Skip to main content
leadership lab

This column is part of Globe Careers' Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about leadership and management. Follow us at @Globe_Careers. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab

We've all likely come across at least one at some point in our careers.

They're always on. They never seem to stop working. They're constantly striving to land the next account for the company or take that next step up the corporate ladder.

On the surface, everything's going great. They're getting the job done. They're hitting their targets. They're earning big money. And by extension, the company is benefiting as well. All that individual drive can generate collective growth.

But take a deeper look.

The relentless push to achieve can deliver great results and happiness, but it's generally only short-lived and often doesn't lead the way to long-term success or satisfaction.

Hay Group has spent nearly half a century researching and assessing executive motivation, and we've noted a large upswing in individual achievement as a primary motivator for corporate leaders.

We've also seen that overachievement can have a dark and destructive side – not only for individuals but for the teams they lead and their broader organizations. We've learned that an exclusive focus on achievement can cause an individual to actually accomplish less.

The drive to continually achieve bigger, better goals comes with blinders. Often, leaders who get caught up in their work are oblivious to what's going on around them. They miss clear warning signs.

They fail to see the body language of demoralized team members. They don't recognize their depleting levels of motivation. Many don't even see the bigger picture for their organization because their focus is so narrow.

It's a critical flaw, especially when the going gets tough.

A client recently told me about a senior executive who had crossed over to the dark side of over-achievement. He regularly worked 18-hour days and kept on working through what was supposed to be down time on weekends. Rather than delegating tasks to members of his team, he added the work to his own plate.

But what was seen as diligence and commitment early on began to show itself as an inability to dial down his drive to achieve. His relationship with his young children and wife played second fiddle to his career. He was completing a lot of tasks during the 80 to 90 hours he routinely logged each week at work. But the quality of the work itself began to decline. His judgment faltered and his ability to make good decisions suffered as he buried himself in trying to knock off another achievement.

Sadly, in a society that encourages and values achievement, this man's story is all too common. Many of us use work as the sole source to satisfy our need to achieve, and it becomes the only thing that drives us, often at the expense of nurturing our relationships and devoting time to making a positive difference in our communities.

But how do you tell someone who seems to be working so hard that they aren't actually working well? How do you get them to realize that they will be a more effective leader by becoming a more well-rounded individual who also has a fulfilling life outside work?

A large part of the answer comes down to helping overachievers understand how their addiction to constant striving can actually make us less effective, and potentially less happy. Bronnie Ware, a hospice nurse and author of The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, wrote of the two top things men regret on their deathbeds: "I wish I didn't work so hard" and "I wish I had spent more time with my family and kept in touch with my friends."

True success comes when leaders are able to balance their need to achieve with an equally important motive – the need for socialized power – the deep satisfaction that comes from making others feel stronger and more capable.

Socialized power, drives us to make a positive difference for others or society as a whole. Leaders driven more by this type of power inspire others through compelling values and act with a broader purpose in mind and not themselves.

Companies struggling to limit the collateral damage caused by overachieving leaders need to help them draw greater motivation from socialized power with an eye on long-term happiness instead of constantly chasing after the next short-term success. The great management guru Clayton Christensen offers sage advice. He recounts how he has seen countless MBA graduates come to their reunions divorced, estranged from their children and deeply unhappy. He notes they didn't consciously plan to end up that way, but unknowingly they did follow a strategy. They allowed their sole focus on achievement to take control, while sacrificing the deep rewards that come from socialized power – investing time with others and following their life purpose.

The conversation will need to go beyond finding ways to create an optimal work-life balance. It needs to hone in on what values are important in the leader's life outside work. It really becomes about the biggest question any of us can ask ourselves: What is my purpose?

Understanding the answer to that question – or at least trying to figure it out – will steer the drive to achieve in the right direction.

Rick Lash is the national director of the leadership and talent practice for Hay Group (@HayGroup) in Canada and co-leader of the annual Hay Group Best Companies for Leadership study.

Interact with The Globe