American singer-songwriter Dennis DeYoung wrote, “winners are losers who got up and gave it one more try.” In essence, winning or goal achievement isn’t a one-time activity. It is a way of work, a mindset, and ongoing practice.
A leader’s job is to steer the team toward their goals, sure. But it’s a lot more than that. A leader’s responsibility is to create a culture of focus, drive, and high performance. That’s exactly what achievement-oriented leadership enables.
In this blog post, we explore what it means to be an achievement-oriented leader, why and how to be one.
How to Implement Achievement-Oriented Leadership
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is Achievement Oriented Leadership?
As the name suggests, achievement-oriented leadership is the practice of motivating a team to set, pursue, and meet ambitious goals.
Origins of achievement oriented leadership
A concept developed in the 1970s by researchers Martin Evans and Robert House, achievement-oriented leadership is one of the four behaviors of leaders as per the path-goal theory.
Let’s take a step back.
Path-goal theory is a leadership philosophy that explores how leaders motivate their followers/team members to accomplish goals. In this process, researchers identify four kinds of leadership behavior.
- Directive: Directive leadership guides team members on what to do, how to do it, and when to complete it
- Supportive: A supportive leader treats their team members as equals, attending to their needs and providing support
- Participative: Participative leadership is collaborative and includes each team member throughout the journey toward their goals
- Achievement-oriented: An achievement-oriented leader pushes for excellence, seeks continuous improvement, and steers the team toward their goals
To be fair, there are dozens of leadership styles and theories out there. Laissez-faire management style, change leadership, ENTP leadership, servant-leader theory, etc., are all popular in modern workplaces. What does achievement-oriented leadership offer that all of the previous frameworks don’t?
How achievement-oriented leadership helps in high-performance
The biggest contribution of achievement-oriented leadership style to business success is clarity of direction. Achievement-oriented leadership enables:
Clarity: The definition of ‘achievement’ is crystal clear. This means that every team member knows what the goals of themselves, their teams, and the organization are—helping them get there effectively.
Direction: Unlike servant leadership, an achievement-oriented approach enables leaders to give direction, teach team members, and focus on goals. As a result, team members can perform without obstacles.
Motivation: A critical factor in this leadership approach is motivating the team and giving them the tools and resources to achieve their goals. Leaders take responsibility to keep their teams on their toes.
Structure: Achievement-oriented leadership provides a structure from the current situation, skills, and plans toward goals. It eliminates team members jumping through hoops to do their work.
Challenge: Leaders believe in continuous improvement and push team members to always do better. They keep setting challenging goals throughout the project.
We know that achievement-oriented leadership works in many competitive scenarios. For instance, if you’re in sales, your work is aimed at meeting specific and recurring targets. An achievement-oriented leader works great in this scenario.
This style of leadership also works when you’re short on time or budget, need to resolve a crisis, or complete short-term projects, like building a house or hiring an engineering head.
But what does being an achievement-oriented leader look like? Let’s find out.
Summarize this article for me pleaseKey Characteristics of Achievement-Oriented Leaders
An achievement-oriented leader isn’t an alien from another world but a regular person with specific characteristics, traits, and behaviors. Let’s look at some.
Goal-focus
Achievement-oriented leaders focus on, well, achievement. They clearly define goals, make them visible, and travel steadfastly in that direction. They offer all the support, direction, and motivation the team needs to achieve their goals.
High standards
Achievement-oriented leaders have rigorous standards for themselves and others. They are high-achievers and expect similar performance from their team. They prioritize high-quality work and continuously seek improvement.
Communication
An achievement-oriented leader needs to eliminate distractions. So, they communicate openly and transparently. They cut to the chase and discuss problems practically. They are comfortable offering feedback and coaching people regularly.
Accountability
Achievement-oriented leaders have a high sense of accountability. They take responsibility for their work, hold themselves accountable for clearing the way for their team members to shine, and openly acknowledge their team’s contributions.
Vision
To be achievement-oriented, a leader must have a vision of the future. A good achievement-oriented leader tends to be a visionary, with contingency plans for any challenges that might arise on the way to their goals.
While you look to develop and practice these characteristics, let’s see how you can implement them in your organization.
Summarize this article for me pleaseHow to Promote Achievement-Oriented Leadership
While leadership is often behavioral, it can be organized with a blueprint and a robust project management tool like ClickUp. Let’s see how.
