1 00:00:01,547 --> 00:00:06,467 Guy: Imagine two individuals vying for the role of president of the United States. The first 2 00:00:06,467 --> 00:00:11,447 viewed the presidency as the ultimate validation of their inherent greatness. Landing the highest 3 00:00:11,447 --> 00:00:16,367 office in the land, they relish the accompanying status, influence and power, using these perks 4 00:00:16,367 --> 00:00:21,527 primarily to enhance their own comfort and lifestyle. In contrast, the second candidate 5 00:00:21,527 --> 00:00:26,597 sees their election not as an end, but as the beginning of an extraordinary opportunity. With 6 00:00:26,597 --> 00:00:30,767 the same status influence and power at their fingertips, they feel a profound sense of 7 00:00:30,767 --> 00:00:36,227 responsibility to use these resources for the collective good of the nation. While the first 8 00:00:36,227 --> 00:00:41,237 candidate shirks responsibilities like reading briefings, understanding legislation, engaging 9 00:00:41,237 --> 00:00:46,367 with constituents and seeking wise counsel, the second does the opposite. They actively pursue 10 00:00:46,367 --> 00:00:51,282 these tasks, aiming to be the most well-informed and effective leader they can be, regardless of 11 00:00:51,282 --> 00:00:56,532 the political leanings of those they govern. So given only their motives, which of these 12 00:00:56,532 --> 00:01:01,362 candidates do you think would make a more effective leader? Now, imagine these individuals 13 00:01:01,362 --> 00:01:06,312 were competing not to lead a country, but your organization or even your own team. Who would 14 00:01:06,312 --> 00:01:07,332 you prefer at the helm? 15 00:01:09,123 --> 00:01:13,893 Guy: Welcome to the Best Business Bookshelf, a podcast that summarizes the main takeaways from 16 00:01:13,893 --> 00:01:18,153 the best business books I've read. I'm Guy Martin, and I've been collecting, reading and 17 00:01:18,153 --> 00:01:22,263 listening to business and self-development books for over a decade, and I've discovered there are 18 00:01:22,263 --> 00:01:26,673 a few that I keep on recommending to friends and colleagues. Maybe you'll find something useful 19 00:01:26,673 --> 00:01:31,876 too. On today's episode, The Motive by Patrick Lencioni. 20 00:01:33,522 --> 00:01:37,692 Guy: Patrick Lencioni is widely recognized for his leadership fables, such as the Five 21 00:01:37,692 --> 00:01:42,329 Dysfunctions of a Team. Death by Meeting, and more recently, The Six Types of Working Genius. 22 00:01:43,079 --> 00:01:47,069 If you're unaware of Patrick's style, these books typically start with a fictional story 23 00:01:47,219 --> 00:01:51,059 where the main characters learn the concepts at the core of the book through a narrative example. 24 00:01:51,629 --> 00:01:56,039 This makes them more interesting and accessible than just dry business texts. With the story 25 00:01:56,039 --> 00:02:01,199 drawing us in and making us care about what happens next, the second, and usually much 26 00:02:01,199 --> 00:02:06,089 shorter part reviews the fable, teases out the relevant lessons and themes, and goes into 27 00:02:06,089 --> 00:02:11,369 analysis of the decisions of the characters in the fable. The motive, released in 2020, 28 00:02:11,519 --> 00:02:17,279 introduces us to Shay and Liam, two CEOs at the head of competing companies in the same industry. 29 00:02:17,759 --> 00:02:22,919 One Shay is struggling to turn around their company, and in a candid conversation with Liam, 30 00:02:23,039 --> 00:02:27,029 who runs the more successful company, discovers there may be a fundamental difference in their 31 00:02:27,029 --> 00:02:31,829 respective approaches to what it means to be a leader. In other words, what their motives are 32 00:02:31,829 --> 00:02:32,369 for leading. 33 00:02:34,300 --> 00:02:38,170 Guy: The central takeaway of the motive is that there are two motives for becoming a leader. 