Patrick Lencioni’s multi-year observation of team development and experience of coaching thousands of people and teams led him to single out 5 dysfunctions of a team. These 5 dysfunctions form a pyramid resembling Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which highlights the interdependence of addressing each dysfunction to achieve optimal team performance.
Recognize and leverage individual and team strengths through a comprehensive assessment like the HIGH5 strengths test. Gain access to valuable insights and strategies for overcoming these dysfunctions! You’ll be able to foster trust in a team, open communication, commitment, accountability, and ultimately focus on getting results. Each dysfunction has a direct impact on your team’s performance and squashes productivity. The good news? You, as a manager, can overcome all these dysfunctions, with leadership and management skills.
Book Summary: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick M. Lencioni is a leadership staple that follows Kathryn Petersen, the new CEO of DecisionTech, as she struggles to unite a deeply dysfunctional team. The book outlines five key dysfunctions that hinder team performance:
- Absence of trust
- Fear of conflict
- Lack of commitment
- Avoidance of accountability, and
- Inattention to results. Through a compelling narrative and practical guidance, Lencioni provides a model for overcoming these dysfunctions to build a cohesive, effective team.
The 5 dysfunctions of a team by Lencioni
- Lack of Trust
- Fear of Conflict
- Lack of Commitment
- Avoidance of Accountability
- Inattention to Results
How can you, as a manager, resolve them? Let’s dig deeper into each of the five dysfunctions of a team, starting with a lack of trust.
1. Lack of trust
For Lencioni, the lack of trust stems from a fear of being vulnerable. By pretending to be tough and invulnerable, individuals inhibit team development, meaningful conflict resolution, and the ability to achieve optimal outcomes. However, understanding and leveraging each team member’s unique strengths through the HIGH5 strengths assessment can help cultivate an environment of trust and appreciation. When individuals recognize and embrace their own and others’ strengths, they can feel more confident in being open, and foster trust within the team.
Teams that lack trust…
- Conceal mistakes from each other, and sweep issues under the rug.
- Refuse to ask for help or a piece of advice out of guilt.
- Hesitate to offer assistance outside their own area of responsibility or expertise.
- Dodge meetings and requests to spend additional team-building time together.
Questions to ask to gauge an absence of trust
Analyze your team’s trust levels through these questions:
- Do team members openly admit their mistakes?
- Are team members comfortable asking for help?
- Do team members openly discuss their weaknesses?
- Is there a willingness to be vulnerable within the team?
- Do team members give each other the benefit of the doubt?
Practical solutions for a lack of trust
You can overcome a lack of trust by helping your team members focus on strengths rather than weaknesses in other members and in themselves, too! Discover these strengths from a HIGH5 strengths test or a team report which clearly breaks down the unique strengths of everyone on the team. Knowing your team’s strengths helps build confidence and resilience, whatever the circumstances may be in the office. Discussions of individual strengths will also inspire team members to appreciate the skills of their teammates and offer assistance to build the team up, together.
Overcoming this dysfunction, you will get the team that…
- Feel comfortable working together towards a common goal
- Quickly react to and reflect upon issues that are no longer silenced
- Prevent mistakes by giving timely feedback and assistance to each other
- Motivate each other by appreciating each other’s skills and strengths
Pro Tip From HIGH5
To build trust within your team, start by having each member take the HIGH5 strengths assessment. Encourage open discussions about individual strengths and how they complement each other. Foster an environment where team members feel comfortable acknowledging their weaknesses and seeking support from others’ strengths.
2. Fear of conflict
Workplace diversity contributes to better results, but it also assumes that people will have different (or even opposing) ideas about their work. It’s going to be challenging – near impossible, even – to benefit from diversity if ideas are held back in fear of conflict.
Teams that fear conflict…
- Hesitate to voice opinions and concerns
- Ignore controversial topics even if they have the potential to determine the team’s success
- Have more interpersonal conflicts and personal attacks
- Have backchannel communication and politics
Questions to pinpoint a fear of conflict
Diagnose a potential fear of conflict by asking yourself, as a leader, the following questions:
- Do my team members avoid discussing controversial topics?
