BASIC WORK PERSONALITIES

ACHIEVERS<><><><> AFFILIATORS<> INFLUENCERS

We each have a dominant set of motivations that shape how we work—based on what matters most to us and what seems the best way to
achieve the gratification of our inner desires.

Our motivational priorities are established in succeeding waves of
learning what is admired and rewarded:
• First by our families,
• Then by our peers,
• Finally by society at large.

Our techniques for striving and achieving are developed from role
models, innate talents, and life experiences. We give relative and
changing importance to these influences as they occur and as we mature.
The end result is:

• Some of us buy the whole external influence package and strive
toward what others indicate is valuable and successful.
• Others become anti-players, purposely defying that which is set
out for them.
• Still others turn inward to hear and follow their own set of voices.

We respond to our dominant set of motivations by behaving in ways
that feed them. This behavior becomes most apparent in the way we
work and exercise our ability to direct others and relate to them.
Research has shown that in the workplace there are three distinctly
different personality types with distinctly different work and management
styles........

Achievers:
Fitting theme song: "Climb Every Mountain."
These are internally motivated people with high, self-set standards
and goals. Uppermost for them is accomplishment. Although we all feel
we have an achievement motive, research indicates that about 10 percent
of the population is strongly motivated by achievement. We find many
Achievers in positions of business management.
• Achievers like situations in which they take personal responsibility
for finding solutions to problems. They tend not to seek
advice or help except from experts who can provide needed
skills.
• They tend to set moderate achievement goals, attainable with
hard work and ability.
• They take calculated risks, preferring to work on the outcome
rather than leave it to chance.
• They want concrete feedback on how well they're doing.
• They're quite accustomed to having the task itself be enough
motivation for them; concepts about persuasiveness and motivating
others don't naturally occur to them.
• Communication is often little more than a one-way street for
Achievers, related to explaining what needs to get done. They're
so strongly goal-oriented that when they look across the desk,
the people they see may simply appear as implementors of the
tasks assigned, not as multi-dimensional, fallible, needy individuals.
• Entrepreneurs tend to be classic Achievers.

To the outside world, Achievers can look insensitive and unfeeling.
Not true. They just work from a different set of motivations than many of
us; the software of human consideration and understanding doesn't
always seem to be part of their concept of work. Achievers are hard
taskmasters for themselves and therefore bring the same demanding
standards to others with whom they work.

Considerations such as "Do you like me?" are usually beside the
point for Achievers, though this varies. They give themselves love when
they accomplish. An extension of that is to have others know of and
acknowledge their accomplishments. Achievement is where they find
their identity and feel their usefulness. Money may be regarded as a
further affirmation of their ability to achieve.

Affiliators:
Fitting theme song: "People Who Need People."
Affiliators care about belonging, relating, how others treat them.
This is such a high-priority item that it is factored into all the choices they
make about how they do their jobs.
• They need to gain confirmation for their own beliefs from others.
• They would rather be part of a group than be, or work, alone.
• They want and need to be liked and expend great effort to be
sure that happens.
• They prefer conciliation, dislike conflict, and try to find ways to
smooth things out.
• They like to cooperate and help others, wanting to be liked in
return.
Studies have shown that people with strong affiliative needs are often well suited for jobs that involve people: outreach, coordinating projects, integrating diverse points of view, mediating conflicts, motivating teams.
They are good at sales jobs that require cultivating and maintaining long-term relationships.
The high need for affiliation does create problems in decision making, however, since the need to be liked makes them shy away from unpopular choices. They can therefore run a less efficient department than those with more moderate people-needs.

Influencers:

Fitting theme song (adapted): "They Did It My Way."
This category has a semantics problem. We get very judgmental
around the words "power" and "influence." They sound underhanded
and manipulative—less than pure—and we generally feel uneasy or
negative about them. In order to understand this motivational category,
we need to look at the influence concept from two points of view:
personal power or influence and socialized or institutional power or
influence.
• Personalized power is linked to controlling or influencing others for
the sake of one's own impact on them as individuals.
• Socialized power deals with leadership of groups such as institutions,
business organizations, or even social movements. It deals with
inspiring co-workers symbolically and collaboratively to reach for higher
goals in support of an organization. It means using power as a leader to
strengthen subordinates' beliefs in themselves and in their competence
to contribute to an organization's success.

Given these two different manifestations of the influence or power
motive, we can now examine a basic set of behavior traits'to describe the
Influencer.

• Influencers want to obtain and exercise power and authority.
• They look for positions where they are the ultimate authority or
can make a highly visible impact.
• They are not as interested as Achievers are in figuring out how
to make something work. They care more for making an impact
and influencing others to make something work.
• Unlike Affiliators, who are dependent on other people for
approval, Influencers don't worry quite so much about their
critics. They know better who they are and what they want. They
are solid in their moves, with few apologies.
• Influencers are self-confident. They have very clear goals, and
have worked out their rationale, which includes the organizational
or institutional accomplishments they often could foster
with their power.
• Loyalty evoked by personalized Influencers is generally of the
kind we associate with a charismatic leader.
• Loyalty evoked by socialized Influencers tends to be more
attached to the team, the task, or institution.
Studies comparing personalized-power managers with socialized power
managers found the latter to be more effective.


It might help to compare behavior patterns between all three work
types. For example, the kinds of self-help books they would read:

• Achievers would read books with sixteen choices about how to do
something and what makes any of them work, so they could gather the
information and make their own individualistic decision about which way
is best to accomplish their task.

• Affiliators wouldn't like that many choices. They want more
consensus in their thinking. Therefore they would like the most popular
how-to books to make them more successful from a currently accepted
point of view.

• Influencers would have less interest in either of these types of
books, since neither speaks to their desire for impact on a situation and
its constituents. They would read historical biographies of strong,
successful charismatic leaders and what made them effective.

What about sports?

• Achievers would prefer individual sports like golf, so they could
compare their scores with par or what they did last time. It would give them both feedback and a specific goal to shoot for. They would surely go for the club championship.

• Affiliators would prefer team sports or tennis, but might have a
hard time fighting for a position or beating a friend. They would have
plenty of team spirit and probably be president of the country club.

• Influencers would like any team sport if they could be the coach,
captain, or manager.

None of us is only one type. As strong as the primary motivation may be, other factors also shape our behavior.
We can all find traces, or even large doses, of all three basic motivations
in our make-up and behavior.
Therefore, each motivation category is for quick and easy identification,
but always with an eye on where there are spillovers from the
others. They can help you predict behavior and understand your fellow
workers.



***** The following discussion of motivation and personality is based on the published work of
Harvard Professor David McClelland.