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The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (And Their Employees) (Hardcover)
by Patrick M. Lencioni
| Category:
Management, Organizational effectiveness, Leadership |
| Market price: ¥ 268.00
MSL price:
¥ 238.00
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Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Simple and profound, this latest book of Patrcik Lencioni proves another excellent meterial for managers of all levels. |
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Author: Patrick M. Lencioni
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Pub. in: August, 2007
ISBN: 0787995312
Pages: 272
Measurements: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA01101
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0787995317
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- Awards & Credential -
We would recommend every one of Patrcik Lencioni's books to every manager, and this one is no exception. |
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- MSL Picks -
After reading The Five Temptations of a CEO by Patrick Lencioni, I was looking forward to reading this one. The book is the fable of a CEO that has great success running an exercise equipment manufacturer that eventually gets sold and leaves him in an unwanted retirement. During his tenure at the company, Brian (the main character), had great success turning what was once a small company with a tiny market share to a successful medium size company with a sizable portion of the market. Brian loved his job and he never really identified the secret to his success. He would just write it off as "treating people the way he wanted to be treated". When the company finally sold he explained to his friend that he believed the culture of the company was what made the company so great to what his friend dismissed as "soft" touchy-feely nonsense.
Brian, not coping well with the inactivity of his retirement, was driving himself mad with no problems to solve and he also wanted to prove to his friend and himself that his success at his previous company was caused by the culture he created, his friend contended that the culture was a result of winning and therefore of no real value.
The former CEO set out to work as a manager of a small Italian restaurant close to his house - he had trouble convincing the owner to give him a job due to his qualifications and an even harder time convincing his wife he wasn't going crazy. During his brief stay there he created his management theories of "Immeasurement, Irrelevance & Anonymity" and later went out and applied the same theories to a sporting goods store.
Immeasurement : If you can't measure progress at work your job will become miserable
Irrelevance: If you're not making a difference in people's life your job will become miserable
Anonymity: If you are not recognized and known by your co-workers and managers your job will eventually become miserable
This is a must read for managers. It turns a cold work environment into a thriving organization where people genuinely love their work. Whenever I have been in a productive work environment one or more of these principles were being used. Patrick Lencioni now delivers them to all of us in a nice little package ready to be opened at the next company meeting.
The ideas in this book will seem so tremendously obvious, once you read them, that you will scratch your head in amazement. However they are as unknown to most corporations as Osama's whereabouts and as unpracticed as premarital sex. This is very powerful stuff, written in an extremely easy to read and understand format. Enjoy!
(From quoting Revel, USA)
Target readers:
All managers and would-be managers. Patrcik Lencioni is for managers, as it is obvious.
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Patrick M. Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, a management consulting firm specializing in executive team development and organizational health. As a consultant and keynote speaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives in organizations ranging from Fortune 500s and high-tech start-ups to universities and nonprofits. He is the author of six nationally recognized books, including the New York Times best-seller The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
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From Publisher
A bestselling author and business guru tells how to improve your job satisfaction and performance.
In his sixth fable, bestselling author Patrick Lencioni takes on a topic that almost everyone can relate to: the causes of a miserable job. Millions of workers, even those who have carefully chosen careers based on true passions and interests, dread going to work, suffering each day as they trudge to jobs that make them cynical, weary, and frustrated. It is a simple fact of business life that any job, from investment banker to dishwasher, can become miserable. Through the story of a CEO turned pizzeria manager, Lencioni reveals the three elements that make work miserable - irrelevance, immeasurability, and anonymity - and gives managers and their employees the keys to make any job more fulfilling.
As with all of Lencionis books, this one is filled with actionable advice you can put into effect immediately. In addition to the fable, the book includes a detailed model examining the three signs of job misery and how they can be remedied. It covers the benefits of managing for job fulfillment within organizations - increased productivity, greater retention, and competitive advantage - and offers examples of how managers can use the applications in the book to deal with specific jobs and situations.
Patrick Lencioni (San Francisco, CA) is President of The Table Group, a management consulting firm specializing in executive team development and organizational health. As a consultant and keynote speaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives and executive teams in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to high-tech startups to universities and nonprofits. His clients include AT&T, Bechtel, Boeing, Cisco, Sams Club, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Allstate, Visa, FedEx, New York Life, Sprint, Novell, Sybase, The Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Lencioni is the author of six bestselling books, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. He previously worked for Oracle, Sybase, and the management consulting firm Bain & Company.
When his employees were all seated, the new manager began. Deciding not to be clever or subtle, Brian got right to the point. "Show of hands. How many of you like your jobs?"
Nothing.
