Executive Psychologist & Strategic Advisor
Smart High Achievers & Their Organizations
Where Psychology Builds Business
INTELLECT & PERSONALITY
I specialize in leaders who have two dimensions. Intellectually, they connect the dots quickly, synthesize information from multiple knowledge domains, and tend to hate irrelevant detail. Some of them have been tested for giftedness at a young age; others don’t see themselves as different — they simply wonder why there are no critical thinkers left in the world. All of these leaders prefer to think independently and question surface-level answers because they want solutions that fit the variables at hand.
The High Achiever personality comes from striving for excellence and an outsized sense of personal responsibility. High Achievers often question whether they are getting it right or doing enough. They are people of high integrity and humility who love to play and learn new things.
Being smart brings a set of challenges, both in understanding oneself and in interacting with others. Similarly, a High-Achieving personality is an ingredient for both success and frustration. Integrating all the facets helps us fully show up for ourselves and increases our confidence in how we show up for others.
INTEGRATED PSYCHOLOGY & BUSINESS
Traditionally, business strategy has been separated from human strategy. This has never made sense to me. Whether it’s a service or a product, it’s built by people and sold to people. Even with the integration of artificial intelligence, a human element builds, analyzes, and integrates. I am possibly biased when I say that the most costly business decisions are based on defunct ideas, broken relationships, human incompetence, or poor judgment. Most of us have experienced or witnessed partnerships, hires, or acquisitions fall short due to incomplete human due diligence. Conversely, we’ve also been in rooms where the right people or team dynamics bring oxygen into an idea, amplify it, and turn it into profit. I am equally aware and passionate about the fact that successful leaders carry at least part, and sometimes all, of their identity in the success of the organization they lead. For these High Achievers, there is a thin or absent line between their personal value and professional success. Integrating both domains of thought into problem-solving and growth initiatives helps us avoid the blind spots that arise when we focus on either domain alone.
You Don’t Have to Lead Alone.
THERE IS NO SHORTCUT TO EXCELLENCE
Executive Summary
1. Who: Smart High Achievers (High Achiever Personality). Most clients are senior executives, entrepreneurs, or business owners.
2. What: Relationally-based, non-prescriptive partnership and practical problem-solving for individuals. For organizations, building customized solutions from within the organization’s context instead of generic templates.
3. How: Straightforward, down-to-earth, mutual respect, mutual ideation, mutual trust. Hopefully fun too.
4. You’ll hate it if: Horrible fit if you want fast, simplistic answers; great fit if you think independently and play the long game.
5. Investment: Owners/CEOs = $12K/6 months, Senior Executives = $8K-10K/6 months, Organizations = $15K+, Intensive Partnerships = $36K+
6. The consultation form for the Strategy & Fit Call allows us to assess fit, answer questions, and respect your time.
Am I Normal?
“I wonder if I’m getting it right. I think I’m right, but maybe I’m the crazy one.”
Integrated Excellence
The Pleasure & The Pain
Assessing problems from a single angle yields incomplete, and often inaccurate, assumptions. Most outcomes in business and life result from a series of interactions and dependencies rather than dichotomous taxonomies and linear correlations. You know this. But sometimes it’s easier to focus on only one area of excellence when we’re tired. Sometimes, trying to account for all factors of excellence is exhausting.
The upside is that when we understand that variables intersect, we don’t have to improve everything to achieve growth. The layers build on each other, creating multiple positive feedback loops, and over time, upleveling the entire system.
Personal excellence = cohesive identity, wellness, fulfillment, managing expectations, and maintaining boundaries. What we don’t need is pressure to try harder or to have more self-discipline.
Interpersonal excellence = trusting your judgment, making peace with the challenges that occur when one differs from 95% of the population.
Organizational excellence = awareness of cascades, tough decisions when there are often no “right” answers
The hardest part of pursuing integrated excellence as smart people with high-achieving personalities is that we think we should be able to get it right. We trust our intellect to solve problems, and it feels like a personal failure when part of our system fails. The thing is, most of us are forging new paths, with no templates, hence an increased likelihood of failure. When it happens, do your best to stay attuned to the variables in play and keep moving forward.
Need a Fast Reference to Navigate Humans?
A lot of smart people don’t talk about the conundrums of dealing with themselves and others because it makes them feel stupid. They are not alone. Concise, actionable advice is formatted with an extended table of contents for quick reference with no end-to-end reading commitment.
Content Highlights
- Increase confidence and personal excellence.
- Teach people how to take you seriously.
- Assess people’s motivation to pull the best out of them.
- Protect yourself and your organization from difficult people.
- Scripts for setting boundaries, apologizing, and other awkwardness.
The Man In The Arena
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. –Theodore Roosevelt
Articles
High Achiever Comments
“It’s legit shit. Not foofy-fluffy. You have this way of combining psychology and business into tactical solutions that I can actually use.”
—D. L.
“I have been very protective of keeping you in the budget. The value you bring to our company is not lost on me.”
–(Confidential)
“Comparing other coaches to Dr. Tricia is like comparing McDonald’s with Morton’s Steakhouse.”
—A. T.
“I can’t imagine where I’d be personally or professionally without her.”
—P. N.
“Dr. Groff is that rare individual who not only understands how to help you achieve success, but she also understands the very real human emotions that color the process. She is intelligent in kind. Dr. Groff is the best there is to illuminate your path forward. Look no further.”
–Penny C