Successful teams often have multiple factors working for them. On a perfect day, they communicate and collaborate well, respect diverse opinions and ideas, recognize and appreciate the contributions of others, and have leaders who create, protect, and foster an environment in which the team can thrive.
Of course, not every day is perfect, and even the best teams get bogged down from time to time. when that happens, it helps to have a knowledge base to fall back on to quickly overcome challenges.
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Even if your team is far from perfect, you may only be one mindset shift or one practical step away from developing a more cohesive, collaborative, and ultimately successful group. we’ve rounded up eight books that can help you and your team get there.
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People
by: gary chapman and paul white
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Book Description (via Amazon): “This book will give you the tools to improve staff morale, create a more positive workplace, and increase employee engagement. What? teaching you how to effectively communicate authentic appreciation and encouragement to employees, co-workers, and leaders.”
why you should read it: in romantic relationships, everyone has a love language: how they prefer to give and receive love. Similarly, at work, everyone has a language of appreciation. And when supervisors and colleagues understand each other’s primary and secondary languages, workplace relationships improve dramatically, Chapman and White argue. this book provides an assessment to help teams determine their language of appreciation and specific actions based on each language.
nine lies about work: a real-world guide for a freethinking leader
by: marcus buckingham and ashley goodall
book description (via hbr): “with compelling stories and incisive analysis, the authors reveal essential truths that freethinking leaders will immediately recognize: that it is strength and cohesiveness of your team, not your company culture, which matters most; that we should focus less on top-down planning and more on giving our people reliable, real-time intelligence; that instead of trying to align goals of people, we should strive to align people’s sense of purpose and meaning; that people don’t want constant feedback, they want helpful attention. This is the real world of work, the way it is and the way it should be.”
Why You Should Read This: This book challenges long-standing wisdom about team leadership: that leaders must give constant feedback, both positive and negative; that difficult conversations are uncomfortable, but necessary. According to the authors, these ideas and other faulty assumptions (nine, to be exact) actually cause dysfunction and frustration among teams. read this book for a dose of realism for leaders and teams.
driven by difference: how great companies drive innovation through diversity
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by: david livermore
Book description (via Amazon): “Diverse teams are much more creative than homogeneous teams, but only when managed effectively. “difference-driven” identifies the management practices necessary to minimize conflict and maximize the diversity of information found in the variety of values and experiences.”
Why You Should Read This: Although many companies try to bring more diversity to their teams, not all see better results by doing so. livermore draws on diversity success stories from google, alibaba, novartis, and other companies to reveal the five key elements that determine whether culturally diverse teams succeed or stall because of their differences.
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Join and Others Don’t
by: simon sinek
book description (via amazon): “too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a “circle of safety” that separates safety within the team from external challenges. sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories ranging from the military to big business, from government to investment banking.”
Why you should read this: We recently described teams that lack emotional intelligence as “ruthless.” Sinek would argue that fierce teams also lack great leaders. In his work with organizations around the world, Sinek noted some key differences between teams that trust each other and teams that are doomed to fail. he discusses these differences in this book and offers tips for leaders to build more trust in their teams.
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