The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable
In this stunning follow-up to his best-selling book, The Five Temptations of a CEO, Patrick Lencioni offers up another leadership fable that's every bit as compelling and illuminating as its predecessor. This time, Lencioni's focus is on a leader's crucial role in building a healthy organization--an often overlooked but essential element of business life that is the linchpin of sustained success. Readers are treated to a story of corporate intrigue as the frustrated head of one consulting firm faces a leadership challenge so great that it threatens to topple his company, his career, and everything he holds true about leadership itself. In the story's telling, Lencioni helps his readers understand the disarming simplicity and power of creating organizational health, and reveals four key disciplines that they can follow to achieve it.Product Details
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Allegories and parables have long been effective ways to impart serious bits of knowledge and wisdom without getting too pedantic, and business readers seem increasingly receptive to sensible management theory that employs this lively age-old literary technique. Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, a "leadership fable" by Patrick Lencioni, continues the trend with a solid prescription for organizational health--aiming for less politics, lower turnover, more productivity, and higher morale. Presented as a fictional tale of two technical consultants and their competing companies, the story is structured in a fashion that recalls his previous book (The Five Temptations of a CEO, whose main character and firm are even slipped into this narrative). Lencioni uses this hypothetical setting to show how his concepts might look and work in the real world. In this case, his "four disciplines at the heart of making any organization world class" are revealed and explained through the philosophy and behavior of Rich O'Connor of Telegraph Partners. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team, create organizational clarity, communicate organizational clarity, and reinforce organizational clarity through human systems. Through his tale of Telegraph and its rival Greenwich Consulting, Lencioni illustrates how these principles can be beneficially employed--and how an organization can be stymied when they're missing. The story moves quickly and is followed by a comprehensive analytical summary, which includes self-assessment tools and suggestions for putting the ideas into practice. --Howard Rothman
From Booklist
This fictional tale by a screenwriter and head of a consulting firm that specializes in organizational development is billed not as a novel but as a "leadership fable." Just like Lencioni's earlier The Five Temptations of a CEO (1998), this new "fable" serves as a vehicle to illustrate the author's philosophy of management. The story is short and simple, but its lesson is large. Organizations must not only be smart; they must be healthy. For one thing, healthy companies can make themselves smarter, but unhealthy organizations squander intellectual advantage through infighting and cross-purposes. To drive home his moral, Lencioni follows his story with a discussion that explicitly sets down his four "actionable steps," or disciplines, that are the hallmark of a healthy organization--build a leadership team, create organizational clarity, communicate that clarity, and then reinforce it through human systems. Lencioni offers concrete examples of steps to take to establish these disciplines and suggests ways to assess whether they have been effective. David Rouse
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Review
"Another great page-turner from Lencioni! As fun to read as it is insightful." -- John J. Donahoe, worldwide managing director, Bain & Company, Inc.
"Another homerun by Lencioni! This will be the first book we give to the thousands of executives who take part in our program." (Verne Harnish, founder, Young Entrepreneurs' Organization; CEO, Gazelles, Inc.)
"This is a wonderful book--a compelling story with a significant message for executives. The lessons here are substantial, and the style of writing is succinct, thorough, and very entertaining." (David S. Pottruck, president & co-CEO, The Charles Schwab Corporation)
"Since implementing these ideas within our company, I've seen morale and productivity increase dramatically. Lencioni encourages us as managers to deal with human issues that are not quickly quantifiable in a spreadsheet or a quarterly report." (Glenn Kiser, vice president and general manager, Skywalker Sound, Lucas Digital LTD.LLC)
"Another great page-turner from Lencioni! As fun to read as it is insightful." (John Donahoe, worldwide managing director, Bain & Company)
"Pat's formula, while elegantly simple, has profound implications for leaders in all sectors. It's right on the mark." (Paula VanNess, president & CEO, Make-A-Wish Foundation of America)
"The four disciplines are the foundation of my company and should be required reading for all start-up ventures." (Mark Weidick, president and CEO, Cymerc Exchange, Inc.)
"This is a powerful model for any organization, large or small. Lencioni knows his stuff." (Mark Hoffman, chairman & CEO, Commerce One)
"Another homerun by Lencioni! This will be the first book we give to the thousands of executives who take part in our program." (Verne Harnish, founder, Young Entrepreneurs' Organization; CEO, Gazelles, Inc.)