34 00:02:38,950 --> 00:02:43,690 There's reward centred leadership and responsibility centred leadership. Reward 35 00:02:43,690 --> 00:02:48,460 centred leadership views the role of a leader as a reward for past accomplishments. They have the 36 00:02:48,460 --> 00:02:51,820 status, money, power and influence because they've worked hard and deserve to reap those 37 00:02:51,820 --> 00:02:56,650 benefits without enduring discomfort or doing anything they don't want to do. On the other 38 00:02:56,650 --> 00:03:02,140 hand, responsibility centred leadership sees being a leader as a responsibility. They have a 39 00:03:02,140 --> 00:03:06,370 desire to serve others and make a positive impact on the people and the organisation itself. 40 00:03:06,910 --> 00:03:11,470 The hard work continues and the work may be and probably will be difficult and challenging. 41 00:03:11,950 --> 00:03:16,780 Lencioni acknowledges that few leaders embody either extreme exclusively or so. Some 42 00:03:16,780 --> 00:03:21,100 exceptions do come to mind. Still, there tends to be a more dominant motive, and this can 43 00:03:21,100 --> 00:03:24,940 directly linked to the success of a leader and in turn, the success of the organisation they 44 00:03:24,940 --> 00:03:30,397 serve. These attitudes towards leadership are not set in stone, though. Once we recognise our 45 00:03:30,397 --> 00:03:34,477 own motives, we can work to change our behaviours and beliefs and move from being a 46 00:03:34,477 --> 00:03:38,107 rewards centred to being a responsibility centred leader. 47 00:03:39,727 --> 00:03:44,887 Guy: The story of Shay and Liam -. The two CEOs of competing companies obviously show the 48 00:03:44,887 --> 00:03:50,077 contrasting motives of being a leader. It isn't just a description of how things are, though. As 49 00:03:50,077 --> 00:03:54,367 the story progresses, we see lamb responsibilities ended, guiding Shay, the reward 50 00:03:54,377 --> 00:03:58,987 centered leader, to a different way of seeing things. Based on five themes that Lencioni 51 00:03:58,987 --> 00:04:04,567 frames as the five emissions of reward centered leaders, The great thing about the fable is that 52 00:04:04,567 --> 00:04:09,217 we get to see a natural resistance from Shay's character that may not be too far removed from a 53 00:04:09,217 --> 00:04:14,497 real reaction to some of the ideas. For example, the first theme that reward centered leaders 54 00:04:14,497 --> 00:04:19,327 tend not to do is developing the leadership team. Many leaders will talk about building the 55 00:04:19,327 --> 00:04:23,827 executive team, but when it comes to actually doing this, they'll delegate to H.R. or not even 56 00:04:23,827 --> 00:04:29,197 do it at all. In the fable, Liam mentions that not everyone in these team are perfect, but it's 57 00:04:29,197 --> 00:04:33,487 his job as a leader to help them get better. Shay rebuts this with an argument I've heard 58 00:04:33,487 --> 00:04:38,587 from actual leaders. "I hire adults. I hire competent people. I shouldn't have to coach them. 59 00:04:38,707 --> 00:04:44,127 I can't afford to spend all my time babysitting". To which Liam responds, "It's not babysitting. 60 00:04:44,137 --> 00:04:50,767 It's management. And it's your job." The fable is like a role play of the principles Lencioni 61 00:04:50,767 --> 00:04:55,957 is proposing. It applies the theory in a practical, albeit fictional, situation. And we 62 00:04:55,957 --> 00:05:01,357 can inject ourselves or those we're coaching more easily in the lessons section about this 63 00:05:01,357 --> 00:05:05,647 theme. He offers some reflection and a call to action on what your motives are concerning this 64 00:05:05,647 --> 00:05:11,827 idea. Each of the other formations are handled in the same way, pulling out the lessons from 65 00:05:11,827 --> 00:05:16,597 the fable and then showing how to address this in an actionable way. Now, I don't want to spoil 66 00:05:16,597 --> 00:05:20,887 the book because it is an enjoyable read, but if you're anything like me, your curiosity is 67 00:05:20,887 --> 00:05:25,627 burning for these other formations. So first, as we already looked at, is developing the 68 00:05:25,627 --> 00:05:30,937 leadership team. Number two is managing subordinates and making them manage this. 69 00:05:31,687 --> 00:05:36,517 Lencioni says this is one of the most overlooked responsibilities of many leaders, ensuring those 70 00:05:36,517 --> 00:05:41,857 subordinates that are people managers are actively managing their people. Sometimes this 71 00:05:41,857 --> 00:05:46,177 can lead to the third mission of reward centered leaders having difficult and uncomfortable 72 00:05:46,177 --> 00:05:46,957 conversations. 