The Motive
A Menlo Innovations Book Review by James Goebel, Chief Architect
A leader’s job is to help everyone else develop the skills and behaviors they need to contribute more effectively to the team’s collective output. It does not matter what the missing skills or behaviors are, the leader’s job is to address those needs.
The Motive is another fictional story from business guru Patrick Lencioni that provides the reader with the opportunity to peek in on the life of two CEOs. These two CEOs see their jobs very differently. The perspective of one CEO is reasonably captured in the statement “I don’t like meetings, and I don’t like to babysit people.” And in the course of the story, one CEO helps the other see the world differently. As Patrick points out when summarizing the lessons presented:
“One of the main responsibilities of a leader is to confront difficult, awkward issues quickly and with clarity, charity, and resolve. What kind of issues am I talking about? Everything from a team member’s annoying mannerisms to poisonous interpersonal dynamics and politics. There isn’t a leader out there who hasn’t balked at a moment when they should have “entered the danger” and had a difficult conversation about these things. This makes sense, because I know almost no chief executive likes to do this. Most loathe it. And yet, when leaders dodge these situations, they jeopardize the success of the team and the organization as a whole.”
Any time you expect someone in your organization to be a leader, you should look at both their technical ability and their willingness to confront awkward and difficult social challenges.
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