The Catalyst Effect: 12 Skills and Behaviors to Boost Your Impact and Elevate Team Performance

The authors have conducted more than 80 interviews with successful teams from the fields of arts, sports and business, identifying four cornerstones and 12 competencies of catalytic behavior. These form the content of this book.

"The Catalyst Effect" is for anyone who cares about collective success. It won't suit people more focused on individual achievement. Catalysts see themselves as servants empowering others. If this appeals to you, it's perfectly doable.

There are no complicated rules, and you'll probably find you already practice some of the skills and behaviors in the book. Hitch discipline and commitment to your desire to be a great catalyst, and you're well on your way.

So whether you're a recognized leader with years of experience, or just starting out in your first job, learning more about the catalyst effect can enhance the success of your whole team and organization.

Supporting you on your journey are four PhDs in the fields of human resources, leadership, and corporate strategy. Jerry Toomer, Craig Caldwell, Steve Weitzenkorn, and Chelsea Clark saw the catalyst effect at work in different organizations – including nonprofits, multinational companies, orchestras, and sports teams – and decided it needed investigation. What were these people doing that made such a difference? Their findings are in this book.

So, keep listening to hear how optimism generates energy and creativity, how to overturn negative emotions that might be blocking team progress, and why it sometimes pays to let the mind wander.

This book rewards readers who start at the beginning and work through chronologically. The introduction, titled "Catalytic Teamwork in Action," summarizes the four cornerstones of the catalyst effect. These are: Building Credibility, Creating Cohesion, Generating Momentum, and Amplifying Impact. With a basic understanding of these essential characteristics of catalytic behavior, you're ready to dive into the detail.

The book is divided into four sections, each dealing with one of the cornerstones of the catalyst effect. These build upon one another. For instance, cornerstone one, Building Credibility, focuses on the characteristics of the individual catalyst. This leads us neatly into cornerstone number two, Creating Cohesion, which explains how the catalyst unites the team, so everyone pulls together.

Let's take a few moments to look at section one, Building Credibility. Credible people are trustworthy. Their actions demonstrate that they're fully committed to the job in hand. They communicate honestly, and display little ego, putting the team before themselves. Credibility is the "grease" for catalytic action. Without it, you can't be a catalytic leader, no matter how enthusiastically you employ the other three cornerstones.

So how can we boost our credibility? The authors have a few ideas. They say credible people consistently deliver on their promises, convey messages clearly and unambiguously, and listen carefully. Typically, they'll summarize what they think the speaker has said, to check understanding. They'll invite feedback and ask open-ended questions, such as, "What would an ideal solution look like?"

Optimism is another key element of credibility. A can-do or optimistic attitude energizes a team, increases confidence, and generates creativity. The authors highlight a McDonald's food outlet near Indianapolis, which has one of the company's highest-performing teams in terms of customer satisfaction and employee engagement. They've achieved this by putting optimism at the heart of everything they do.

New employees are baptized in the waters of "can-do" from the get-go. Managers believe in the success of their workers and voice that belief. They do this by finding roles new employees can succeed in, so they gain confidence before tackling more complex tasks.

Intel co-founder Robert Noyce agrees, citing optimism as a vital ingredient for innovation. Without it, he reckons, people wouldn't have the energy to try new things. And optimism can help you win even in challenging situations. Internet sensations Pinterest and Instagram launched in the recession that began in 2007. Their optimism and dogged belief in what they were offering outweighed concerns about the economic climate.

The second cornerstone of catalytic leadership is Creating Cohesion. This can only be achieved once the foundation of credibility has been laid. Since a team exists to reach a common goal, it's crucial to create cohesion, so that everyone is focused on the job. For catalysts, boosting teamwork is a top priority. They're passionate about getting everyone on the team to pull together to get the job done. To this end, they work on connecting with others emotionally, by sharing their own feelings. They tune in to the emotional needs of others, and show they care about fulfilling those needs.

Here, the authors' tips are aimed squarely at people in leadership positions, rather than catalysts "leading from the middle." They say leaders should nip negative feelings – like fear, anger or isolation – in the bud. For instance, if you see a member of your team getting hostile, maybe over a problem or change, get involved early, by organizing a meeting to discuss and manage feelings. By showing empathy, trying to put the problem into perspective, and explaining that the person's contribution is valued, you can turn the situation around.

Leaders are encouraged to ask team members what they see as the solution, and provide a ladder out of the pit. This could be some additional training or coaching. Using this catalytic approach, you can transform negative, destructive emotions into positive energy, and prevent negativity infecting the rest of the team.

Digging deeper into this cornerstone of creating cohesion, the authors analyze how catalysts develop camaraderie. They help to foster mutual respect among team members by voicing the belief that everyone's contribution is equally valuable. And they encourage workplace friendships, by suggesting events to celebrate successes.

A Gallup Employee Engagement Survey found that 75 percent of people with a good workplace friend intended to stay with the company for at least another year. Friendships at work can lead to better organizational performance, as long as everyone's aligned to the objectives of the company.

