Pairing and Expanding Your Strengths: Achiever

On a new Theme Thursday Season 2 live webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Gallup Advanced Learning and Development Consultant, discussed the theme of Achiever.

Achiever is the "do it" theme. Achiever is an engine that moves people forward. It is the most commonly occurring theme in Gallup's strengths database. People talented in the Achiever theme focus on completing things. They love to check items off of their "to do" lists. Achievers provide the energy to turn concepts and ideas into concrete steps and milestones. They are grounded and have an excellent work ethic. Maika explained, "Achievers don't derive satisfaction from stopping and smelling the roses, they get that pleasure from trimming them."

Every theme exists within a person all of the time -- whether they are succeeding, failing, happy or sad. Maika explained, "You live with your themes at every moment." One of the best outcomes of strengths coaching is teaching a person to use their strengths with intention -- to make those themes a purposeful part of every day life. A component of living with your strengths is understanding the raw versus mature state of a theme. Raw Achiever is someone who searches for busyness that may lead to spinning one's wheels. Raw Achiever favors action to the detriment of ideas and concepts. Raw Achiever is a "lone workhorse" that fails to rely on colleagues and team members. Mature Achievers align their need to do with their goals. Mature Achievers are productive and appreciate "leading the charge" within a team. Mature Achiever sees possible actions within a larger concept.

To learn more about Achiever, watch the full video or listen to the audio above.