How To Recognize And Cultivate The 3 Essential Virtues
The Ideal Team Player
Patrick Lencioni's book "The Ideal Team Player" explores the concept of what makes individuals effective contributors to teams. Lencioni identifies three essential virtues that he argues are crucial for team players: humility, hunger, and people smarts (or interpersonal skills).
Video Explanations:
A 14 minute TED talk describing the main ideas of The Ideal Team Player.
A 3 minute video on how to help develop Ideal Team Players on your team.
Book Summary:
Here’s a detailed synopsis of each virtue and suggested action steps for cultivating them:
Humility: Humility in the context of teamwork refers to a lack of excessive ego or concerns about status. It involves a focus on the collective success of the team rather than individual recognition.
Action Steps:
Self-reflection: Encourage team members to assess their own attitudes towards teamwork. Are they more concerned with personal recognition or the team's success?
Promote a team-first mentality: Reward and recognize behaviors that demonstrate putting the team’s goals ahead of personal gain.
Lead by example: Leaders should model humility by admitting mistakes, sharing credit, and actively seeking input from others.
Hunger: Hunger refers to the motivation and determination to work hard and achieve results. It encompasses a strong work ethic, drive, and proactive attitude.
Action Steps:
Set clear goals: Ensure that team members understand the team’s objectives and are committed to achieving them.
Encourage initiative: Create an environment where taking initiative and going above and beyond expectations is encouraged and rewarded.
Provide opportunities for growth: Support continuous learning and development to fuel team members’ hunger for improvement.
People Smarts (Interpersonal Skills): People smarts involve the ability to understand and interact effectively with others. It includes skills such as empathy, emotional intelligence, and good communication.
Action Steps:
Communication training: Offer workshops or training sessions focused on improving communication skills, active listening, and conflict resolution.
Encourage empathy: Foster an environment where team members actively seek to understand others’ perspectives and feelings.
Team-building activities: Organize activities that promote collaboration, trust-building, and understanding among team members.
Additional Action Steps for Building an Ideal Team:
Recruitment and Selection: When hiring new team members, prioritize candidates who exhibit humility, hunger, and people smarts during the interview process.
Performance Reviews: Incorporate assessments of these virtues into performance evaluations to provide feedback and reinforce desired behaviors.
Team Norms: Establish team norms or guidelines that emphasize the importance of humility, hunger, and people smarts in daily interactions and decision-making.
Continuous Feedback: Regularly provide constructive feedback to team members regarding their demonstration of the three virtues and encourage self-assessment.
By focusing on developing these virtues and implementing these action steps, teams can become more cohesive, productive, and successful in achieving their goals as outlined in Patrick Lencioni's "The Ideal Team Player."
Book Quotes:
“If someone were to ask me to make a list of the most valuable qualities a person should develop in order to thrive in the world of work - and for that matter, life - I would put being a team player at the top of the list. The ability to work effectively with others, to add value within the dynamics of a group endeavor, is more critical in today’s fluid world than it has ever been. Few people succeed at work, in the family, or in any social context without it.”
“Team Players have three things in common. They are humble, hungry, and smart.”
“Humble is pretty obvious. We can’t abide big egos. Hungry is all about working hard and being passionate about our work. And smart has to do with being aware of the people around you and dealing with them in a positive, functional way.”
“Great team players lack excessive ego or concerns about status. They are quick to point out the contributions of others and slow to seek attention for their own. They share credit, emphasize team over self, and define success collectively rather than individually. It is no great surprise then, that humility is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute of being a team player.”
“Truly humble people do not see themselves as greater than they are, but neither do they discount their talents and contributions.”
“Hungry people are always looking for more. More things to do. More things to learn. More responsibility to take on. Hungry people almost never have to be pushed by a manager to work harder because they are self-motivated and diligent. They are constantly thinking about the next step and the next opportunity. And they loathe the idea that they might be perceived as slackers.”
“When I refer to hunger here, I am thinking about the healthy kind - a manageable and sustainable commitment to doing a job well and going above and beyond when it is truly required.”
“Smart. Of the three virtues, this one needs the most clarification because it is not what it might seem; it is not about intellectual capacity. In the context of a team, smart simply refers to a person’s common sense about people. It has everything to do with the ability to be interpersonally appropriate and aware. Smart people tend to know what is happening in a group situation and how to deal with others in the most effective way. They ask good questions, listen to what others are saying, and stay engaged in conversations intently.”
“Smart people just have good judgment and intuition around the subtleties of group dynamics and the impact of their words and actions.”
“When team members are adequately strong in each of these areas - when they possess significant humility, hunger, and people smarts, they enable teamwork by making it relatively easy to overcome the five dysfunctions of a team. That means they’ll be more likely to be vulnerable and build trust, engage in productive but uncomfortable conflict with team members, commit to group decisions even if they initially disagree, hold their peers accountable when they see performance gaps that can be addressed, and put the results of the team ahead of their own needs.”
“People who are only humble but are not at all hungry or smart are the ‘pawns’ on a team. They are pleasant, kind-hearted, unassuming people who just don’t feel a great need to get things done and don’t have the ability to build effective relationships with colleagues.”
“People who are hungry but not at all humble or smart can be thought of as ‘bulldozers’. These people will be determined to get things done, but with a focus on their own interests and with no understanding or concern for how their actions impact others. Bulldozers are quick destroyers of teams.”
“People who are smart but sorely lacking in humility and hunger are ‘charmers’. They can be entertaining and even likeable for a while, but have little interest in the long-term well-being of their team or their colleagues.”
“What happens when a manager or employer can’t decide if an employee has the will or the ability to improve? My preference, and my recommendation, is to err on the side of caution and keep working with the employee. Why? Because I believe it is a tragedy to lose an employee for the wrong reasons. Not only does it create an unnecessarily painful situation for the person, but it also robs the team of a potentially valuable contributor. It’s important not to misread my advice as permission to tolerate people who don’t fit. Too often, leaders know that an employee really doesn’t belong and would be better elsewhere, and they fail to act because they lack courage. This is neither wise nor virtuous. My suggestion here only applies to situations in which a leader is sincerely unsure about the employee’s ability to improve and change.”
“I believe that teamwork is not a virtue, but a choice. It’s a strategic decision and an intentional one, which means it’s not for everyone.”
“Leaders who want to create a culture of humility, hunger, and people smarts in their organization should be constantly on the lookout for any displays of these virtues. And when they see those displays, they should hold them up as examples for everyone to see.”