THE 3 SECRET SKILLS OF TOP PERFORMERS

POWERFUL LESSONS IN TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE IN LESS TIME

by Pete Andersen ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2021

A prescription for achieving success by developing three specific elements of one’s life.

In this self-help book, Andersen, the author of Purposeful Intent (2009), presents a three-pronged approach to improving performance and hitting one’s business goals. Andersen, a competitive swimmer and swimming coach who’s also worked in sales and studied sport psychology, connects three different elements, which he collectively calls “the Triad,” to his own experience and to existing research. Positing that top performers are both intrinsically motivated and self-directed, he identifies increasing one’s general awareness, enhancing one’s self-evaluation, and using targeted, reward-based reinforcement as the three attributes that people need to develop in order to reach optimum performance. These three things, the book argues, can be applied in a variety of circumstances, including to what Andersen describes as the “Big Four”: jobs, tasks, skills, and relationships. The book explores the Triad in detail, urging readers to spend time developing a solid understanding of their own needs and motivations, to assess their own performance, and to develop incremental goals that will allow them to make improvements through a series of small victories. Andersen uses stories from his swimming and coaching experience to illustrate these ideas as well as using tales of luminaries such as Michael Jordan and Thomas Edison as examples of the iterative self-improvement process. The book takes a qualitative and quantitative approach to assessment and reinforcement, and it provides resources to help readers turn often nebulous concepts, such as effort, achievement, and success, into data points that can be tracked. An appendix provides a questionnaire that readers may use to establish their base line competency with each element of the Triad, with links to the book’s companion website.

Readers who are self-directed and able to honestly assess their own skills may find this book a useful tool for self-improvement. However, Andersen has a distinct point of view that shapes his book’s arguments: He identifies himself as a behaviorist; he’s a proponent of “tough love” tactics; and he states a belief that people who receive “handouts” don’t respect themselves or the giver. As such, readers’ own views on these issues will shape their responses to the book’s advice. Its language is occasionally awkward (“This lacks projection to acquire future needs”) and it uses the words anachronism and anachronym instead of acronym at different points. Andersen’s tendency to repeat assertions and anecdotes means that the book feels somewhat longer than necessary. Much of the work rests on solid logical ground. However, there are a number of vague assertions throughout the text (“My guess is better than half the students who graduate from high school do not have a clue what their needs and abilities are”) that detract from the overall arguments. The book is strongest in sections that specifically deal with intrinsic motivation and self-assessment, which include plenty of actionable information. The passages on how leaders can develop these characteristics in others, with the goal of improving the collective performance of a team or company, are particularly effective.

A sometimes-informative but overlong explanation of how to achieve growth.

Pub Date: April 2, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-9986357-3-6

Page Count: 264

Publisher: Trius Publishing

Review Posted Online: April 16, 2021

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

BUSINESS | SELF-HELP | MOTIVATIONAL & PERSONAL SUCCESS | GENERAL BUSINESS