Managing your Talents [16] - Achiever

According to Gallup, the essence of the talent theme of Achiever is the following:

Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day — workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving.

But a talent like this on itself is quite meaningless unless you develop and manage it. That is why we believe that "a well managed talent becomes a strength, but a mismanaged talent becomes a detriment".

How do you manage the talent of Achiever?
  
Managing the Achiever Talent, means managing your workload.  Achievers generally work harder than most.  You have the capacity and the drive to keep taking on new challenges and strive towards new goals. Achievers are energized by goals, and the more goals they have, the better. This means you can outwork most other people....but if not managed well, it also means you can outwork yourself.  For each goal you set, you sacrifice something.  It may be that you sacrifice time for something or someone else, you sacrifice opportunities or you even sacrifice your health. 

 How?

Understanding that your Achiever sets you above the average will help as you then understand that you need to manage your strong drive.  It might be good to think about the metaphor of a marathon runner rather than a sprinter.  You need to pace yourself for the long haul. This pace will always be faster than those who do not have this talent, but you need to take yourself into consideration.  This also means that you consider factors like your health, your age, your personal responsibilities like family etc. You need to be intentional in managing your work/life balance.  Different people pace themselves differently according to such factors, and you should do the same.  Think about your Achiever as a talent that can achieve in other arenas also - like in relationships, health and time management.  If you align your Achiever energy with your circumstances, it should not become a problem to you.

Understand that other people are not all lazy - even if you may feel that way.  Your Achiever talent gives you above normal energy and drive to get a lot done within a short space of time.  You do work harder, and often also smarter than other people. Your perception, therefor, is that most people when compared to what is normal to you, are simply lazy.   This is not true - although some people really are lazy... ;-) 

How?

You cannot project your Achiever talent on other people, just as they cannot project their special talents on you.  You will outwork most people.  The fact that you stronger in this area, does not make them lazy. They are again better at other things where you are not.
Be careful to project your Achiever and judge others,  rather use your drive and energy to inspire them to work harder and achieve more in a positive sense.  Sometimes you should even tell people that they must not try to keep up with you, as you do not expect them to.  You do expect them to use their own talents though.  Change your mind on this.  Look at others through the lens of what they DO bring, rather than through the lens of what they DO NOT bring.

(With all this said, you should not tolerate laziness when it does occur!)

Your Achiever Talent makes you special. Offer it to the world every day.  Go achieve!!

- by Dries Lombaard, founder and owner of Africanmosaic and Director: Strategic Engagement at the Strengths Institute SA

Important note when reading this: in this series, I simply focus on the specific talent in isolation. I do not take the crucial element of Talent Dynamics (two or more talent themes combining) into consideration. This is very important as any Coach should take that into consideration when coaching people in their talents. But you need to understand the challenges that the talent theme on its own might hold. Therefor the challenges in managing the talent as explained below might not be applicable to everyone, as the dynamics with some of their other talent themes might override the specific challenge and "make up for it". But, knowledge of the most common management challenges in every talent theme still is crucial in talent development and when turning the talent into a strength.  All information is my own, acquired by years of Strengths Coaching experience, and not verified or scientifically tested by Gallup. The definition at the beginning is the intellectual property of Gallup, and well researched.