It is common for people with the Strengthsfinder Achiever theme to feel the need to start each day new and the accomplishments from yesterday no longer matter. (Source: Let’s Talk Personality)

You can tell a person strong in Achiever by these attributes (source: Dr. Hulme, APU)

• Hard working and busy
• Stamina
• Long “to do” list
• Highly productive & motivated
• Goal-oriented

More about Achiever:

• Needs on a team: To challenge
• As a Leader: Are productive
• In Conflict: Make it productive
• Partner with: No specific recommendation, but find other hard workers. 
• In academics: 

Where does Achiever Theme rank in the population?

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A more detailed explanation from Gallup:

The genius of your Achiever talent begins with your tremendous motivation, drive and determination. You are in constant motion to reach your goals. The second aspect of your genius is found in the types of goals you set. You have daily goals in the form of lists of things to do. Then you have future goals tied to your daily goals. Finally you have ultimate goals. Your ultimate goals are always tied to excellence. So the genius of your Achiever talent is the tremendous amount of motivation and drive you have to reach your goals and to move your goals toward being excellent in terms of performance, productivity effectiveness and efficiency.

At your best (Balcony):

• tireless, strong work ethic, leads by example, go-getter, hungry

At your worst (Basement):

• unbalanced, brown-noser, overcommitted, can’t say no, burns the candle at both ends, too concentrated on work

Unlike Strengthsfinder Activator, you might have the Strengthsfinder Achiever talent if you feel you have to start over each day in order to feel that your world is as it should be.

• An Achiever has a constant drive for achievement, which is the only thing that makes you feel satisfied.
• You feel every day is a blank slate that you must fill with tangible accomplishments.
• You may be an Achiever if you work tirelessly even on weekends and sometimes through vacations.
• Your relentless drive for achievement is not always logical, but never goes away.
• You have learned to live with the whisper of discontent, which brings you energy and drive.
• You love starting new tasks, working on challenges, and setting new standards of productivity.
• An Achievers greatest strengths are: strong work ethic, hunger, and the ability to lead by example.
  • Source: Let’s Talk Personality

A more detailed explanation from Gallup:

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.

Action Items for This Theme

• Select jobs in which you have the leeway to work as hard as you want, and in which you are encouraged to measure your own productivity. You will feel stretched and alive in these environments.
• You do not require much motivation from your supervisor. Take advantage of your self-motivation by setting challenging goals. Set a more stretching goal every time you finish a project.
• Own the fact that you might work longer hours than most people, and that you might not need as much sleep as many other people do.
• Choose to work with other hard workers. Share your goals with them so they can help you.
• Accept that you might be discontented even when you achieve.

Be ready to:

• Take a moment to appreciate your successes. You can look ahead tomorrow. Today, celebrate.
• Partner with someone with a strong Discipline or Focus theme. This person can help you use your energy as efficiently as possible.
• Count personal achievements in your scoring “system.” This will help you direct your Achiever theme toward family as well as work.
  • The Clifton StrengthsFinder and the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names are protected by copyright of Gallup Inc., 2000. All rights reserved.

Achieve Anything In Just One Year: Be Inspired Daily to Live Your Dreams and Accomplish Your Goals

Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential AND HOW YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOURS

Goal Setting: 13 Secrets of World Class Achievers

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

Ted Talk on the latest in goal setting

How To Achieve Your Goals: 90 Days is All It Takes

Know your inner saboteurs: Shirzad Chamine at TEDxStanford

Shirzad Chamine: “Positive Intelligence” | Talks at Google

Emotional Mastery: The Gifted Wisdom of Unpleasant Feelings | Dr Joan Rosenberg | TEDxSantaBarbara

How Successful People Reach Their Goals by Heidi Grant Halvorson

Optimize Interview: The Science of Success with Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson

Ideas worth trying

• Keep a Done list: Chris Bailey, who writes the blog A Year of Productivity, has an alternate idea. “I keep a list of all of my largest accomplishments (every week I capture one or two major things I accomplished, and put them on the list),” he said in an email. “I review this list every Sunday, which gets me pumped for the week ahead.”
• Enroll in and complete Extraordinary by Design (Free, 15 days program from Mind Valley)

Podcast episodes to help you understand and leverage your Achiever Strength

• Episode 1: The Power of Setting and Achieving Goals – “The Tony Robbins Podcast”
• Episode 2: Interview with a Serial Achiever – “The Tim Ferriss Show”
• Episode 3: Overcoming Challenges Through Persistence – “The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes”
• Episode 4: Achiever in Action – Case Studies – “How I Built This with Guy Raz”
• Episode 5: Balancing Ambition and Burnout – “The Joe Rogan Experience”
• Episode 6: Women Who Reach Their Goals and Beyond – “The Female CEO” (Host: Stacey Sargison)
• Episode 7: Women Leaders Who Achieve Success – “The Womanpreneur Podcast” (Host: Amanda McEwan)

Listen to great Strengths Podcasts

• Theme addicts is a series created by UnleashStrengths to highlight the massive impact the StrengthsFinder assessment through interviews and discussions.
• Lead through your strengths features many interesting guests and Career Q and A about leverage your strengths at work.
• Maximize Your Strengths features interviews and discussion on developing your strengths. She really drills into each of the themes by interviewing real people on how a specific theme shows up in their lives.
• Called to Coach is a webcast resource for those who want to help others discover and use their strengths. We have Gallup experts and independent strengths coaches share tactics, insights and strategies to help coaches maximize the talent of individuals, teams and organizations around the world.
• ISOGO TV promises a lot: So dramatically increase your energy and decrease your frustration at work, that you cannot help but take the Strengths paradigm home to your family. Fueling life-changing stories.
• The True Strength Podcast by Ian Pettigrew (Kingfisher Coaching) features inspiring true stories of how people succeed through applying their strengths and being resilient. It often includes a Gallup StrengthsFinder profile.
• If you are looking to identify and develop your strengths and talents, take calculated risks and make decisions, The Strengths Revolution with Steve Morgan will help your personal development, as well as helping you support your clients, employees, teams and wider organisations. Knowing your strengths will also support positive risk-taking and decision making as part of good risk management.

 

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Sources:

• Balconies and Basements
• Leadership, team and conflict
• The Genius and Beauty of Strengths
• Strengths-based academic Advising
• Strengths partnerships