The Ideal Team Player Quotes

“So many people there are so concerned about being socially conscious and environmentally aware, but they don't give a second thought to how they treat the guy washing their car or cutting their grass.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Great team players lack excessive ego or concerns about status. They are quick to point out the contributions of others and slow to seek attention for their own. They share credit, emphasize team over self, and define success collectively rather than individually. It is no great surprise, then, that humility is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute of being a team player.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“The five behavioral manifestations of teamwork: trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“If you ask me, the best thing that's happened in the last year is that we've almost become a jackass-free zone. No matter what happens, and what challenge we might face, give me a roomful of people who aren't jackasses, and I'll be happy to take it on.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Leaders who can identify, hire, and cultivate employees who are humble, hungry, and smart will have a serious advantage over those who cannot.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Humility isn't thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Tell me about someone who is better than you in an area that really matters to you.” Look for the candidate to demonstrate a genuine appreciation for others who have more skill or talent. Humble people are comfortable with this. Ego-driven people often are not.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“We need to hire people who are hungry. They go beyond what is required. Passionate about the work they're doing. Hungry.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Scare People with Sincerity”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Instructions: Use the scale below to indicate how each statement applies to your actions on the team. Respond as honestly as possible, as this will allow you to most accurately identify any areas of development that you may have. Scale: 3 = Usually 2 = Sometimes 1 = Rarely Humble My teammates would say: ______ 1. I compliment or praise them without hesitation. ______ 2. I easily admit to my mistakes. ______ 3. I am willing to take on lower-level work for the good of the team. ______ 4. I gladly share credit for team accomplishments. ______ 5. I readily acknowledge my weaknesses. ______ 6. I offer and accept apologies graciously. ______ Total Humility Score Hungry My teammates would say: ______ 7. I do more than what is required in my own job. ______ 8. I have passion for the “mission” of the team. ______ 9. I feel a sense of personal responsibility for the overall success of the team. ______ 10. I am willing to contribute to and think about work outside of office hours. ______ 11. I am willing to take on tedious or challenging tasks whenever necessary. ______ 12. I look for opportunities to contribute outside of my area of responsibility. ______ Total Hunger Score Smart My teammates would say: ______ 13. I generally understand what others are feeling during meetings and conversations. ______ 14. I show empathy to others on the team. ______ 15. I demonstrate an interest in the lives of my teammates. ______ 16. I am an attentive listener. ______ 17. I am aware of how my words and actions impact others on the team. ______ 18. I adjust my behavior and style to fit the nature of a conversation or relationship. ______ Total Smart Score Scoring: Remember, the purpose of this tool is to help you explore and assess how you embody the three virtues of an ideal team player. The standards for “ideal” are high. An ideal team player will have few of these statements answered with anything lower than a ‘3’ (usually) response. A score of 18 or 17 is an indication that the virtue is a potential strength. A score range of 16 to 14 is an indication that you most likely have some work to do around that virtue to become an ideal team player. A score of 13 or lower is an indication that you need improvement around that virtue to become an ideal team player. Finally, keep in mind that while this tool is quantitative, the real value will be found in the qualitative, developmental conversations among team-members and their managers. Don't focus on the numbers, but rather the concepts and the individual statements where you scored low.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Humble is pretty obvious. We can't abide big egos. Hungry is all about working hard and being passionate about our work. And smart has to do with being aware of the people around you and dealing with them in a positive, functional way.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“I've found that, in most cases, managers greatly underestimate the impact that a comment or quick gesture of approval has on employees. They'll spend weeks trying to tweak an annual bonus program or some other compensation system, believing that their employees are coin-operated, but they'll neglect to stop someone during a meeting and say, “Hey, that's a fantastic example of hunger. We should all try to be more like that.” I'm not saying that compensation doesn't matter. But if we want to create a culture of humility, hunger, and smarts, the best way to do it is to constantly be catching people exhibiting those virtues and publicly holding them up as examples. No balloons, pastries, or plastic tchotchkes are necessary, just genuine, in-the-moment appreciation.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“I believe that teamwork is not a virtue, but rather a choice. It's a strategic decision and an intentional one, which means that it's not for everyone.