The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

This book is well written to keep you engaged with this leadership lesson. Most leadership books are dull and boring this book is written in a story format that is engaging.

I strongly recommend this for anyone working in a business with > 100 employees or so. Very insightful and thought provoking, touching on the topic of Emotional Intelligence and Team Building.

This is a quick read that covers the food pyramid of team dysfunction:

1. Inattention to Results
2. Avoidance of Accountability
3. Lack of Commitment
4. Fear of Conflict
5. Absence of Trust

At the core it’s another way of framing psychological safety as studied/made popular by Google research. There’s not a lot of depth here, but 3/4 of the book is actually a fictional story about a CEO hired to fix a company’s leadership, so it’s an engaging read that illustrates the ideas through story, rather than pontification.

The last quarter ends with a short summary of the principles used and how they work. Definitely worth the hour or so for anyone in a leadership role, and less heavy than a lot of business books, so perhaps a good initial read for someone wanting to start reading leadership books.