"This is a wonderful book--a compelling story with a significant message for executives. The lessons here are substantial, and the style of writing is succinct, thorough, and very entertaining." (David S. Pottruck, president & co-CEO, The Charles Schwab Corporation)
"Since implementing these ideas within our company, I've seen morale and productivity increase dramatically. Lencioni encourages us as managers to deal with human issues that are not quickly quantifiable in a spreadsheet or a quarterly report." (Glenn Kiser, vice president and general manager, Skywalker Sound, Lucas Digital LTD.LLC)
"Another great page-turner from Lencioni! As fun to read as it is insightful." (John Donahoe, worldwide managing director, Bain & Company)
"Pat's formula, while elegantly simple, has profound implications for leaders in all sectors. It's right on the mark." (Paula VanNess, president & CEO, Make-A-Wish Foundation of America)
"The four disciplines are the foundation of my company and should be required reading for all start-up ventures." (Mark Weidick, president and CEO, Cymerc Exchange, Inc.)
"This is a powerful model for any organization, large or small. Lencioni knows his stuff." (Mark Hoffman, chairman & CEO, Commerce One)
"Another homerun by Lencioni! This will be the first book we give to the thousands of executives who take part in our program." -- Verne Harnish, founder, Young Entrepreneurs' Organization; CEO, Gazelles, Inc.
"Lencioni encourages us as managers to deal with human issues that are not quickly quantifiable in a spreadsheet or a quarterly report." -- Glenn Kiser, vice president and general manager, Skywalker Sound, Lucas Digital LTD.LLC
"Pat's formula, while elegantly simple, has profound implications for leaders in all sectors. It's right on the mark." -- Paula Van Ness, president & CEO, Make-A-Wish Foundation of America
"This is a wonderful book- a compelling story with a significant message for executives." -- David S. Pottruck, president & co-CEO, The Charles Schwab Corporation; coauthor, Clicks and Mortar
Customer Reviews
An Amazing Series of Insights - Must Read
One of the series of leadership fables, Patrick Lencioni did not disappoint with this fable. As with The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable and Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business, just to name a few, Patrick Lencioni weaves an intrigue into a management lesson. Chapter by chapter you read to enjoy the story and never realize what business lessons are being planted into your mind for future reference.
It takes great talent to do this, not only once but at least 5 times. All in the series are great reads. The stories you want to read again and again. The best part is that you can complete your initial reading in one, maybe two hours time. Needless to day, as a study of business management, you want to use the books as training material for your leadership development and business skills education.
I enjoyed this style so much, I used it to tell my story for women wanting to break the glass ceiling. The leadership fable works, inspires and entertains. It inspired me to write A Woman's Ladder to Success Is Paved with Broken Glass Ceilings. Maybe it will inspire you to be a better leader, visionary, author.
An engaging story with concrete, memorable examples
I've previously read Death By Meeting by Patrick Lencioni. I really connect with his ability to tell an engaging story which communicates the point. He then spends the last third of this book describing the four principals and how to put them into practice within the organization.
The four disciplines of a healthy organization are:
1. Build and Maintain a Cohesive Leadership Team
2. Create Organizational Clarity
3. Over-Communicate Organizational Clarity
4. Reinforce Organizational Clarity Through Human Systems
While there is a very big focus on executive teams and high level managers, this book can be used for leaders who are putting together smaller teams. The truth is that at every level of the organization there need to be teams who understand the values and are comfortable with each-other.
I especially appreciated Patrick's explanation of how to define clarity and communicating vision and mission. I also appreciated his focus on how important a healthy organization is, even more important than higher revenue and large clients.
I also appreciated that there were a few concrete examples provides as well as questions to help us define our own answers and to model our organization.
This is definitely a great read for anyone who manages teams of people or defines the direction of an organization.
Interesting View of a "Healthy Organization"
Patrick Lencioni, utilizing his engaging fable-as-lesson writing style, covers his view of the four "Disciplines" of a healthy organization in "The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive." The fable...and the "Model" underlying the fable...stresses the importance of clarity in a healthy organization.
As in a number of Lencioni's other books, the simplicity of the framework covered in this book is stressed...as is the difficulty in actually implementing the framework.
I found this book a worthwhile read due to its simplicity, its straightforward messages and its blending of a story with managerial ideas. Furthermore, I appreciated the fact that the principles espoused in the book are laid out in a manner that directly connects the managerial ideas to actions that can be taken within an organization.
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