High Achiever Personality Traits and Characteristics
People with high-achieving personalities often think they are completely normal, yet sometimes, they don’t fit in. Sometimes the whole world seems incompetent.
When High Achievers have a better understanding of themselves, they feel more confident pursuing the strategies and outcomes that make sense for them rather than what everyone else is doing.
Below are common intellectual and personality traits of the High Achievers who work well with Dr. Groff. High Achievers may not identify with all traits, and not all successful people have a High Achiever personality.
Remember that the complexity of being a High Achiever can be challenging, but it can also be your greatest asset.
Personal Traits of High Achievers
INTELLECTUAL TRAITS
“Why am I the only one who sees this problem?”
- Thinks several moves ahead
- Assesses multiple variables and contingencies when making a decision
- Processes and synthesizes information quickly
- Makes connections among information and systems that others view as unconnected
- Tendency to think several layers deeper than the surface of a conversation
- Intellectually curious and willing to challenge own conclusions
- Able to quickly extrapolate concepts from minimal data points for fast pattern recognition
- Processes in parallel rather than sequentially
- Independent thinkers
- May be told that they are “over-thinking” when they are simply trying to account for all variables
How It Feels
- Sometimes boring or frustrating when one gets to the right answer quickly and waits for other people to catch up.
- Exciting when the ability to think creatively yields a novel solution to a problem.
- Sometimes isolating if High Achievers feel like they can’t be themselves or need to dumb down their thought processes in order to connect with others
- Rewarding when challenges bring opportunties for new learning and mastery
- Sometimes confusing when conclusions feel like “common sense” but others don’t see it or get it.
- Conventional advice rarely applies, which can be intermittently frustrating, lonely or scary as there are few templates to bounce an approach against.
- High Achievers often feel most satisfied when they are able to do deep work and strategic thinking.
PERSONALITY TRAITS
“I’m told I need ‘realistic expectations,’ but they make perfect sense to me.”
- Feels responsible for outcomes, even those that they don’t fully own
- Honest, sometimes to a fault
- Strong-willed but rational
- Action-oriented and impatient on the inside
- Kind but not touchy-feely
- Hates incompetence
- High expectations of self
- Tendency to view weakness as failure
- Internally competitive
- Open-minded and curious
- Humble – “I’m not that special.”
- Often, a dry or subtle sense of humor
- Many are introverted/need time alone to regroup.
How It Feels
- People tell High Achievers not to be hard on themselves, but that can be confusing when one doesn’t know what type of standards are realistic.
- Feeling responsible for failures–“I should have known better” can make High Achievers feel extra shame or doubt themselves.
- Confusing. The combination of being both humble and a High Achiever creates a juxtaposition where one is constantly driving for excellence and simultaneously trying to understand what is “normal.”
- Exhilarating when a High Achiever crushes their competition…however…
- The emotional high of achievement is short-lived because High Achievers quickly focus on their next goal.
- “Balance” is ever-elusive, and this can feel like they are addressing life incorrectly or that something is wrong with them.
- Secretly wants praise but usually uncomfortable with it.
Interpersonal Traits of High Achievers
INTERPERSONAL STRENGTHS
“Everyone relies on me!”
- Able to see others’ potential
- Cares deeply about people
- Loyalty and dedicated in important relationships
- Thoughtful consideration of others’ perspectives
- Genuine interest in others’ growth and development
- Appreciation for authentic interactions
- Values substance over social pretense
- Prefers straightforward communication
- Eager to help and problem-solve
- Perceived as very competent
- Natural leader
INTERPERSONAL CHALLENGES
“Everyone relies on me…”
- Difficulty finding true peers
- May come across as intimidating
- Tendency to overestimate others’ understanding
- Challenge: finding advisors who can add value
- Balancing directness with others’ emotional needs
- Finds small talk exhausting
- Hates disappointing others
- Dislikes asking for help and may lose relationship capital from unequal exchanges
- Thinks they should be able to change people
- May rely on logic to resolve emotional arguments
Organizational Leadership Traits of High Achievers
ORGANIZATIONAL STRENGTHS
“I can see exactly what needs to happen!”
- Excellent at seeing gaps in vision
- Able to identify system inefficiencies
- Seeks progress; hates stagnation
- Values organizational success over ego
- Stressed by political maneuvering that drains energy or detracts from optimal outcomes
- Focuses on innovation and growth
- Fueled by strategic thinking; drained by operational tedium
ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGES
“I can see exactly what needs to happen…”
- Frustration when others can’t execute on vision
- Others don’t follow conceptual leaps, resulting in communication gaps.
