The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni

How did you come across the book?

So… I…. I’m the director of a nonprofit. Its a national nonprofit I started 37 years ago here in New York City. I now lead the Dallas office, so… I’m from New York originally, but I’m back here for a trip to see family, kids and retreat from the job, so… I go back after Labor Day, but… the book…. long story… long answer… is because I lead a team and I’m new at management. One of my board chairs… actually not one of my board stairs… he says this is a good book for you to read because my team seems dysfunctional at times. So I was like cool. Must be a great book to read. So, here I am. It’s a nice day.

So far, what perspective have you gained from it?

So, well, one… that I’m not a babbling idiot! Seems like… I mean the book is… it says a leadership fable, but its set around an executive team, the whole C-Suite team… and after they tell the story I’m like my team deals with this too. So, it kind of… you know… and to hear it from other people it takes the onus off me that I have to figure this out alone and that I’m doing something wrong. You know. People have natural tendencies of how they hear things, how they be, what they’re afraid of, conflict and how they build their team so… I’m feeling very confident that I can build some new strategies within team. Its a fun thing.

Would you recommend it, and if so, to who and why?

Yeah! Actually, so yeah… one, I’m gonna recommend it to my whole team, cause they need to know what I’m reading and kind of thinking about. Two… I think this is… I mean, it’s just… I’ll say this… I don’t read very well… I read slow… so big books take me a long time. This is like one of the easiest reads I’ve ever had. Say its more than 200 pages. I’ve been reading it a day and I’m half way through. It’s engaging! Once you pick it up its like one of those, “Ok, I’ve gotta finish this story right away!” It’s like a good Netflix series… I’m just gonna binge watch this book! Three… you know, I think anybody in any type of leadership capacity, running any type of… any type of team, you know what I’m saying… I mean this could be a family book. Anybody who has to manage any bunch of… a group of people, so… yeah… its pretty good!

Visibility Marketing by David Avrin

How did you come across the book?

I came across the book a few weeks ago at… Strand Bookstore. I’m a business person… an entrepreneur… and marketing is everything… and so, I looked in the column… the row that marketing books were, and I came across this one. And one thing… one of the reasons that I picked this book, as opposed to some of the others… it’s from 2016, and so I wanted something that was fairly current, in light of social media and those types of things. So, yeah…. so I chose this one.

So far, what perspective have you gained form this book?

I think one of the main points is being authentic. In other words, if you say that… in terms of a business… if you present yourself as, or position yourself as being… you know, a person concerned with customer service, providing good customer service… than you need to do it. If you say you provide products on this day, or services on another day, or whatever… than you need to do it. You know… so that’s one of the things about being authentic… if you say you’re going to do something, than do it.

Would you recommend it, and if so, to who and why?

Umm… I would recommend it. I will say… to be honest… some of the stuff I knew, so it’s more so reinforcement for me, because I read this type of stuff… and I have read it for the last 20+ years. But, I would recommend it, and I would recommend it mostly to someone who’s starting out I would say… in business… because marketing is crucial and most people think it’s just about having a product or service, and that’s it… and then everybody will just flock to them because it’s such a great idea, great product or service… but it really is about how people engage or interact with your product or service, or you as a company… and it is about being true, to the brand, true to what you say the company stands for. So, I would recommend it to… uhh… mostly newbies… but anybody can learn!

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P.S. This individual is also a writer himself, author of the book Think Outside the Cell: An Entrepreneur’s Guide for the Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated.