The Alchemy of Talent: Leading Teams to Peak Performance
Vijay Pendakur
Amplify Publishing Group (December 2024)
How to achieve “Threefold Wins” for individuals, teams, and 0rganizations
This book is best viewed as a “roadmap” for senior-level executives to follow in order to optimize the impact and value of individual and team performance within their workplace culture. Vijay Pendakur introduces what he describes as a “radically simplified model for behavioral change, one he characterizes as ‘Knowing It, Spotting It, Doing It.””
The emphasis is on knowing what you need to know, recognizing what must be done, and (yes) then doing it. Long ago, Thomas Edison asserted that “vision without execution is hallucination.” More recently, Peter Drucker asserted “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.” Pendakur and I are among those who agree with both of them.
It is no coincidence that companies annually ranked among those that are most highly-admired and best to work for are also annually ranked among those that are most profitable and have the greatest cap value in their industry segment. Moreover, results of major surveys of employees reveal that most respondents rank feeling appreciated first or second when asked what is of greatest importance to them.
Years ago, when asked to explain how Southwest Airlines had become more profitable and had a greater cap value than all of its major competitors COMBINED, then chairman and CEO — Herb Kelleher — replied, “We take great care of our people, our People take great care of our customers, and our customers take great care of our stockholders.” That is an excellent example of a “Threefold Win.”
Pendakur explains how leaders of almost any organization — whatever its size and nature may be — can achieve these strategic objectives, each preceded by HOW TO:
o Help individuals and teams do the best work of their lives
o Formulate and leverage the Case for Complexity to gain support for DEI throughout the given enterprise
o Use friction and antifragility to accelerate personal growth and professional development
o Use three catalytics to strengthen and enrich the workplace culture: psychological safety, a sense of belonging, and interactive connectivity
o Maximize “The alchemy of you”
As you may already know, alchemy was a medieval chemical science with the goals of changing less valuable metals into gold, discovering a single cure for all diseases, and discovering how to live forever. Perhaps Vijay Pendakur had this mind when developing his concept of organizational health in a business world that is more volatile, more, uncertain, more complex, and more ambiguous than at any prior time that I can recall. Senior-level executives struggle to achieve extraordinary results with workers who are, with few exceptions, otherwise ordinary people. Peak performance heavily depends on mutual respect and trust, feeling appreciated, and shared commitment to a compelling vision.
This is what Lao-tse seems to have had in mind in Tao Te Ching:
“Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves.”
I think The Alchemy of Talent is a must-read for all senior-level executives as well as for those who aspire to become one. Bravo!
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Here are two suggestions while you are reading The Alchemy of Talent: First, highlight key passages Also, perhaps in a notebook kept near-at-hand (e.g. Apica Premium C.D. Notebook A5), record your comments, questions, and action steps (preferably with deadlines).
These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.