How To Deal With The Super-Achiever In The Workplace
Super achievers can cause real chaos when they start working in any organisation. Their only intention is to be the best at everything they do and they will do whatever it takes to achieve it.
When super achievers begin working in any organisation, they have the potential to create crippling turmoil. They just want to excel at all they do, and they'll go to any lengths to make it happen.
Success is their only goal, and every sentence on their resume will exaggerate this goal. If you name it, they've done it, you can be sure of that. These bothersome perfectionists will work nonstop to stand out from the crowd. Their goal is to succeed in all they do. Family, job, relationships and sports
They believe they were born with more potential than anyone else and were predestined for success. Coaches, scoutmasters, marathon runners, council members, CEOs, business owners, and traffic wardens.
Super achievers detest criticism and will go to great lengths to defend, explain, or justify their positions in an effort to establish their superiority over others in the workplace.
No matter how good you are, if the exceptional achiever is a senior member of the team, you will leave an encounter feeling uneasy about your lack of competency. There are two things that will inevitably happen if you report to a top achiever. Either you sit at the star's feet or you hear that your thoughts are inferior all the time.
If you manage a high achiever, be prepared for shady tactics to get you fired.
Super achievers foster animosity and terror. Everyone starts to be cautious about their opinions, and an uneasy paranoia grows. A tremendous achiever would initially charm certain people who seem like the best stepping stones. The exceptional achiever is promoted by the time the rest of the team recognises what has happened since a number of wounded egos have accumulated over time.
How to deal with the Super-Achiever
Every exceptional achiever harbours the secret worry that he or she isn't truly talented or intelligent enough. Because of this, they must be flawless. So your best course of action is to capitalise on their uncertainties.
Drive Down Their Self-Esteem
Give examples of people who are more successful than them all the time. Make sure they are aware that "People here," are doubting their ability. Wrap the tiny digs in a sweet sheath of hero worship so that they will swallow them like a bitter pill that will eat away at them over time. If you're lucky, they'll eventually lose it under pressure and get fired.
They may also have a propensity for speaking in an impulsive, vengeful, and destructive manner. Whether in private or in front of coworkers, they won't hold back if they think you deserve it. They are direct in their speech, and their remarks can be hurtful and disparaging.
Super-achievers Lack Empathy
There is no guilt in utilising people to assist them in achieving their objectives.
They think that because they are so successful, it makes sense for others to work for them and that their continued success is always for the benefit of the company.
They also believe they are exempt from the laws, which primarily exist to protect everyone else. Standard practices and paperwork, such as resource requests or more private items like expense reports or holiday time logging, just get in the way of them being able to accomplish more, therefore they strive to avoid or delegate such obligations.
They'll make the employees around them frequently change. Superachievers create revolving doors all around them, whether it's for their administrative assistants, direct reports, supervisors, or coworkers who have to work with them. Nobody wants to do either of those jobs for very long.
They have disagreements with their bosses and supervisors over a variety of topics, including how to handle themselves. At some point, the overachievers even agitate their bosses.
While everyone else is at their wit's end, senior management often wants to maintain them since they generate such high-calibre work and don't interact with the super achiever every day.
Super-achievers Can Be Liked By Senior Management
Whether the business can prosper with this individual on board or, more likely, survive without them, is ultimately the question. Some managers think that toxic performers are indispensable because of their skills, abilities, or output. If they are successful in sales, client relationships and generating lots of revenue for the business, senior management wouldn't care less if they were a notorious serial killer. Money is money at the end of the day.
Some claim that these effects pale in comparison to the collateral damage, pointing to the stress and high personnel turnover they generate. However, there is usually only one choice available. Get rid of the toxic overachiever if you want a healthy organisation.
They are unlikely to change their ways and will personally ensure that there is instability and war until they are no longer there. Reduce your losses and eliminate them.
As long as a super achiever is present in a company, the environment can be severely harmed. It is possible to regulate some personality types and workplace conflicts, but not this one. It's also uncommon for an organisation's survival to depend on the performance of a toxic achiever, despite the fact that it might initially appear to be the case.
However, it is advisable to prevent a toxic achiever from achieving that level of authority—and all the more reason they should leave as soon as possible, especially if they have access to crucial connections or essential knowledge that the organisation needs to run.
Keep A Paper Trail Of Everything They Do Unlawfully
Keep in mind that creating a paper trail is essential to getting rid of the destructive achiever from the system. Keep track of their negative consequences on the business, such as incidents involving employees, repeated rule-breaking, or trouble getting along with others. If not, you're putting yourself up for a tribunal hearing once they're dismissed.
When the toxic achiever is gone, both you and those who worked with them will begin to realise how poisoned you felt and how much better work-life is without them. Now that you're aware they are elsewhere poisoning others, you may begin reassembling your squad, take a breather and go back to doing less work instead of having to keep up with the super-achiever.
My closest friend is the enemy of my adversary, yet a snake in the workplace could be able to assist, if only for their benefit.
James Mason
