We know him as the New York Times best-selling author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. Now Patrick Lencioni is applying his management insights to help the most important organization in your life: your family. With his latest book, The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family, Lencioni outlines three big questions you and your family should be asking yourselves — especially in this economy. “During these times of stress I think that people will realize that, first of all, there isn’t going to be a lot of financial or professional upside compared to normal times,” says Lencioni in an exclusive interview with ExecutiveBiz. “I think that’s going to cause them to realize they probably should be looking for other more important things in life … like peace at home.”

What are the “three big questions”?

Patrick Lencioni: The first big question for a frantic family is, “What makes us unique, what makes us different from other families?”  Too often we go about living somewhat generic lives and then we get caught up trying to be like everyone else and we end up feeling like we are pleasing no one.  We have to figure out who we are, and the way to answer that question is to talk as parents about what values of ours are unique from others. What is it that makes us different in terms of what we value?  What is it about our family that would make us different than the one next door, though we probably share some common values, we may go to the same church, and we may live in the same neighborhood?  What is it that probably brought us together as a husband and a wife, and what is it that we value more than the average family?

Read the rest of this entry »