- Are our meetings dominated by superficial discussions?
- Does our team hesitate to challenge each other’s ideas?
- Is there a tendency to agree across the board to maintain harmony?
- Are important issues often unresolved due to lack of open debate?
Solution for fear of conflict
A test that will help you determine if you have this dysfunction in your team is by openly suggesting an obviously bad idea in a team meeting. If your team accepts the idea without any attempt to discuss or oppose it, you have an issue on your hands. A constructive approach to resolving the fear of conflict is by leveraging the HIGH5 strengths assessment to identify team members with strengths such as critical thinking, strategy, or decision-making.
These individuals can play “devil’s advocates” during meetings. As a leader, encourage them to find potential flaws or alternative perspectives in suggestions voiced by others. This practice not only promotes healthy debate, but also allows team members to appreciate and leverage each other’s strengths. In turn, you can promote an environment to embrace diverse viewpoints.
This will show your team that voicing opposing ideas is good for the project. It will also train your team to find faults with the ideas (not people) that voice them. You can also use the HIGH5 strengths test to determine how each member approaches conflict and coach the team on how to debate with one another based on the unique strengths of the members.
By overcoming the fear of conflict together, your team will…
- Leverage diversity and exploits the ideas of everyone on the team
- Quickly and efficiently solve problems
- Openly discuss critical topics and concerns
- Minimize politics
Pro Tip From HIGH5
During team meetings, intentionally assign the role of “devil’s advocate” to individuals whose HIGH5 strengths align with critical thinking, analysis, or decision-making. Encourage them to respectfully challenge ideas and proposals, promoting constructive debate and leveraging the team’s diverse strengths.
3. Lack of commitment
If your team members avoid open discussion of controversial topics and are confused as to why a particular decision has been made, they will struggle to commit to team goals.
Teams that lack commitment tend to…
- Lack confidence and fear failure
- Discuss the same topics or decisions repeatedly
- Be ambiguous and second-guess themselves thrive
- Miss timely opportunities by spending too much time on making a decision
Questions to look out for a lack of commitment
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do team members struggle to make decisions during meetings?
- Are team goals and priorities often unclear or confusing?
- Do team members frequently revisit and question decisions?
- Is there a noticeable lack of enthusiasm for team initiatives?
- Do team members fail to follow through on agreed actions?
Solution for lack of commitment
One effective strategy to overcome the lack of commitment is to leverage the HIGH5 strengths assessment to identify team members with strengths in areas like communication, decision-making, or strategic thinking. By leveraging their strengths, you can ensure that your team members clearly understand the decisions and the thought process involved, fostering a sense of ownership and commitment to a shared course of action. You can also facilitate the commitment by encouraging the team to discuss possible pitfalls and worst-case scenarios. Again, clarity is the basis for commitment.
Define and plan clear deadlines for actions and decisions. This way, team members will have a better idea what their next steps are and commit to it.
When you overcome this dysfunction, your team will…
- Clearly understand work directions and priorities
- Share common goals and objectives
- Be ready to change; anticipate it and adapt
- See mistakes as lessons and keep moving forward
Pro Tip From HIGH5
Assign the responsibility of summarizing meeting decisions and rationale to team members whose strengths align with communication, decision-making, or strategic thinking. Leverage their strengths as identified by HIGH5 to ensure clarity and understanding, fostering a sense of commitment among all team members.
4. Avoidance of accountability
People are used to championing their personal responsibility and autonomy. This is why individuals do not like to interfere with what other team members do or don’t do. Still, this is counterproductive for the team, where the common result depends on the team to hold each other accountable for organizational success.
Teams that avoid accountability…
- Make high performers feel discouraged and burnt out
- Miss deadlines or drag them out
- Make team leaders overwhelmed as the sole source of discipline
- Remain mediocre and complete the bare minimum
Questions for diagnosing a lack of accountability
Diagnose a lack of accountability by asking your team the following questions:
- Do team members hesitate to call out poor performance?
