Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Dan’s Biz Bookshelf: ‘The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance’

In his book, The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance, Rich Diviney, a retired Navy SEAL commander, makes a powerful distinction: Skills are not the same as attributes. While skills can be taught, attributes reveal how someone is likely to behave when conditions become difficult, uncertain, stressful, or unpredictable. That difference matters enormously, whether you are hiring a salesperson, developing a leader, building a team, or trying to better understand yourself.

Too many companies hire based on resumes, focusing only on experience, education, technical knowledge, and a candidate’s ability to interview well. Then they are surprised when the person who looked perfect on paper fails under pressure. Diviney explains that performance is often driven by qualities that are harder to see, including courage, adaptability, perseverance, resilience, discipline, decisiveness, humility, integrity, and empathy.

This book is not another collection of motivational slogans. Diviney draws on his experience helping select and assess elite military performers, then translates those lessons into practical ideas that apply to business, sports, families, and everyday life. His stories make the concepts understandable, memorable, and useful.

I particularly appreciated his explanation of peak performance vs. optimal performance. Peak performance happens when everything is aligned for one exceptional moment. Optimal performance means doing the best you can with whatever resources you have, under whatever circumstances, and showing up. In business, that is the performance we need most. The winners are the people who can still think, adapt, collaborate, and move forward even when it appears things are falling apart.

The Attributes is an excellent book for CEOs, managers, sales leaders, recruiters, coaches, and anyone responsible for building high-performance teams. It will make you reconsider how you evaluate talent and how you develop your own potential.

My strongest recommendation is not to read this book merely to judge other people. Read it with a pen in your hand and the courage to judge yourself. Diviney has given us a practical guide to understanding what truly drives human performance. It belongs on the desk of every leader who believes that character, behavior, and performance matter more than credentials, appearances, or a polished résumé alone today.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.

Title: The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance
Author: Rich Diviney
Copyright: 2021 by Random House
Pages: 289 with index
Price: $30 Hardcover