Team members have to be focused on the collective good of the team. Too often, they focus their attention on their department, their budget, their career aspirations, their egos.
Interpretation
Team members should prioritize the success of the team over individual goals and egos.
This quote by Patrick Lencioni emphasizes the importance of teamwork and collective focus within organizations. It suggests that when team members concentrate too much on their personal objectives, such as departmental interests, financial resources, and individual ambition, it detracts from the overall success and well-being of the team. True collaboration requires individuals to set aside their egos and work towards common goals for the greater good.
In practice
This quote can be used in a company meeting to encourage collaboration among departments.
I know that any group of people can become a team if they do the right things, but I came to realize over time that if you acquire or develop the right kind of people, that process of building a team is going to be much more effective and easier.
The truth is that intelligence, knowledge, and domain expertise are vastly overrated as the driving forces behind competitive advantage and sustainable success.
The kind of people that all teams need are people who are humble, hungry, and smart: humble being little ego, focusing more on their teammates than on themselves. Hungry, meaning they have a strong work ethic, are determined to get things done, and contribute any way they can. Smart, meaning not intellectually smart but inner personally smart.
Teamwork remains a sustainable competitive advantage that has been largely untapped because it is hard to measure (teamwork impacts the outcome of an organization in such comprehensive and invasive ways that it's virtually impossible to isolate it as a single variable) and because it is extremely hard to achieve (it requires levels of courage and discipline that few executives possess) - ironically, building a strong team is very simple (it doesn't require masterful insights or tactics).
Clients don't expect perfection from the service providers they hire, but they do expect honesty and transparency. There is no better way to demonstrate this than by acknowledging when a mistake has been made and humbly apologizing for it.
Your focus should be on creating an environment where growth can occur and then letting nature take its course.
I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.
You have to work with people you don't like. You have to work with people who are working against your interests to try to bring them around. If you don't talk to them, you end up in the same place. And you never achieve anything.
Whether we're Democrats, Republicans, or independents - it does not matter. We all understand that an attack on any one of us is an attack on all of us.
I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among men the greatest asset I possess. The way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement.
It's nice to come into a town and be referred to as the manager of the Cleveland Indians instead of as the first black manager.
A skillful commander is not overbearing. A skillful fighter does not become angry. A skillful conqueror does not compete with people. One who is skillful in using men puts himself below them. This is called the strength to use men. This is called matching Heaven, The highest principle of old.
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