Smart SummariesBook Briefs for Education Professionals

Smart Summaries break down important books, texts and other educational resources into an easy-to-read synopsis and provides busy education professionals with ideas to help develop greater leadership skills, intellect and innovation within classrooms and educational systems.

At a GlanceTeams determine success

Build capacity by developing your people and hiring the right people

Find people that are humble

Find people that are hungry

Find people that are smart

This book is a must read for anyone who has to develop or work on a team. The text is a quick read because of the nature of the narrative. Lencioni does a great job with the fable of a construction management company and their struggle to design the ideal team. The fable is a quick read and demonstrates the need for processes to be put into place to establish norms and operating expectations within an organization. Creating a clean set of core values along with the tenacity to follow through on and investigate potential team members is core to his message.

In education settings where we are expected to collaborate more than ever before, it is important to set criteria and follow the formula outlined in the text. Core qualities of high performance are demonstrated in the text and having a team that is built around Lencioni’s three behaviors is critical. Is your team filled with: humble, hungry and smart?

Introduction

“Leaders who can identify, hire and cultivate employees who are humble, hungry and smart will have a serious advantage over those who cannot.”

The Book Qualities of The Ideal Team Player

• Build strong team with unifyingvirtues

• Humility – others first

• Hunger – energized by success

• Smart – understand people

Date of Creation: September 22, 2017

Title: The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate Three Essential Virtues: A Leadership FableAuthor: Patrick LencioniAuthor SiteYoutube

Take time to identify core characteristics of team members

Chapter Review

Hungry people almost never have to be pushed by a manager to work harder because they are self-motivated and diligent.”Lencioni’s books are written to be captivating fables. There is no easy way to

summarize these fables without destroying the power of reading the text. However, the gist of the fable is this - when working within an organization, taking over one or starting a new one, there are a few steps that should be taken to ensure success. The first is to evaluate the talent and develop a culture that values Lencioni’s three core virtues/behaviors: humble, hungry and smart. Find the right people for the right jobs, advance those with superior alignment to those values and develop those who do not or invite them to leave.

THE FABLE

KEY QUOTE: “For organizations seriously committed to making teamwork a cultural reality, I’m convinced that ‘the right people’ are ones who have the three virtues in common – humility, hunger and people smarts.”

Humble:• “They share credit, emphasize team over self and define success collectively

rather than individually.”• Too many leaders allow team members to exhibit self centered-behaviors.

These are the people who immediately make it all about themselves, their purview or their worldview.

• “Humility is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute of being a team player.”

• Two behaviors of people who lack humility:• They make it all about themselves and are very arrogant.• They lack self-confidence and put themselves down, again making it about

themselves.• “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.” - C.S.

Lewis• The reputation of the boss is a recruitment tool and attracts talent.

Hungry: • Some people can be too hungry and that leads to toxicity on the team.

However, the right balance is the person who is committed to doing a “job well and going above and beyond when it is truly required.”

• Non-hungry employees take a lot of energy from both the leader and the team.

Smart:• It is the people with situational awareness and empathy who are smart.• “They ask good questions, listen to what others are saying and stay engaged

in conversations intently.”

What You Need to Know:

• People who have some but may not have all three attributes or virtues will take a tremendous amount of energy.

• Some people have all three virtues, yet are stronger in one area than the other.

THE MODEL

The Virtues in Isolation:

• Humble only: too kind, don’t have a great deal of fire within and are often taken advantage of.

• Hungry only: too much passion, don’t care much about teammates and only care about getting their desired outcome.

• Smart only: too fun, don’t care much about outcomes or the long-term.

Two of Three Virtues:• Humble and hungry: create people problems because they don’t care as much

about the people. Will work hard and share credit but will potentially hurt people along the way.

• Humble and smart: slow everything down because they lack drive. Will work to keep the team happy but don’t worry too much about the outcomes.

• Hungry and smart: derail the team because they are all about themselves and can manipulate. Best described as a politician.

Advice on Interviewing:• Interview as a team to ensure no biases or justifications are created when

looking to have all three virtues.• Debrief all interviews together to share all perspectives and force each other to

justify potentially created mental biases – good or bad• Don’t be generic• Be non-traditional in your interviews. Avoid “what is your greatest weakness?”

This way you can avoid the classic “my greatest weakness is also my greatest strength. I care so much that sometimes I burn myself out working for others.”

• Repeat questions in different ways to seek consistency in responses.• Create real life situations and problems for the candidate to solve.• Don’t ignore your hunches – if it doesn’t feel right – it ain’t.• Tell the people you’re interviewing that you expect the three virtues in

everything they do.• Buy the book for the great examples of questions that can be asked in during

the interview process.

Key quotes/ concepts:

• When employees or teammates are not good at one of the virtues, point it out to them. Encourage them to practice demonstrating or living that virtue. Grow people to their potential or invite them to leave.

• Model as a leader what you expect and how to be humble, hungry and smart.

• The clearer the expectations the easier they are to achieve.

• Feedback is critical – both positive and candid.

• Smart people are not intentional about their lack of awareness for other people. That is, they are not aware until you make them aware.

• “Whenever you see a behavior that violates one of the values, take the time to let the violator know that his behavior is out of line.”

Lessons

• Describe how you develop a team that ishumble, hungry and smart.

• Describe ways that you can grow to be strongerin the virtues.

• List the strategies that need to be developed inorder to support collaborative communities.

Reflective Questions for the Reader:

Ted’s Take

First, you have to purchase and read this text with another leader. Second, you need to immediately change your behavior when collaborating. Often times we follow processes and establish norms for meetings. However, someone needs to take the lead and deliver results and too often the behaviors of others - or as Lencioni says virtues of the ideal team player - are lacking what the team needs to succeed. This book calls on all of us to look at how we set up teams, how we maintain them and how we grow them. His call for candor and high expectations must be answered. As school systems and businesses have discovered, collaboration works. Yet, it sometimes fails as a result of teams without clear support or as you’ll learn, a lack of humility, hunger and smarts. If we are expected to be successful then we should have the people around us who have these qualities, share in the mission and want to do well for and with others.

This book should be read at every level of every organization. The reflection tools, the fable and the application are easily understood and will force reflection. Humility, hunger and smarts are simple virtues that are needed in a complicated world. Read his book, apply his thinking and improve your outcomes.

About Ted NeitzkeTed Neitzke is the Chief Educational Officer and Agency Administrator for CESA 6, a non-profit cooperative that serves 40 public school districts in Wisconsin. Ted is an advocate for children and public education. He believes that everyone in a school is a servant leader. “A leader is anyone who has influence over another person.” This, Neitzke believes, “makes all of us leaders.” These Smart Summaries are his way of helping pay-it-forward for the leaders in the classrooms and schools. “Not everyone has time to read or search for great texts that will help them develop as learners, leaders or innovators and these briefs help to increase personal intelligence and support the strategies necessary to help leaders in the 21st century educational world. Ted Neitzke has been a superintendent, assistant superintendent, principal, assistant principal, high school and middle school teacher and, while in high school, was an aide in a summer school program for students with significant disabilities. He is the father of two and is married to Megan, a 7th grade teacher in a public school. Ted is the son of a kindergarten teacher and is surrounded by relatives who are leading classrooms and systems.

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For more information, contact: Ted Neitzke, Administrator/CEO | tneitzke@cesa6.org | 262-483-3997

CESA 6 2300 State Road 44Oshkosh, WI 54904 cesa6.org

“Smart simply refers to a person’s common sense about other people”

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