Summary of Patrick Lencioni's The Ideal Team Player posits that in order to succeed—especially in a work environment—one must be a team player. Business leaders must be able to identify and hire team players to secure the best possible advantage over their competitors and leverage all the benefits of teamwork. Ideal team players share three core virtues: They are hungry, humble, and smart. To illustrate the ideal team player model in practice, Lencioni offers the hypothetical example of Valley Builders, a construction firm in Napa. Using this extended hypothetical as referent, Lencioni illustrates the components of the ideal team and explains how to apply them.

Valley Builders was founded some 30 years ago by Bob Shanley. On the advice of his doctor, Shanley is retiring, but at a critical juncture: the firm has just inked deals on its two biggest jobs to date...