Catalysts accelerate progress, and the next section of the book, Generating Momentum, explores this idea. Catalysts don't allow teams to remain static, or even keep moving at the same pace. As a catalyst, you can be the force that propels the team toward the company's mission. And as a leader, you can do this by creating an environment in which the team recognizes the value of working toward an objective.

In practical terms, team members need the material resources and skills to succeed. But they also need clear, specific goals, deadlines, encouragement, and a catalytic leader who knows the individuals well, and can identify and harness their unique skills. Catalysts at all levels can contribute to this by sharing their strong belief and pride in the team's ultimate purpose, and voicing confidence in its ability to succeed. All of this generates momentum.

In addition, to move the team more efficiently toward its objectives, catalytic leaders continually assess progress by asking questions like, "How is what we're doing getting us closer to our goals?" Reviewing techniques like this help the team decide what activities to stop, what to start, and what to continue, in order to get the best results.

What's more, being innately curious, catalysts don't stop asking questions. Their curiosity sparks learning, so they're continually upgrading their knowledge and skills, and finding learning opportunities, both in formal training and everyday activities.

Building on these three cornerstones, the final element in the catalyst effect is cornerstone four, Amplifying Impact. This section demonstrates how the most successful firms continually strive for excellence. The authors call these "catalytic organizations," and they're characterized by quick decision making, listening to and learning from customers, and treating all employees as valuable resources.

Striving for excellence requires focus and passion. A clear goal, dedication to the outcome, and practice are crucial, and so too is allowing for mistakes and learning from them. The authors warn that the pursuit of perfection over excellence can become a barrier, rather than an enabler.

If you want to amplify impact, you need to share what you've learned. Here, as elsewhere in the book, the authors' tips seem to be aimed at leaders: coaching and mentoring others to excel, and supporting team members in their personal development. These activities will enable skills and expertise to be passed on to incoming team members, and maintain catalytic behavior well beyond the current mission.

As with the other behaviors outlined in this book, the authors offer detailed tips on how to achieve this. For example, they dig into cognitive coaching, which means facilitating, enabling, and guiding the coachee, but allowing them to do the work.

As a coach or mentor, you should avoid teaching, the authors say. Instead, ask insightful questions, like, "Why would you approach it like that?" This gives the coachee the opportunity to explore, develop, and learn – and devise unique answers to problems.

But that's not to say you should hold back on sharing great ideas – it just needs to be in the right forum. Proposing imaginative solutions is the final part of the Amplifying Impact cornerstone. Here, we learn how new ideas are sparked by interactions with people, functions or events, according to author and researcher Clay Christensen.

He developed the idea that companies can do a job for potential customers, rather than just sell them a product. As an example, Ikea doesn't target products to a specific demographic, but rather offers a design service for customers, to help them furnish their homes.

According to the book, creativity is activated by interaction with others from different disciplines, by brainstorming, and even by allowing your mind to wander outside the task at hand. Stimuli that have nothing to do with your goal can trigger conceptual leaps. Your brain links the new stimulus with something you already know, and synthesizes this into something different. In the words of Steve Jobs, "Creativity is just connecting things."

Catalysts make activating creativity into an art by continually seeking new experiences, letting their minds wander, jotting down their observations, reviewing them, and looking for connections. In this way they ensure they stay ahead of the game.

At first sight the four cornerstones and 12 competencies may seem a little cumbersome, but don't be put off. The competencies are embedded seamlessly into the very manageable cornerstones, and the competency subheadings are useful, if you want to find and re-read a specific topic later.

Each chapter of "The Catalyst Effect" begins with a definition of the relevant competency and a list of counter behaviors, making the case studies and theory easy to grasp from the get-go.

The book sometimes uses terms that may flummox some readers, such as the basketball metaphor, "tipped in the go-ahead bucket." But despite this, the ideas are accessible. At the end of each chapter, there's a summary of what you've covered. And each chapter also includes a list of questions about your current behaviors, helping you identify where you should focus your personal development.

Becoming a catalyst may be hard work. After all, it takes a lot of determination and practice to form new habits. But the rewards are worth it. It can help your organization outperform bigger, richer ones, and is a powerful way to boost the performance of others. And it has personal benefits, too. It's gratifying to consider the threefold impact you can have as a catalyst: on your company, your team, and yourself.

Some of the suggestions in the book are best left to those in leadership roles – you don't want to annoy your colleagues by offering unsolicited advice. But, sometime in the future you may have that authority, and this book is a useful guide to making it work for everyone.

"The Catalyst Effect: 12 Skills and Behaviors to Boost Your Impact and Elevate Team Performance," by Jerry Toomer, Craig Caldwell, Steve Weitzenkorn, and Chelsea Clark is published by Emerald Publishing.

That's the end of this Mind Tools Book Insight, from Emerald Works. Thanks for listening.

Buy your own copy of "The Catalyst Effect" from the Mind Tools store.

Note: Mind Tools is a product of Emerald Works, which is part of the Emerald Group along with Emerald Publishing, but we only choose books to feature in Book Insights and Expert Interviews that we think are suitable and worthwhile for our audience, irrespective of publisher.