With over 20 years of experience in the field of ADHD, Phil Anderton’s focus is on refining systems and management tactics to successfully support individuals with ADHD. Phil is Managing Director at ADHD 360 and a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management. He is committed to continual growth and development in leadership and management methods, ensuring that Ihe stays at the forefront of industry standards.
The development of ADHD 360 is one of the most fulfilling experiences of his career. The organization has grown dramatically and continues to have a beneficial impact on the lives of numerous people. It gives him enormous happiness to be able to observe his team’s progression and improvement, as well as the transforming impact he has on the lives of his company’s patients.
Eary Years of Transformation
Whilst serving as a senior police officer, Phil became aware of the links between poorly managed or untreated ADHD and criminal behavior. The facts spoke for themselves; 5% of the general population had ADHD, while 25% of the UK prison population had ADHD. Addressing this stark inequitable position became his mission. He wrote books and published papers, and worked with clinicians and commissioners, making marginal gains both domestically and internationally. However, he was still dissatisfied with the status quo, so he worked with the Government and the NHS to bring about systemic change.
Phil’s last role in the police was for the Home Office, where he worked on introducing a new doctrine and accompanying national IT systems to address the information sharing inadequacies that had led to the tragic murders of two young school girls in Soham. This role led him to a career decision, and he retired from the police at the age of 43 to commence a second career as a management consultant, ultimately with PwC.
Fast forward to a new set of skills, competencies, and drive, Phil, while still seeking to influence change in the world of ADHD, left PwC and became an independent management consultant. He spent 2 years embedded in the NHS, looking for excellence and improvement opportunities across ADHD clinics in the wider UK population. After publishing the findings of this work, he had an epiphany moment realising that the NHS alone couldn’t achieve the necessary changes. So, He encouraged two extremely reputable and competent clinicians, Jen Lewis-Neill and Lisa Mangle, to form ADHD 360 with him. Samantha, now his wife, also joined the team, and ADHD 360 moved from concept to reality on 24th December 2018.
Motivated by Justice
In the space Phil occupies, his wife (and fellow Director) describes him as driven, motivated, and passionate. His colleagues also say the same and mention that he always wants things to be right. Once, during a discussion with his GP about overall well-being, the doctor asked him how he reacts to injustice, and Phil realised he cannot tolerate it.
This strong drive to address injustice is what fuels ADHD 360. Phil sees the inadequacies in the national health provision for ADHD as unfair, and he believes more needs to be done. ADHD 360 is tackling this injustice by providing an accessible and world-class service.
Even outside of work, Phil remains the same. He doesn’t relax in the usual sense but takes the opportunity to think about what’s next, what issues to tackle, and engages in blue-sky thinking. As an avid fast jet photographer, he sometimes finds himself with a notepad and camera, watching pilots skillfully navigate through mountain valleys while brainstorming the next big thing for his cause.
Comprehensive Services
ADHD 360 provides assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for two main neurodevelopmental conditions, ADHD, and Autism. The company does things differently by running its services virtually, like a hospital. They use technology, cloud-based data, and efficient processes to manage virtual clinics with a remote workforce across the UK.
The company’s patients’ ages range from 4 to 76, and they serve both private patients and several NHS contracts. Despite already assessing over 1,200 new patients each month, they still can’t keep up with the demand. To meet future challenges, they plan to expand their service and use AI more effectively in their back-office systems and processes.
Insights on Role of Leaders
“Leadership -v- management is a constant debate, and the balance is that we need leaders, and we don’t need risk averse micro-managers,” says Phil. Organizations need leaders, the skill is to not let those leaders drop back into the management they once performed. When Phil was drafting a new competency framework for policing, he included innovation and leadership as core skills for all police constables. Some people criticized this idea, saying that only senior officers should be leaders and that innovation can’t be constant. However, Phil disagreed then, and he disagrees with that belief now. It is within anyone to lead and innovate, they just need encouragement and an opportunity.
