Review: Catalyst: The ultimate strategies on how to win at work and in life

Catalyst: The ultimate strategies on how to win at work and in life by Chandramouli Venkatesan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Catalyst starts with a very sound premise. Growth in the workplace needs a catalyst – the presence of skills is not enough. A set of attributes, behaviours and circumstances need to come together for success. I have read quite a few self-help books till date, and my expectations are high in terms of incremental knowledge gained from each book I read. While I found ‘Catalyst’ to be a book which is genuine, crisp with some good techniques one can apply at work, it did not add too much to me that I did not already know.

Mouli starts with his personal experiences and how the techniques he is advocating came about. He started by collating the material and running it past a limited set of people at his workplace, and later other organisations. He starts with how personal growth is critical and advocates applying the ‘TMTT’ framework (Target, Measure, Review, Reflection). He makes the important point on how one needs to maximise learning as part of the job. Time spent on the job does not equate to personal growth automatically. The second half of the book discusses how in many cases growth tapers off in the second half of the career and what one should do to reinvigorate it.

A lot of the advice in the book is sound. It is also direct and presented well. The definition Mouli uses for success is very limiting though and also old style. Each person needs to define success for oneself rather than adopt a boilerplate definition of it meaning climbing the organisation hierarchy. There is also very limited material on fostering creativity (which is very critical to achievement as well as satisfaction), ways to promote focus (such as with mindfulness), personality types and important of culture.

Consider reading it if you have not read too many self-help books. This book is not pretentious unlike many others, and the techniques are simple and practical.

My rating: 3.25 / 5.


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