The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive Quotes

“One of the best ways to achieve clarity is to answer, in no uncertain terms, a series of basic questions pertaining to the organization: Why does the organization exist, and what difference does it make in the world? What behavioral values are irreplaceable and fundamental? What business are we in, and against whom do we compete? How does our approach differ from that of our competition? What are our goals this month, this quarter, this year, next year, five years from now? Who has to do what for us to achieve our goals this month, this quarter, this year, next year, five years from now?”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“Second, there is no substitute for discipline. No amount of intellectual prowess or personal charisma can make up for an inability to identify a few simple things and stick to them over time.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“Many organizations make the mistake of using metrics in place of thematic and strategic goals. This is a problem because metrics do not inspire enthusiasm among employees.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“The key is to take five minutes at the end of staff meetings and ask the question, “What do we need to communicate to our people?” After a few minutes of discussion, it will become apparent which issues need clarification and which are appropriate to communicate. Not only does this brief discussion avoid confusion among the executives themselves, it gives employees a sense that the people who head their respective departments are working together and coming to agreement on important issues.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“Within companies that effectively over-communicate, employees at all levels and in all departments understand what the organization is about and how they contribute to its success. They don’t spend time speculating on what executives are really thinking, and they don’t look for hidden messages among the information they receive.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“company needs to be able to articulate exactly what it does, whom it serves, and against whom it competes. Why? Because all employees should be made to feel like salespeople or ambassadors for the firm, and they cannot do this without a fundamental understanding of an organization’s business. More important, without this understanding, employees cannot connect their individual roles to the overall direction of the larger organization.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“fundamental values are not chosen from thin air based on the desires of executives; they are discovered within what already exists in an organization.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“truly nimble organizations dare to create clarity at all times, even when they are not completely certain about whether it is correct. And if they later see a need to change course, they do so without hesitation or apology, and thus create clarity around the new idea or answer.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“If this is so powerful, then why don’t all executives create clarity in their organizations? Because many of them overemphasize the value of flexibility. Wanting their organizations to be “nimble,” they hesitate to articulate their direction clearly, or do so in a less than thorough manner, thus giving themselves the deceptively dangerous luxury of changing plans in midstream.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“When employees at all levels share a common understanding of where the company is headed, what success looks like, whom their competitors are, and what needs to be achieved to claim victory, there is a remarkably low level of wasted time and energy and a powerful sense of traction.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“What is most important is that team members get comfortable letting their colleagues see them for who they are. No pretension. No positioning.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“This blindness occurs because what executives believe are small disconnects between themselves and their peers actually look like major rifts to people deeper in the organization.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“The essence of a cohesive leadership team is trust, which is marked by an absence of politics, unnecessary anxiety, and wasted energy. Every executive wants to achieve this, but few are able to do so because they fail to understand the roots of these problems, the most damaging of which is politics.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“The questions were, ‘What did you accomplish?’ ‘What will you accomplish next?’ ‘How can you improve?’” “That’s it?” “Not quite. The question on the back was, ‘Are you embracing the values?”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“as odd as it may seem, it is actually more important for leaders to focus on making their organizations healthy than on making them smart.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“healthy organizations have a way of making themselves smarter. Even if their ideas are temporarily inferior to those of competitors, they are usually humble and efficient enough to recognize their deficiencies and make changes in their plans before it is too late.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“There is relatively little emphasis on legal issues and quantitative evaluations, which often distract employees from the critical messages their managers are trying to communicate. What is more, these systems are customized to provoke meaningful discussion between managers and employees about relevant issues that they are dealing with on a daily basis.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“The best performance management systems include only essential information, and allow managers and their employees to focus on the work that must be done to ensure success.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“Now, the wrong way to determine an organization’s values is to survey the employee population. This may seem to be a useful way to test a hypothesis, but it is not a replacement for the introspection and discussion of an executive team. More important, it can lead to the adoption of a value set that executives are not willing to support.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“An organization that has achieved clarity has a sense of unity around everything it does. It aligns its resources, especially the human ones, around common concepts, values, definitions, goals, and strategies, thereby realizing the synergies that all great companies must achieve.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“organizational clarity allows a company to delegate more effectively and empower its employees with a true sense of confidence.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“But organizational clarity is not merely about choosing the right words to describe a company’s mission, strategy, or values; it is about agreeing on the fundamental concepts that drive it.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“For cohesive teams, meetings are compelling and vital. They are forums for asking difficult questions, challenging one another’s ideas, and ultimately arriving at decisions that everyone agrees to support and adhere to, in the best interests of the company.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“Talking about a colleague who is not present is not gossip. Gossip requires the intent to hurt someone, and it is almost always accompanied by an unwillingness to confront a person directly with the information being discussed.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“Members of cohesive teams know one another’s strengths and weaknesses and don’t hesitate to point them out. They also know something about one another’s backgrounds, which helps them to understand why members think and act the way they do.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“Every company has interesting, difficult issues to wrestle with, and a lack of interest during meetings is a pretty good indication that the team may be avoiding issues because they are uncomfortable with one another. Remember, there is no excuse for having continually boring meetings.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“I have found that it is remarkably helpful for members of a leadership team to spend time talking about their backgrounds. People who understand one another’s personal philosophies, family histories, educational experiences, hobbies, and interests are far more likely to work well together than those who do not.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“cohesive teams fight. But they fight about issues, not personalities. Most important, when they are done fighting, they have an amazing capacity to move on to the next issue, with no residual feelings.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“One of the best ways to recognize a cohesive team is the nature of its meetings. Passionate. Intense. Exhausting. Never boring.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable

“More than anything else, cohesive teams are efficient. They arrive at decisions more quickly and with greater buy-in than non-cohesive teams do.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable