What does the ‘catalyst’ mean anyway? According to the English mobile dictionary, a catalyst is someone who encourages progress or change. Therefore, a catalyst leader is a leader who encourages his under-leaders to be progressive by creating a progressive environment for them. The catalyst leader operates based on the qualifying word catalyst; he gets people delivering results beyond their own imaginations.

            A catalyst sparks up, energizes, quickens a would- be (or known to be) naturally slow reaction. This positions a catalyst leader as one with a well-developed personality and approach that motivates people to stretch themselves on the organization’s vision. Mind you, he or she does not stretch the people, he spurs them up to stretch themselves on the organization’s vision. A lot of people perform below their capacities because they are too lazy to exercise their minds. While constructive criticism is a good way to spur people up, not everyone can differentiate between constructive criticism and destructive criticism. A lot of people base their entire life on their feelings and when those feelings are trampled on, they recoil into their shell and begin to perform at average.

Nonetheless, constructive criticism is important but not at all times. As a leader struggling with average to below average performance of under-leaders, there are ways to becoming a catalyst leader and commanding change and progress from your people:

1. Encouraging creativity. We live in a world where there are smarter and quicker ways to getting things done without messing with quality or accuracy. Allow your people accomplish tasks in the ways that best suit them. This way, they have no excuses for not performing well. Also, the ideas of every member of your team should be respected. When a project comes, instead of pushing your ideas on the team, you should allow them brainstorm and come up with their own ideas. This way, every hand is on deck because everyone wants to be contributory.
2. Imbibing the all-inclusive mindset. A catalyst leader knows that he doesn’t have to love someone or believe in what they believe in to work with them. Always let your under-leaders know this. A team may be made up of people from different backgrounds, religion or ethnicity but these three are not the reasons for why they are a team so no team member should be accessed or judged based on any of those three. There should be respect across the team. Those three things should be left outside of the organization. The only thing that the team members need to know is that the next team member is a human being and can contribute a lot to the success of a particular project
3. Erecting stretch goals for all, himself included. When a leader wants to induce progressive change, he needs to give team members tasks that are not in their comfort zones. Leaders are naturally people with vision. They do not only see the present. They see the future and judge people by the future. A catalyst leader should be able to see the performance of team members in the future and stretch their minds so that they can get where they ought to be.
4. Walking the talk. Catalyst leader do not only give orders, they follow their orders. When you require your under-leaders to do something, let them see you doing it. it will spur them to do it more swiftly that they would have.
5. Rewarding ingenuity and high performance. When team members put in so much effort to do wonderful work, catalyst leaders reward them. This will not only make the receiver happy and willing to go more lengths, it will make other team members want to do more so they can be rewarded and recognized. Healthy competition should be created in the work environment.
6. Showing genuine care. Catalyst leaders are expected not to only drive organization’s visions, they are expected to drive the visions of team members. Ask them what goes on in their lives and how you can help. Celebrate team members on their birthdays or anniversaries. Make them understand that they matter too. Create a family out of a team and encourage other team members to do the same.