Reading is an activity loved by many people. you can find books on literally any subject. this is a great thing to take advantage of if you are leading a team. We’ve put together a list of must-read team building books that cover everything from managing change to building successful teams. You’ll also find some books that tell the stories of specific successful companies. invite everyone in your group to read these books together, or just read each one yourself and share the pertinent facts with your team. Either way, we hope they have a positive impact!
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You are reading: Books for team building
the importance of team building
Working as part of a team is essential in almost any business or personal environment. you can’t do everything independently, it’s just not an option. each team has a unique dynamic and mix of personalities. By participating in carefully planned activities, you will give employees the opportunity to have fun while meeting their co-workers, exploring new things, developing skills, and moving forward as a better team.
Team building activities can range from a happy hour or team lunch to an organized activity like an escape room or trivia game. each activity offers different ways to connect with each other and learn more about people outside of your normal work roles.
Regular team building on the schedule will improve overall productivity and boost employee morale. Giving people the opportunity to have a little fun in their workday will also help the amount of employee engagement. It’s good for company culture and it’s good for individual employees, but it will also create strong, creative teams that do great work.
get your team involved with books
There are many ways to team up, but one option is to read a book together. now, that doesn’t mean sitting in a conference room with someone reading aloud until everyone is bored to tears. consider turning it into a book club instead.
Buy a copy of the book of your choice for everyone on your team and ask them to set aside 30 minutes every few days to read the book. then, during weekly team meetings, you can discuss the information you’ve covered so far.
If you have people on your team who don’t like to read, offer them an audiobook option as they are available for almost any print book. Some of the options on this list actually come with a list of questions and topics to cover as a group.
The beauty of a book club is that it’s a great activity for in-person or remote teams. it helps improve cohesion because everyone gets the same information at the same time, so it’s good practice.
Reviewing the information in the book is an important step because the more you talk, the easier it is to remember what you’ve learned. it is also interesting to hear different opinions on the same information. each person will gain various nuggets of wisdom and learning from a book, so being able to share and talk about it helps people discover things they might have missed when they read it.
Great leaders will continue to develop competencies and become the best players and team leaders they can be. If you just want to enjoy these books and learn something new about managing effective people and building a good team, this list is great for that too. consider sharing with someone from your mentor or your own mentor so you have someone to talk to about what you’re reading.
the best teamwork books to read
1. The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork: Embrace Them and Empower Your Team by John C. maxwell
in The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork: Embrace Them and Empower Your Team, John C. Maxwell covers 17 things that help build successful teams. each of the laws has an accompanying story to help paint the picture. For example, under the Big Picture Act, a president of the United States traveled across the country on a bus and did some manual labor. he’ll read real-life examples of each of these laws of teamwork to help illustrate how they make an impact.
Whether you’re the person leading the team or just one of the team members, you’ll find useful insights to improve the overall dynamic of the team you’re a part of. the same author also prepared a similar book on the laws of leadership.
2. The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People by Gary Chapman and Paul White
If you’ve ever heard of The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts, used by many couples who want to learn how to best accommodate their romantic partners, The 5 Workplace Appreciation Languages is a version that can be applied in the workplace. By reading this book as a team, you can have conversations about each person’s language of appreciation. there is a quiz for everyone to take and then you can share your answers.
Managers will not only learn to show gratitude for each individual, but also provide feedback to other team members. this can help foster greater recognition from peers and managers in the workplace.
3. leaders eat last by simon sinek
Simon Sinek has written several popular books, but Leaders Eat Last is a great book for anyone who has a desire to be a leader in their career (or personal life). is not an instructional book on how to be a better leader, but instead explains why better leaders are crucial to our society.
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When you consider what makes a good leader, empathy is a quality that many people cite. sinek’s argument in this book is that each group must have a “why” and then people need to join in on the why. you need to be able to inspire commitment, dedication and trust in the organization.
sinek uses the marine corps as an example throughout the book because people put their lives on the line for something they truly believe in. All team members will perform better and take greater risks at work if they feel like their team has their back. creating that kind of team dynamic will lead to much more success.