People just looked at one another as though Brian had askedthe question in Russian.
"Okay, let me be clearer," he smiled. "How many people here get excited about coming to work? How many of you are in a good mood when you're driving here every day?"
Brian might as well have asked them if they liked being beaten with a stick. No one raised their hand. A few of them actually laughed out loud.
In this, his sixth and most anticipated fable, New York Times best-selling author Patrick Lencioni takes on his most universal and human topic to date: misery at work.In doing so, Lencioni presents a revolutionary yet simple model for making any job more rewarding and fulfilling.
Lencioni tells the unforgettable story of Brian Bailey, an abruptly retired executive searching for meaning in his career and his life. Through a series of twists and turns that take him from the executive suite of a well-respected company to the ski slopes of Lake Tahoe to the drive-thru window of a fast-food restaurant, Brian discovers the three universal causes of anguish and frustration at work, and the keys to overcoming them. Whether he's trying to convince an investment banker that job satisfaction matters, or motivating a pizza delivery driver to be friendlier to customers, Brian is forced to confront aspects of himself, and others, that make job misery a painful reality in so many organizations.
Whether you're an executive looking to establish a cultural competitive advantage, a manager trying to engage and motivate your people, or an employee searching for fulfillment in your work, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job will provide you with immediate relie - and hope.
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Q: Why did you decide to write this book?
A: As a kid, I watched my dad trudge off to work each day and became somewhat obsessed with the notion of job misery. Somewhere along the line, I came to the frightening realization that people spend so much time at work yet so many of them were unfulfilled and frustrated in their jobs. As I got older, I came to another realization - that job misery was having a devastating impact on individuals, and on society at large. It seemed to me that understanding the cause of the problem, and finding a solution for it, was a worthy focus for my career.
Q: What exactly is a miserable job?
A:A miserable job is not the same as a bad one. A bad job lies in the eye of the beholder. One person’s dream job might be another person’s nightmare. But a miserable job is universal. It is one that makes a person cynical and frustrated and demoralized when they go home at night. It drains them of their energy, their enthusiasm and their self-esteem. Miserable jobs can be found in every industry and at every level. Professional athletes, CEOs and actors can be - and often are - as miserable as ditch diggers, janitors and fast food workers.
Q: How prevalent is job misery?
A: Attend any kind of social gathering, anywhere in the country, and talk about work. The stories and anecdotal evidence confirming job misery are overwhelming. Misery spans all income levels, ages and geography. A recent Gallup poll found that 77% of people hate their jobs. Gallup also contends that this ailing workforce is costing employers more than $350 billion dollars in lost productivity.
Q: What is the root cause of job misery?
A: The primary source of job misery and the potential cure for that misery resides in the hands of one individual--the direct manager. There are countless studies confirming this statement, including both Gallup and The Blanchard Companies. Both organizations have found that an employee’s relationship with their direct manager is the most important determinant to employee satisfaction (over pay, benefits, perks, work-life balance etc).
Even employees who are well paid, do interesting work and have great autonomy, cannot feel fulfilled in a job if their managers are not providing them with what they need on a daily or weekly basis.
Q: What are the three signs?
The first is anonymity, which is the feeling that employees get when they realize that their manager has little interest in them a human being and that they know little about their lives, their aspirations and their interests.
The second sign is irrelevance, which takes root when employees cannot see how their job makes a difference in the lives of others. Every employee needs to know that the work they do impacts someone’s life - a customer, a co-worker, even a supervisor--in one way or another.
The third sign is something I call "immeasurement," which is the inability of employees to assess for themselves their contribution or success. Employees who have no means of measuring how well they are doing on a given day or in a given week, must rely on the subjective opinions of others, usually their managers’, to gauge their progress or contribution.
Q: Why don’t managers do these things?
A: As simple as the three signs are, the fact remains that few managers take a genuine interest in their people, remind them of the impact that their work has on others, and help them establish creative ways to measure and assess their performance.
There are a number of reasons. First, many managers think they are too busy. Of course, the real problem is that most of those managers see themselves primarily as individual contributors who happen to have direct reports. They fail to realize that the most important part of their jobs is providing their people with what they need to be productive and fulfilled (a.k.a. not miserable) in their jobs.
The second reason that managers don’t provide their employees with the three things they need is that they simply forget what is was like when they were a little lower on the food chain. They somehow forget how important it was to them when a supervisor took an interest in them, talked to them about why their work really mattered and gave them a means for evaluating their progress.
