How To Lose Your Best People, Patrick Lencioni

Patrick Lencioni is Founder and President of The Table Group and a best-selling author of The Advantage, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and more. At the Willow Creek Association's Global Leadership Summit, Patrick talked about "How To Lose Your Best People."  Here are excerpts from his talk:

Three Things That Cause Job Misery  

1.  Anonymity

• We are miserable when the people we work for don't know us.
• "Nobody wants to be anonymous."
• Good people don't leave places where they are known.
• Take Action: What can you do to help people be known?

2. Irrelevance

• "Everyone needs to know that their job matters, to someone."
• You cannot love your work if you feel irrelevant.
• People want a reason to do what they do. Give it to them.
• Take Action: Thank your coworkers. Tell them why their work matters and how they are making a difference.

3. Immeasurement

• All human beings have a need to assess for themselves if they are doing a good job.
• "They cannot be fulfilled in their work if their success depends on the opinions or whims of another person, no matter how benevolent that person may be."  
• Take Action: Help employees to develop tangible means for assessing the quality of the work they are doing.

Great quotes:

• "Leaders are CRO's - Chief Reminding Officers."  
• "People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed." Samuel Johnson   
• "People who see themselves as invisible, generic or anonymous cannot love their jobs, no matter what they are doing."  

Leaders are learners. What do you learn from Patrick Lencioni? How can you put it into action?

"Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings. He will not stand before obscure men." - Proverbs 22:29 

Just posted: This week's Servant Leadership Blog from the World Leader's Group is entitled, "Five Things Strong Leaders Do." You can click here to get it.