Me? A High Achieving Woman?

Me? A High Achieving Woman?

Pam-Thompson_ebook3You may be curious but not sure if you are a High Achieving Woman. If you feel this way, you are not alone. When I conducted interviews with women I consider to be high achieving, some of those selected said things like, I’m not a High Achieving Woman or, I don’t have any great accomplishments to my name or, I’m not in the corporate world or, It sounds arrogant to call myself a High Achieving Woman.

High Achieving Women are found everywhere: in their own businesses, in corporations, in academia, in government, in not-for-profits. You don’t have to be a CEO or a Nobel Prize winner to be a High Achieving Woman, although you may be.

According to Dr. Sherrie Bourg Carter in her book High Octane Women, “it’s not status or job title that makes High Achieving Women high achievers. It’s how their minds work…how [they] psychologically respond to challenges, which then propels [them] toward excellence in achievement.”

Attributes of High Achieving Women

High Achieving Women generally possess a number of attributes in common. Some are positive and some negative. The attributes include:

  • Goal-oriented
  • Passionate about work
  • Organized
  • Give more than they receive
  • Want to make a difference
  • Have trouble saying “no”
  • Driven
  • Intelligent
  • Competitive
  • Feel like there are never enough hours in the day
  • Self-disciplined
  • Achieve more than most in a given time frame
  • Perfectionist tendencies; own worst critic
  • Love learning
  • Creative
  • Focus on achievement; never enough
  • Rarely take time to bask in the joy of accomplishment
  • Courageous
  • Spend more time doing than being

This list is not exhaustive and all High Achieving Women don’t possess all of the above attributes. Based on coaching such women and in-depth interviews and workshops with High Achieving Women, most women who are high achievers possess at least five of the above attributes. The majority of High Achieving Women tend to give much more than they receive and many are challenged to reach out for support. They also spend much more time doing than being.

(excerpt from “Learning to Dance with Life: A Guide for High Achieving Women” launching on August 26, 2015 – To download the first 3 chapters visit http://creativelivingcommunity.com/blog/the-book/)

How many on the list of attributes apply to you? Out of the entire list, which ones would you categorize as positive and why? Which ones do you view as negative, and why?

I’d love to hear your insights. Feel free to comment below and to share this post with others.