Quotes from Patrick Lencioni

high school kids at In-N-Out Burger and Chick-fil-A are doing largely the same job that kids at any other fast-food restaurant are doing, and yet there are a lot fewer miserable jobs at In-N-Out and Chick-fil-A. The difference is not the job itself. It is the management. And one of the most important things that managers must do is help employees see why their work matters to someone. Even if this sounds touchy-feely to some, it is a fundamental part of human nature.

consensus is usually not achievable. The likelihood of six intelligent people coming to a sincere and complete agreement on a complex and important topic is very low.

organizational health is often neglected because it involves facing realities of human behavior that even the most committed executive is tempted to avoid. It requires levels of discipline and courage that only a truly extraordinary executive is willing to embrace.

You have a passionate, unfiltered, messy, provocative discussion that ends when the leader of the team decides all the information has been aired. At that point, if no one has made a compelling enough argument for making a decision, the leader breaks the tie.

Regardless of what position people originally took, once the decision is made, everyone supports it. That's why it is critical that no one hold anything back during the discussion.

These happen more when he is stressed … as the old commercial says, he shouldn't let them see him sweat so much.

Many organizations make the mistake of using metrics in place of thematic and strategic goals. This is a problem because metrics do not inspire enthusiasm among employees.

Kathryn paused for effect before delivering her next line. "Let me assure you that from now on, every staff meeting we have will be loaded with conflict. And they won't be boring. And if there is nothing worth debating, then we won't have a meeting.

He wrote a simple question on a piece of paper: WHAT IS THE ONE THING I DO THAT REALLY MATTERS TO THE FIRM?

give the situation an opportunity to work itself out before reacting. Many times these situations resolve themselves or aren't quite as urgent as he perceives, but before you know it, he's heightened the intensity with a flurry of messages.

the naked approach is certainly not limited to our field. It applies to anyone who provides ongoing, relationship-based advice, counsel, or expertise to a customer, inside or outside of a company. Or better yet, it applies to anyone whose success is tied to building loyal and sticky relationships with the people they serve.

At its core, naked service boils down to the ability of a service provider to be vulnerable—to embrace uncommon levels of humility, selflessness, and transparency for the good of a client.

From the moment he began using the disciplines on his yellow sheet, Rich was continually narrowing the scope of his responsibilities to a core set of activities. One of the areas that he most adamantly insisted on being involved in, and which had a profound connection to each of the four disciplines, was the hiring of new employees.

What clients want more than anything is to know that we're more interested in helping them than we are in maintaining our revenue source. And

For all the talk about hiring for fit, there is still too much emphasis on technical skills and experience when it comes to interviewing and selection. And this happens at all levels. When push comes to shove, most executives get enamored with what candidates know and have done in their careers and allow those things to overshadow more important behavioral issues. They don't seem to buy into the notion that you can teach skill but not attitude.

More than a third of Rich's fifty-five-hour workweeks (fifty was just not realistic for him) was spent interviewing potential hires.

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.

Trust] requires team members to make themselves vulnerable to one another, and be confident that their respective vulnerabilities will not be used against them.

She is skilled at communicating the 'context' for her comments with the goal of ensuring understanding.

Trust is the foundation of real teamwork. And so the first dysfunction is a failure on the part of team members to understand and open up to one another.

All employees who had been with Telegraph for more than a few months knew that no matter how impressive their background or skills might have been, they had made it into the firm because they were found to be humble, hungry, and smart.

The most important action that a leader must take to encourage the building of trust on a team is to demonstrate vulnerability first.

Rich didn't care if people liked the guy. He knew that most people at this level had learned how to be likable during interviews. "What did Rita think?

conflict is productive