods than a neurotypical person might. For a COO, this can look like a disproportionate flash of frustration at a small setback or a wave of overwhelming stress from a seemingly manageable problem. It’s not a character flaw; it’s a difference in emotional wiring.
  • Executive Dysfunction: This is the root of many leadership challenges. It’s not a lack of skill, but a difficulty in applying those skills. For a COO, it manifests as:
    • Knowing what to do but struggling with how to start (see Task Initiation).
    • Struggling to break down a massive, complex project into a simple sequence of steps.
    • Forgetting a key detail that was mentioned in a meeting (see Working Memory Challenges).
  • Hyperfocus: An ADHD superpower… and its kryptonite. It’s the ability to get into a state of intense, “flow-state” concentration, often solving a complex problem or building an entire system in one sitting. As a COO, this is your zone of genius. It becomes a challenge when you hyperfocus on the wrong thing, losing an entire day to a low-priority task while a more urgent fire burns.
  • RSD (Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria): This is the intense, overwhelming, and often painful emotional response to perceived criticism or rejection. For a COO, this is a huge vulnerability. It can cause you to:
    • Avoid giving difficult feedback to your team, fearing their negative reaction.
    • Over-deliver or people-please to the point of burnout, trying to ensure no one is ever unhappy with you.
    • Struggle with your Founder/CEO, interpreting their constructive feedback as a sign that you are failing, which can lead to defensiveness and a breakdown of trust.
  • Task Initiation Difficulty: The profound (and often baffling) challenge of starting a task, even one you know is important. For a COO, this often looks like procrastination on the “big-rock” strategic projects in favor of putting out small, urgent (and more stimulating) fires.
  • Time Blindness: This is a core challenge of the ADHD nervous system, describing a genuine difficulty in perceiving the passage of time. It’s not just underestimating tasks; it’s a fundamental disconnect from how time “feels.”
    • For a COO, this can be a major issue, showing up as:
      • Consistently running late to meetings, even with the best intentions.
      • A complete inability to judge how long a complex, multi-week project will actually take to complete.
      • Accidentally spending an entire morning on one “quick” task.
  • Time Optimism: This is my preferred, empathetic term for one of the primary symptoms of time blindness. It describes the brain’s innate tendency to underestimate how long a given task will take optimistically. As a COO, this is a critical challenge. It can lead to you overcommitting yourself and your team, setting unrealistic deadlines, and constantly feeling like you’re behind.
  • Working Memory Challenges: Difficulty holding and manipulating multiple pieces of information in your mind at one time. For a COO, who is the central hub for all the company’s information, this is a core struggle. It’s why you might walk out of a meeting and instantly forget the key action item, or why you rely so heavily on taking notes.

Understanding ADHD in Leadership: Beyond the Labels

Clinical definitions are a starting point, but they don’t capture the full experience of a high-performing leader. Here is a more practical way to understand how these traits often show up in the C-suite.

The Inattentive Leader

This leader’s challenges are often “internal.” They might be seen as the quiet “daydreamer” in a long meeting, but they are often deep in complex, strategic thought.

  • How it shows up for a COO: You might excel at deep, complex problem-solving (a form of hyperfocus) but struggle to complete the “boring” administrative paperwork. You may lose track of key details in a long report, find it difficult to finish routine tasks, and wrestle with a constantly cluttered desk, even though you know exactly where everything is.

The Hyperactive-Impulsive Leader

This leader’s energy is “external” and highly visible. They are often the charismatic, fast-talking “idea tornado” who thrives in a high-paced, chaotic environment.

  • How it shows up for a COO: You might be an incredible motivator and public speaker, but you may struggle to sit still through a 90-minute leadership meeting. You may interrupt your colleagues—not out of disrespect, but out of pure excitement and a desire to keep the momentum going. This energy can be a massive asset for driving change but can also create whiplash for your team if not channeled properly.

The Combined Leader

This is the most common presentation and is what most people picture when they think of ADHD. This leader experiences a powerful mix of both internal and external challenges.

  • How it shows up for a COO: You might have 50 tabs open on your browser (inattentive) while you pace your office on a conference call (hyperactive). You can be a brilliant strategist who gets bogged down in details, and a high-energy motivator who struggles with task initiation on the “big rocks.” It’s a constant balancing act between a brain that wants to go fast and a brain that gets lost in the weeds.

A Note on “Unspecified” or Unique Presentations

ADHD is a spectrum, not a set of neat boxes. Many successful leaders have a unique mix of symptoms that impact their lives but don’t perfectly fit the criteria above.

