Authentic High Achievers Interview Series: Part 1 of 4: What drives high achievers?

I believe in studying what works. For example: if I want to be healthy then I would study healthy people, what keeps them healthy, and then borrow their strategies and tactics.

Similarly when I want to understand the relationship between achievement and authenticity I asked this: since not all high achievers are authentic, so what makes some high achievers authentic? So I decided to interview authentic high achievers with 4 simple questions.

While I have defined authenticity in a previous article, how do I determine if a high achiever is authentic? I decided to go with my gut – people who lead teams and organizations, are successful, and get to goals while showing up to work with more of themselves. This can take the form of being honest and transparent, not putting on a mask, or being genuine.

I started by interviewing past managers and colleagues who I think epitomizes achievement and authenticity. During the times I worked with them I never felt like I had to second guess what they said or that I cannot trust what they say is true. This led to referrals to other authentic high achievers for a total of 8 people. For more details of methodology and interviewee demographics refer to the appendix of this article.

The conversations were fascinating and connecting. I reveled in the juiciness and honesty of how they perceive, think, feel, say, and do things that others may not have the boldness or trust to do so (for now).

Today we focus on the first interview question: What drives or motivates high achievers?

The answers were wide and varied, so I am highlighting paraphrased themes and observations.

In general: what motivates high achievers are either internal or external circumstances, stimuli, or situations. Although these categories are not mutually exclusive (since internal circumstances can affect external circumstances and vice versa) these groupings are useful to spot trends.

Internal motivation for high achievement:

Competitive personality – they love to win, are determined, do not give up easily, or are natural born entrepreneurs
Belief – some people naturally believe that they are supposed to be in certain spaces. They can own a space, show up, and participate at a high level
Driven by power and ego – this maybe the desire to achieve rank, financial rewards, or perception of success via status and title
Work really hard – this is maybe associated with getting satisfaction from a job well done or getting other people’s approval
Desire to make a difference or impact on the world – want to contribute to a better world, help others achieve their goals, or just help other people
Deep understanding of the self and personal growth – which includes one’s own strengths and limitations and working with one’s strengths to accomplish and achieve more
Fear of failure – this doesn’t mean that high achievers do not fail but because they have a fear of failure, they learn from their failures and try again

External motivation for high achievement:

Necessity – some were born to family situations where they had nothing and so they wanted more in life. They worked harder to get what people take for granted
Privilege – some are born into situations with more privilege and access. For those who much is given, much is expected
Culture – being an American there are the stories of great potential, rags to riches, and the pursuit of big dreams
Parents – especially immigrant parents who are pushing their children to achieve more than the parents can themselves
Being unique or outsiders– in this case, one of the high achiever is gay and believed that it influenced them to want to be different and distinguish themselves from others
Assigned gender roles – in this specific case it refers to the traditional role assigned to men as the provider of the family as both a husband and a father. Achievement is needed in order to provide

Observations:

All the interviewed high achievers who are women or minorities tend to include various elements of external motivation more than those who are men and Caucasian, who tend to attribute achievement to internal motivations and innate circumstances.

For example the differences in socioeconomic upbringings, lack of access to money and resources, and privilege were often cited as the first few external motivations for women and minorities. The interviewed Caucasian men tend to not cite external motivations for achievement.

These internal and external motivations, along with who are affiliated to each. was a great start to finding what makes certain high achievers more authentic. What is more interesting to me are the subsequent areas we explored as the interviews continued:

Key traits of high achievers – there was much more consistency in the responses
What makes some high achievers authentic? – there is more diversity in answers
Are high achievers who are authentic in their professional lives also authentic in their personal lives – the answers are varied and even surprising

Interested in the interview methodology? Learn more here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you know an authentic high achiever you wish I’d interviewed? Message me their name! I would love to invite them into a bigger study.

For more about authentic high achievers, subscribe to the Authentic Musings newsletter!

3 thoughts on “Authentic High Achievers Interview Series: Part 1 of 4: What drives high achievers?”