Finally, many managers don’t do this because they are embarrassed or afraid to try. They fear that their employees will see them as being disingenuous or manipulative, or that by taking an interest in their personal lives they will be stepping into inappropriate territory. It’s almost as though they fail to understand the difference between the interview process (no personal questions allowed!) and the actual work experience (treat people like a full human being).
Q: What can a miserable employee do to improve his or her situation?
A: The first thing they can do is assess whether their manager is interested in and capable of addressing the three things that are required. And they have to realize that most managers really do want to improve, in spite of the fact that they may seem disinterested.
The second thing miserable employees need to do is help their managers understand what it is they need. If they have a strong relationship with their manager, they can come right out and say it ("You know, it would mean a lot to me if you knew more about who I am and what makes me tick." or, "Can you sit down and help me understand why this work I’m doing makes a difference to someone?").
Finally, employees would do well for themselves if they turned the tables and started doing for their managers what they want for themselves. For instance, employees who take a greater interest in the life of their managers are bound to infect them with the same kind of human interest. Similarly, employees who take the time to tell their managers (in a non suck-up kind of way) about the impact they have on their job satisfaction, will likely inspire them to respond in kind.
However, if an employee comes to the conclusion that his or her manager is indeed completely disinterested in helping them find fulfillment in their work, it may well be time to start looking for a new job.
Q: Why do so many professional athletes and entertainers seem miserable in their jobs?
A: In spite of the money they make and the attention they receive from fans and the media, many athletes and entertainers experience one or all of the three signs of a miserable job.
Most professional athletes feel anonymous in their jobs because their coaches and managers dedicate little, if any, time or energy getting to know them personally. I’ve had coaches tell me "Hey, these guys are professionals and this is a business. They don’t need anything special from me." Keep in mind that they are referring to young men in their early twenties who are living on their own for the first time and feel surprisingly alone - even with all the fan attention.
Entertainers are in similar situations, but for them, it is often relevance that suffers. Many actors cannot reconcile their celebrity and wealth with the fact that they see their work as being somewhat unimportant, in terms of impacting the lives of others. Perhaps that’s why so many of them get involved in charitable causes or politics - it gives them a sense of purpose. |
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Publishers Weekly (MSL quote), USA
<2007-12-26 00:00>
Lencioni, a consultant, speaker and bestselling author (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team), pinpoints the reasons behind and ways around what many consider a constant of the human condition: job dissatisfaction. According to Lencioni, job-fueled misery can ultimately seep into all aspects of life, leading to drug and alcohol abuse, violence and other problems, making this examination of job misery dynamics a worthy pursuit. Through the "simple" tale of a retired CEO-turned-pizzeria manager, Lencioni reveals the three corners of the employee unhappiness pyramid-immeasurability, anonymity and irrelevance-and how they contribute to dissatisfaction in all jobs and at all levels (including famously unfulfilled celebrities and athletes).
The main culprit is the distancing of people from each other (anonymity), which means less exposure to the impact their work has (immeasurability), and thus a diminished sense of their own utility (irrelevance). While his major points could have been communicated more efficiently in a straightforward self-help fashion, his fictional case study proves an involving vessel for his model and strategies (applicable to managers and lower-level staff alike), and an appendix-like final chapter provides a helpfully stripped-down version.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Jacobs Barbara (MSL quote), USA
<2007-12-26 00:00>
Anyone who's been employe - whether self- or by an organizatio - will recognize the onset of the Sunday blues, which, in essence, is the dread of Monday at work. Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002), spins yet another fable. He tracks Brian Bailey through CEO-ship of JMJ Fitness, a much-abbreviated semi-retirement and two turnarounds. The lesson? That three qualities add up to misery at work: immeasurability, irrelevance, and anonymity. Simple in its telling, these three negative characteristics have been validated by any number of human-resources consultants, from Gallup to Watson Wyatt.
People need to feel like they're contributing to a greater good, that they're valued and respected within the organization, and that what they do matters. Although the author has no specific process to follow or particular techniques to promote, he does paint a few hypothetical situation - and summarize questions that must be answered. Nothing's new under the sun, yet Lencioni's new expression of an old truth does deserve publicity. |
Trevor Fetter, president and CEO, Tenet Healthcare Corporation , USA
<2007-12-26 00:00>
This is a page-turner that unravels the mystery of job satisfaction for any manager. Whether you manage six or sixty-thousand people, it is essential reading.
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Kevin D. Wilde, vice president, chief learning officer, General Mills, Inc., USA
<2007-12-26 00:00>
In a sea of generic books on employee engagement and empowerment, Lencioni throws us a life preserver. His book is a masterful tale which I highly recommend to leaders and anyone else trying to build more personal satisfaction in their work. |
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