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The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable Hardcover – September 1, 2000

by Patrick Lencioni (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,492 ratings
See all formats and editions
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A gripping tale that reveals what occupies the minds of the world’s best business leaders

As CEO, most everything that Rich O'Connor did had something to do with at least one of the four disciplines on his famed "yellow sheet." Some of the firm's executives joked that he was obsessed with it.

Interestingly, only a handful of people knew what was on that sheet, and so it remained something of a mystery. Which was okay with Rich, because no one really needed to understand it, other than him. He certainly never suspected that it would become the blueprint of an employee's plan to destroy the firm.

In this stunning follow-up to his best-selling book, The Five Temptations of a CEO, Patrick Lencioni offers up another leadership fable that's every bit as compelling and illuminating as its predecessor.

This time, Lencioni's focus is on a leader's crucial role in building a healthy organization - an often overlooked but essential element of business life that is the linchpin of sustained success.

Readers are treated to a story of corporate intrigue as Rich O'Connor, fictional CEO of technology consulting company Telegraph Partners, faces a leadership challenge so great that it threatens to topple his company, his career and everything he holds true about what makes a leader truly exceptional.

In the story's telling, Lencioni deftly helps his readers understand the disarming simplicity and power of creating a healthy organization and reveals four key disciplines that they can follow to achieve it.

In The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, Lencioni delivers an utterly gripping tale with a powerful and memorable message for all who strive to be remarkable leaders.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    184 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Jossey-Bass Inc Pub
  4. Publication date
    September 1, 2000
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0787954039
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0787954031
  8. See all details
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From the brand

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  2. Patrick Lencioni logo

    Patrick Lencioni is the pioneer of the organizational health movement and the author of 13 bestselling books, including, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Advantage, and The Ideal Team Player. For the past 25 years, Pat and his firm, The Table Group, have provided leaders with products and services to make their organizations more effective, their teams more cohesive, and their employees more fulfilled.

  3. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
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    The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business
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  4. The Truth About Employee Engagement: A Fable About Addressing the Three Root Causes of Job Misery
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  6. Patrick Lencioni quote about becoming a team player
  7. Patrick Lencioni quote about teamwork
  8. Patrick Lencioni quote about employee engagement
  9. Patrick Lencioni quote about good meetings
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From the Publisher

four obsessions of extraordinary executive book, patrick lencioni, management, leadership

THE FOUR DISCIPLINES OF A HEALTHY ORGANIZATION

four obsessions of extraordinary executive book, patrick lencioni, management, leadership

four obsessions of extraordinary executive book, patrick lencioni, management, leadership

four obsessions of extraordinary executive book, patrick lencioni, management, leadership

four obsessions of extraordinary executive book, patrick lencioni, management, leadership

DISCIPLINE #1: BUILD AND MAINTAIN A COHESIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM

The first and most critical step in a healthy organization is creating a cohesive leadership team that is committed to do the ongoing work of developing and maintaining a high-performing team and mastering the five behaviors outlined in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

DISCIPLINE #2: CREATE ORGANIZATIONAL CLARITY

Creating clarity at the executive level is essential to building and maintaining a healthy organization. There are six simple but critical questions that need to be answered, eliminating all discrepancies among team members.

DISCIPLINE #3: OVERCOMMUNICATE ORGANIZATIONAL CLARITY

Once a leadership team has become cohesive and established clarity around the six critical questions, they need to communicate the answers to employees over and over again. There are specific communication strategies the leadership team can employ to ensure that messaging is consistent and absorbed by employees.

DISCIPLINE #4: REINFORCE ORGANIZATIONAL CLARITY THROUGH HUMAN SYSTEMS

For an organization to be healthy, organizational clarity (the six critical questions) must become embedded into the fabric of the organization. Systems in the following areas need to tie to the six questions: Recruiting and hiring, managing performance, compensation and rewards and real-time recognition.

four obsessions of extraordinary executive book, patrick lencioni, management, leadership

four obsessions of extraordinary executive book, patrick lencioni, management, leadership

four obsessions of extraordinary executive book, patrick lencioni, management, leadership

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Allegories and parables have long been effective ways to impart serious bits of knowledge and wisdom without getting too pedantic, and business readers seem increasingly receptive to sensible management theory that employs this lively age-old literary technique. Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, a "leadership fable" by Patrick Lencioni, continues the trend with a solid prescription for organizational health--aiming for less politics, lower turnover, more productivity, and higher morale. Presented as a fictional tale of two technical consultants and their competing companies, the story is structured in a fashion that recalls his previous book (The Five Temptations of a CEO, whose main character and firm are even slipped into this narrative). Lencioni uses this hypothetical setting to show how his concepts might look and work in the real world. In this case, his "four disciplines at the heart of making any organization world class" are revealed and explained through the philosophy and behavior of Rich O'Connor of Telegraph Partners. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team, create organizational clarity, communicate organizational clarity, and reinforce organizational clarity through human systems. Through his tale of Telegraph and its rival Greenwich Consulting, Lencioni illustrates how these principles can be beneficially employed--and how an organization can be stymied when they're missing. The story moves quickly and is followed by a comprehensive analytical summary, which includes self-assessment tools and suggestions for putting the ideas into practice. --Howard Rothman

From Booklist

This fictional tale by a screenwriter and head of a consulting firm that specializes in organizational development is billed not as a novel but as a "leadership fable." Just like Lencioni's earlier The Five Temptations of a CEO (1998), this new "fable" serves as a vehicle to illustrate the author's philosophy of management. The story is short and simple, but its lesson is large. Organizations must not only be smart; they must be healthy. For one thing, healthy companies can make themselves smarter, but unhealthy organizations squander intellectual advantage through infighting and cross-purposes. To drive home his moral, Lencioni follows his story with a discussion that explicitly sets down his four "actionable steps," or disciplines, that are the hallmark of a healthy organization--build a leadership team, create organizational clarity, communicate that clarity, and then reinforce it through human systems. Lencioni offers concrete examples of steps to take to establish these disciplines and suggests ways to assess whether they have been effective. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jossey-Bass Inc Pub; 1st edition (September 1, 2000)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 184 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0787954039
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0787954031
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,492 ratings

About the author

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Patrick M. Lencioni

Patrick M. Lencioni

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Patrick Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to helping leaders improve their organizations’ health since 1997. His principles have been embraced by leaders around the world and adopted by organizations of virtually every kind including multinational corporations, entrepreneurial ventures, professional sports teams, the military, nonprofits, schools, and churches.

Lencioni is the author of ten business books with over three million copies sold worldwide. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Bloomberg Businessweek, and USA Today.

Prior to founding The Table Group, Lencioni served on the executive team at Sybase, Inc. He started his career at Bain & Company and later worked at Oracle Corporation.

Lencioni lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and their four sons.

To learn more about Patrick and The Table Group, please visit www.tablegroup.com.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
1,492 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Tim Turner
5.0 out of 5 stars More crystal clear guidance from Mr. Lencioni
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2024
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The author’s use of story to illustrate key points creates so much clarity that I came away with a few powerful concepts I can implement immediately.
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Oliver
5.0 out of 5 stars If you like a story, If you don't like a story THAT is the question.
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2020
Verified Purchase
When I read through a good portion of the reviews of this book, something I always do prior to offering my own review, I see that many folks either directly or indirectly reference the 'story' offered in the beginning of the book; either because it was found distracting in some way or because it provided a landscape from which to mine or connect to the principles of the book's message. The book's message is most definitely one out of the KISS realms and as things from this realm are they are potent reminders to not complicate the art of leadership. I enjoyed the story and the reminders; it's a quick and easy read, probably something one could cover on a day trip to a clients office on a plane and through the airport. It's also worth the read, especially if you find a good story useful for connecting with a message as I know I do.
3 people found this helpful
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Rebecca
4.0 out of 5 stars The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable
Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2011
Verified Purchase
This book took me on an insightful exploration of the principle foundations of leadership that a company used towards its success. It highlighted and reinforced the core disciplines in establishing and maintaining a successful company from the perspective of the leader.

The book was enjoyable to read because the message wasn't hindered by overcomplicated words and ideas. Each of the four disciplines was reiterated throughout the text in different ways. Because of this, people who learn through narrative, example and explanation, or definition will all be able to find this book useful and informative.

