Top 100 Patrick Lencioni Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “No quality or characteristic is more important than trust.”

— Patrick Lencioni

52. “The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health.”

— Patrick Lencioni

53. “Success is not a matter of mastering subtle, sophisticated theory but rather of embracing common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence.”

— Patrick Lencioni

54. “Healthy organizations believe that performance management is almost exclusively about eliminating confusion. They realize that most of their employees want to succeed, and that the best way to allow them to do that is to give them clear direction, regular information about how they’re doing, and access to the coaching they need.”

— Patrick Lencioni

55. “Trust is the foundation of real teamwork.”

— Patrick Lencioni

56. “A job is bound to be miserable if it doesn’t involve measurement.”

— Patrick Lencioni

57. “I honestly believe that in this day and age of informational ubiquity and nanosecond change, teamwork remains the one sustainable competitive advantage that has been largely untapped.”

— Patrick Lencioni

58. “If we don’t trust one another, then we aren’t going to engage in open, constructive, ideological conflict. And we’ll just continue to preserve a sense of artificial harmony.”

— Patrick Lencioni

59. “The only way for people to embrace a message is to hear it over a period of time, in a variety of different situations, and preferably from different people. That’s why great leaders see themselves as Chief Reminding Officers as much as anything else. Their top two priorities are to set the direction of the organization and then to ensure that people are reminded of it on a regular basis.”

— Patrick Lencioni

60. “Hiring without clear and strict criteria for cultural fit greatly hampers the potential for success of any organization.”

— Patrick Lencioni

61. “Our ability to engage in passionate, unfiltered debate about what we need to do to succeed will determine our future as much as any products we develop or partnerships we sign.” It.”

— Patrick Lencioni

62. “Because people who aren’t good at their jobs don’t want to be measured, because then they have to be accountable for something. Great employees love that kind of accountability. They crave it. Poor ones run away from it.”

— Patrick Lencioni

63. “Most people are generally reasonable and can rally around an idea that wasn’t their own as long as they know they’ve had a chance to weigh in.”

— Patrick Lencioni

64. “Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.”

— Patrick Lencioni

65. “To achieve results. This is the only true measure of a team P.42.”

— Patrick Lencioni

66. “Leaders who can identify, hire, and cultivate employees who are humble, hungry, and smart will have a serious advantage over those who cannot.”

— Patrick Lencioni

67. “How many of you would rather go to a meeting than a movie?” No hands went up. “Why not?” After a pause, Jeff realized that her question was not a rhetorical one. “Because movies are more interesting. Even the bad ones.” His peers chuckled. Kathryn smiled. “Right. But if you really think about it, meetings should be at least as interesting as movies.”

— Patrick Lencioni

68. “An organization’s strategy is simply its plan for success. It’s nothing more than the collection of intentional decisions a company makes to give itself the best chance to thrive and differentiate from competitors.”

— Patrick Lencioni

69. “Once organizational health is properly understood and placed into the right context, it will surpass all other disciplines in business as the greatest opportunity for improvement and competitive advantage.”

— Patrick Lencioni

70. “Direct, personal feedback really is the simplest and most effective form of motivation.”

— Patrick Lencioni

71. “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.”

— Patrick Lencioni

72. “Some people are hard to hold accountable because they are so helpful. Others because they get defensive. Others because they are intimidating. I don’t think it’s easy to hold anyone accountable, not even your own kids.”

— Patrick Lencioni

73. “Becoming a healthy organization takes a little time. Unfortunately, many of the leaders I’ve worked with suffer from a chronic case of adrenaline addiction, seemingly hooked on the daily rush of activity and firefighting within their organizations. It’s as though they’re afraid to slow down and deal with issues that are critical but don’t seem particularly urgent.”

— Patrick Lencioni

74. “Human beings need to be needed, and they need to be reminded of this pretty much every day. They need to know that they are helping others, not merely serving themselves.”

— Patrick Lencioni

75. “A lack of healthy conflict is a problem because it ensures the third dysfunction of a team: lack of commitment. Without having aired their opinions in the course of passionate and open debate, team members rarely, if ever, buy in and commit to decisions, though they may feign agreement during meetings.”

— Patrick Lencioni

76. “If we don’t trust one another, then we aren’t going to engage in open, constructive, ideological conflict.”

— Patrick Lencioni

77. “Tell me about someone who is better than you in an area that really matters to you.” Look for the candidate to demonstrate a genuine appreciation for others who have more skill or talent. Humble people are comfortable with this. Ego-driven people often are not.”

— Patrick Lencioni

78. “If team members are never pushing one another outside of their emotional comfort zones during discussions, then it is extremely likely that they’re not making the best decisions for the organization.”

— Patrick Lencioni

79. “The only real payoff for leadership is eternal.”

— Patrick Lencioni

80. “Firing someone is not necessarily a sign of accountability, but is often the last act of cowardice.”

— Patrick Lencioni

81. “People who don’t like conflict have an amazing ability to avoid it, even when they know it’s theoretically necessary.”

— Patrick Lencioni

82. “Push with respect, and under the assumption that the other person is probably doing the right thing. But push anyway. And never hold back.”

— Patrick Lencioni

83. “When team members trust one another, when they know that everyone on the team is capable of admitting when they don’t have the right answer, and when they’re willing to acknowledge when someone else’s idea is better than theirs, the fear of conflict and the discomfort it entails is greatly diminished. When there is trust, conflict becomes nothing but the pursuit of truth, an attempt to find the best possible answer. It is not only okay but desirable.”

— Patrick Lencioni

84. “Teams have to eliminate ambiguity and interpretation when it comes to success.”

— Patrick Lencioni

85. “A leadership team is a small group of people who are collectively responsible for achieving a common objective for their organization.”

— Patrick Lencioni

86. “I don’t think anyone ever gets completely used to conflict. If it’s not a little uncomfortable, then it’s not real. The key is to keep doing it anyway.”

— Patrick Lencioni

87. “No amount of intellectual prowess or personal charisma can make up for an inability to identify a few simple things and stick to them over time.”

— Patrick Lencioni

88. “Scare People with Sincerity.”

— Patrick Lencioni

89. “It is dangerous if our identity as a leader becomes more important than our identity as a child of God.”

— Patrick Lencioni

90. “No one on a cohesive team can say, Well, I did my job. Our failure isn’t my fault.”

— Patrick Lencioni

91. “An organization has to institutionalize its culture without bureaucratizing it.”

— Patrick Lencioni

92. “Members of teams that tend to avoid conflict must occasionally assume the role of a “miner of conflict” – someone who extracts buried disagreements within the team and sheds the light of day on them. They must have the courage and confidence to call out sensitive issues and force team members to work through them. This requires a degree of objectivity during meetings and a commitment to staying with the conflict until it is resolved. Some.”

— Patrick Lencioni

93. “Ask dumb questions.”

— Patrick Lencioni

94. “Putting together an agenda before a staff meeting is like a marriage counselor deciding what issues she’s going to cover with a couple prior to meeting with them.”

— Patrick Lencioni

95. “Make dumb suggestions.”

— Patrick Lencioni

96. “Stop making the perfect enemy of the good.”

— Patrick Lencioni

97. “Great organizations, unlike countries, are never run like a democracy.”

— Patrick Lencioni

98. “Every human being that works has to know that what they do matters to another human being.”

— Patrick Lencioni

99. “Most organizations exploit only a fraction of the knowledge, experience, and intellectual capital that is available to them.”

— Patrick Lencioni

100. “We need to hire people who are hungry. They go beyond what is required. Passionate about the work they’re doing. Hungry.”

— Patrick Lencioni