The Forum: Lencioni and the 3 Signs

I wanted to share some brief thoughts on the portion of Patrick Lencioni‘s presentation on his book The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. I hadn’t heard about this book yet so I was curious about it. I found it to be very helpful and I think pretty helpful when taken with the content from The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. You can download the model with brief descriptions here.

The 3 signs are:

1. Anonymity
2. Irrelevance
3. Immeasurement

In some ways this book is kind of built on the obvious, yet leaders still fail to invest in these areas for the sake of their followers. I liked that Lencioni connected these 3 signs as a lack of servant leadership and that leaders need to invest themselves in their people in helping them believe that they feel known, believe that what they do matters and is important, and know how to measure for themselves their progress and contribution to the organization.

I loved that Lencioni kept referring to “The Ministry of Management” when talking about the opportunity leaders or managers have to impact the lives of their followers by investing into these areas which have such a powerful correlation to one’s contentment, job satisfaction, and job performance.

I couldn’t help but think that there are some very rough correlations with the vision statement that I first heard from Erwin McManus from Mosaic back in 1995. They talk about “belonging, believing, and becoming” as the core needs of the human soul. Their ministry seeks to connect the gospel and the community of faith to those core needs. I see the “3 Signs” as indicators of when leaders fail to invest in those core needs of the human soul. That’s why Lencioni calls it “The Ministry of Management.” There really is a powerful influence, for good or for bad, on the souls of those you are leading. As a leader, we are going to either impart life or we are going to drain life.

Servant leaders impart life by helping their followers feel known, feel important to the greater cause, and feel empowered to measure their own contribution.