The Ideal Team Player

How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues: A Leadership Fable

By: Patrick M. Lencioni

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

In his classic book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni laid out a groundbreaking approach for tackling the perilous group behaviors that destroy teamwork. Here he turns his focus to the individual, revealing the three indispensable virtues of an ideal team player.

In The Ideal Team Player, Lencioni tells the story of Jeff Shanley, a leader desperate to save his uncle's company by restoring its cultural commitment to teamwork. Jeff must crack the code on the virtues that real team players possess and then build a culture of hiring and development around those virtues. Beyond the fable, Lencioni presents a practical framework and actionable tools for identifying, hiring, and developing ideal team players.

Whether you're a leader trying to create a culture around teamwork, a staffing professional looking to hire real team players, or a team player wanting to improve yourself, this book will prove to be as useful as it is compelling.

©2016 Patrick Lencioni (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Required Reading/Listening

Would you listen to The Ideal Team Player again? Why?

As the Chief of Staff for my organization I am designing and implementing the Team Development programs. These programs are based on The 5 Dysfunctions of Teams, The Ideal Team Player, and Sean Covey's The Four Disciplines of Execution. While "5 Dysfunctions" focuses on team level development, "The Ideal Team Player" focuses on individual development. I find that I "rewind and re-listen" often with Lencioni, and that I stop and take notes (OneNotes) and record thoughts.

What did you like best about this story?

The drama was fantastic. The characters and personalities engaging.

What about Stephen Hoye’s performance did you like?

Hoye's performance was great. I liked his energy and pace.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

Any additional comments?

While I began this book thinking about how to teach and share the principles of ideal team players with others, I came away with the determination to change my nature and to become a much better team player. Having and using this book is changing my life and making me a much better team player, and I am making my life a whole lot more fun and exciting.

Great to learn from all players

This book is very well read with a nice voice to listen to.
This book is great to learn from all players in the book. It helps promote thinking about how to deal with people as well as how to change your own attitude. The end has awesome tips on how to hire high quality employees.

A must read for any manager

This book is a must read for anybody who is in management, or is trying to put together a team of any sort.
It’s an easy listen and the characters provide a real practical understanding of humble, hungry and smart in real life.
The application sections provide great advice and tools that are easily implemented at any organization… Any organization that wants to have team players that is.

Outstanding book for leaders.

Outstanding book for establishing a great team and building camaraderie. I highly recommend this book.

If you are in recruiting must read

If you are part of career development or recruiting this book has so many ah ha's. The additional resources has an assessment and interview questions. Such a good read.

Great concepts!

The ideal team player concepts of humble, hungry and people smart have been very helpful in our hiring and evaluating of our team members.

Love the works of Patrick Lencioni

Another excellent book by Patrick Lencioni. If his other books have been helpful to you; then you will likely find this one to worth your time as well.

The allegory is great, but..

This is my third time reading/listening through the Audio Book. The story itself and book are great - they give great insights into how to identify and grow desired leadership facets depending on your company culture. The narration, though, still really leaves a lot to be desired. The guy reading through just sounds, well..creepy. It's the easeful and relaxed tempo of the narration that makes it feel like a greasy used car salesman in a dodgy part of town is trying to sweet-talk you.

Engaging

This book was more engaging than I anticipated based on its title and content it was performed well.

everyone should read this!

A well written story detailing not just how to find a great team player, but how to become one. Includes great examples for self evaluation.