- Impatience with implementation delays
- Difficulty delegating when others don’t meet standards
- Overestimating team members’ capabilities or understanding
- Balancing desire for excellence with pragmatic timelines
- Finding advisors and board members who add value
- Managing the tension between innovation and operational stability
- Experiencing isolation at the top of the organization
- Frustrated with employee incompetence
- Struggles with determining reasonable expectations
About IQ & Giftedness
Some of the clients who work with Dr. Tricia have been identified as having high IQ. Others were in honors or gifted programs and not formally tested. And the third group were B students who were slightly bored in school and overlooked by academia.
IQ tests themselves can be faulty and biased, depending on cultural variables and learning styles. The valuable information isn’t about an IQ score itself, but rather the unique strengths that High Achievers have. When they are unaware of these edges, they may underestimate themselves or be confused about why others can’t think or work the same way.
Here are a few characteristics of High Achievers who also have High IQs:
1. Rapid processing speed. They think fast, which can be frustrating when one waits for others to “catch up.” Sometimes this rapid thought is reflected in rapid speech, while some High Achievers speak more slowly as they struggle to put the complexity of thought into cohesive speech.
2. The ability to synthesize multiple variables and facets of a situation beyond what is instantly obvious.
3. The ability to see downstream and long-term impact in a way that feels “common sense.”
4. Many have a strong memory, which, integrated with abstract reasoning and the ability to synthesize variables, helps with pattern recognition.
5. Multi-potentiality. Multi-faceted talent. For example, they may be analytical and artistic at the same time. They have diverse interests and are curious about many things.
6. Some may be easily over-stimulated or sensitive to noise.
7. Some have high emotional intelligence. Others struggle with emotional intelligence and connecting with others.
**High-IQ individuals who had undiagnosed ADHD, dyslexia, or other learning difficulties were often overlooked in school and may not define themselves as particularly smart.
The Unique Challenges High Achievers Face
Sometimes being a High Achiever creates distinctive, and often, paradoxical, challenges.
The Optimization Paradox:
For High Achievers, self-discipline usually means figuring out when to do less. The drive to do more can increase vulnerability to unfulfillment and burnout. The answer isn’t precisely about doing less, but rather incorporating guardrails into the achievement paradigm.
The Responsibility Trap:
High Achievers’ natural tendency to take ownership makes them incredibly reliable and trustworthy. However, they also tend to take responsibility for outcomes outside of their control, which increases stress and fatigue.
The Authenticity Challenge:
Most High Achievers have learned “hold back,” either because they’ve been misunderstood or in order to work effectively with others. While that response shows adaptability, it can also make it difficult for High Achievers to feel like they can be themselves.
The Support Scarcity:
High Achievers generally don’t ask for much help. Sometimes it’s because they hate asking. At other times, it’s because they are uncertain that competent help is available. Often, they don’t think about asking for help because they are used to problem-solving independently. Together, it can be difficult to obtain the type of support that truly lightens the load.
BUT
These challenges are not insurmountable. When people love to learn, hold self-awareness, and are willing to experiment, they can mitigate the downside and grab the upside.
Responsible - A Double Edged Sword
One of the best characteristics of High Achievers is their high integrity. They take responsibility for their actions and outcomes. This trait helps them develop strong relationships and a good reputation. At the same time, it can create emotional difficulty because High Achievers tend to take responsibility for things that are not their fault. The tendency to take all blame on themselves creates an emotional drain and can also inhibit problem-solving. A solution to help sort through the variables that contribute to less than desirable outcomes is to draw a pie and assign the responsibility across multiple variables. This visual representation provides a more accurate view of what they need to change versus relationships that may need to change or situational variables that were outside their control.
Reframe - The Shadow Side of a High Achieving Mindset
Many High Achievers are hard on themselves when they encounter an area of “weakness.” Carl Jung was a psychoanalyst who use the term “shadow side” to describe the parts of people’s personalities that they try to repress compared to those aspects of which a person is consciously aware. While Jung used the term to focus on subconscious areas of personality, I’ve borrowed and repurposed it to represent the flip side of our strengths.
1. The shadow side exists because of strength.
Most strengths have a cost attached, a shadow side if you will. For example, a generous High Achiever may struggle with setting boundaries about how much to give others. Alternately, a High Achiever who wants to see the best in people may have difficulty knowing when to fire an employee. High Achievers who are very responsible may take responsibility for things that are outside of their control. Finally, the High Achievers with high standards of execution may have difficulty recognizing what “good enough” looks like, for both themselves and for others.
2. High Achievers can reframe their perception of weaknesses by assessing their strengths.
High Achievers can learn to give themselves grace if they are able to identify the strengths that are associated with areas of struggle. This identification often reduces feelings of failure and shame because the shadow side is linked to strength. It’s a ‘side effect’ of strength rather than a separate area of deficit.
3. High Achievers can begin reframing perceived weaknesses by making a list.
High Achievers can gain insight by making a list of their “weaknesses.” After they’ve made the list, they can think about whether those “weaknesses” are a byproduct or linked to areas of strength. The linkage to strength allows High Achievers to focus on and celebrate the upside while continuing to grow in their skills at managing the shadow side.
