Achiever: The Whisper of Discontent

I committed to partaking in a daring adventure on or around my birthday.  My Achiever strength has driven me to keep this promise with myself - like, zip-lining over a pond of alligators last month!

So it is Sunday night.  While many are enjoying another great PGA tourney on TV (go Phil!) and are settling in for the OSCARS, I have set a goal of having my first ever blog ready for posting tomorrow morning.

Welcome to the Achiever theme!

Achiever ranks as my #5 talent theme out of all 34 themes through StrengthsFinder.  It is also the most common strength of all of the themes, appearing in the top 5 for 35% of the 15+ million people who have taken the StrengthsFinder assessment.

Given Achiever is one of the most common themes, it makes sense that I launch The Strengths Zone blog focused on it.  StrengthsFinder has been very meaningful to me personally and professionally, and I have made it a crusade to launch a "Strengths Movement" within my workplace.  The StrengthsFinder assessment helps people understand who they really are, what is unique about them and how they can engage their uniqueness into their lives.

Sharing your unique talent themes with others - especially with your leadership and coworkers - is beneficial.  Four of my top 5 talent themes - Strategic, Ideation, Futuristic and Achiever - often combine into a combustible brew of endless ideas that can be considered exciting for some and disruptive and overwhelming for others.  Like any great team, an organization can benefit from "players" respecting each others talents and positioning each team member into situations where they can achieve their greatest potential.

You are in your "Strengths Zone" when you are aware of your talents and apply them as strengths consistently in your professional and personal lives.  When we are in our "Strengths Zone" we are happy, energetic and productive - a combination that leads to success.       

I have heard the Achiever theme described as a constant "whisper of discontent".  This is very true, as many people with this set of talents have a hard time relaxing as they gain satisfaction from getting things done and always have their sights set on what is next.

If you have Achiever in your top 5 or are managing someone with high Achiever talents, here are my top 3 suggestions for you to bring it into The Strengths Zone:

* Keep asking for new projects.  Better yet, recommend new ideas for improvement that align with your other talent themes and create new opportunities for yourself and others.  Someone with high Achiever has terrific stamina and a great ability to take on a lot of work.  Beware or burnout and attempt to be co-dependent on assigned tasks (work within a team - make sure they are also hard workers) versus independent (taking it all on yourself).

* Try to always measure what you are doing.  A traditional "to-do" list that you can check-off works for some.  I like to just visualize how I will feel after getting something accomplished - like this very first blog of mine!  If you are on a lengthy project, set up "mile markers" for yourself to chart progress along the way.  I used this in running long distances as well; break up the run into manageable chunks and feel a sense of accomplishment after each milestone and picture yourself with the prize at the end of the journey.

* Achievers are hard workers by nature and like to surround themselves with the same.  They should not be delegates attending too many meetings unless those meetings can directly influence the multiple projects they are working on.  Like most everyone else, Achievers like to be recognized for the amount of work they are applying to their projects and their favorite reward is a new project or opportunity to wrap their heads around. 

If you would like to learn more about the Achiever talent theme, just link of this quick video