- Are deadlines frequently missed without consequences?
- Do team members avoid discussing their responsibilities?
- Is there a tendency to blame others for mistakes?
- Are performance standards often ignored or downplayed?
Solution for avoidance of accountability
You may resolve this dysfunction by holding regular progress reviews and rewarding team achievements over individual ones. Make it clear for individuals who hold high standards of performance as their HIGH5 strength that holding others accountable will be appreciated and rewarded. If your team has successfully overcome the fear of conflict, they will be ready to tackle this dysfunction, too.
When your team learns to hold each other accountable, they will…
- Quickly identify potential problems by questioning each other’s actions and approaches
- Respect their organization for applying the same standards to everyone
- Avoid excessive management of performance
- Encourage and inspire the entire to improve
5. Inattention to results
This dysfunction of the team stems from the individuals’ focus on their own achievements or status instead of accomplishments as a team. Such focus can make team members do something that does not promote collective goals just to get individual recognition or enhance their ego.
Teams that are not focused on collective results…
- Lose achievement-oriented team members
- Get distracted from collective goals easily
- Fail to develop
- Lose market competition
Questions for diagnosing a lack of attention to results
As a leader, pay attention for a lack of attention to results by asking yourself:
- Do team members prioritize personal goals over team goals?
- Are team achievements minimized?
- Do team members fail to track progress towards goals?
- Are low standards accepted without pushback?
Solution for inattention to results in a team
For your team, focus on common results, it is vital to have clear metrics to assess results. If the team already knows how to keep each other accountable, they will push each other toward pursuing common (rather than individual) goals. With the avoidance of accountability, for instance, rewards should be based on team rather than individual results and achievements. If the urge to get individual recognition or please one’s ego is a part of a team member’s personality, it is not necessary to fight or punish it.
Instead, use a strengths-based approach and make sure individuals’ zeal aligns well with the common goals.
Once you make your team keep results in their focus, it will…
- Minimize individualistic behavior
- Avoid arising distractions
- Enjoy development and success
Dysfunctions of a team FAQ
What are the five team dysfunctions described by Lencioni?
Patrick Lencioni is the famous author of the Five Dysfunctions of a Team. In this text, he reveals the greatest hindrances to a team’s success. He reveals these hindrances are: an absence of trust, a lack of commitment, and not paying enough attention to results.
What is the Lencioni model?
After describing the five dysfunctions of a team, Lencioni found a way to tackle these issues, referred to as the Lencioni model. With this model, a team leader focuses on building trust among employees. He ensures individuals trust him as well as their fellow colleagues. Next, he creates consequences for not being accountable or committed. Finally, he strategizes ways to adapt to results when they are known.
How do you fix the 5 dysfunctions of a team?
Start by building trust to fix these 5 dysfunctions. Aim to be open, honest, and transparent with your employees. Then, outline the consequences for not being committed. For instance, tardiness could result in you having to stay late after work. Reward accountable employees and provide negative consequences for those who are not accountable. Finally, address the results with your team together. Find solutions after the results are known, and adapt your strategies when necessary.
References:
- Cassady S. (2013). The Linda Crane lecture from silos to bridges: preparing effective teams for a better delivery system. Cardiopulmonary physical therapy journal, 24(2), 5–11.
- Davidai, S., White, M. W., & Gregorich, G. (2022). The fear of conflict leads people to systematically avoid potentially valuable zero-sum situations. Scientific reports, 12(1), 17944. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22849-y.
- Ilies, R., Liu, Y., Aw, S., Las Heras, M., & Rofcanin, Y. (2024). Why does using personal strengths at work increase employee engagement, who makes the most out of it, and how?. Journal of occupational health psychology, 29(2), 113–129. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000374.
- Slack. (n.d.). The decision-making process is a team sport. https://slack.com/blog/collaboration/decisionmaking-process-team.
- Zucker, R. (2023, July 14). How to build the best team ever for optimum performance. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccazucker/2023/07/11/how-to-build-the-best-team-ever-for–optimum-performance.