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Beyond identifying and admitting the cause of their challenge, people who lack humility need behavioral training in an exposure therapy kind of way. Don't be put off by the clinical sound of this. What I mean is that employees can make progress simply by acting like they are humble. By intentionally forcing themselves to compliment others, admit their mistakes and weaknesses, and take an interest in colleagues, employees can begin to experience the liberation of humility. This happens because they suddenly realize that focusing on others does not detract from their own happiness, but rather adds to it. After all, humility is the most attractive and central of all virtues.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Tell me about the most important accomplishments of your career.” Look for more mentions of we than I.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Instead of asking candidates to self-assess a given behavior or characteristic related to humility, hunger, or people smarts, ask them what others would say about them. For example, instead of asking someone if he considers himself to be a hard worker, ask him “How would your colleagues describe your work ethic?”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“It is no great surprise, then, that humility is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute of being a team player.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“I must admit that some people are better at being team players, at embracing those five behaviors, than others. They're not born that way, but either through life experiences, work history, or a real commitment to personal development, they come to possess the three underlying virtues that enable them to be ideal team players: they are humble, hungry, and smart. As simple as those words may appear, none of them is exactly what they seem. Understanding the nuances of these virtues is critical for applying them effectively.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“The most important part of the development process, and the part that is so often missing, is the leader's commitment to constantly “reminding” an employee if she is not yet doing what is needed. Without this, improvement will not occur.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Many people will try to get a job even if they don't fit the company's stated values, but very few will do so if they know that they're going to be held accountable, day in and day out, for behavior that violates the values.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Stop making the perfect enemy of the good.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Great team players lack excessive ego or concerns about status. They are quick to point out the contributions of others and slow to seek attention for their own. They share credit, emphasize team over self, and define success collectively rather than individually. It is no great surprise, then, that humility is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute of being a team player. Humility is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute of being a team player.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Clare offered a half-hearted suggestion. “Well, there are coaches I know who do one-on-one counseling.” Bobby shook his head. “No, that doesn't usually work. It takes months and only isolates people. It seems like most of them just use it to prepare for their next job.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“No one is perfect. Even a person who is humble, hungry, and smart occasionally has a bad day, or a bad week, or even a bad time in their life.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“teamwork is not a virtue, but rather a choice. It's a strategic decision and an intentional one, which means that it's not for everyone.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“teamwork is not a virtue, but rather a choice.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“How would you describe your personality?” Look for how accurately the person describes what you are observing and how introspective he is. Smart people generally know themselves and find it interesting to talk about their behavioral strengths and weaknesses. People who seem stumped or surprised by this question might not be terribly smart when it comes to people.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“I really want to know what you'd like to change about yourself, or better yet, what your best friends would say you need to work on.” The key to the answer is not what their weaknesses are (unless of course they're an axe murderer), but if they're comfortable acknowledging something real.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“you have a doubt about a person's humility, hunger, or smarts, don't ignore it. Keep probing. More often than not, there is something causing that doubt. That's not to discourage keeping an open mind, but erring on the side of assuming that a person has the virtues of a team player is a bad idea. So many times hiring managers look back at the red flags they saw during interviews, the ones they chose to ignore, and regret not taking more time or energy to understand them. While it's never possible to have complete confidence in a hire, nagging doubts about a candidate's humility, hunger, or smarts need to be properly explored and discarded before an offer can be made.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

“Someone once told me that the best way to know if you should hire a person is to go on a cross-country business trip with him. See how he handles himself in stressful, interactive situations and over long periods of time. While that isn't necessarily practical, I do believe that interviews should incorporate interaction with diverse groups of people in everyday situations and that they should be longer than forty-five minutes.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues