A Team of Leaders: Empowering Every Member to Take Ownership, Demonstrate Initiative, and Deliver Results

I couldn’t recommend this book more highly. As an organizational professional, I’ve read a lot of management books that I’ve never picked up again. “Team of Leaders” is a book you will want to keep on your 'ready reference' shelf, and also get an extra 'loaner' copy, because as you start understanding and applying it, you'll want to share it with everyone.Here’s why:1. It will help you create great places for people to work. I loved Paul's epilogue, where he talked about the 'why' for him in writing this book – in watching his own father’s challenging work experiences, he decided that his purpose in life would be to help create great places for people to work. I love that he doesn’t limit the application to corporate environments alone. He frequently cites examples from non-profits, families, churches - anyplace where people need to work together to accomplish great things. In an execution and 'do it now' focused society, leaders often blow right past talking about (let alone implementing) good design principles. Often, it’s simply because they don’t have the know-how or tools to make it happen. Paul and Stew demystify these principles in a very practical and motivational way.2. It teaches you a very systematic, clear way to think about teams. I had so many light bulbs go on while reading this book about the teams I currently work with. Paul appropriately warns that you won’t be able to implement it all at once, but that understanding the complete roadmap is key to knowing where to start. I immediately shared it with the leader of a non-profit I’m part of. She bought a copy and started reading it right away. The next week, we met as a team and started talking about which stage we were in (stage 2) and outlined steps about how to move to the next level. She began some very strategic shifts in how we operated. While not everyone was excited about it at first, they saw the sincerity of the leader to help them develop their own leadership abilities, and really responded to that. It was so exciting. We know it won’t be easy to get to stage 5, but now our goal is clear and the tools to make it happen are available. A huge success already!3. It is a treasure trove of tools for building excellent teams. Many books on team building that I have read are more motivational than they are practical. Here, Paul and Stew do an excellent job of describing not only the why and what, but a big chunk of the how. The beginning of the book gives vivid examples of what a stage 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 team look like, and then discloses all the design secrets about how and why those teams are they way they are. Then it moves to how you implement processes to keep things working smoothly after the design is complete. And then, how to assess the value your team is creating and continue growing (knowledge management). Finally, the visual management chapter is truly the icing on the cake as it gives some wonderful secrets to engaging a team visually. You could pay some serious money and spend months of many people’s time working with a consultant to figure out these insights (and still maybe never get there), or you could have it all in your hands, neatly packed into one handy book.From a personal standpoint:- I can attest firsthand, as I have been privileged to have used Paul's model both as a consultant in the for-profit and non-profit world, as well as in my own family, that IT WORKS. I can't count the number of times I've quoted Paul in saying "organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they get." People always think I'm really intelligent when I say that!- My husband and I attended a seminar where Paul spoke about how to implement the principles in Team of Leaders in a family environment, and we immediately starting implementing some of the insights in how our family does work around the home (ask my kids in a few months how it's working - as a mom, I'm loving it :)- My dad read the book over Thanksgiving break when he came to visit. He is a leader in a scouting organization and was really excited to start implementing it in his scouting unit.- In particular, I have used the models and principles in the “secrets of great design” chapter about state changes time and again with various organizations, and I feel like it has enabled me to, as Paul does, help create greater places for people to work, with higher functioning teams. It’s certainly not 'easy' to implement, but then great accomplishments are never easy.

“A Team of Leaders” is a must read for 2015! As a person who has studied leadership and been a leader of multiple teams over the last 15 years, this book has opened my eyes to how I approach leadership. I now see how I can transform my teams to high-performing, self-managed teams by following the principles outlined in the book. As I have started implementing the principles outlined in the book, I am already seeing improvement in my team’s performance and in their engagement with the work.Gustavson and Liff have written a book that is easy to read with multiple examples and visuals that reinforce how to actually implement the principles in a real world environment. The simple, yet powerful Five-Stage Team Development Model outlines how a team can move from a very traditional leader at the center of every decision (Stage 1) to a team of people who interact and behave as leaders in all they do (Stage 5).The authors expand on the principle that “teams are perfectly designed to get the results they get” throughout the book. I found this principle to be a key turning point for me and my teams to move from a Stage 1 team to a current Stage 3 team with a plan to continue to move towards a Stage 5 team. As I am implementing these principles, it is allowing my team members to work toward their full potential and be fully engaged in their work processes while allowing me to focus more time and effort on strategic work.As leaders we not only need to consider our structure of the team, but also the alignment and purpose of the work the team does to ensure that we have clarity on the value the team creates. In my experience, a high performing team flourishes in an environment where they know exactly how they contribute to the organization’s purpose. “A Team of Leaders” outlines how you can do this with your team.I strongly recommend “A Team of Leaders” to anyone who manages or leads a team of individuals – business, nonprofit, government, and even family…everyone can benefit from this book!

As one who was blessed to start my thirty-six year career as a “Team Manager” at one of P&G’s new social design plants and an executive who has studied leadership and teams for that entire time period, I found “A Team of Leaders” refreshing and engaging in its insights and applicability.Paul and Stew, with their many years of experience both leading and consulting with organizations around improving bottom line performance through creating highly engaged teams, have identified six areas a Leader, Teacher, Coach or Parent can learn and apply.All six of the principles are important and powerful, but the first principle and tool they share, “Five Stage Team Development Model”, has helped my managers and students visualize and understand through a simple framework where a team is on their stages of development and where it needs to target to be. Through my own experience as a leader of teams, I know that the higher each team moves up the five stage model, the higher the performance of the team and the more engaged the team members. Paul and Stew do a marvelous job of helping readers understand this critical principle.Not only do I strongly recommend "A Team of Leaders" to anyone in a leadership role – business, government, community service or family, but I also bring the book to each Management Theory course I teach and strongly recommend it to the class as the best reference on creating successful teams I have found!Tom Ward

Etwas zu spezifisch finde ich. Orientiert sich stark an Verkaufs-Unternehmen. Gibt einige Tools, vertieft sie aber in der Umsetzung nicht wirklich. Man könnte genauso gut einfach recherchieren. Ich wurde durch das Buch nicht viel schlauer, vielleicht liegt es jedoch daran, dass ich vorhin schon John Doerr gelesen habe. Alle sagen das selbe, eine Einheit kann nur dann wachsen und gedeihen, wenn alle am gleichen Strang ziehen und auch selbst für sich Verantwortung nehmen. Schade. Hatte mehr vom Buch erhofft.