How to Find, Attract and Keep a Catalyst

Today, with the economy staggering and challenges in almost every sector, including professional services, such talent is worth more than ever. Firms that invest in Catalysts are virtually buying growth and the ability to gain market share. And, according to Richard Baird, a Global Partner with Price Waterhouse Coopers, "this is a fabulous time to find them." As the opportunity landscape has changed, so has their openness to offers.

So it's worth looking carefully at Catalysts: who they are, what they can do, and how you can attract them.

Catalysts have special qualities. They are not simply good at their jobs. They give the firm a new dimension and competitiveness. They open doors that others didn't know existed. In a nutshell, they are: market studier, creative risk-taker, and legacy builders.

First, they seem stethoscopically attached to the market. They are excellent networkers, moving throughout the marketplace and listening to it carefully. Since the market usually holds the answers to a firm's problems, the payoff from these skills can be significant.

Catalysts are aware of and able to seize new market opportunities. "They move to the light very quickly," says Ford Harding, a sales training consultant and author of Creating Rainmakers: The Manager's Guide to Training Professionals to Attract New Clients. They seem to have an inborn sense for adapting to market shifts and novel, unmet needs.
Second, Catalysts are inventive and risk-tolerant. At the most basic level, they are intelligent. They absorb facts readily, seeing patterns and constellations where others just see stars.

But they are not just bright. Catalysts have the confidence to spin off an array of new ideas and a willingness to let the lesser ones go. They know that a habit of expressing ideas makes the mind more fertile. The goal isn't an increased batting average but a high number of hits. Hence, they float a variety of notions without feeling attached to them.

Similarly, they would rather try and fail than not try at all. Catalysts understand that risk avoidance can be the biggest risk of all. In fact they thrive in uncertainty. "They love to take ambiguous situations and create order and functionality out of them," says Baird.

Partly because they see upward paths where others see mere cliffs, Catalysts are optimistic. "But they are always questioning the status quo," Baird observes. They know that good enough never is, and they often press for improvement when others see no need.

Third, Catalysts build the firm out, with lasting positive effects. Their mere presence has an elevating impact. People imitate them, learn from them, and soak up their knowledge and drive. Their patterns of thought and action can spread contagiously and transform the organization.

As team builders, they lift all boats at the firm. Yet they transcend that role, and Baird calls them "legacy builders." They teach others, think ahead in pay-it-forward terms, and foster cultures that persist.

And the upshot, according to Steve Deedy, a managing director with AlixPartners, is that "true Catalysts create customers, deliver outstanding service, and take care of their people. They bolster revenue, performance, content, and cooperation."

But, while the downturn has more than doubled unemployment, very few of these individuals are sitting by the phone waiting for job callbacks. "It's always hard to hire them," notes Deedy, "because they create a lot of stickiness where they are. And usually firms don't release their best talent. In fact they hold them more tightly."

Even so, Catalysts may be receptive to offers. More than one firm has faltered, and many of these high performers may believe that better opportunities for their skills now lie elsewhere. The key is understanding how to interest them.

Compensation is a given. Catalysts know they can get paid well almost anywhere.