Everyone is born with talents. Talents are our natural way of thinking, feeling and behaving that can be productively applied. When we invest and develop our talents, they then become strengths. A strength is the ability to consistently do an activity to near perfection. It is about the WAY we achieve success, and all of us have a ‘way’.
There is an assessment called Strengths Finder, and it takes about 45 minutes to do online, answering various questions. Once you are done, it then sends you a strength report. There are 34 strengths in total, and the assessment calculates your most dominant strengths from number 1 to number 34, in sequence of their dominance. You choose whether you want the report of your full 34 or just your dominant first 5 strengths.
In this post we are going to look at the strength of ACHIEVER.
“Your Achiever 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.” Tom Rath, StrengthsFinder 2.0
Perhaps this sounds like someone you know. I have a brother in law who has this strength in his top 5. He is very successful at what he does, and I used to think it was simply because he is very disciplined. Now I understand that being busy is part of his make-up, it’s the way he has achieved his success at a young age. I have received emails from him written at 4 o’clock in the morning and I used to think he was crazy. He writes proposals as if they are just greeting cards. He churns out production at a fast rate.
Those around him complain that they can’t keep up, and they are probably right. They lack the self-motivation that his achiever gives him. He is forever growing his list of ‘to dos,’ and if you’re not careful he’ll give you things to do as well. If you don’t know him well, you’ll think he is too pragmatic about everything, and nothing is left to chance. Imagine you were in the same team as him, and you knew nothing about strengths?
You would probably end up frustrated with him because he’ll be in the office very early and leave very late, making everyone else look like they are not pulling their weight. Copying him won’t work either, because you have your own way to be successful, and it’s not in the same way. This is why it is important for all of us to know our strengths. That way we won’t fall into the trap of wanting to be like other people, but instead, invest in our own talents that bring out the best in us. In addition to that, we will be more prone to understanding other people’s strengths as well, and how they make our teams stronger. None of us can be good at everything, so it’s more beneficial for me to collaborate with my team mates in areas my strengths are not dominant in, and reserve the bulk of my time to where I bring the most value.
In life, we can only be more of who we already are. The Achiever has to learn more about how to intentionally use and manage his strength to achieve his goals. There is no better way to manifest our potential.
Joyce Mutangara is a wife, mother, pastor, legal adviser and strengths coach. She loves to give inspiring personal interaction, through authentic discussion, and exploration of talents that motivate people to achieve optimum performance through intentionally deploying their strengths. For more information or access to her work, you can email her: joycemut@gmail.com.
