8/14/2019 Aggressive Realism - Chandramowly

1/1

AAggrggressivessive Re Realism - the mark of successealism - the mark of success

Over the yearsbehaviouralscientists haveobserved thatsome people

have an intense need toachieve. The need forachievement is a distincthuman factor - observed ayoung psychologist. He gothis doctorate in psychologyat Yale in 1941 and became aprofessor at Wesleyan Uni-versity.

At Harvard he and his as-sociates studied particular-ly this urge to achieve. He

is David Clarence McClel-land (1917-98) whose re-search led him to believethat the need for achieve-ment is a distinct humanmotive that can be isolatedand assessed in any group.

Based on his experiments(throwing rings over a pegfrom any distance a partici-pant chooses) he provedthat the Achievers normal-ly have a high need to suc-ceed and they carefullymeasure their steps to get asense of mastery - not tooclose to make a task ridicu-lously easy or too far awayto make it impossible.

McClelland maintainsthat achievement orientedpeople are not gamblers tochoose the big risk to get aresult which is beyond theirpower. Gamblers easily ra-tionalise away their person-al responsibility if theylose. Achievement orientedpeople take the middleground, preferring a mod-erate degree of risk be-cause they feel that their ef-forts and abilities will prob-ably influence the outcome.

In the process they discoverthe path of aggressive real-ism.

Chance vs choice

Achievement orientedpeople do not believe inwinning by chance. Theychoose and put effort de-signing a process forachievement rather thanleaving it to destiny or luck.Achievement, in a primarylevel, is about accomplish-ing a task.

At a higher level it is thedegree of impact and influ-

ence of a leader on otherpeople to achieve. In busi-ness, this aggressive real-

ism is the mark of the suc-cessful entrepreneur. An-other characteristic ofachievement-oriented peo-ple is that they seem to bemore concerned with per-sonal achievement than therewards.

Dexterity in actionThis finding of McClel-

land is not different fromthe eastern wisdom of Kar-ma Yoga - the dexterity inaction. The beauty of thistheory is that the finest de-gree of quality in actioncan be achieved only whenone doesnt focus on result,while the result for finestwork done is reserved andcannot be taken away.

When a person surren-ders to any thing that ishigher, the personal ego ofI am doing it takes a back

seat, and with the rewardattention gone, achieve-ment focus takes charge to

drive towards success.Why do achievement ori-

ented people behave as theydo? McClelland claims it isbecause they habituallyspend time thinking aboutdoing things better. Stu-dents with a high need forachievement will generallyget better grades thanequally bright studentswith weaker achievementneeds.

Achievement orientedpeople tend totheir career ladders and getpromoted faster becausethey are constantly tryingto think about better waysof doing things. Organisa-tions, with many such peo-ple grow faster and aremore profitable.

Achievers

At an individual level,

achievers are aggressive inreality limits and with theirhigh need to achieve, theymove ahead, produce andget things done.However, asmanagers their success de-pends on results producedby others.

Achievers, as they arehighly result oriented, tendto expect others to do thesame. As a result, theysometimes lack the humanskills to understand limita-tions of their own teammembers and cause frustra-tion among people withtheir over-emphasis onachievements.

It will be great to followthe teaching of a master butit is very difficult to workunder him.There are manyinstances like it was veryhard to work under leaderslike Gandhi. His own wifehad to suffer a great deal tolive upto the expectations ofMahatma. Achiever asManager normally tends tobe a taskmaster.

McClelland also ob-serves, while achievementoriented people are needed

in organisations; they donot always make the bestmanagers unless they de-velop their human skills.Being a good producer isnot sufficient to make an ef-fective manager (Ref Ack:McClellands research intoachievement motivation:Accel-Team.com)

Assessing yourself

Achievement Orienta-tion is a concern for work-ing to surpass a standard ofexcellence and managinginternal and external re-sources to achieve goals.How do organisations thatare seeking to recruitachievers spot this compe-tency in a candidate?

If you are hired for a job,which predominantlyneeds an achievement ori-entation, here is a self-as-sessment to reflect on youranswers to these multi-di-mensional questions.

Reflecting on the Past:Do you enjoy working on

difficult projects? If soshare with us one of the sig-nificant experiences. Haveyou ever accomplishedsomething you did notthink you could? Tell meabout a time when you wentbeyond the call of duty.

What are some of youraccomplishments of whichyou are most proud of?What are some examples ofsome important decisionsyou have made recently?What has been your great-est accomplishment andgreatest disappointment?What is the most stimulat-ing thing you are lookingfor in a job?

Revealing reality

Your answer to thesetypes of questions revealthe reality. I f you areachievement oriented per-son, your past accomplish-ments would speak outwhat you have achievedsomething significant. Theinterviewer now presents a

business case. It may in-volve some decision-mak-ing and operational risk.

Focus on future

Describe a significantrisk you would like to takein this situation to moveahead.Why do you suggesttaking that risk? What aresuch risks you have under-taken recently?

Response to such ques-tions brings out how goodyou learn from the past us-ing the achievement compe-tency and also apply yourlearning to face the future.

At this stage, the inter-viewer would have seenwhat you had done in thepast and also your ability toachieve things in the pres-ent and the future.

But,he would now like toknow whether you are will-ing to achieve. It is knownthat Skill and Will are in-separable for achievers.Are you motivated toachieve?

What makes you to pushgently and execute things?What is the starter thatswitches you to move on?How do you look at the com-petition while you desire tosucceed? What do you getafter completing difficulttasks? What has your lastemployer done that moti-vated you to work harder?What kinds of responsibili-ties are important to you inyour work?

While responses to theoppugn exhibits whatdrives a person to achieve,an experienced interviewerwould now move on to thecentral area which drivesthe competency of achieve-ment orientation, the senseof self.

Describe a situation inwhich you are most suc-cessful. Describe what suc-

cess means to you. Howwould you describe yourstandards of performance?How would you evaluateyour success and to what doyou attribute your success?What is your definition forsuccessand failure?

Characteristics

According McClel-lands research, people whopossess and display thecompetency of Achieve-ment orientation have cer-tain characteristics in com-mon. They set reasonablyhigh, stretched and achiev-able goals.

They look out for person-al achievement rather thanthe rewards of success.They desire for job relevantfeedback (how well am I do-ing?) rather than attitudi-nal feedback (how well doyou like me)

The author is former corpo-rate VP - HR and currentlyHRD and Leadership Compe-tency Building Consultant. E-mail: cmowly@hotmail.com

Aggressive realism means displayingdetermination and energetic pursuitto succeed every time, initiated by astrong desire of achievement orienta-tion, writes MR Chandramowly.

to

climb up

Deccan Herald - Wednesday, June 20, 2007