Discovering Your Strengths - The Achiever Strength

In the mid 1960s, the father of Strengths Psychology, Dr. Don Clifton, realised that there were many ways to describe what is ‘wrong with people’, and that the world of business had a host of ways to describe what wasn’t working, when it came to human potential.

Believing this approach to be fundamentally wrong, Clifton assembled a team and set about his goal of developing a new way to explore what was right with people. Their mission was to find out what would happen if we played to people’s strengths rather than their weaknesses.

Dr. Clifton’s original work developed over the years, and now over 15 million people around the world have taken his Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment. 

Here, I am going to focus on a strength that I see all around me in the world of work, one of the dominant strengths of the thirty-four identified by Dr Clifton and his team: the Achiever. In fact, it is THE most dominant in males who have taken the Clifton Strengthsfinder.

But first, by way of explanation….

What is Talent? What is a Strength ?

I sometimes get asked, ‘what is the difference between a Strength and a talent?’. 

Here is my way of explaining this.

Talent is the starting point of a strength. Although people certainly do change over time and our personalities adapt, psychologists have found that core personality traits are relatively stable throughout our adulthood. Strengthsfinder measures the elements of our personality that are less likely to change – our talents.

So to give some definition:

• A talent is a naturally occurring behavior that can, or has the potential, to be productively applied.
• A strength is the ability to consistently produce a positive outcome through high levels of performance in a specific task. 
• A strength is a talent that has been developed, through focus and work.

If there was an equation it would be this….Talent + Application = Strength.

Achievers

People exceptionally talented in the Achiever theme work hard and possess a great amount of stamina. They take huge satisfaction from being busy and productive. They have a constant need for attainment, and have an internal Energy driving them forwards, pushing them to achieve more.

My friend , the high achiever.

A good friend of mine is a brilliant, self-made, and extremely successful businessman. He has Achiever as his number one strength.

For him, every morning starts at zero. By the end of the day he must accomplish something meaningful for him to feel good about himself. For him it isn’t just work. It is his evenings, weekends, and even holidays too. If the day passes without any achievement at all, he feels dissatisfied. When he has completed a challenging project, he rarely seeks to be rewarded with a break or physical reward. Rather than this, his motivation lies in striving towards the next goal on the horizon. 

David loves to complete tasks and derives great fulfillment from accomplishment. He has a strong internal drive which he calls his ‘Invisible Inner Force’. He has great intensity; it his source of energy. This power pushes him to get things done. As a result, he often sets the pace, defining productivity levels for himself and people around him. 

Achiever is the single most dominant Strength for men and the second most dominant strength for women. (Who have taken the StrengthFinder)

Here are some telltale signs of Achievers in our midst:

·       They have a great deal of ‘work stamina’.

·       They take great pleasure from being busy and productive.

·       They say ‘yes’ to taking on more and more work.

·       They set the pace.

·       They make to-do lists and enjoy crossing off tasks when they are complete.

·       They come up with ingenious ways to achieve more. 

Is this you ?

If you are a manager of a team it is very likely that you have Achievers in your midst, so here are some ideas to help you and them.

Three positive attributes that achievers bring to a team:

1.   Hard workers.They work incredibly hard for the team and will do all they can do to make it a success.

2.   Pace setters. They will set the pace for the team and ensure it achieve its production rates.

3.   They ‘Bring It’. Achievers bring intensity, stamina, that last-minute grit.

The important bit !….We all have blindspots. Here are some that Achievers may have.

Four potential blind spots…

1.     Take any strength to an extreme and it can become a weakness. Be careful that work doesn’t become more important than people, for Achievers.

2.     Can you say no? With a super capacity for work, achievers can sometimes take on too much . Sometimes it is best to simplify and achieve fewer, but greater things.

3.     Burning the candle at both ends. Achievers, I find, if not taking care can suffer from burn out. Regular working hours are difficult to maintain for high achievers, so they need to take extra care of health, fitness and diet. Ignoring them can have longer-term consequences. Watch for tell tale signs like emails at evening and weekends. 

What they need…

1.   Freedom. You can trust them to deliver. Therefore they need to be given the freedom to work at their own (high) pace.

2.   Task completion. Don’t ask them to suddenly start or stop jobs. This will demotivate them. They need to accomplish and deliver. If you have to do this, then break down the project into sub tasks so that they get the reward of phase completion.

3.    Diligence. Be careful in selecting your team. Working alongside others who don’t share their performance ethic will cause achievers great dissatisfaction.

If you manage someone who has high Achiever as a strength, consider the following strategies:

1.    Let them play to their strengths. This means letting them set the pace for production levels.

2.    Watch for signs of burn out. 

3.    Don’t assign to a team which lacks diligence. Nothing frustrates Dave more than having people around him who don’t pull their weight.

Until next time !

Gareth