Debra > Debra's Quotes

“Trust is knowing that when a team member does push you, they're doing it because they care about the team.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

“Remember teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

“If everything is important, then nothing is.”
― Patrick M. Lencioni

“Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

“It's as simple as this. When people don't unload their opinions and feel like they've been listened to, they won't really get on board.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

“Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

“the fear of conflict is almost always a sign of problems.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“When there is trust, conflict becomes nothing but the pursuit of truth, an attempt to find the best possible answer.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“organizations learn by making decisions, even bad ones.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“If people don’t weigh in, they can’t buy in.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“A team that is not focused on results ... • Stagnates/fails to grow • Rarely defeats competitors • Loses achievement-oriented employees”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

“every organization must contribute in some way to a better world for some group of people, because if it doesn’t, it will, and should, go out of business.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“Most people are generally reasonable and can rally around an idea that wasn’t their own as long as they know they’ve had a chance to weigh in.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“What clients want more than anything is to know that we’re more interested in helping them than we are in maintaining our revenue source.”
― Patrick Lencioni, Getting Naked: A Business Fable about Shedding the Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty

“Most organizations exploit only a fraction of the knowledge, experience, and intellectual capital that is available to them.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“there is no such thing as too much communication.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“executives must put the needs of the higher team ahead of the needs of their departments.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“teamwork is not a virtue. It is a choice—and a strategic one.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“Nowhere does this tendency toward artificial harmony show itself more than in mission-driven nonprofit organizations, most notably churches. People who work in those organizations tend to have a misguided idea that they cannot be frustrated or disagreeable with one another. What they’re doing is confusing being nice with being kind.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“most of a leadership team’s objectives should be collective ones.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“No one on a cohesive team can say, Well, I did my job. Our failure isn’t my fault.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“there cannot be alignment deeper in the organization, even when employees want to cooperate, if the leaders at the top aren’t in lockstep with one another”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“the fundamental attribution error is the tendency of human beings to attribute the negative or frustrating behaviors of their colleagues to their intentions and personalities, while attributing their own negative or frustrating behaviors to environmental factors.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“Therefore, it is key that leaders demonstrate restraint when their people engage in conflict, and allow resolution to occur naturally, as messy as it can sometimes be. This can be a challenge because many leaders feel that they are somehow failing in their jobs by losing control of their teams during conflict. Finally, as trite as it may sound, a leader’s ability to personally model appropriate conflict behavior is essential. By avoiding conflict when it is necessary and productive—something many executives do—a team leader will encourage this dysfunction to thrive.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

“The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

“Because the birdsong might be pretty,
But it's not for you they sing,
And if you think my winter is too cold,
You don't deserve my spring.”
― Erin Hanson

“There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask "What if I fall?"
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?”
― Erin Hanson