In The Motive, Lencioni uses unexpected plot twists and sharp language to take us on a journey that ends with an unexpected and instructive finale. In five areas, the book provides concrete steps for leaders to modify their approach. As a result, he assists leaders in avoiding mistakes that suffocate organizations and even harm the people they are supposed to serve. He investigates what he refers to as the two leadership motives: reward-centered leadership, which assumes that the leader is free to choose what they work on and avoid anything mundane or unpleasant, and responsibility-centered leadership, which holds that leading should be difficult and challenging.
We can talk about what a leader is meant to do, but none of it will make sense if we don't understand why we've been chosen to lead in the first place. People are motivated to lead for only two reasons.
● They wish to help others (servant leadership)
● They want to be rewarded for their efforts (reward-centered leadership)
You probably already know which of these motivations produces better leaders. In fact, people should stop using the term servant leadership altogether, because it is the only one that is valid. And it should be your motivation for leading — to do good for the people you lead, not just for yourself. With that said, keep reading to find out why reward-centered leadership is such a problem.
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Developing the leadership team. Many leaders try to delegate or disregard this task because they don't enjoy it or believe it isn't that vital. The only person who can take personal responsibility for his or her team's development and actively participate in it is the leader.
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Taking care of subordinates. Individual management entails assisting individuals in determining the broad direction of their work, ensuring that it is aligned with and understood by their peers, and remaining informed enough to recognize potential impediments and issues as early as feasible. They must make certain that their subordinates one level below them are also in charge of their personnel.
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Conversations that are unpleasant and uncomfortable. Having unpleasant conversations with coworkers is usually about addressing a company's unsettling behavioral concerns. Many leaders aim to avoid conflict with their subordinates. When leaders avoid these situations, though, they imperil the team's and organization's success.
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Organizing fantastic team meetings. Meetings are still one of the least popular and undervalued tasks in any company. Many executives admit that they despise meetings, so instead of making them as focused, relevant, and intense as they should be, they merely tolerate them. This creates a bad precedent for the rest of the company.
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Employees must hear a message seven times before believing their superiors are serious. Many leaders, unfortunately, refuse to repeat themselves. Yet, the reason a leader engages with employees at all levels is to ensure that everyone is on the same page and understands how they fit into the enterprise's success.
Only the leader, whether of an organization or a team, can carry out these responsibilities, according to Lencioni. As a result, when leaders abdicate any of these roles, they jeopardize the organization's strength by demonstrating poor, ineffective leadership.
