An interview with Patrick Lencioni about why he decided to become a leader, the biggest mistakes leaders make, the behaviors that drive high performing teams, a leader’s responsibility at work and his best career advice.

Welcome to the 72nd episode of 5 Questions with Dan Schawbel. As your host, my goal is to curate the best advice from the world’s smartest and most interesting people by asking them just 5 questions.

This episodes guest:

My guest today is a leadership consultant and bestselling author, Patrick Lencioni. Born in Bakersfield, California, Patrick was a management consultant at Bain, Oracle, and Sybase before launching The Table Group, a firm focused on executive team development and organizational health. He is best known as the author of the multi-million copy bestselling book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and has followed up with a series of other books, including his latest entitled “The Motive”. Patrick is new to the podcast world with his show “At The Table”. I first discovered Patrick’s work back in 2009 and have since interviewed him several times. He’s one of the most respected figures in my industry, an incredible communicator and his team have a long tenure, which speaks volumes to his leadership ability. He’s also represented by my literary agent and hero, Jim Levine! In this podcast interview, we learn about Patrick’s own leadership style and what really drives team performance.

The 5 questions I ask in this episode:

1. Why did you originally choose to be a leader and what experiences helped shape the leader you are today?
2. What pitfalls do leaders make that hurt their team when their intent was to help?
3. You’ve written 12 books on how leaders build effective teams. What behaviors are most important for forming, engaging and growing a great team?  
4. With the workplace becoming increasingly automated, and where mental health issues are widespread, what is a leader’s role and responsibility as we start a new decade?
5. What is your best piece of career advice?

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