Ideal Team Player

The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues is an excellent book written by Patrick Lencioni (2016), to those who are seeking to be the ideal player and recognizing the ideal team player. Furthermore, Lencioni writes this book it what seems to be an unorthodox way. However, I appreciate this style of writing. He writes the book in a practical sense, to make it looks like you are walking along with the characters of the book. Moreover, Lencioni writes about this gentlemen name Jeff Shanley, who was the co-founder of a company name Silicon Valley. While working in Silicon Valley, he was introduced to leadership, teamwork, and business skills by someone that the company brought in to replace him. However,

Every team needs people that will buy into what they are trying to accomplish. Jeff’s uncle informed him that there would be two people at the company that is going to assist in achieving the goals at hand. These two people were well invested in the company’s vision. Jeff and these two colleagues set out to define the essential qualities that would make up a good team player and how to recognize these traits in individuals during the hiring process. During this process of hiring, they expect that they will be setbacks because everyone is not who they seem to be during the hiring process. Lencioni presented in the book three virtues that make up the ideal team player; they are as follows: humility, hunger, and smarts. Ironically, these traits must be taught, and not inherent. However, it is through life and work experiences that will implore these traits in people’s lives. Lencioni writes that when these qualities are not exhibited in people, it is hard for them to become the ideal team player and hard to build a competent

According to Lencioni (2016), “Humility is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute of being a team player” (p. 157). Humility is a form of integrity. When a team player is humble they do not have egos, neither are they concerned about their status. When a team player is humble, they tend to point out the contributions of others and do not highlight the contribution of their own. The success of the team is collectively not an individual effort. The second virtue that Lencioni talks about is hunger. Hunger is an attribute that a team player will have to keep advancing the team and will induce them to look for more to do, learn and more responsibilities. A hunger team member never has to be pushed to do more. When a person is hungry, they are self-motivated and diligent to work with others. The last virtue is smart. The virtue of smart is not what one may think. Smart team members are those who are considerate of others. They tend to know what is going on the team. Besides, people who are not smart will cause