Communication Series: How to get along with the achiever? What is the particular lesson to learn if you are an achiever?

There are three people in the meeting room for the business meeting.
Samuel is watching the clock. It’s 7 pm, one hour of overtime already. He is late back home to catch up on the birthday dinner of his son.
Sam: Ada, I’m sorry!  I have to go now.
Ada: Sam, you know what?  Our business is going through a hard time.  How’s your sales status for this month? 
Sam: I did push the customer to confirm the order.
Ada: You’re not pushing hard enough.  Close the sales is the point.
 
You can guess Ada decides to fire Sam.
​
Ada turns to the product design engineer.
Ada: Peter, you worked on this project for nearly a year. When can we launch this product?
Peter: There are plenty of technical issues not yet fixed.
Ada:  No more delay!  We don’t need to make everything perfect before launching the product.  I need the product ready in next month.

Ada is an achiever (type 2 of enneagram). 
Recap the character trait and worldview of an achiever in part 1.

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How to get along with the achiever?

1. Be aware the achievers are impatient. Talk with them should be straight to the point.
2. Alert to work fast on time, show a very hard-working attitude. The primary concern is meeting the target or not.  Anything else is irrelevant.
3. Respecting them and making them shine in public can help.

If you are the achiever

​You deeply immerse yourself in performing the role to be the person you learn to be, with a clear roadmap about the task and what to achieve for self-assertion.  Until one day, you realize the discrepancy between your visible swagger and invisible pain.

​You put enormous effort in your whole life to be a champion.  The point is to win.  However, our life is not supposed to operate in a way that it is whether you win or lose.  How unlikely you will win all the time.  If you love yourself, you don’t need to make your self-assertion through the achievement of magnificent projects. 

​Learn to lose instead of how to win.

Two years before, Tom was an executive director at a large corporation.
He enjoyed every privilege of being a high-position executive, such as traveling by private jet, perfect hospitality arrangements, and people rushing to serve him a ceramic cup of coffee.  One day, he no longer held this high position, the authority had gone, and all the privileges disappeared.  Even if he wanted a cup of coffee, he could only self-serve a coffee with a paper cup.

Power, authority, and position are not static without change forever.
If you love your true self (instead of love the role), you will be grateful no matter if others serve you the coffee with a ceramic cup or a paper cup.
 
You are well aware that:
You are not a title on a name card;
You are not merely a role.
You are an authentic being, no matter win or lose.
Think about learning to lose
When you realize there is nothing to lose anymore, you are free.

​Get out of the emotional jail of self-deception. When you communicate with others, add more respect and empathy.  

Less Me, More Us.  

​Treat people with kindness and empathy.
Respect for others no matter who they are.
Team up to help each other.

​Empower others to achieve more than they think they can do
Vs.
Power over the other to help you to achieve your task.

Stay tuned to the next post about the romantic type (enneagram #4)

This month series is about communication 

#1. What causes better and worse relationships with others
​#2 The killer strategies to handle difficult people
​#3 Creative way to level up communication
      Perfectionist (part 1 and 2)
      Giver (part 1 and 2)
      Achiever (part 1 and 2)