If you are SHIT at admin, do you still have a lucrative career?

[Ineptatexcel]

And what is it and how do you manage? I am really bad at all admin tasks - I don't mean supporting others, just trying to manage my own stuff. I just cannot organise myself properly.

I have ADHD which I cannot take medication for because of high blood pressure. I also have some visual problems which make it look like text moves around the screen, and find it very difficult to look at dense pages of numbers like Excel or very small text. I'm finding video calls very difficult at the moment.

I tend to do very well in interviews, in team meetings and managing stakeholder relationships because it's obvious I know my field, and am quite good at ideas and problem solving. Except with this problem of my own though.

What can I do? I just feel upset this is holding me back and it makes me stressed out to feel everything is chaotic.

I did. I'm beyond terrible. I coped by faking it for a painful couple of years and worked bloody hard to get and keep getting promoted so I could hire people to do it for me.

Everyone thought I was insanely ambitious. Not so much, just really, really, really hate admin.

Yes - I was a city lawyer. I did have other strengths though that I used to compensate (eg very good memory). Agree that it became easier at more senior levels as you can delegate the organising bits to a junior colleague. Although I think it might well have stopped me reaching the very top.

About the visual stuff - I used to print anything longer than half a page. Tricky at home though.

I'm shit at admin but I'm a senior manager and employ people to do that for me. I'm fab at networking though

Yes, like others I speedily worked my way up to be able to reach a point where others did the admin/planning. It probably has stopped me from reaching the very top also.

I’m fab at getting stuff done in a crisis and making decisions though - hence being very busy right now!

Utterly shit at it.

I am very good at people management / investigations / strategic planning / mitigating risk and finding solutions (which are the main elements of my role) but rank rotten at admin and being a completer finisher (aka the admin clear up)

Worked my way up quickly to posts where I employ admin staff, and made sure I employed people who’s skills and strengths complimented my weaknesses, and who were confident enough to manage up to get my support / tasks done where required.

Worked too well in my current job. My administrators now negotiate with me when I ask for something to be done, they’ll reply with ‘only if you deal with X Y Z that we left in the red folder on your desk as we need it for....’

Scoundrels