The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues a Leadership Fable

"You guys really dropped the ball on the teamwork project."

They didn't say anything, so Jeff continued, focusing on Bobby. "You said it wasn't just posters and t-shirts, but what else was it?" Before they could answer, he went on. "Because you don't seem to know what you mean when you talk about team players."

"We didn't say—" Clare wanted to explain, but Jeff wouldn't let her.

"Oh wait. I forgot." Jeff was being sarcastic, but not rude. "You do have one clear definition. A person can't be a jackass."

They laughed, but in a guilty sort of way.

In his classic best-selling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni laid out a groundbreaking, new approach for attacking the dangerous group behaviors that destroy teamwork. Here, he turns his focus to the individual member of a team, revealing the three indispensable virtues that make some people better team players than others.

Lencioni's latest page-turning fable is the story of a leader desperate to save his company by cracking the code on the virtues that define a true team player. Jeff Shanley takes over his family's locally revered construction firm and realizes that the only way to deliver on the two biggest projects in the company's history is to rapidly build a culture of hiring and development around those virtues.To do that, he'll have to confront and risk losing talented employees who don't know how to work on a team, and convince his fiery VP of operations not to lower the company's hiring standards in the face of short-term business pressure.

Beyond the fable, Lencioni presents a powerful framework and easy-to-use tools for identifying, hiring, and developing ideal team players in any kind of organization. Whether you're a leader striving to create a culture of teamwork, a human resources professional looking to hire real team players, or an employee wanting to make yourself an invaluable team member, The Ideal Team Player will prove to be as practical as it is compelling.

About the Author

Patrick Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to helping leaders improve their organizations’ health since 1997. His principles have been embraced by leaders around the world and adopted by organizations of virtually every kind including multinational corporations, entrepreneurial ventures, professional sports teams, the military, nonprofits, schools, and churches.

Lencioni is the author of ten business books with over three million copies sold worldwide. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Bloomberg Businessweek, and USA Today.

Prior to founding The Table Group, Lencioni served on the executive team at Sybase, Inc. He started his career at Bain & Company and later worked at Oracle Corporation.