6 Reasons Patrick Lencioni Will Save Your Company
What makes companies healthy? How can two companies in the same industry with generally the same level of expertise have vastly different outcomes? Some of the absolute BEST books on building a healthy company are by Patrick Lencioni.
His name may not be one you recognize, unlike say John Maxwell or Tony Robbins. If you saw him in a mall, you’d walk right past him. It’s just as well he flies under the radar. Great business advice, like the future, is here…its just not evenly distributed.
You may rightfully be asking, “who is this joker, and what are his credentials to make such a claim?” My claim, if you wish to accept it, is experience. Experience at spending several years at two organizations who practiced this, and many years at companies who didn’t know it or ignored it.
Let’s talk about healthy habits that form the foundation of every healthy company. (This even works for a credit repair company in Dallas.)
1. Weekly Leadership Team Meetings
I can hear the groans from here. I can. Seriously. Stop it. I’m not suggesting more meetings for meeting’s sake. I’m suggesting 1 critical meeting a week. If you cancel all the others, do this one.
The foundation of a healthy company is getting the people making key decisions in the same room on a regular basis and putting the crucial issues facing the company on the table and figuring out the best way forward.
I’ve personally been a part of companies that did this and several that did not. The difference in results and success of those companies was not even close. So large were the differences, you could see them from space.
It sounds simple. It is. It’s that simple and also that hard. People get busy, things come up. You’ll have to fight to keep this meeting some weeks. This is normal. It just must be known — unless there’s a mighty good reason, people are expected to be there.
Patrick Lencioni talks about this in The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team.
2. Proper Accountability
One of the biggest struggles any manager faces is the conflict between holding people accountable and wanting to be liked. Holding people accountable is hard. It’s one of the hardest things any manager will do. Especially if you like the people on the team. But it’s part of the job. Part of what must be done. If you can’t hold people accountable, you can’t sit in the big chair. It’s that simple.
I’ve yet to meet any manager who truly liked holding people’s feet to the fire to deliver what needs to be delivered unless they were a psychopath. The impact of NOT doing this is company standards will fall. Performance will slowly drop off on the team, as a few folks get away with it, and others will follow suit. The phrase “monkey see monkey do” is key. If John sees Tim slacking off and not being held accountable, guess what John is going to go?
Everyone wants to be liked, even CEOs. If you let your people fail over time due to not helping them keep on track..they won't like you much anyway.
3. Culture Over Legalism
There is a saying about “when you allow and what you reward shows your TRUE company values, regardless of what’s written down on paper.” As companies scale, there are numerous processes and procedures added until companies groan under the weight and friction of corporate bureaucracy.
What may have been well-intentioned later becomes a burden. If Sam wore the wrong type of attire to a client meeting, the company doesn’t need a 5-page dress code. You have to sit down with Sam, and have an uncomfortable conversation about what’s appropriate in professional settings. The folks from 37 Signals talk about this principle at length in Rework. Excellent book. Read it.
Culture will trump legalism every time. Culture is often what makes people go above and beyond. Culture self-reinforces company norms so you don’t have to. The manager won’t always have to reprimand people, because employees will call their peers on it. OR people will feel the pressure of expectations they are not following, and buy-in or leave.
4. Team Over Ego
One of a CEO’s or exec’s biggest temptations will be looking out for themselves now that they’ve “arrived.” Is it about you achieving your career goals, or are you sitting in the big chair because you can lead the team to the Promised Land?
Some struggle with the transition from individual contributor to managing teams. You’re not on the field anymore. It doesn’t matter how many points you score. You’re the coach now. You’re the one calling the plays. Sometimes you’re in the game, sure. But playing is not your primary role anymore. Your role is to cast the vision and get the best out of your players. When the team wins, YOU win.
This is easy to see in sports. Lots of pro athletes make for terrible teammates and are known locker room liabilities. They don’t care what the score is, as long as they got their time to shine. The best teams reign this in, or send them on. It would be interesting if we had professional trades in the normal workplace — “I’ll trade you Jim VP of Accounting, for Sally VP of Finance, 10K cash bonus plus 2 college draft picks.”
If you have an ego-driven player on your team that always puts themselves above the team, company, and mission send them to play for the worst football team of all time. They will think about what they’ve done and reconsider their ways.
This point comes from The 5 Temptations of a CEO and is highly recommended reading for anyone who manages others.
5. Over Communicating The Mission
Does everyone on the team know where the company is headed and why? Does your average front-line employee know what winning at Initech Corp looks like? If they don’t you have a problem. There is a saying in churches — “if there is a mist in the pulpit, there is a fog in the pew.” Meaning, if you’re a bit unsure on where you’re going, the people further down the organization are REALLY unclear on where you’re going, why, and what the goal looks like.
The entire company should be so familiar with the top leaders talking about this, they are tired of hearing it. It’s only then, do you know everyone really knows the mission and values.
The 4 Obsessions of the Extraordinary Executive discusses this at length. Organizational clarity and OVER-COMMUNICATING the clear message is key to the entire organization succeeding. This becomes more important as a company grows.
6. Hire & Fire Based on Values (The No *A-Hole* Rule)
This is often written as the “no jerk rule” for the general public. The real term people use when referring to these cretins starts with an A or a B depending on gender ;) You’re better off by far with “a hole IN your team than an A-hole ON your team.”
Personal story time: I used to work for a company here in Dallas called PFSWeb. There was manager named Angela* (her real name, I don’t pull punches on this) who was known for being a real pain to work for. I made the mistake of leading a team with her as my boss. Not only did I leave the company because of her, so did nearly all my team of 12 people, many of whom were good employees. I’m not sure what other damage she’s caused since I’ve left and don’t really care. But when good people leave your company and name a certain person at the direct cause, effective senior leadership MUST address it.
If you have someone on your team who is known as a ”wrecking ball” they have to knock it off, or go. It doesn’t matter how good of an individual contributor they are. Keeping them around is causing far more damage than directly seen. Jack Welch called these people who “kiss up and kick down” and tried to weed them out of GE. Jack was right. If you have *jerks* in your company it must be addressed for the overall health of the company.
Conclusion:
Some of the best habits I’ve seen displayed in successful and healthy companies come from Patrick Lencioni’s fantastic books. His recent book The Advantage has a summary of all the books mentioned above, but it removes all the great stories he tells in his other books. I’d suggest getting the individual books. The stories make it worth it.
