247. Stop Trying to Be Cool—Lead Instead

At The Table with Patrick Lencioni

Patrick Lencioni

Pat, Business, Success, Work, Entrepreneurship, Companyculture, Patricklencioni, Teamwork, Leadership, Organizationalhealth, Culture, Management

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why might being “cool” make someone a dangerous person to work for? And why are some of the greatest leaders uncool?

In episode 247 of At The Table, Pat and Cody challenge the cultural obsession with being “cool” and examine how it can corrupt leadership. Using a global study that defined six traits of coolness—especially “powerful” and “hedonistic”—they reveal how these values run counter to responsible leadership. Through stories, examples, and hard truths, they make the case that great leaders are often deeply uncool—and that's precisely what makes them trustworthy.

Topics Patrick Lencioni and Cody Thompson explore in this episode:

(3:39) The Six Traits of Cool

* The hosts list the six cool traits: adventurous, autonomous, open, extroverted, powerful, and hedonistic.

* Pat expresses deep concern about “powerful” and “hedonistic” being celebrated.

(6:53) Cool Traits

* Cody and Pat analyze “open,” “autonomous,” and “adventurous” as potentially valid for leaders.

* They debate whether extroversion belongs in either coolness or leadership.

(10:28) Why Hedonism and Power Don’t Belong

* Why hedonism contradicts servant leadership.

* The trap of confusing likability or popularity with effectiveness.

(16:25) The Dangers of Hiring Cool Leaders

* How boards and teams often choose “cool” over capable.

* Flipping the script—celebrating uncool, authentic leaders.

This episode of At The Table with Patrick Lencioni is brought to you by The Table Group: https://www.tablegroup.com. We teach leaders how to make work more effective and less dysfunctional. We also help their employees be more fulfilled and less miserable.

At The Table is a podcast that lives at the connection between work life, leadership, organizational health, and culture. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts (https://apple.co/4hJKKSL), Spotify (https://spoti.fi/4l1aop0), and YouTube (https://bit.ly/At-The-Table-YouTube).

Follow Pat Lencioni on https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-lencioni-orghealth and http://www.youtube.com/@PatrickLencioniOfficial.

Connect with Cody Thompson at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cody-thompson-a5918850.

Be sure to check out our other podcast, The Working Genius Podcast with Patrick Lencioni, on Apple Podcasts (https://apple.co/4iNz6Yn), Spotify (https://spoti.fi/4iGGm8u), and YouTube (https://bit.ly/Working-Genius-YouTube).

Let us know your feedback via [email protected].

This episode was produced by Story On Media: https://www.storyon.co.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	We used to talk about our consultants at the table group.
0:03.5	You know, we have 50 consultants around the world that do our stuff with us.
0:06.7	And we used to say, if you're going to be a good consultant, you have to be a little bit dorky.
0:10.9	You have to be like so geeked out about organizational health and about helping your clients
0:15.3	that you really don't care if they perceive you as cool.
0:21.5	Welcome to At the Table, the podcast that lives at the intersection between leadership
0:25.0	and teamwork and organizational health and culture.
0:28.7	I'm Pat Lynchone, your host, joined by my co-host Cody Thompson.
0:31.9	How are you doing today, Cody?
0:34.0	Still here, Pat.
0:35.0	Doing great.
0:35.7	That's all I can ask.
0:38.6	What's the topic today, Cody?
0:45.2	Leadership isn't cool. Yeah, I really love this topic. It came from something I saw recently.
0:50.2	There was a recent study done by three professors, and I'm amazed that people get to study these things, but they decided to look at the definition of what made a person cool.
0:57.0	Again, I don't know who greenlights these studies, but they did it across cultures and languages
1:01.7	and nations. And so they studied what is it that makes somebody be perceived as cool?
1:08.1	And they came up with six attributes, and they're really interesting. And it says a lot about
1:13.5	leadership and whether leaders should be cool. And that's what we're going to talk about today.
1:18.9	Yeah, Pat, I love, it sounds like a study done by some middle schoolers to figure out what's cool.
1:23.9	This will be really interesting to dive into like, hey, in the context of work and business
1:29.1	and life, what does the general society think constitutes a leader being cool?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Patrick Lencioni, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Patrick Lencioni and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.