Patrick Lencioni Quotes

In order to be the kind of leader who demonstrates genuine interest in employees and who can help people discover the relevance of their work, a person must have a level of personal confidence and emotional vulnerability.

Avoiding the issues that merit debate and disagreement not only makes the meeting boring, it guarantees that the issues won't be resolved. And this is a recipe for frustration. Ironically, that frustration often manifests itself later in the form of unproductive personal conflict, or politics.

A rigid, one-size-fits-all approach usually ends up fitting no one

People who don't like conflict have an amazing ability to avoid it, even when they know it's theoretically necessary

Tell me about the most important accomplishments of your career." Look for more mentions of we than I.

ALWAYS CONSULT INSTEAD OF SELL

Harmony itself is good, I suppose, if it comes as a result of working through issues constantly and cycling through conflict. But if it comes only as a result of people holding back their opinions and honest concerns, then it's a bad thing.

The key is to take five minutes at the end of staff meetings and ask the question, "What do we need to communicate to our people?" After a few minutes of discussion, it will become apparent which issues need clarification and which are appropriate to communicate. Not only does this brief discussion avoid confusion among the executives themselves, it gives employees a sense that the people who head their respective departments are working together and coming to agreement on important issues.

Conflict is about issues and ideas, while accountability is about performance and behavior.

Within companies that effectively over-communicate, employees at all levels and in all departments understand what the organization is about and how they contribute to its success. They don't spend time speculating on what executives are really thinking, and they don't look for hidden messages among the information they receive.

When team members do not openly debate and disagree about important ideas, they often turn to back channel personal attacks, which are far nastier and more harmful than any heated argument over issues

Rather than coming together to make the best possible decision for the entire organization, they become lobbyers for their own constituents

Gut Feel Versus Structure Many leaders, especially those who run smaller organizations, believe that they have the natural skills they need to choose good people without any real process. They look back at their careers and remember the good employees they've hired and give themselves credit for having recognized those people's potential. However, they seem to block out the memories of the unsuccessful hires they've made, or they justify those mistakes based on the hidden behavioral deficiencies in the people they later had to fire. Whatever the case, they persist in the belief that they know a good person when they see one and that they can go about the hiring process without much structure.

All great relationships, the ones that last over time, require productive conflict in order to grow.

healthy organizations have a way of making themselves smarter. Even if their ideas are temporarily inferior to those of competitors, they are usually humble and efficient enough to recognize their deficiencies and make changes in their plans before it is too late.