Recommended Readings September 18, 2007
Geery's Reviews and Summary
- Lencioni, Patrick. The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (and their employees), Jossey-Bass 2007.
Tuesday afternoon: September 18, 2007
Dear Friends,
It has been a long time since I have shared a book review with all of you, mostly
because I haven't found anything that has been notable. There has been the
occasion interesting article or two, but nothing has risen above the constant
flood of the same ideas packaged in new colors and basically in new words.
But this all changed in early September when I discovered that Patrick
Lencioni had written a new book called, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A
Fable for Managers (and their employees), Jossey-Bass 2007. What I like
about this author is the easy accessibility of his ideas and models. With his
usual opening, fable format and usual ending of a concise model, a diversity of
people can read his books and instantly relate to and access his material. The
inclusiveness of the content and the models he uses allows everyone from a
senior executive to a front line staff member to find it helpful.
Furthermore, I am starting to believe that Patrick Lencioni will become
this current generation's Ken Blanchard. Ask a Baby Boomer in management and
leadership positions about The One Minute Manager concepts and they will all
have read them and used them. Ask a Gen X manager or executive about Lencionis
work and you will quickly enter into a discussion of his book, The Five
Dsyfunctions of a Team. While Blanchard was the great synthesizer who first
used a story format for his books, Lencioni is the great simplifier who always
ends up with a model. And with his latest book, he present another model which
will be widely read and utilized by a diversity of people within for-profit and
nonprofit settings.
In his latest book, The Three Signs of a Miserable
Job, the lead character, Brian Bailey, is an abruptly retired executive
searching for meaning in his career and life. Through a unique set of events
which take him from a well-respected company to managing a drive-through window
of a fast-food restaurant, Brian explores the painful reality that most people
find their job miserable. Ultimately and with much trial and reflection, he
comes up with a three step model to changing this situation.
If you are
an executive looking for increased productivity, greater staff retention and
sustainable cultural differentiation, then Lencionis new model will intrigue
you. The three signs of a miserable job are the following:
- Anonymity: People cannot be fulfilled in their work if they are not known.
- Irrelevance: Everyone needs to know that their job matters to someone.
- Immeasurement: Employees need to be able to gauge their progress and level of
contribution for themselves.
His solution for managers is to ask themselves the following three questions:
- Do I really know my people?
- Do they know who their work impacts and how?
- Do they know how to assess their own progress or success?
Brilliantly simplistic and easily
accessible, the book is a wonderful spring board into the more in-depth and
integrated material within First, Break All The Rules: What The Worlds
Greatest Managers Do Differently or 12: The Elements of Great Managing.
Still, what I like about his style of writing most is that
people can connect to it. When I shared briefly last week about this book with
the 2007 From Vision to Action Leadership Training class, everyone in the class
could relate to the subject and to the solutions offered within the model. Most
wanted to read a copy this fall so they could be better leaders, managers and
coaches of their people. And that is why most of us should go out and read this
book. It will be read by many people in our organizations and it will be on
their minds when they decide whether or not they are stuck in a miserable job.
With the continued emergence of a Talent War in the market place, and the desire
by many to be managed as a person rather than a follower or mere employee, this
is a resource that will set a new tone for cultural clarity and has the
potential to erase those Sunday blues, that awful feelings of dread and
depression as we contemplate going back to work on Monday.
Happy reading,
Geery