Reviewed By Nancy Brennan, Director of the Plimoth Plantation

When presented with the chance to read this little book, I scoffed at the subtitle, "A Leadership Fable." What could fiction offer me in a world with very real challenges? I forgot, momentarily, the ancient truth that stories, parables, and fables deliver teachings in an effective and memorable way. So it is with The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, 1998). A blending of a Harvard Business Review article with It’s a Wonderful Life (complete with guiding angels), the story traces 24 hours in the life of Andy O’Brien, the CEO of Trinity Systems, a mature company that experienced lackluster results during Andy’s first year as president.

The Five Temptations is an accessible view of the hidden challenges confronting a CEO, not the ones that are beyond our control, but the ones that are distressingly within our control: our personal fears, ego and pride. Wrapped in a well-written "quick read" (130 pages), the message is ordered in five observations that warn against very human frailties. These frailties in the workplace can lead to trouble, and in the case of the fable’s protagonist, irreversible trouble. The five temptations are:

1. Soft-pedaling your drive to achieve results, tending instead to avoid making decisions that might damage your ego or reputation;

2. Wanting to be liked by peers and direct reports (It is lonely at the top, isn’t it?), therefore shying away from holding them accountable;

3. Hesitating to take decisive action, (and/or hold direct reports accountable), until more information is in hand. In a world of imperfect and ever-shifting information, the CEO can project vague and hesitant direction to his/her reports, at the risk of paralysis;

4. Restricting "productive ideological conflict" among the management team during decision-making, a temptation motivated by a desire for harmony and/or a fear of conflict; and,

5. Overtly or unconsciously portraying himself/herself as invulnerable, discouraging direct reports from challenging his/her ideas, in turn preventing the foundation of trust that can steady an organization through hard times.

Reversed, this order shows the influence of the principles on one another, and consequently, their benefits to the well being of the company. Thanks to the openness of the CEO, a culture of trust gives senior managers the confidence to have productive conflict. Productive conflict based on mutual respect assures the management team that all sides of an issue have been aired before an action is taken. The resulting clarity gives executives the confidence to hold people accountable to work through a plan of action. Accountability assures the CEO that all managers know what results are expected of them and their departments. Ultimately, results are the best measure of institutional and personal success.

The author, Patrick Lencioni is an executive consultant. His experience has convinced him that, in settings where an organization is 50% sound and the CEO’s behavior is 95% healthy, he will urge the CEO to focus on the hard work within the 5% gap in order to leverage better results overall.

Like so many teachings in Western and Eastern philosophy and Native American tradition, this little book restates that the answer lies within. People need prompting to see that although we think we are acting logically, there is, in fact, an emotional block (perhaps more than one) controlling the direction of our reasoning. Scanning our actions and their motivation helps to remove the emotional obstacles, including self-interest, that ironically prevent us from achieving the satisfying results we wanted in the first place.