Page 105 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

THE WHY OF WORK

symbols that will inspire and instruct? Who stops to rel-
ish the moment and reminds others to do the same? Who
remembers to honor the past? Who can imagine the future?
Is the role of insight understood, valued, and promoted?

2. Achievement

On the top left is achievement. In this category are individu-
als who find meaning and purpose in doing, accomplishing,
or just checking things off the list for the day. This quadrant
is about getting something done and may include activities
that are highly competitive or that require risk taking, disci-
pline, and resilience in the face of failure. High-abundance
members of the achievement group might include an
athlete in training, an artist perfecting a painting, or a cor-
porate executive planning an aggressive growth strategy for
the company. Someone motivated by achievement looks at a
baby’s first smile and thinks, “How amazing! I wonder if she
is developmentally on target for smiling.”
Not all high-accomplishment activities are abundant
with meaning. When achievement is devoid of moral val-
ues or becomes an end in itself, it may be characterized by
ruthlessness, even cruelty. The TV show “The Apprentice,”
in which individuals compete in various business settings,
suggests a high focus on achievement that becomes self-
serving and callous. In the show competitors blame others
for failures, see extravagance as the ultimate reward, and
fear the boss’s condemning words, “You’re fired.” Such an
approach assumes that there is not enough to go around
and that one person can win only when someone else loses.
The deficit-oriented culture of “The Apprentice” dominates
many corporations today.

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