Am I Normal?
“I often wonder if I’m getting it right. I think I’m right, but maybe I’m the crazy one.”
What High Achievers Fundamentally Seek
To feel understood
Specific tools and strategies
To not feel alone
To be respected
Results
Progress
To feel confident about decisions
Meaning and fulfillment
To be authentic
Confidence
Peace and reconciliation within oneself
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.” – T. Roosevelt
Specific Tailoring within the Integrated Approach to Support High Achievers
The mushy-gushy, non-scientific premise of the Integrated Approach is that High Achievers need to feel like someone gets them.
From a more analytical perspective, the integrated approach seeks to incorporate the intellectual, emotional, and achievement drive for high achievers instead of treating them as separate items. Further, while High Achievers have patterns, each person has a different arrangement of capabilities. For example, one High Achiever may excel at processing complex information quickly (speed edge) while another High Achiever excels in synergizing a highly diverse set of variables.
Each person’s background influences the way they show up to the people around them. For example, many High Achievers are deeply emotional on the inside, but some have been trained to mask, protect, or subvert the emotion, while others express it but struggle to channel it.
Here are some cornerstone elements of the integrated approach:
Pattern Recognition
High Achievers are adept at seeing patterns or incorporating the knowledge if someone else points them out. Solving individual problems without assessing the potential pattern wastes time and emotion. All aspects of the integrated approach rests on pattern recognition to optimize long-term outcomes.
High Standards
High Achievers have high standards. The approach focuses on helping to sustain excellence while buffering against the frustration of feeling like they can always do more or better. Additionally, one of the most common questions High Achievers ask is “Am I expecting to much?” Maintaining high standards while managing expectations is a recurring theme.
Normalizing High Achiever Experience
Since High Achievers sometimes feel completely the same as everyone else, and at other times, completely different, it can be difficult to assess what is “normal” and what is unique. The approach uses both the statistical bell curve and references to other High Achiever clients to address these questions.
Intellectual Complexity and Decision-Making
The approach focuses on capturing as many angles as possible of a situation, then integrating emotion, situational valence, and the primary, secondary and tertiary impact of actions. Capturing these areas helps High Achievers feel at ease that they are not “missing something” and that the conclusion fits the need of the situation. High Achievers will never be told that they are “overthinking” something.
Emotions
Emotions are data. High Achievers often struggle with how to integrate them with logic. Thus, the integrated approach focuses on increases High Achievers’ own sense of comfort and competence in accounting for emotion as part of strategy.
Prioritization and Delegation
High Achievers have multi-faceted capabilities, so the process of delegation and prioritization is different. For High Achievers who CAN do almost everything, discerning what to do, what to delegate and how to do this looks different and feels different than the standardized advice to have people do what you can’t do or what you don’t like to do. It becomes a critical conversation for High Achievers in executive positions who are already carry a High Achiever sense of responsibility for everyone around them.
Where High Achievement Meets Personal Excellence
Personal Excellence Integration addresses the “so what” part of being a High Achiever. It focuses on customizing various areas of focus that fit their values and goals.
Explore Personal Excellence Integration →
Discover how performance optimization, leadership identity development, and life architecture integration create sustainable excellence for high achievers.
Learn More about the Integrated Genius Approach →
The Integrated Approach addresses both the Personal Excellence of High Achievers and the Organizational challenges they face as owners or leaders. This page provides additional information about the overall framework.
Profiles of High Achiever Clients
(Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Innocent)
ANGIE is a founder and owner of several companies. She is a visionary who builds and creates. As a human, she is warm, honest, and unwilling to settle for the status quo in any facet of life. She leads with both intellect and passion, always seeking to empower others’ success.
JOHN is the owner of a rapidly growing business that is in the teenage phase. He is funny, easy-going, and whip-smart. John is strong-minded and open-minded, so he’ll consider new paths if the argument is solid. He continuously strives for business and personal excellence.
KYLE is a founder and executive of a VC backed company that is rapidly expanding its territory. He quickly implements new strategies, and he embodies the commitment to whole-person excellence. Kyle sometimes spices up a serious conversation with sarcasm that leaves one laughing for hours.
BRENT is a specialist and leader in the health industry. He is brilliantly logical and prefers any explanation of human behavior to be translated into a flowchart with supporting rationale and applicable examples. Brent is funny, willing to tolerate extreme discomfort, and remains uncompromising in his dedication to excellence.
AL is a C-suite executive who synthesizes information at the speed of light and is an early adopter of all good ideas. He is an amazing human, who seeks peak performance in himself and his team. He works hard to balance high expectations with compassion and flexibility.
Lisa is a senior executive in a company that innovates at warp speed. She sees connections and patterns that others don’t see; so she constantly works to contain chaos without slowing the growth. Her dedication to excellence in unrelenting, which usually means that she’s hard on herself.
