The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni | with guest Alisa Cohn

Even smart, well-funded executive teams fail.

Patrick Lencioni's masterpiece, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, exposes the silent killers of company growth and provides a practical framework to turn a group of capable individuals into a truly cohesive unit.

Joining me to unpack this framework is Alisa Cohn, an award-winning executive coach who was named the #1 Startup Coach in the world and has worked with C-suites at Venmo, Etsy, Microsoft, and Google.

Today, Alisa breaks down why your department is not your most important team, how to build vulnerability-based trust, and why self-awareness is the ultimate cheat code for leadership.

Key Takeaways & Timestamps

00:00 – Introducing The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team and the silent killers of company growth.

02:00 – The 5 Dysfunctions Framework: Alisa breaks down the hierarchy of team success: Trust drives Conflict, Conflict drives Commitment, Commitment drives Accountability, and Accountability drives Results. You cannot skip a step.

04:37 – Diagnosing Your Team: Why a lack of accountability is often just a symptom of a team that hasn't learned how to have productive conflict.

07:11 – The "First Team" Concept: Why the CMO's most important team is not the marketing department. It is the executive team.

09:20 – The Cost of Loyalty: How prioritizing your specific department over the executive team leads directly to toxic politics, silos, and blame.

14:24 – Self-Awareness as a Cheat Code: Why managing your ego and acting in service of the company is the hardest—but most necessary—leadership skill.

16:03 – The "Working With Me" Document: How creating a 1-to-2 page personal operating manual builds vulnerability-based trust.

16:59 – The 360 Feedback Loop: How to gather actionable behavioral feedback from the people above you, below you, and beside you.

Get the book here

📚The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Mentioned in the episode

1. From Start-up to Grown-up: Alisa Cohn's book, featuring 14 specific scripts to help you navigate delicate and difficult conversations.
2. The "Working With Me" Document: Atlassian's excellent free template and guide for creating a personal user manual.
3. The 360 Feedback Model: A comprehensive breakdown of how to run these reviews from the Center for Creative Leadership.

Alisa Cohn, Executive Coach & Author

Podcast & Book: From Start-up to Grown-up

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