February 04, 2024 | Read Online
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One of my favorite books is “The Ideal Team Player,” by Patrick Lencioni.
If you’ve never read anything by Lencioni, you're in for a treat. Most of his books are fable-style business stories.
Entertaining, easy to read, and full of wisdom.
In The Ideal Team Player, Lencioni details three traits of a great teammate. They are humble, hungry, and smart.
Let’s dig into each.
Humble
Humility isn't thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less.
- C.S. Lewis
Humble people don’t think they're better than others. They look out for the good of the team and are quick to highlight the value others provide.
This is because they have high confidence in their abilities and contributions to the team.
They believe a team can accomplish anything when individuals don’t worry too much about who gets the credit for the outcome.
Lencioni explains further that...
“Great team players lack excessive ego or concerns about status. They are quick to point out the contributions of others and slow to seek attention for their own. They share credit, emphasize team over self, and define success collectively rather than individually. It is no great surprise, then, that humility is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute of being a team player.”
One acquires humility through upbringing or the school of hard knocks, i.e., it tends to improve with time and age.
Hungry
Hungry people seek to do and achieve more.
They are internally motivated and curious. They rarely, if ever, need to be pushed.
In his book Amp it Up, Frank Slootman calls these people drivers.
He encourages us to hire them over their more sanguine counterparts, "passengers."
According to Slootman, drivers are “people who make things happen, move dials, and stop at literally nothing.“
As a leader, there’s nothing more frustrating and energy-sapping than pushing people who don’t want to move forward.
Smart
When Lencioni says “smart,” he’s not talking about book smarts. He’s talking about people-smarts.
Emotional intelligence.
Smart team players know how to work well with others.
They seek to understand before being understood.
Whether running an internal project involving people from different departments or orchestrating a new logo enterprise sale, these people leverage empathy to align people and move them toward a singular outcome.
Some of the most intelligent people I know don’t have advanced degrees from the most prestigious universities.
But they are subject matter experts in people.
***
After working with someone for only a few days, it's easy to tell whether they are humble, hungry, and smart.
But, identifying these traits during the recuring process is more difficult.
That’s because people can deceive you in an interview. They can tell you what they think you want to hear rather than the truth.
And it might not even be intentional.
Psychologists know that we humans often lie to ourselves before we lie to others.
Using behavioral interview questions is a great way to avoid this type of deception - intentional or otherwise.
Behavioral questions compel candidates to share specific stories about their work and life experiences. They allow you to decide whether a candidate can do a job based on objective evidence that they have done similar work in the past.
This is way more helpful than knowing what they think or how they feel about certain subjects.
It turns out that past behavior is the best predictor of future behaviors.
Here are some interview questions that might help you identify the behaviors you want your next teammate to exhibit:
Humility
Tell me about a time when you were part of a successful team project. What did the team accomplish, and what was your role? How did you contribute to the team’s success?
Look for answers that show they value teamwork, not only their own individual contributions.
Hunger
Describe a project or task where you went above and beyond what was expected.
This will help you see if they’re naturally driven to go the extra mile.
People-smarts
Tell me about a time you had to work with a difficult person. What was the situation, and how did you handle it? What was the outcome?
This question gives you insight into how they handle complex team dynamics.
***
Functional skills will only take us so far in our careers, and AI is automating jobs we never imagined could be automated.
But for now, ingenuity, creativity, and collaboration are still differentiators for humans—our moat.
But one thing is for sure. Teams of the future will likely be smaller. So it's even more important to fill them with ideal teammates.
Is your team filled with ideal team players? If not, what are you gonna do about it?
🤘
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