| Product Summary | | Format: Hardcover | | ISBN: 9780787960759 | | Publisher: Jossey-Bass | | Publish Date: 3/1/2002 | | Buy.com Sku: 30877612 | | Item#: R53M45 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 175 | | Dimensions (in Inches) 8.75H x 6L x 1T | | Pages: 200 |
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| | | Lencioni once again offers a leadership fable that is as enthralling and instructive as his first two bestselling books, "The Five Temptations of a CEO" and "The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive."
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Interwoven with the fictional story of a woman who becomes CEO of a struggling, high-profile company with a dysfunctional executive team is an analysis of five behavioral problems that can ruin any productive environment. To remedy these common "dysfunctions," Lencioni offers a set of diagnostic questions to help readers assess their organizations and a model readers can follow to increase teamwork in the office.
| Praise| In keeping with the parable style, Lencioni (The Five Temptations of a CEO) begins by telling the fable of woman who, as CEO of a struggling Silicon Valley firm, took control of a dysfunctional executive committee and helped its members succeed as a team. Story time over, Lencioni offers explicit instructions for overcoming the human behavioral tendencies that he says corrupt teams (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results). Succinct yet sympathetic, this guide will be a boon for those struggling with the inherent difficulties of leading a group.| |Building a cohesive team is not complicated, declares Lencioni, president of his own management consulting firm and author of The Five Temptations of a CEO. Departing from the dry, theoretical writing of many management books, he presents his case in the context of a fictional organization, and in doing so succeeds at communicating his ideas. The story is about a female CEO who is hired to bring together a dysfunctional executive staff to work as a team in a company that just two years earlier had looked promising. The scenarios that follow are recognizable and can be applied anywhere teamwork is involved, whether it is a multinational company, a small department within a larger organization, or a sports team. The five dysfunctions discussed are absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. At the end of the story, the main points are summarized, and clearly written suggestions and exercises are offered to help, bring about change. Concise and easy to follow, this book is recommended for academic and public libraries with management collections and for anyone who is a member of a team that needs improvement. ?Bellinda Wise, Nassau Community Call. Lib. Garden City, NY (Library Journal, April 15, 2002)| |"...there is a lot of good sense in this book...certainly offers some useful pointers..." (Supply Management, 28 March 2002)| |"...is worth exploring..." (Progress, Summer 2002)| |"...an entertaining quick read filled with information easy to digest..." (The star online, 12 August 2003) |
| | Read A Chapter | Chapter One BACKSTORY DecisionTech was located in Half Moon Bay, a foggy, coastal farming town just over the hills from the San Francisco Bay. It was not technically part of the Silicon Valley, but the Valley is not so much a geographical entity as a cultural one. And DecisionTech certainly fit within that world. It had the most experienced-and expensive-executive team imaginable, a seemingly indestructible business plan, and more top-tier investors than any young company could hope for. Even the most cautious venture firms were lining up to invest, and talented engineers were submitting their resums before the company had leased an office. But that was almost two years earlier, which is a lifetime for a technology start-up. After its first few euphoric months of existence, the company began experiencing a series of ongoing disappointments. Critical deadlines started to slip. A few key employees below Click to read more... Chapter One BACKSTORY DecisionTech was located in Half Moon Bay, a foggy, coastal farming town just over the hills from the San Francisco Bay. It was not technically part of the Silicon Valley, but the Valley is not so much a geographical entity as a cultural one. And DecisionTech certainly fit within that world. It had the most experienced-and expensive-executive team imaginable, a seemingly indestructible business plan, and more top-tier investors than any young company could hope for. Even the most cautious venture firms were lining up to invest, and talented engineers were submitting their resums before the company had leased an office. But that was almost two years earlier, which is a lifetime for a technology start-up. After its first few euphoric months of existence, the company began experiencing a series of ongoing disappointments. Critical deadlines started to slip. A few key employees below the executive level unexpectedly left the company. Morale deteriorated gradually. All of this in spite of the considerable advantages that DecisionTech had amassed for itself. On the two-year anniversary of the firm's founding, the board unanimously agreed to "ask" Jeff Shanley, the company's thirty-seven-year-old CEO and cofounder, to step down. He was offered the job of heading business development, and to the surprise of his colleagues, he accepted the demotion, not wanting to walk away from a potentially huge payout should the company eventually go public. And even in the difficult economic climate of the Valley, the company had every reason to go public. None of DecisionTech's 150 employees were shocked by Jeff's removal. While most of them seemed to like him well enough personally, they couldn't deny that under his leadership the atmosphere within the company had become increasingly troubling. Backstabbing among the executives had become an art. There was no sense of unity or camaraderie on the team, which translated into a muted level of commitment. Everything seemed to take too long to get done, and even then it never felt right. Some boards might have been more patient with a stumbling executive team. DecisionTech's was not. There was just too much at stake-and too high a profile-to watch the company waste away because of politics. DecisionTech had already developed a reputation within the Valley for being one of the most political and unpleasant places to work, and the board couldn't tolerate that kind of press, especially when the future had looked so promising just a couple of years earlier. Someone had to be accountable for the mess, and Jeff was the man at the top. Everyone seemed relieved when the board announced the decision to remove him. Until three weeks later, when Kathryn was hired. (Continues...)
Excerpted from The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick M. Lencioni Excerpted by permission.
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