Patrick Lencioni

Biography

Patrick Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, Inc., a specialized management-consulting firm focused on organizational health. He has been described by The One-Minute Manager`s Ken Blanchard as "fast defining the next generation of leadership thinkers."

Pat`s passion for organizations and teams is reflected in his writing, speaking, and consulting. Lencioni is the author of nine best-selling books with nearly 3 million copies sold. After several years in print, his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team continues to be a fixture on national best-seller lists. The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, became an instant best-seller in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and BusinessWeek. And his latest work, Getting Naked, was released in 2010.

The Wall Street Journal has named Lencioni one of the most in-demand business speakers. And he has been a keynote speaker on the same ticket with George Bush Sr., Jack Welch, Rudy Guiliani, and General Colin Powell.

Pat`s work has been featured in numerous publications such as BusinessWeek, Fast Company, INC Magazine, USA Today, Fortune, Drucker Foundation` Leader to Leader, and Harvard Business Review.

As a consultant and speaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 corporations and professional sports teams to universities and nonprofits, including Southwest Airlines, Barnes & Noble, General Mills, Newell Rubbermaid, SAP, Washington Mutual, and the US Military Academy at West Point.

Prior to founding The Table Group, Pat worked at Bain & Company, Oracle Corporation, and Sybase, where he was vice president of organizational development. He also served on the National Board of Directors for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America from 2000-2003.

Pat lives in the Bay Area with his wife Laura and four boys.

Publications

Getting Naked:
A Business Fable About Shedding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty

Written in the same dynamic style as his previous bestsellers including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni illustrates the principles of inspiring client loyalty through a fascinating business fable.

He explains the theory of vulnerability in depth and presents concrete steps for putting it to work in any organization. The story follows a small consulting firm, Lighthouse Partners, which often beats out big-name competitors for top clients. One such competitor buys out Lighthouse and learns important lessons about what it means to provide value to its clients.

Titles

Getting Naked
Based on the principles in his brand-new book, Getting Naked (2010), Pat Lencioni presents a revolutionary and counterintuitive approach to client service that yields uncommon levels of trust and loyalty. Naked Service, as Lencioni calls it, provokes consultants and service providers to be completely transparent and vulnerable with clients and to avoid the three fears that ultimately sabotage client allegiance. Learn principles like `enter the danger,` `tell the kind truth,` and `always consult instead of sell` that can help you establish a fiercely loyal client base. Whether you are an internal or external consultant, financial advisor or anyone else serving long-term clients -- you will glean some powerful tools for overcoming the three fears, and gain a real and lasting competitive edge.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
According to Pat Lencioni, teamwork remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare. He makes the point that if you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time. Based on his runaway best seller, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002), Pat uncovers the natural human tendencies that derail teams and lead to politics and confusion in so many organizations. Audience members will walk away with specific advice and practical tools for overcoming the dysfunctions and making their teams more functional and cohesive.

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job
In his latest talk, Pat addresses perhaps the most timeless and elusive topic related to work: job misery. Based on his book, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, Lencioni delivers a message that is as revolutionary as it is shockingly simple. Using a mix of humor and poignancy, he dismantles the root causes of frustration and anguish at work: anonymity, irrelevance and immeasurement. In doing so, he provides managers at all levels, as well as employees, with actionable wisdom and advice about how they can bring fulfillment and meaning to any job in any industry. Whether you`re an executive looking to establish a sustainable competitive advantage around culture, a manager trying to engage and retain your people, or an employee who has almost given up on finding meaning and fulfillment in your work, this talk will prove immediately invaluable.

Silos, Politics and Turf Wars
In this popular talk, Pat Lencioni tackles a prominent symptom of corporate frustration: silos, the invisible barriers that separate work teams, departments and divisions, causing people who are supposed to be on the same team to work against one another. According to Lencioni, silos -- and the turf wars they enable, devastate organizations by wasting resources, killing productivity and collaboration and jeopardizing the achievement of results. Drawing from his book, Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars (2006), Lencioni provides audience members with powerful advice on how to eliminate the structural obstacles that derail organizations and foster mediocrity. Urging leaders to provide a compelling context for their employees to work together, Lencioni`s model gives leaders a simple tool for enabling clarity, alignment and prioritization in their organizations.

The Four Disciplines of a Healthy Organization
Pat Lencioni claims that most companies have enough organizational intelligence, intellectual property and human capital to succeed, but ultimately fail to leverage those assets because they lack something he calls `organizational health.` He defines a healthy organization as one where internal confusion and politics are minimized and an atmosphere of clarity and employee productivity can flourish. Built upon his model in The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive (2000), Pat helps leaders understand the disarming simplicity and power of organizational health and reveals the four actionable steps that allow them to achieve it.

The Five Temptations of a Leader
Pat Lencioni believes that too many leaders overcomplicate their jobs. In reality, a leader`s success hinges on a few simple behaviors -- behaviors that require remarkable levels of discipline. Based on the model in his first best-selling book, The Five Temptations of a CEO (1998), Pat captures the natural human tendencies that plague all leaders and often prevent them from fulfilling their potential. He challenges leaders to engage in self-exploration, to assess their own temptations, and he offers actionable advice on how to overcome these all too common behavioral pitfalls that even the best leaders face.

Confronting the Absurdity of Meetings
Based on his book, Death by Meeting (2004), Pat Lencioni reveals some surprising truths about why we hate meetings, why we shouldn`t, and how to make them productive -- even enjoyable. He debunks the myth that meetings are inherently bad and makes the case that they are, in fact, one of the most critical activities at the heart of an organization. Using pointed and humorous examples from his work, Pat paints the picture of prototypically bad meetings, and presents a new, radical approach to meetings, one that transforms them from drudgery to focused, relevant and compelling business activities.