The specific label is not what’s important. What is important is identifying the specific symptoms that are holding you back as a leader—whether that’s Time Optimism, Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), or Task Initiation Difficulty—and building the simple, external systems you need to thrive.

Entrepreneurial & Business Terms

The startup world has its own unique vocabulary. This section clarifies essential entrepreneurial and operational terms, ensuring you’re speaking the same language as your founder, investors, and leadership team. A shared understanding of these concepts is crucial for clear communication and effective execution.

  • COO (Chief Operating Officer): The executive responsible for managing the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of a business. They ensure that the company’s systems, processes, and people are optimized to execute the strategic vision effectively.
  • Founder/CEO: The individual (or individuals) who created the company and typically holds the ultimate strategic vision and external representation of the organization.
  • Integrator: A term, popularized by EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), for the person who harmonizes all the major functions of the business, drives execution, and implements the Visionary’s strategic plan. Often held by the COO.
  • KPI (Key Performance Indicator): A measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives. COOs use KPIs to monitor operational health and progress toward goals.
  • MVP (Minimum Viable Product): The version of a new product or service that includes just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future product development. It is a critical concept for efficiently testing new ideas and managing the “Idea Tornado.”
  • MVS (Minimal Viable System): Drawing inspiration from the “Minimal Viable Product” concept, an MVS is the simplest possible process or tool implemented to solve a specific operational pain point or achieve a key outcome. For COOs, this means prioritizing foundational systems (e.g., a simple Idea Dock, a basic meeting agenda) that provide immediate clarity and structure without over-engineering. It’s about building just enough system to get started, gain control, and then iterate.
  • Operating System (Business): The comprehensive set of principles, processes, and tools that define how a company runs. It encompasses everything from how decisions are made to how meetings are conducted to how teams communicate and execute.
  • Role Ambiguity: A lack of clarity regarding the expectations, responsibilities, and boundaries of a specific job role. This is a common source of friction and inefficiency in Founder/CEO and COO partnerships.
  • Systems Thinking: An approach to problem-solving that views problems not in isolation, but as part of an interconnected whole. For COOs, this means understanding how all elements of a business interact and designing processes that optimize the entire system.
  • Visionary: A term, popularized by EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), for the leader who creates the company’s long-term vision, sets the strategic direction, and often acts as the primary idea generator. Often held by the Founder/CEO.

Coaching Terms

If you’re considering working with a coach, it’s essential to understand the language and approach. This section demystifies the process, defining key terms to help you understand how a structured coaching partnership can unlock your leadership potential and create tangible results.

  • Accountability: In a coaching context, this is a supportive partnership, not micromanagement. The coach helps you stay committed to your own goals and action plans by providing a consistent, non-judgmental structure to ensure follow-through and momentum.
  • Action Plan: The concrete, step-by-step roadmap created with your coach to move you from your current state to your desired goal. This plan is owned by you, but co-created with a coach to ensure it’s realistic, aligned, and built for your unique brain.
  • Clarity Call: A complimentary, initial coaching session designed to help a prospective client articulate their challenges, clarify their desired outcomes, and determine if coaching is the right solution for them. It’s a focused, high-value strategy session, not a sales pitch.
  • Co-Active Coaching: A coaching model that views the client as naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. The coach partners with the client to evoke transformation through powerful questions, active listening, and direct communication.
  • Coaching Container: The defined structure, boundaries, and agreements within which a coaching relationship operates. This includes meeting frequency, confidentiality, communication expectations, and the goals of the engagement. It creates a safe and focused space for deep work.
  • Executive Coaching: A personalized, confidential partnership between a coach and an executive/leader, focused on developing leadership capabilities, improving performance, and achieving specific professional and organizational goals.
  • Limiting Beliefs: The hidden, often unconscious, assumptions and rules you hold about yourself or your role that hold you back. A key part of coaching is identifying these beliefs (e.g., “I can’t be a strategic leader because my brain is too chaotic”) and replacing them with empowering ones.
  • Powerful Questions: The primary tool of a coach. Instead of giving advice (“Do this”), a coach asks open-ended, thought-provoking questions (“What would this look like if it were easy?” or “What’s the real challenge here for you?”). This process helps you uncover your own answers, which are always more effective than someone else’s.
  • Reframing: A core coaching technique of changing your perspective on a situation, event, or belief to see it in a new, more empowering light. For example, we work to reframe “emotional dysregulation” as “passionate leadership” or “distractibility” as “high environmental awareness,” turning perceived weaknesses into powerful, manageable strengths.