I’m at the leadership summit with the team from Revolution Church. This is by far the best leadership conference of the year. This is my 13th summit and every year, God stretches me and challenges me. So much wisdom and inspiration wrapped up into two days. I always blog my notes, so if you can’t attend or missed something, I’ve got you covered.

Patrick Lencioni talked from his new book The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues, which I think is a must read for every leader. His insights have been incredibly helpful to me.

Here are some takeaways:

• The ideal team player is humble, hungry and smart.
• If a person possesses these 3 virtues, they can overcome the 5 dysfunctions of a team. 

Humble

• Lacking self confidence is lacking humility.
• Humility is not saying, “I don’t need to be heard.”
• Humility is thinking about yourself less.

Hungry

• Hungry person has a strong work ethic.
• They hate being considered a slacker.
• They will do whatever is necessary to get it done.
• This is the hardest to instill in someone.

Smart

• Smart is not intellectual smarts, it is common sense around people.
• People who are good at practicing EQ.
• They know what they say to others and how it impacts them.
• Hiring for intellectual smarts is not a good idea.

Humble, but not hungry or smart (The Pawn)

• They aren’t effective on a team.
• They are a good neighbor, but they don’t get something done.
• They don’t have initiative to rise up the ranks.

Hungry, but not humble or smart (Bull Dozer)

• Lots of drive and ambition, but they can’t work with others.
• They leave a trail of dead bodies around them.

Smart, but not humble or hungry (The Charmer)

• They are funny, they don’t get things done.
• They aren’t hard working and they aren’t interested in other people’s success.

Humble and hungry, but not smart (The accidental mess maker)

• They have good intentions, they want to get things done, but they aren’t smart emotionally.
• Cared about the world and wanted to help people but said things he didn’t mean to.
• Their intentions are good.

Humble and smart, but not hungry (Loveable slacker)

• These people survive in organizations a long time.
• They mean well and people like them.
• They just don’t want to do that much work, they do just enough work to make it hard for you to do something about it.
• Hard workers get really frustrated by this person.

Hungry and smart, but not humble (Skillful politician)

• They are ambitious and hard driving and know how to make themselves look humble. They convince people that they care about the team.
• They are often charming and driven.

Application

• Go first as a leader.
• Find out what your teams are like and what they are lacking.
• You have to have the courage to let your people know where they stand and what they need to improve on and to constantly remind them (not your spouse or co-workers) when they are doing it.

How to hire team players

• We overemphasize technical skills and what is measurable.
• Know what you are looking for.
• Don’t get caught up in what “you think you should look for.”
• Behavior always rises to the top.
• To interview someone, get them out of the office to get to know them.
• Don’t overlook red flags and gut feelings.
• Ask people the same question more than once.
• Ask what other people would say about them on something, people are more honest when they tell you what other people would say.
• Scare someone with sincerity, tell them what you are fanatical about as a church. Tell them if they line up, they’ll love it and if they aren’t, they will hate working here.