People with strong Achiever talents are at their best when they are pushing themselves and others toward milestones and finish lines.
Achiever® for Leaders
A theme in the Executing domain of CliftonStrengths
You work hard and possess a great deal of stamina. You take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive.
How This Theme Contributes to Your Success
From the moment you get up, you’re getting things done. You efficiently scan the day’s expectations and prepare those you lead to tackle their tasks. You think while moving forward, always looking for what needs immediate consideration and what can wait. You are eager to get busy and accomplish the things that matter most.
As a leader, you motivate others. You stay committed to the day’s demands and inspire others to match your pace. Aware of shifting priorities, you rally those around you to respond as needed. You’re the one building momentum when there is a lot to do. You rarely feel tired as the day’s needs continue to direct your performance.
You set ambitious goals and actively push toward excellence, keeping the organization ahead of what’s next in your industry. You challenge those you lead to consistently match you step by step as you take on your organization’s leadership demands. You strive to surpass every expectation and push your teams and organization to do the same.
How This Theme Could Get in the Way of Your Success
Your energy can feel draining to others. While your enthusiasm motivates people most of the time, it can create an intense culture where some might experience burnout and have difficulty setting boundaries between work and life. You feel confident that your teams and organisation can do more, but others may not, especially if they are already working at a fast pace with high expectations.
Your determination to constantly complete tasks may cause you to overlook relationships. You might forget to ask those you lead what they think and feel. While you effectively move forward despite the stresses of the day, others may want to stop, think or celebrate before tackling the next challenge.
With your never-ending objectives, those you lead might wonder what the priority is and if they are still working toward the same goals. Your desire to consistently do more sometimes makes it difficult to understand the organisation’s most important demands. Succeeding becomes harder when goals are unclear.
How to Apply Achiever as a Leader
Communicate what is important with your teams frequently. You thrive when there is a lot to accomplish and can give others the clarity they need to start working. Your goals for the organisation are considerable, so you’ll need to communicate simple, clear expectations for those involved in achieving those goals. Clarity will inspire confidence in what others must do.
Set aside time to think. Scheduling time on your calendar to just think — even if it’s short — can help you feel more prepared to meet all your goals and adjust strategies if necessary. As you recruit teams and other leaders to help with these tasks, this thinking time will help you communicate the reasons behind your decisions better.
Invite others into conversations that involve meeting organisational needs. Including other decision-makers or colleagues whom you trust in these types of conversations allows them to ask questions, brainstorm and make your visions more attainable. This helps you build momentum to achieve goals faster through collaboration. When others have a say in goals you set, they may feel more inclined to help them succeed.
Ask other leaders and managers how their teams are doing. Because your focus on performance can create more work for others, you’ll need to stay in touch with the people managers in your organisation. Consider how much you have asked of the individuals around you, and be prepared to rethink your goals and prioritise tasks when others begin to feel overwhelmed.
How You Can Meet the 4 Needs of Followers
Build Trust
Others respect your work ethic and dedication. Hardwork and productivity are visible signs that you are someone who can be trusted to do things right. Live up to that trust. Deliver when you say you will.
Establish relationships with others by working alongside them. Working hard together can be a bonding experience. When others see that you’re willing to work beside them, you’ll make a connection. Showing people that you see yourself as an equal, not a superior, can inspire feelings oftrust and respect.
Show Compassion
Because setting and achieving goals is of paramount importance to you, apply this way of living to more areas. Not spending enough time with the significant people in your life? Choose someone you care about, take on a project that both of you would like to accomplish, and set a timeline. You’ll feel good about what you get done and about thetime you spend together.
Every day, put at least one personal relationship goal on your list of things to do. Others will appreciate your time and investment — plus you’ll have the satisfaction of checking the “done”box daily.
Provide Stability
Others can count on your belief in the importance of hard work and diligent effort, and they come to expect this from you. They see your consistency and effort as an example of what it takes to create a steady, secure life, and this gives them a sense of stability. Talk to people about how it feels to always give everything you have. Strive to help them see that the one thing they can control in life is their own effort.
Your stamina causes others to see you as a “rock”. You are always working; you never seem to tire. People may even feel sorry for you because you put in such long hours. Gently explain to these people that while others may not work this way, it’s what feels good to you. Ask them about their feel-good approach to work. Strive to understand and support others by giving them confidence in their own approach to work.
Create Hope
Your tremendous energy and desire to accomplish as much as possible inspires others. You can encourage people by knowing what they want to accomplish and asking about their progress. By helping others put together timelines and checklists, you can help them achieve their plans and dreams.
Setting goals and deadlines motivates you, and it can also help others manage massive projects they undertake. You can make a large, complicated endeavour seem manageable by creating milestones along the way. When someone seeks you out for guidance about a colossal task, share your systems for breaking it down in manageable pieces.
Leading Others With Strong Achiever
Achievers love to complete tasks, and they derive fulfillment from their accomplishments. They have a strong inner drive — an innate source of intensity, energy and power that motivates them to work hard to get things done.
Call on these people when situations require extra work. The adage, “If you want to get a job done, ask busy people,” is generally true for people with dominant Achiever talents.
Recognise that people with high Achiever talents enjoy being busy. Sitting in meetings will likely bore people with high Achiever talents. If possible, invite them to only those meetings in which they should offer input.
Help these people measure what they get done. They may enjoy keeping track of hours, but more importantly, they should have a way to measure cumulative production. Simple measures such as number of customers served, customers known by name, files reviewed, prospects contacted or patients seen will help give them definition.
Establish a relationship with high Achievers by working alongside them. Working hard together is often a bonding experience for Achievers. Similarly, you should try to keep low producers away from them. Slackers annoy high Achievers.
When people with high Achiever talents finish a job, time off or an easy assignment is rarely the reward they want. They will be more motivated if you give them recognition for a past achievement and a new goal that stretches them further.
People with high Achiever may need less sleep and get up earlier than most. Look to these people when the job might require these conditions. Also, ask them questions such as, “How late did you have to work to get this done?” “When did you come in this morning?”
You may be tempted to promote high Achievers because they are self-starters. But doing so may be a mistake if it leads them away from what they do best. It may be better to look for opportunities for them to do more of what they already do well by using their talents and strengths.
Source: Gallup®
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