Patrick Lencioni
Joy “is the leading indicator” of whether an organization is healthy, according to author and organizational health expert Patrick Lencioni, and it’s something he can gauge just by walking around a workplace.
“Are people talking to one another?” Lencioni asks. “Are they engaged in what they’re doing? Does it seem like there is joy? Or do they look like they can’t wait to be gone?”
“If good people are staying at an organization and bringing other people in, that’s a really good sign that the company is healthy,” he said, adding that the inability of a company to keep its best people is a sign of an unhealthy organization.
Lencioni shared his thoughts on leadership, teamwork and the value of building healthy organizational cultures in the August episode of the 21st Century Business Forum, a monthly webcast that features one-on-one interviews with some of the nation’s most prominent business minds and thought leaders. The Business Forum is presented by Arkansas Business and sponsored by CHI St. Vincent.
Register now: The Business Forum continues Sept. 8 with restaurateur and Raising Cane’s Founder Todd Graves. Register to view the webcast free here.
Lencioni told the podcast’s host, Jon Gordon, that “one of the most practical things (a leader) can do for any business is build a healthy culture.”
Striving to create such a culture “is not something esoteric or touchy-feely,” he said. “The best companies in the world get this.” One example is Southwest Airlines and the culture it has that works, Lencioni said.
“Leaders have to realize that (culture) is more important than finance, or strategy, or operations, or technology,” he said. “It’s the context for business.
“The biggest mistake executives make is that they think it’s about figuring things out up here,” Lencioni continued, pointing to his brain. “What makes a business successful is do the leaders care and work well together? Are they crystal clear on what they want the organization to be? And do they repeat (that message) constantly?” and reinforce it consistently.
Asked by Gordon what he learned about leadership during the pandemic, Lencioni said, “I think what I learned is that very few people are leaders.
“Leadership involves suffering, and it is lonely,” he said. “It involves the willingness to sacrifice for others, and there are not many people in the world who want to do that.”
Lencioni said the value of people who put others first and do for others “is greater than ever, and I am hoping there will be a resurgence” in that form of leadership. His book “The Motive” calls that “responsibility-centered leadership.”
But,he said, unfortunately, too many executives focus on the money, power and pleasures their positions can bring. Lencioni calls that “reward-centered leadership” and said it is “very dangerous” for an organization.
Lencioni added, “I’m tired of people using the term ‘servant leadership’ because it implies there is another kind. All leadership should be servant leadership.”
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