4. talking to strangers: what we need to know about people we don’t know by malcolm gladwell
malcolm gladwell is a popular team-reading author, but talking to strangers offers a fascinating look at how we interact with strangers and other humans. Gladwell’s book features many real-life examples of how our lack of proper tools to communicate with strangers leads to misunderstandings and conflict.
This is a great option if you’re looking for something your team can read that isn’t too work-related. Gladwell highlights his points by covering scandals throughout history that can be triggers for certain people, so it’s important to assess everyone’s comfort level before requesting this to read. he talks about some of the highest-profile criminals in recent decades and how they got away with it for so long. should we trust people by default or should we wait until they earn their trust?
This book will definitely get everyone talking. It’s also a fantastic audiobook that includes real interviews with many of the people featured in the book. Any of Malcolm Gladwell’s books would be great for building team spirit, but this one definitely dives into how we interact with new people.
5. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Speaking Up When the Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, et al.
Crucial Conversations isn’t exactly a teamwork book, but rather a look at how to have important conversations and resolve conflicts and differences. Most of the major problems that occur within a team stem from the inability to resolve conflicts and find solutions. By reading this book, your entire team will learn the six-minute technique that will help navigate any conversation and find a solution.
Crucial Conversations can help anyone improve their overall communication style. Specific conversations require unique approaches and skills, so no matter what type of conversation you struggle with or want to improve on, you’ll be able to find some great takeaways from this book and improve communication within your team.
6. switch: how to switch things when switching is hard by chip heath and dan heath
going through changes is necessary for any business or organization. nothing can stay the same forever. but the way people deal with change is everywhere and can create a lot of problems within a team dynamic. switch helps you merge your emotional mind with your rational mind. Those two different sides of your brain can make it very difficult to deal with change, but this book will help you get through it.
is a perfect book for team building because the whole team can read it and share their thoughts and conclusions. They can also help check in on each other afterward with simple reminders. It’s a great book to discuss with others, so reading it as a team will give everyone a new framework to get through the changes and process things together.
7. we are all in this together: creating a team culture of high performance, trust and belonging by mike robbins
We’re All in This Together looks at the different ways companies build trust and operate at the highest level. The author, Mike Robbins, has over 20 years of experience working with teams at large corporations and playing Kansas City royalty. This book shares some of his most successful exercises and activities from different retreats and highlights from talks.
Topics covered include participation, decision-making, performance, conflict resolution, and inclusion and belonging. reading this with your team will help you all work to create a work environment that promotes optimal performance.
8. sticking together: a simple lesson for building a stronger team by jon gordon
Standing Together follows a high school basketball coach looking to motivate and unite his team for the new season. Team members are given sticks with words written on them, and there are different tasks on these sticks, such as finding another player with the same word written on the stick, explaining why the word is important to the team, and more.
jon gordon has published many different books that use stories to help motivate people. the book will be read very quickly, so this could be an activity for the team in a meeting and then they could discuss it.
9. nine lies about work: a real-world guide for a freethinking leader by marcus buckingham and ashley goodall
9 Lies About Work is a great book to spark conversation with your teams. features different stories and analyzes that break down different workplace strategies and determine which ones positively impact a team’s performance. for example, a lie is that people don’t want constant feedback, but helpful attention.
the fact that it challenges different theories that have been used for a long time in the training of managers and leaders. It will be a great discussion book because you can find out where your team stands on the different assumptions and learn how to work better with them.
10. the five dysfunctions of a team: a fable of leadership by patrick lencioni
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team tells the story of a CEO who is faced with the challenge of uniting a team that is so disorganized that it threatens to bring down the entire company. follow the story that takes you through the five dysfunctions that cause teams to have problems. there are different steps you can take as actionable items for your own business.
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The five dysfunctions covered in the book are lack of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. If his team is struggling with any of these situations, you’ll really get something great out of this book.
11. the culture code: the secrets of highly successful groups by daniel coyle
many teams are full of talented people, but they struggle to put their thoughts together to create something cohesive. the culture code covers the mechanism behind successful teams which includes building a safer environment. It covers things like nonverbal cues, managing physical distance between team members, and even a simple catchphrase shared by the entire team.
