4 Obsessions of Effective Leaders
– From Mitch Barn’s Blog
Patrick Lencioni leads an organization called, “The Table Group”. He is also the author of the best-selling book, “Five Dysfunctions of a Team”. His most recent book is called, “The Four Obsessions of Effective Leaders”, and the paragraphs below provide a brief summary:
1. A leader should be obsessed with building a cohesive team. Cohesive teams rely on trust between members. Teams with trust avoid negative politics; they operate operate openly, efficiently, and flexibly. Cohesive team members are secure enough with each other to engage in constructive debate / conflict—sometimes they argue with one another, but it is always about issues, not personalities. Cohesive teams have meetings that are intense, passionate, often exhausting — but never boring. The members of cohesive teams hold one another accountable for values, commitments, effort, and sharing risk. Members of cohesive teams support the decisions of the team even if the member personally did not vote in favor of the decision.
2. A leader should be obsessed with creating organizational clarity. Why does our organization exist? What are our key values and cultural norms? How is our business defined, and who are our relevant competitors? How are we unique? What are our short term and long term goals? Who is responsible for what? The leader should know the answers to these questions, and so should the leadership team. But the ideal is for all employees at all levels to be crystal clear on these points. Organizations that achieve this have an incredible sense of focus, power, and efficiency. Over time, employees in these organizations grow to have a greater sense of autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
3. A leader should strive to over-communicate organizational clarity. This is the simplest of the four, but it is also the most commonly underachieved. Why? Because leaders usually over-estimate the awareness and understanding of the “average person” in the organization. The leader knows the message so well her-/himself that she/he loses the ability to know whether others also know and/or remember it.
4. A leader should reinforce organizational clarity through HR processes. Organizations and teams sustain their health by establishing simple processes, frameworks, and guidelines to support the way they make decisions, evaluate job candidates, manage performance, and reward employees. For us, team management, panel interviewing, PPR and HR1/HR2, leadership development, meritocracy are some of these key processes and frameworks. Leaders should ask themselves, “How fully have I immersed myself into these? How hard do I work to link these back to the ‘organizational clarity’ that I am working so hard to achieve? How serious am I – really – about these? Am I aiming simply to get a box checked or do I view these as integral to our progress and success?”
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高效领导者的四大准则
Patrick Lencioni领导着一个叫“圆桌集团”的组织。他也是畅销书《团队领导的五大障碍》的作者。他最新的一本书叫《The Four Obsessions of Effective Leaders》，以下是简短的总结：
1. 领导者必须致力于创建一个有凝聚力的组织。有凝聚力的组织依靠团队成员之间的互相信任。充满信任的团队能够避免不良的政策；他们开放、高效、自由地合作。有凝聚力的团队会放心地加入有建设性的辩论、甚至冲突——有时候他们也会和彼此争吵，但是总是对事不对人。有凝聚力的团队的会议总是紧张、热情高涨、通常也是很累人的，但是从来不会觉得无聊。有凝聚力的团队成员之间对彼此之间的价值、承诺、努力和风险都承担责任。有凝聚力的团队成员会支持团队的每一个决定，尽管有时候自己并不赞成这个决定。
2. 领导者必须致力于创建一个透明的组织。为什么我们的组织可以存在着？我们的核心价值和文化规范在哪里？我们的业务是如何定义的，我们的竞争对手是谁？我们凭什么脱颖而出？我们的短期和长期的任务是什么？谁来对哪些任务负责？领导者需要了解这一切问题的答案，而且领导层都必须了解。但是更理想的状态是公司每一个层级的员工都了解这些答案。组织要做到这些需要难以置信的聚焦、能力和高效。随着时间的推移，在这个组织中的员工会逐渐形成自治、控制和目标性的意识。
3. 领导者应该努力对组织透明这一点多多沟通。这一点是四点当中最简单的，但是却是现实当中最少做到的。为什么？因为领导者总是高估了组织中意识和理解力的“平均水平”。领导者自己对这些信息往往太了解，以至于难以判断别人是不是也能理解/或者记住了这些信息。
4. 领导者应该通过HR流程进一步强化组织的透明度。组织和团队通过创建简单的流程、框架和纲要来支持他们做出的决定，评估应聘者，管理工作表现，激励员工。对我们来说，团队管理，小组面谈，PPR和HR1/HR2，领导力开发，精英计划是我们的核心流程和框架。领导者应该扪心自问：“我对这些投入了多少？我花了多少精力来把它们和我一直努力要达成的组织令透明度联系起来？ 我对这件事情的态度有多严肃—真的有这么严肃吗？我只是想把这些任务做完还是把它视做我们进步和成功的必要组成？”