73 00:05:50,077 --> 00:05:54,277 Here we're treated to a few real life anecdotes of people Lencioni has worked with in the past. 74 00:05:56,017 --> 00:06:00,547 Fourth on the list is running great team meetings. This could be surprising coming from 75 00:06:00,547 --> 00:06:04,417 the author of a book called Death by Meeting. But the problem isn't meetings themselves. It's 76 00:06:04,417 --> 00:06:09,907 bad meetings. Meetings that are tests of endurance rather than effective and engaging. 77 00:06:10,957 --> 00:06:15,067 What's missed is that those with the power to transform a meeting are often the greatest 78 00:06:15,067 --> 00:06:20,137 complainers about them. The analogy is made that leaders who view their meetings as a grind are 79 00:06:20,137 --> 00:06:25,087 similar to a doctor who sees surgery that way, or a teacher who considers class lessons a chore. 80 00:06:26,797 --> 00:06:32,797 Number five is communicating constantly and repetitively to employees. Lencioni suggests 81 00:06:32,797 --> 00:06:37,777 that the best leaders can see themselves as Chief Reminding Officers, they see redundancy in 82 00:06:37,777 --> 00:06:43,087 their messages as far better than having employees that are uninformed. They remind of 83 00:06:43,087 --> 00:06:48,367 the vision and the mission and the values of the organization to ensure there is alignment across 84 00:06:48,367 --> 00:06:49,267 the organization. 85 00:06:51,176 --> 00:06:55,406 Guy: So why do I recommend this book? Lencioni stated that out of all his books, this is the 86 00:06:55,406 --> 00:07:00,806 one he recommends people read first as it covers the why of being a leader before even looking at 87 00:07:00,806 --> 00:07:06,116 the how. If your reason for being a leader is for the rewards that may come with you will not 88 00:07:06,116 --> 00:07:11,156 be a good or effective leader and will do a disservice to the organization. I've come across 89 00:07:11,156 --> 00:07:15,626 plenty of people in my career where the rewards dominate the responsibilities. And for many, 90 00:07:15,626 --> 00:07:20,456 it's not that they're bad people. They just lost sight of why they ended up there. It's for those 91 00:07:20,456 --> 00:07:25,586 people and for those that may be new to people management that I recommend this book to. We're 92 00:07:25,586 --> 00:07:29,906 seeing more and more examples of leaders in the world with business leaders, political leaders 93 00:07:29,906 --> 00:07:35,096 or otherwise that are reward centered where the personality of the leaders outshines, and 94 00:07:35,096 --> 00:07:40,616 usually not in a positive way the organization they are leading CEO pay compared to the average 95 00:07:40,616 --> 00:07:45,297 salary of organizations they lead has skyrocketed in orders of magnitude, and 96 00:07:45,297 --> 00:07:50,186 politicians embroiled in corruption scandals on a daily basis. And we're getting numb to it all. 97 00:07:51,296 --> 00:07:57,326 We're almost expecting and accepting our leaders are reward centered, and this is a problem. We 98 00:07:57,326 --> 00:08:01,826 need more leaders like George Washington or Marcus Aurelius, leaders who willingly 99 00:08:01,826 --> 00:08:04,526 relinquished power to better serve their people. 100 00:08:05,756 --> 00:08:10,646 Guy: The former US ambassador to the UK, Matthew Barzun, knows this. And in the next episode 101 00:08:10,856 --> 00:08:15,086 we'll take a look at his work on the best Business bookshelf The Power of Giving Away 102 00:08:15,086 --> 00:08:15,446 Power. 103 00:08:19,909 --> 00:08:24,019 Guy: Thanks for listening to the Best Business bookshelf. If you like this episode, please 104 00:08:24,019 --> 00:08:30,769 subscribe using your preferred podcast platform. Engineered and hosted by me Guy Martin Music by 105 00:08:30,769 --> 00:08:36,439 Aleksey Chistilin from Lexin Music. This podcast is a production of Neolux Communications.