How to Manage Overachievers?

Overachievers are ideal employees. Driven with a strong “can do” attitude, focused, determined, they will overcome every obstacle, successfully juggle multiple projects at once and happily take on more. The name says it all — they will always overachieve; in everything — their objectives, everyone’s expectations. They do it all for the mere pleasure of achieving.

Working with overachievers is satisfying, engaging, rewarding and a job of their manager mostly comes down to protecting them from themselves: the level of their engagement can occasionally overcome physical capacity and lead them to depression and burn out. Thus, firstly, managing them implies setting some boundaries. This task is more daunting that it might seam at first — there is a fine line between pacing and limiting them.

Then, overachievers tend to be overly critical with themselves but with others too. This can lead to collision within a team, especially if there is a majority of below or average performers. Finally, overachievers tend to take corporate policies and procedures very loosely in order to get the job done. So, whilst rushing to the goal they might unintentionally leave a bit of chaos behind them.

Thus. dealing with overachievers requires some Michelin-3-star management.

Over the past few years I had a privilege to experience first-handed how challenging this task truly is. Here below is a summary of best practices based on a mix of field and desk research, including my personal experience.

Process over results

Overachievers are focused on the result. As many internal and external factors can impact it, results are beyond our control. Hales, not achieving the desired outcome within their timeframe creates unbearable frustration for overachievers. This is why it is important to drive their focus towards the process, the variable they can control.

The best way to move focus from the uncontrollable outcome to controllable process is to insist on them preparing a plan. For every goal there should be a thorough plan with milestones and step-by-step action list. This plan will keep them grounded and focused on the next immediate step to be completed vs on the the overall goal/result they cannot control. It will also give them a sense of control and instant feeling of achievement that they crave.

Process precedes results always and is the source of any success. You can read more on that topic here.

Make them balance

Overachievers tend to fall short when it comes to self-care. They will do long hours, skip meals, sleep-deprive themselves, miss family reunions, “tough it out” when sick to the point that depression and burn-out are one bad news away. Their high (impossible?) standards will push them further and further until they break. Therefor, in order to have them continue to deliver and produce, it is important to ensure that they take a break.

The easiest way to do that is to play their overachieving instinct in their favor. What do overachievers to best? Execute goals. Thus, add balance as a goal to their annual objective list and make sure it is measurable so that they can track themselves. Examples of good KPIs for this goal would be completing a mindfulness course, taking one Friday afternoon off each month, minimum one daily break every day, switch off PC at certain hour at least three times a week etc.

Normalize mistakes

Mistakes are part of every-day work. This is true for everyone, even overachievers. Their manager needs to affirm and reaffirm that errors and failing will inevitably happen. There are two reasons for that: overachievers tend to create extra stress for themselves if things don’t go perfectly and they also tend to do that for others. The latter could jeopardize team dynamics so asserting that everyone, including themselves, has the right to make an occasional mistake can have a positive spill-over effect.

One efficient way to put this in practice is to introduce “monthly mistake discussion”. The manager would start first by sharing one mistake/failure they experienced over the previous period. The focus should then move to lessons learned. What did the fail teach me? Let them do the same. In this way, there is a new spin on the failure and manager is normalizing mistakes, relieving overachievers of unnecessary stress and frustration with themselves but with others too.

Normalizing mistakes as part of the working process is a responsibility of those leading the organizational development and should be embedded within the corporate culture. Denying employees this right can lead into a culture of perfectionism which can be detrimental. You can read more on this topic here.

Treat them differently

Whilst the company should ensure equal opportunities for everyone, I do argue that the A players should receive A-player-treatment. In the same way underperformers receive a lot of attention through performance improvement plans, coaching and mentoring etc., special rules should apply to the overachievers as well.

Fundamentally, this would mean spending more time with them, arranging 1 on 1 mentorship with senior executives, developing their career plans and giving them tools to move along the path (i.e. trainings, education etc.), proactively adjusting their compensations, using opportunities to recognize their effort publicly, introducing small rewards like a meal for their family etc. Above all, giving them flexibility and freedom. This is a group of people who will always work hard and give their all in. By according them flexible hours, work from home and similar perks, the organization will only increase their loyalty and job satisfaction. Probably their productivity too, if that could still go higher.

