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  • The Ideal Team Player

  • How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues: A Leadership Fable
  • Written by: Patrick M. Lencioni
  • Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
  • Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (238 ratings)

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The Ideal Team Player

Written by: Patrick M. Lencioni
Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
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Publisher's Summary

In his classic book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni laid out a groundbreaking approach for tackling the perilous group behaviors that destroy teamwork. Here he turns his focus to the individual, revealing the three indispensable virtues of an ideal team player.

In The Ideal Team Player, Lencioni tells the story of Jeff Shanley, a leader desperate to save his uncle's company by restoring its cultural commitment to teamwork. Jeff must crack the code on the virtues that real team players possess and then build a culture of hiring and development around those virtues. Beyond the fable, Lencioni presents a practical framework and actionable tools for identifying, hiring, and developing ideal team players.

Whether you're a leader trying to create a culture around teamwork, a staffing professional looking to hire real team players, or a team player wanting to improve yourself, this book will prove to be as useful as it is compelling.

©2016 Patrick Lencioni (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Ideal Team Player

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good start, but missing some important things

A few criticisms:
1. I don't think Lencioni defends the claim that we need to have "ideal team players" well enough. It's very brief when it happens. It seems we're supposed to already believe we should value teamwork over each individual's competency in their field. But how do you actually convince others that we need to value teamwork over hiring for talent?

2. The qualities of the idea team player are humble, hungry and smart (about people). This leaves out at least one thing: empathy, or concern for other's feelings. In the book, they discuss how someone who's smart does not necessarily care for the good of others. They could use their people smarts to manipulate others for instance. But they also say that someone who's humble will hurt other's feelings by being indelicate or rude because they just don't have the people smarts to know how to communicate. (Nancy in the fable.) How can both these things be true, but when you have all three qualities together, you then have someone who all of a sudden cares for you personally? I am surprised that this has evaded the author!

3. It completely ignores the role of context and culture and focuses solely on individual traits. I get that the book is about the idea team player, and this enables each of us to use it on ourselves. However, I'm surprised there is no discussion of how important it is for executives and managers to consider more than just each person's traits. It seems to suggest that a leader has no role to play in developing a team other than selecting good team players. A leader must also create an environment that rewards and encourages team effort. In fact, it may even be the case that these aren't traits one either has or doesn't, but skills one can develop, and thus something that leaders should focus on developing. The book Turn that Ship Around comes to mind because the author, Cpt David Marquet, was able to take the USS Santa Fe from worst in the Navy to best without letting a single sailor go. Not one person fired and they go from last to first (out of something like 40 ships). Obviously I'm very skeptical that each of these hundreds of guys was already an ideal team player. No! It was something about the culture that Marquet encouraged through his leadership that created a successful teamwork environment.

Taken with that in mind, I still find HHS to be a useful set of qualities to consider when hiring team members and creating your team. For that reason, despite 3 stars, I think this book is worth a read.

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Exciting Life and HR concept

The fable and following discussion gave a clear idea of the many aspects of the concept. Certainly more than just an HR concept but even a life concept. An excellent read.

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1 person found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Helpful but too specific

Consider the overarching concepts in this book rather than specifics. It’s a bit ableist and may not be super useful for teams that require diversity. This book does not consider diversity and value of different kinds of perspectives or team players.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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love this concept

this would be a perfect for for any culture based business! It would also create an understanding of what is expected of everyone and increase accountability in the workplace.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Love Lencioni!

I absolutely love Patrick Lencioni fables with the in depth analysis at the end. It really gets you thinking! This was no different!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very valuable for hiring practices

Great book for guiding your hiring & measuring soft skills. This one will be in my 'read again' pile.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

It was okay

The real meat of the book is on Part V but you need to listen to the first 4 parts in order to understand it. It would be easier if the story was acted out instead of narrated

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great read but..

the narrator stressed the last bit of some words and every sentence. It sounded super pretentious and interrupted the flow of the story.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Utter shite.

It's shite aimed at used car salesmen and mlm housewivesves. Genuinely upset I can't get my money back.
I suppose they got me too. Utter shit.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Audiobook

Great listening. I will definitely recommend it, and will play again.and again. thank you very much for this great audiobook

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