We love a good book here at Wealth Matters. Between us all, we probably have every genre covered. However, as you might expect, we’re all fans of a brilliant business book.

We all recently read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni, founder and president of a management consulting company which specialises in team development and organisational health.

 

About the book

The book ​​tells a fable about the efforts of a CEO named Kathryn Peterson to create a healthy environment in a fictional fintech business. This particular company is failing due to poor teamwork. As the book unfolds, Kathryn fosters teamwork by educating the group about the dysfunctions of a team.

The model described in the book explains how one dysfunction leads to another and in the end, results in a negative morale of the team. The model is as follows:

  • Absence of Trust
  • Fear of Conflict
  • Lack of Commitment
  • Avoidance of Accountability
  • Inattention to Results
What we did next

Despite working well as a team, we thought it was important to take a step back and spend some time thinking about how we could build on and strengthen the foundations of our team. We all read the book and then spent a few hours together talking through what we learnt and whether we felt that there was anything we could bring into our team, visiting each dysfunction in turn and examining its role within our team.

We ran through some of the exercises within the book, one of which was talking through what we believed was the most important contribution each team member made to the team and then something that we would like them to improve upon. Whilst this may seem a strange approach, it worked really well. It was great to take a step back, talk through the positives, and also acknowledge some constructive feedback from your peers.

The book makes you realise that trust is the foundation of real teamwork, and it shows how important it is for teams to be open and honest with one another. We had some very productive and enlightening discussions off the back of this.

These discussions revealed that we already have a strong level of trust within the team and, therefore, a strong sense of morality and commitment. We agreed on the importance of this trust and emphasised how we must ensure that it is maintained as the team grows in years to come.

Why you should read it

Anybody who works as part of a team should read this book. It has a really simple-to-follow framework that can benefit anybody who has a commitment to their own personal and professional growth.