Be the enabler

Overachievers will always work at their peak capacity — regardless of what is it that they are doing. With their ambition, they will always volunteer themselves for opportunities to learn new skill and grow. Keep them engaged with challenges that are new, interesting and meaningful. However, ensure that they always take some downtime after intense periods — chances are, they won’t be thinking of that themselves.

This is where the core of a managing-overachievers-challenge is: how to enable them to take on more responsibility without burning out. The answer is simple — by filtering mundane tasks out of their scope and delegate those to someone else. Mind you, it is up to a manager to notice when is the right time to do that — no overachiever ever came and admitted that they are struggling with the amount of work.

Also, as their enabler, a manager will need to remove common corporate obstacles like politics, formalities, redundant procedures and policies. Overachievers often take a bulldozer and straight-line to the goal. Their manager’s job is to help them remove barriers and clean up the sight they leave behind. They need to feel confident in having boss’s support, especially in front of others. If you disagree with their ways, have a private conversation about it and offer them alternative path forward whilst explaining why is that better way.

Release the pressure

Overachievers have an innate low tolerance for time. In their eyes, everything is urgent and needs to be accomplished “a.s.a.p.”. They attend calls, ping-pong emails, answer IMs whilst working on their project. It is very hard to do one thing at a time because for them, time is extremely scarce and everything is a rat race.

In view of this incredible amount of pressure they put on themselves, adding on more can break them. Therefore, the manager should refrain from adding “urgent” and “immediately” axes, unless it is truly the case. This is the coordinate system in which they normally operate so stressing it further won’t make the production faster but will impact their mental health.

Prioritize for them

Overachievers operate on a premise that the job is finished only when everything is completed. This implies that all tasks/projects are of equal (highest) importance. As they will take on many tasks, work long hours and get extremely fatigue, it is advisable to take time every few weeks and have a conversation about where are they spending the bulk of their time and what is currently in focus. This chat will re-focus on the key priorities but also raise a flag to have other discussions if they have been systematically doing someone else’s job.

Whilst having those meetings, use the opportunity to remind them that they have the right to leave some work for next day and refuse to connect to a conference call where they are “optional”. Also, teaching them the 80/20 and Ivy Lee methods and asking them to excel in applying those will give them a challenge whilst making them improve prioritization.

Lead by example

If you rose to a leadership position by being an overachiever yourself, this is where you will struggle most. In essence, the best way to coach them is by showing them how. You cannot tell them to take a break and then be online yourself 24/7. You cannot tell them not to connect when on holiday and they you answer emails in real time during yours. As a manager and a leader you are a role model and you are setting expectations in more ways then by what you say. This is why if you are an overachiever yourself, at least try and have common courtesy to hide it from your team, be open about your struggles to find work-life balance and allow yourself a proper vacation.

Paving the road to hell

Communication is a critical element in dealing with overachievers. A manger can follow the above framework to the letter, have the best intentions in their heart and yet irreversibly jeopardize the relationship. Examples of messages that should under no circumstances be used in a conversation with an A plays would be:

• “You need to slow down to let the others catch up with you”

• “Be patient, not everyone is as fast as you are”

• “Let’s not share the findings as they might make others look bad”.

Even though there is an effort to teach them empathy, from overachiever’s perspective this choice of words will immediately relief a manager of any credibility and have them start looking for another job.

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Achievers need to achieve and overachievers especially. They need challenge, fast-paced environment and quick decision making. It is up to their manager to create one such environment in which they will thrive but also to influence other team members to follow and embrace such opportunity to have an A player on their team. If you are lucky to have one (or more?) such person on your team, hold on to them tight as you are up for a long-term win — having a chance to hire and keep such talent has probably triple digit multiple.

Are you an overachiever or managing one? Have you ever had a boss telling you to slow down so that the others would look better?