Author: Patrick Lencioni
Format: Audible
Narrated By: Charles Stransky
Subject: Teamwork / Leadership
Rating: 8/10
Summary:
The Five Dysfunctions of a team covers the basic issues that stop otherwise successful people from leading a company. These issues are revealed and solved through a fictional tale of a new CEO, Catherine Petersen, who takes over a struggling Tech company that should be wiping the floor with its competition. She spends the lion-share of her time focusing on getting her leadership team to work together to achieve results as opposed to merely just existing together. She accomplishes this by educating the team of its dysfunctions, and ultimately helping it to overcome them.
What I liked about the book:
The book is written as a fable as opposed to a reference manual.
Part of the book that most applied to me:
It helped me develop a better understanding of the need of conflict in teams.
TLDR:
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team according to the book:
- Absence of trust—unwilling to be vulnerable within the group.
- Fear of conflict—seeking artificial harmony over constructive passionate debate.
- Lack of commitment—feigning buy-in for group decisions creates ambiguity throughout the organization.
- Avoidance of accountability—ducking the responsibility to call peers on counterproductive behavior which sets low standards.
- Inattention to results—focusing on personal success, status and ego before team success.
- Not everyone who started on the leadership team, stayed on the leadership team.