The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive

Last week, I grabbed The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive off the shelf at the office and as the wife and kids were out of town for the night, I polished it off in one sitting. That wasn't my plan, but the book is a fantastic read--more than that it's indispensible for church leaders.

Sunday night, I'm catching up on some blogs that I follow and find that Tony Morgan (the first blog I ever read) has also just finished it and he put some of insights he picked up from it down on his blog. They are well done and this saves me the trouble, so here you go from Tony's blog on July 21st:

• "No one but the head of an organization can make it healthy."


• "Initially he insisted on seeing every candidate who cleared the first round of interviews. As the company grew, he limited himself to senior managers and partners."


• "Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team."


• "Create organizational clarity... Essentially it's about eliminating confusion with the company, especially at the executive level."


• "Over-communicate the identity and direction."


• "He was adamant about not using anything slick or glossy, as he called it, to convey the identity of the company."


• "Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems."


• "Success is not so much a function of intelligence or natural ability, but rather of commitment to the right disciplines."


• "When an executive decides not to confront a peer about a potential disagreement, he or she is dooming employees to waste time, money, and emotional energy dealing with unresolvable issues."


• "For cohesive teams, meetings are compelling and vital. They are forums for asking difficult questions, challenging one another's ideas, and ultimately arriving at decisions that everyone agrees to support and adhere to, in the best interests of the company."


• "Even teams that get along well together should be experiencing regular conflict and intense debate during meetings."


• "The search for fundamental values requires a significant level of focus and introspection, and a willingness to acknowledge that all things good are not necessarily essential to an organization."


• "Effective communication requires repetition in order to take hold in an organization. Some experts say that only after hearing a message six times does a person begin to believe and internalize it."


• "What they need from leaders is clear, uncomplicated messages about where the organization is going and how they can contribute to getting there."


• "Healthy organizations use their values and other issues related to organizational clarity to guide their decisions about moving employees out of the company."

Thanks Tony! BTW, the bold italicized items are the "4 obsessions" that Lencioni puts forth in the fable.