The Idea in Brief
A leader’s hunger to achieve—to continually be the best—is a major source of strength for any organization. It fuels innovation, productivity, and growth: companies would be lost without it.
But taken to an extreme, the drive to achieve can damage an enterprise. To meet ambitious goals—a revenue aim, a sales target—overachievers command and coerce employees rather than coach and collaborate with them. Many also cut corners, neglect to communicate crucial information, and ignore others’ concerns.
Result? Overachievers stifle others’ drive and development—ultimately eroding organizational performance, demolishing trust, and undermining morale.
How to guard against achievement overdrive? As Spreier, Fontaine, and Malloy suggest, recognize that the best leaders strive to help others succeed. Discern whether your achievement drive is undermining your leadership style. For instance, are you always providing answers rather than inviting others’ input? Do others see you as arrogant and impatient? If so, channel your achievement drive into altruistic achievement: replace coercion with collaboration, balance direction with influence, and focus less on results and more on people.
Though difficult to master, altruistic achievement pays big dividends. After one pharmaceutical executive at AstraZeneca tamed his overbearing achievement drive, his previously frustrated team won recognition for being the first to attain market leadership with three top-selling drugs.
The Idea in Practice
Recognize If You’re an Overachiever
High achievers, the authors explain, relish challenging projects that enable them to accomplish something new. They like to outperform others who embody high standards of excellence. And they’re utilitarian in their communication—often short and to the point.
If you fit this description, watch for signs of an overactive achievement drive. Feedback from others can help. Example:
Dean McAlister, a senior pharmaceutical sales director with AstraZeneca, was talented, sincere, and hard-working. But he drove his team crazy—flooding employees with early-morning emails and solving problems before his staff could discuss them. Result? He stifled his team’s input and creativity and came across as manipulative, impatient, and arrogant. After his manager alerted him to the problem, McAlister asked his team, peers, and boss for honest feedback on his behavior. Resulting insights—including “I’m always talking”—were painful but valuable.
Consciously Change Your Behavior
Identify and practice new behaviors. One executive who tended to criticize others during meetings began writing reminders to himself to take up issues outside a meeting instead. Another consciously limited her comments on an idea to no more than a couple of minutes. Example:
McAlister knew he still needed to set sales targets. But instead of continuing to issue directives to his team, he practiced engaging them in discussions about how to achieve the targets. He also strengthened his coaching skills: When a sales rep emailed him about closing an important new contract, an excited McAlister fired back with a list of actions she should immediately take. Catching himself, he immediately sent a second message congratulating the rep and inviting her to develop her own plan.
Create a Culture of Altruistic Achievement
Too many organizations select high achievers for their obvious assets, then ignore the damage they’re causing as long as the numbers are good. To avoid the resulting dangers, balance the emphasis on achievement with attention to helping others succeed. Example:
In the early 1990s, IBM’s leadership culture emphasized personal heroics. Executives focused on their own departments and divisions—even as that focus hurt other parts of the organization and eroded IBM’s market dominance. But a small group of leaders behaved differently: while still high achievers, they worked through others, provided coaching, and strove to enhance the entire company’s capabilities. IBM incorporated these behaviors into a competency model used to select, develop, and promote leaders. Public praise and stock options rewarded leaders who adopted the new style. By 2004, IBM’s combative, turf-protecting culture had given way to one of collaboration.
The desire to achieve is a major source of strength in business, both for individual managers and for the organizations they lead. It generates passion and energy, which fuel growth and help companies sustain performance over the long term. And the achievement drive is on the rise. We’ve spent 35 years assessing executive motivation, and we’ve seen a steady increase during the past decade in the number of managers for whom achievement is the primary motive. Businesses have benefited from this trend: Productivity has risen, and innovation, as measured by the number of patents issued per year, has soared.
