The Leadership Fables of Patrick Lencioni, Box Set, contains: The Five Temptations of a CEO; The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive; The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
An elegant, attractively priced box set of the bestselling leadership fables This set brings together all three of Patrick Lencioni’s successful leadership The Five Temptations of a CEO, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Each book combines an engaging fictional story with insightful analysis to address some of the major obstacles facing leaders today. All three of the stories are aimed at helping readers build healthy organizations, focusing on results, not politics. While these tales are set in the business world, Lencioni’s wisdom and practical advice will appeal to general readers and benefit leaders in any field. The classic and consistent design of the trilogy make this a perfect gift set. Patrick M. Lencioni (Emeryville, CA) is President of The Table Group, a management consulting firm specializing in executive team development and organizational effectiveness. As a consultant and executive coach, he has worked with hundreds of senior executives in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies and high tech start-ups to universities and nonprofits. Some of his clients include Novell, AT&T, Visa, and The Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. He has worked internationally in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Canada, and Mexico.
Patrick Lencioni is a New York Times best-selling author, speaker, consultant and founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to helping organizations become healthy. Lencioni’s ideas around leadership, teamwork and employee engagement have impacted organizations around the globe. His books have sold nearly three million copies worldwide.
When Lencioni is not writing, he consults to CEOs and their executive teams, helping them to become more cohesive within the context of their business strategy. The widespread appeal of Lencioni’s leadership models have yielded a diverse base of clients, including a mix of Fortune 500 companies, professional sports organizations, the military, non-profits, universities and churches. In addition, Lencioni speaks to thousands of leaders each year at world class organizations and national conferences. He was recently cited in the Wall Street Journal as one of the most sought-after business speakers in the nation.
Prior to founding his firm, he worked as a corporate executive for Sybase, Oracle and Bain & Company. He also served on the National Board of Directors for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America.
Whether it is the simple yet entertaining storyline or the eerie similarity to my own dysfunctional team, this was a great read throughout; The consistent message is valuable as well
The backbone of the three similarities are the same but the points raised are so true that this is easily the best business read that I have come across
Interesting Thoughts
Five Temptations of a CEO Temptation One - Protecting your career status over organizational results
Once a person’s ego is initially satisfied, they focus on their individual accomplishments rather than team performance
CEO has to keep personal success focused on organizational results. Cannot hold a company hostage to your ego
Temptation Two - Wanting to be popular w your direct reports instead of being accountable
CEO has to work for the respect of your direct reports, not for their affection
Temptation Three - Choosing certainty over clarity - there is such a fear of being wrong that there is paralysis by analysis
Any decision is better than no decision
The most powerful thing a CEO can say is that he was wrong
Impossible for all decisions to be correct. CEO has to make clarity more important than accuracy
Temptation Four - the desire for harmony - avoiding conflict can produce bad decisions that a team is not committed to
CEO has to encourage that all direct reports air their ideological differences and w passion
Temptation Five - Do not allow your direct reports to feel vulnerable or mistrusting
Leaders fail because they are unable to put their temptations on the table where people can see and help
Key to success is in keeping the five temptations on the table where they can be minimized as they will never be eliminated
Choose Trust over Invulnerability Choose Conflict over Harmony Choose Clarity over Certainty Choose Accountability over Popularity Choose Results over Status
The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive If everything is important than nothing is
360 Feedback - feedback from your immediate peers that has a sensitive balance
Discipline One - Build and Maintain a Cohesive Leadership Team
Are important issues being discussed at meetings Is there productive conflict
Discipline Two - Create Organizational Clarity
Identity, values, mission, major goals, objectives, roles, and responsibilities
Avoid paralysis by analysis
Why does the organization exist What behavioral values are fundamental Who are the competition What are our goals
Discipline Three - Over-communicate Organizational Clarity
To communicate something adequately, it has to be communicated repeatedly Repetition Simplicity Multiple Mediums Cascading Messages
Discipline Four - Reinforce Organizational Clarity Through Human Systems
BE COHESIVE BE CLEAR OVER-COMMUNICATE REINFORCE
Success is not so much a function of intelligence or natural ability but rather a commitment to the right disciplines The biggest issue in building a cohesive team is the absence of trust created by the presence of politics
Myers Briggs - a tool that helps team members understand each one’s behavior and avoid dangerous assumptions
Five Dysfunctions of a Team Staff generally seem paralyzed by their own knowledge
If the team loses, everyone loses - no matter how well individuals performed
Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they think
Absence of Trust - Unwillingness to be vulnerable Fear of Conflict - Teams that lack trust create artificial harmony Lack of Commitment - no conflict leads to unsupported decisions Avoiding Accountability - no commitment =’s zero accountability Inattention to Results - Putting individual needs above the team
If everything is important than nothing is
Trust - Admit weaknesses, Ask for help, Accept questions and input, Take risks on feedback, Focus on issues not politics, Apologize
Conflict - Passionate meetings, Full participation, Solve problems, Minimize politics
Commitment - Creates clarity around direction, Breeds confidence, Aligns the team around common objectives, Moves forward