The book covers different types of equipment, including sports equipment, military equipment, and business equipment, so you’ll be able to read a variety of examples. reading this as a team will give you plenty of options to discuss where your team could turn things around and become more successful. the three main points include building a secure environment, sharing the vulnerability, and establishing a purpose.
12. driven by difference: how great companies drive innovation through diversity by david livermore
Diversity is extremely important to having a successful team because it drives creativity. Powered by Difference uses real life examples of successful corporations to discuss that. The author reviews five different elements that determine whether teams are successful or the differences are too difficult to overcome.
It’s important to understand that just because a team has a diverse group of people doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to be creative. there has to be a successful management strategy and this book covers the secret of minimizing conflict and maximizing diversity of information.
books about successful companies
In addition to books that cover specific team building skills and qualities, you can read all sorts of different books as a group for group discussion. you’ll be amazed at how much you can bring people together to read the same story at the same time and have the opportunity to discuss it. it’s about problem solving and team leaders in specific companies.
the store of everything: jeff bezos and the age of amazon by brad stone
many of us use amazon to order random items on our lists, groceries, and to watch the latest season of the wonderful mrs. maisel. but how did an online bookstore become something that has infiltrated every part of our lives? The Everything Store dives into how one of America’s greatest entrepreneurs, Jeff Bezos, grew his company into a place where you could buy everything.
Even if your business isn’t in retail, you can still learn about innovation and out-of-the-box thinking with this book. Bezos has taken a lot of risk and tried to break the mold a bit and it has paid off. is an interesting biography about an interesting company.
built from scratch: how a couple of ordinary guys grew home depot from nothing to $30 billion by bernie marcus, arthur blank, bob andelman
built from the ground up tells the story of how two friends who had just been laid off started one of the most successful retail businesses in the country. not only does it cover the origins of the business, but you will also learn about the importance of the value wheel used by associates to take care of their customers.
There will be some great talking points for your team as you read through the book. you’ll get some ideas on how to do different projects within the community to give back, how to incorporate company values into your everyday conversations, and how to really understand what your customers are looking for.
coca-cola citizen: the making of coca-cola capitalism by bartow j. elmore
coca-cola is one of the most recognizable brands of all time. Citizen Coke dives into the history of the company and how they grew their brand to become a giant. The recipe for the actual drink is a complete secret kept in a vault, but you can still learn all about how the company used free public resources and amazing marketing ideas that made this company a global powerhouse.
The book is not entirely positive, it also talks about many of the ways this industry will be threatened in the future. will provide some great talking points for the team. How will tensions in the supply chain alter the future of different companies? What marketing strategies will be the way of the future? it’s a great book to get your team thinking about a specific case study and how they took advantage of the system and had some wins and will face future problems as well.
becoming steve jobs: the evolution from reckless upstart to visionary leader by brent schlender, rick tetzeli
it is impossible to deny the genius of steve jobs. how to become steve jobs tells his story using all the different stereotypes and myths that float around the man. the authors were able to interview many of the people who knew the works best. tells the story of a man who learned from every failure and turned them into strengths. The authors break down his success at Apple and how much more his process involved than just choosing good products.
Think about how many apple-created products are in the room you’re sitting in right now. it’s hard to deny that this man changed the fabric of our society and reading about the struggles he faced during his lifetime will be a great conversation starter with his team. The book was a New York Times bestseller, so it’s definitely more entertaining than some of the other business related books.
if you can’t get enough of apple stories, you can also read walter isaacson’s steve jobs to get another insight into his life and time with the company.
ice cream social: the fight for the soul of ben & jerry by brad edmondson
another company deep dive you can read with your team is this book about one of the most popular desserts, ben & jerry ice cream This company does things a little differently with a three-part mission. works to make the best ice cream in the world (which we can all support), funds progressive causes, and shares success with all stakeholders.
This is a fascinating story because the founders of this dessert company are very passionate about helping others and giving back to the things that are important to them. this mission has created many problems and obstacles for them over time, but it also helped them stay focused on the things that are most important. ice cream social is great because you can chat about it with the team while enjoying some of the most amazing desserts.