Become achievement oriented by setting goals
Setting the right goals is the first step in implementing achievement-oriented leadership styles. This is the north star towards which you will steer the team. To set the right goals:
- Bring together cross-functional team leadership to identify key result areas and performance indicators
- Set goals for managers and team members
- Make sure your goals are SMART, i.e., specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound
- Make the goals and your progress towards them visible
ClickUp Goals is a great way to set and track targets for achievement-oriented leadership. Use ClickUp Goals to break down your targets into tasks based on urgency, priority, and impact. Keep them organized in folders and make them visible to every relevant stakeholder.
If you’re new to goal setting, try some of these goal-setting templates as a starting point.
Communicate clearly and effectively
The next step is communication. Create strategies and opportunities to inform your team of everything they need to know.
Organize: Create a clear and understandable structure for your teams to work. For example, use a task management software like ClickUp Tasks to breakdown complex projects into actionable tasks and assign them to the right people.
Delegate: Learn how to delegate work. Write detailed descriptions and acceptance criteria for each task. In this step, define what ‘achievement’ is.
Use checklists to ensure easy access. For project-wide expectations or standard operating procedures (SOPs), use longer documents on a tool like ClickUp Docs.
Collaborate: Achievement-oriented leadership needs to support and motivate team members at every step of their journey toward their goals. This requires that a team leader encourages collaboration for team empowerment.
Discuss work using nested comments in tasks. Use the ClickUp Chat view to see all your messages in one place and respond in context.
Manage your path to goal achievement
During the course of your project, you’re also a manager. So, manage your team toward your goals.
Manage workload: Get your team members on a workload management tool like ClickUp and encourage them to set their availability. Use the ClickUp Workload view to ensure no one is overworked or underworked.
Manage team: Bring every cross-functional team member on the same page with ClickUp. Use the ClickUp Team Management Plan Template to create a virtual workspace, assign tasks, collaborate, and achieve goals.
Manage risks: Closely monitor performance to identify risks and challenges. Try milestone tracking software for key insights.
Use ClickUp Dashboards to measure progress on important metrics. If you’re not making progress on any of them, call for retrospectives and recalibrate your project plans.
Manage time: Achievement-oriented leadership is also about meeting targets on time. Use ClickUp’s Gantt chart view or Calendar view to manage your schedule. Mark dependencies and plan for overlaps.
Bonus: Plan your projects quickly and effectively with these milestone templates.
While implementing achievement-oriented leadership, remember that you might face challenges, too. Before we close, let’s explore the benefits and challenges of this leadership strategy.
Summarize this article for me pleaseBenefits and Challenges of Achievement Oriented Leadership
Achievement-oriented leadership focuses on excellence. This approach to team performance empowers leaders to unlock their teams’ full potential for success, which has extraordinary benefits.
Performance: Clarity, direction, and high expectations encourage teams to perform better. It boosts productivity and outcomes.
Employee satisfaction: Working with an achievement-oriented leader gives teams clear direction and focus. The lack of ambiguity makes life simpler for teams, adding to their satisfaction.
Growth: Achievement-oriented leaders encourage their teams to improve continuously. It’s almost inevitable that each team member sees personal growth in their career.
This also brings with it challenges, such as:
Risk of burnout: Meeting high expectations and lofty goals can feel like running on a hamster wheel, which can lead to burnout.
Lack of appreciation: The focus on continuous improvement can sometimes mean that leaders don’t appreciate small wins, which can be counterproductively demotivating.
Inflexibility: When one is achievement-oriented, the team leadership is prone to setting stringent structures and stiff guardrails for how work is done. This can hinder innovation and experimentation, even when achieving organizational success.
Summarize this article for me pleaseLead Your Teams Towards Goal Achievement With ClickUp
Every business’s primary goal is to make money. Achieving that goal requires meeting various targets across product development, marketing, sales, customer service, etc. To run like clockwork and exceed expectations, businesses need achievement-oriented leaders.
Sometimes, you need to set goals, create systems, give advice, solve problems, monitor performance, optimize the workplace, and more. To do this, you need a robust, multi-purpose tool like ClickUp.
Use ClickUp to make the intangibles tangible. Make goals visible. Automate processes. Create systems. Glean insights. All in one place with ClickUp.
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