The majority of the book is a narrative about two competing firms, Telegraph and Greenwich. The author does a good job of describing the culture of the companies and the roles of the employees so that readers are able to identify with the organizations and the people in them. There is a relatable employee or situation in this book for any reader. The latter part of the book is a more structured look at the principles. I found this to be very helpful because not only did it clearly state and explain each discipline, but it also gave clear examples and samples of how to implement these values and strategies within your own team. Implementation is only the first part of the process. Full integration and success takes some restructuring, time, cooperation, and effort on everyone's part. The book emphasizes this, but doesn't necessarily lay out the process for the reader. So, if you are looking for a start to finish example of the process of reevaluation and the restructuring of an organization's values, mission, strategies, and beliefs, this book won't have quite enough information for that.

The only part of the book that I found to be a bit uninspiring was the fact that this was a "leadership fable," so the story was not actually true. Although I still learned of the disciplines and witnessed them in action, I feel that this book would have a little more power if this had been an example of real companies.

I found this book to be an interesting approach to leadership. It definitely gets your mind thinking about the improvements that your company could benefit from, and it makes you proud of the things that you're already doing.
2 people found this helpful
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C. M. Aiken
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Help and Call to Return to the Basics for Every Leader
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2012
Verified Purchase
I was caught up with the genre of this series of books for the "5 Dysfunctions of a Team." I have read nearly everything in the series and really enjoy the format, ease of reading, and the writer's style.

As a leader of a church, I am always looking to improve my effectiveness to oversee an organization. Not all lessons from the "business world" apply perfectly, but I have found that even in the cases where there is no direct correlation, it is good to understand how those in the business world think. Beyond that, the principles that Lencioni communicates can usually be adapted to my particular context.

What drew me to this book was the emphasis on the role of the senior leader in a company. The fable involves how the CEO interacts with his management team and how, in the most successful companies, there is a dogged determination to remain committed to the "most" important things. A CEO could become involved in a number of aspects of company operations; however, he is most effective in developing his senior leadership team, bringing clarity of purpose (vision) in every decision and direction, communicating that vision/direction "ad nauseum," and reinforcing the clarity through the human systems of the organization.

Now I did not just share any new insights or upend some popular "B School" teaching; rather, I just shared what Lencioni reinforced throughout the book. A senior leader who focuses on these aspects of the organization can allow his senior leadership to carry out the task in the most effective way for their particular area of responsibility.

While there is no "new" information or "magic pill" related in this book, there is a huge opportunity for the leader to evaluate his/her own organizational health, persona leadership effectiveness, and to make adjustments accordingly.

I recommend the book highly to all leaders who are responsible for "shepherding" the vision and overseeing the direction of an organization. If you ever wanted "permission" to pull back from for the intricacies of the details and focus on what you do best...this is the book for you.
9 people found this helpful
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Charles Makola
5.0 out of 5 stars Great lessons
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2024
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The lessons are true. Halfway through the book, I was yet to conceptualise the central theme and message. I kept turning the page, until about 50% into the read, when all fits together.
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Haden
5.0 out of 5 stars Never read a bad book by this author
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2024
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Amazing book, must read
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Top reviews from other countries

cristina
5.0 out of 5 stars Our culture and why it works- I LIKeD reading this tiny book
Reviewed in Canada on July 14, 2022
Verified Purchase
A very concise book with mise-en-scene scenarios that you can easily rely on and read in one night! Bottom line the atmosphere in an org comes through culture and the latter is built by drilling the reasons why the company exists in the first place; that’s how the acolytes become one (company).
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ragu nathan
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book on management
Reviewed in India on June 21, 2022
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Very good read on management goals and values . The model described here is useful for any executive who strives for improvement.
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Dandroid
5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Insight about success principles
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2014
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Lencioni tells a fictional story that is so realistic, anyone can relate to it. In fact, most of us will see characteristics of the people in the story in ourselves.This metaphoric prose, is one of the best ways to create personal motivation for change. Most of us have had more than one experience where our own zeal for a powerful concept has fallen on deaf ears as people resist our ideas. We also react this way when we feel others are forcing an idea for personal improvement on us as well. Lencioni avoids this human response by providing a journey through the eyes of others that makes change feel wholesome and beneficial.

It is simple and compelling and should be required reading for all managers.
3 people found this helpful
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pt33
5.0 out of 5 stars amazing !!
Reviewed in India on April 23, 2022
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God’s grace that I came across this life changing book and the author, everyone in leadership role should read author’s books !!
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Roland
5.0 out of 5 stars Great learning for CEOs
Reviewed in Canada on October 13, 2019
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Great for CEOs once again! All books tie together to make an easy guide on how to run a successful company!
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