Every team needs someone in the driver’s seat, not to control the car, but to guide it. I’ve found smarts  to be the most misinterpreted or misunderstood of the three virtues.  Patrick Lencioni, in his book The Ideal Team Player , provides greater detail to ensure the description is clear to all, as the word itself can be misleading, given our traditional definitions.  Without the proper context, the terms Smart and Humble could easily conflict with one another. In Lencioni’s

Every high-performing team has a certain sound. It’s not loud or flashy. It’s that quiet hum that tells you something’s working under the hood. Progress is happening, not because someone’s cracking a whip, but because the team wants  to move forward. That’s hunger. Patrick Lencioni describes it as one of the three virtues of the ideal team player. But it’s easy to mistake hunger for something else, ambition, competitiveness, or even obsession. Those can all look similar on th

Over the last year or two, I've had the opportunity to write about Patrick Lencioni's work and its relevance to a Business Operating System. Today, and over the next few weeks, I'm going to focus on the other aspect of his writing that really drives (yes, pun intended) an organization and an individual. I’ve worked with a lot of teams over the years, some that purred like a finely tuned engine and others that rattled along, barely making it to the next pit stop. Through those

If you want to improve something about yourself, coach someone else, and then practice what you teach. A few months ago, a young...