How NOT to Build a Great Team

How NOT to Build a Great Team book coverTeam Building for Toddlers?

Loyalty Is the New Cocaine?

Frat House Frenzy?

Titles Are Forever?

Type A Is for A$$hole?

Do any of these sound familiar? If so, you’ll probably find the new book I co-authored with Kim Obbink, “How NOT to Build a Great Team,” is for you. It’s the second in our series of three “How Not To” guides written to help leaders and managers avoid classic pitfalls.

This collection of funny, cautionary tales identifies patterns we have seen time and again during our years of leadership coaching. In this book, we provide examples of how teambuilding goes awry.

We believe that every business is a people business. It is the employees, the talented and skilled individuals, and teams that are the central nervous system of every business’s operations and strategy. Having great people allows leaders to keep their sights set on the day-to-day business itself. By doing so, they can focus on products, competitive strategies, sales, and innovation. If you are constantly churning around in the muck and mess of people and HR issues, the world outside the walls of your business will rush by you, and you’ll still be trying to figure out a way to fire Sam without hurting his or her feelings.

Dealing with people is not for the faint of heart. It is where the toughest conversations occur, the most complex interpersonal dynamics exist, and where you’ll be called upon to be a psychiatrist, HR professional, mediator, referee, umpire, teacher, and camp counselor. It is where you can do the most damage by making bad decisions, where the wrong people can have the most lasting negative impact, and where bad people quickly kill healthy company cultures.

It can also be the most rewarding. When you experience the positive impact that well-developed and well-managed people and teams have on your business, and when you witness the personal growth of the people you’ve hired, you’ve arrived at people management nirvana. You and your business will be rewarded with a happy culture, good employee retention, and a reputation that will attract top talent from across the industry. Plus, it will just feel good.

In this book, we address three critical aspects of developing a great team: hiring and firing, team management, and leadership development. We’ll share with you some real and some entirely made up stories about hiring the wrong people for the wrong reasons, how easy it is to create a dysfunctional team of do-nothings, and what to do when what was once your brilliant entrepreneurial vision suddenly turns into the lost chapter of Lord of the Flies.

Buckle up, leader. This is where the going gets tough. Luckily, you’ll have our guide to help you muddle through!

If you’re ready for more click here.