One of the benefits of being a Board Member for Make-A-Wish Orange County and Inland Empire are the professional development opportunities that are available.  This week I got a preview of Patrick Lencioni’s newest book, The Ideal Team Player from the the man himself in a live webcast, hosted by Make-A-Wish, CEO David Williams. I have long used Lencioni’s framework for overcoming dysfunction in teams by building trust, managing conflict, achieving commitment, embracing accountability and focusing on result.

In his latest work, he explores the three attributes of an ideal team player which he characterizes as Humble, Hungry and Smart.  When an employee is humble they think of others and the team first and they are not ego-driven,  Their orientation is to think of others first not self.  This attribute is extremely important in a team environment.

Second, am employee that is hungry is never satisfied with the status-quo, they naturally want to do more and are willing to do more than what is expected of them.  A hungry employee is always seeking for ways to improve and do things better which also serves the team.

The third attribute, is smart – not in an intellectual way (of course that helps) but they are interpersonally smart.  They use common sense and understand how their words and actions influence others.  A team player with this attribute also picks up on ques to understand how people are feeling.

An employee must truly have all three attributes to be an ideal team player.  The book explores what it looks like if an employee or prospective candidate only has one attribute (pawn, bulldozer, charmer) or a combination of two attributes (accidental mess maker, skilled politician and loveable slacker).

There is a series of questions to help people rate themselves on these attributes as well.  He also encourages members of team to talk about these attributes collectively and discuss how they can exercise these attributes more deliberately in the group.

He also includes interview questions to help employers identify the presence or absence of these attributes in candidates.  I am definitely adding this book to my summer reading list.