As he goes on to day, “anyone can show leadership, and it shouldn’t be limited to senior positions”. Similarly, even if someone innovates something that has been done before, it still matters because having an innovative mindset is crucial for the future of leadership. This kind of thinking should be encouraged and embraced by everyone in the organization.
Pearls of Wisdom
While advising someone going into a leadership position for the first time, Phil recalls his policing days and his first promotion to Sergeant. At that time, a wise old(er) senior officer sat him down and encouraged him to understand that leadership positions can be lonely and advised him not to turn it into a popularity contest. Later in his career, he was fortunate to be led by an amazing man named John Webb, who introduced him to leadership skills in the form of humility, honesty, and the requirement to defend good people, even if they’ve made a mistake. These two leaders played a significant role in shaping him, and he hopes that their words can also help others in their leadership journey.
Clarifying ADHD
According to Phil, ADHD is perhaps the most misunderstood clinical illness out there, yet it is one of the most researched, talked about, and easily treated conditions. He hopes that this journalistic piece doesn’t focus on ADHD 360’s leadership and team but rather draws attention to the fact that a regulated, professional, and organizational approach to treating people with ADHD can lead to amazing results.
Currently, ADHD 360 assesses and treats over 1,200 new patients every month. If we consider that each of these patients has family members and significant others in their immediate environment, the impact reaches 72,000 people per year. Phil knows that the team is very proud of this accomplishment. By encouraging more people to seek help with confidence, the impact can be increased even further, which he believes is a good thing.
Measure of Success
For Phil, success is definitely about ensuring that people benefit from what ADHD 360 does. The little Trust Pilot reviews that talk about validation, patients succeeding, and achieving life goals are his measures of success. He acknowledges that there are other aspects to consider, such as the balance sheet, employee contentment, and operational performance, but what truly matters to him is positively affecting real people’s lives on a daily basis.
One day in Spring 2023, Phil visited his local Apple store to get an issue with his iPhone fixed. As he walked in, a young man, who happened to be an Apple employee, noticed his branded ADHD 360 jacket and approached him. The man excitedly exclaimed that he was one of 360’s patients and that ADHD 360 had changed his life. He gathered his colleagues around and proudly shared his neurodiversity with them, attributing his improved performance to the treatment provided by ADHD 360. He thanked Phil profusely for enabling him to work for Apple.
Encounters like this have become more common for Phil, where he meets patients who share their stories of how ADHD 360 has positively impacted their lives. Having served as a police officer for 25 years and achieved major academic milestones, Phil is immensely proud of his career, but it is these chance occurrences, seeing the delight in a patient’s face as they recount how ADHD 360 has helped them, that truly make him happy.
Balancing Individuality
In the old expression, it is said that there’s no ‘I’ in team, but there is a ‘me’ – success in an organization requires a balance of individual, team, and task, forming a classic Ven diagram in living form. For ADHD 360, it’s essential that the team also puts effort into recognizing the characteristics of each individual and finding ways to accommodate them as unique human beings so they can perform at their best within the team.
In their role, processes have a defining place in their logic, and at the same time, their logic also shapes their processes. Though it might be a bit like the chicken and egg situation, the truth is that, especially in a heavily regulated environment, they need leaders who can be innovative while also acknowledging the importance of steady-state activities driven by processes.
360’s Global Mission
The current structure of ADHD 360 has brought forward young, bright energetic managers into some quite senior roles. The founders, all senior in years, are steadily handing over responsibility to those new custodians. This journey will continue and will lead to the next generation taking those places now vacated. Phil states, “ADHD is an international phenomenon and we would like to take our clinical excellence to other territories, helping people of other nations to overcome the stigma of mental ill-health, especially in the neurodiversity environment.” He further adds, “We are working with Healthcare World an international marketing organization, and the UK DIT, to ensure we stand every chance of success as we stretch ourselves beyond the UK boundaries.”
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