Practical step-by-step guidance on how to improve teamwork and increase the productivity and efficiency of groups within any organization. Glenn Varney shows how to recognize symptoms of unproductive teams, improve team member relations, and clarify roles and goals. He gives strategies for solving problems that often plague work groups and presents numerous examples that demonstrate how managers can apply these strategies in day-to-day practice.

Here's a step-by-step process to recruit, empower and lead teams. How to Build High-Performance Teams focuses on the how-to keys of team-building-from recruiting the right team members to truly empowering them with authority and responsibility for their decisions and performance. You'll understand how to build trust, confidence, and group work skills, balancing and fine-tuning the team process as you go. You'll learn how to: Build and manage teams that live up to their promise of higher productivity and greater problem-solving ability Maximize team productivity by encouraging group discussio.

A fresh, effective, and enduring way to lead—starting with your next interaction Most leaders feel the inevitable interruptions in their jam-packed days are troublesome. But in TouchPoints, Conant and Norgaard argue that these—and every point of contact with other people—are overlooked opportunities for leaders to increase their impact and promote their organization's strategy and values. Through previously untold stories from Conant's tenure as CEO of Campbell Soup Company and Norgaard's vast consulting experience, the authors show that a leader's impact and legacy are built through hundreds, even thousands, of interactive moments in time. The good news is that anyone can develop "TouchPoint" mastery by focusing on three essential components: head, heart, and hands. TouchPoints speaks to the theory and craft of leadership, promoting a balanced presence of rational, authentic, active, and wise leadership practices. Leadership mastery in the smallest and otherwise ordinary moments can transform aimless activity in individuals and entropy in organizations into focused energy—one magical moment at a time.

Understand the dynamics of all different types of teams Beyond Team Building: How to Build High Performing Teams and the Culture to Support Them represents the latest in thinking about creating effective teams. The authors present a new “Five C” framework that focuses on the core aspects of team building. The book helps the reader assess how his/her team is performing on each of the 5Cs—context, composition, competencies, change, and collaborative leadership, and discusses options concerning how to improve team performance along each of these dimensions. The book includes: • A wealth of examples of effective (and ineffective) teams from such companies as Cisco Systems, Bain & Company, and Amazon • New material concerning how to develop effective entrepreneurial and family teams • How to manage cross-cultural, virtual, and alliance teams • How to create a “team building organization” This book provides the next generation of team leaders, team members, and team consultants with the knowledge and skills they need to create effective and high functioning teams.

Leading a fast-growing team is a uniquely challenging experience. Startups with a hot product often double or triple in size quickly—a recipe for chaos if company leaders aren’t prepared for the pitfalls of hyper-growth. If you’re leading a startup or a new team between 10 and 150 people, this guide provides a practical approach to managing your way through these challenges. Each section covers essential strategies and tactics for managing growth, starting with a single team and exploring typical scaling points as the team grows in size and complexity. The book also provides many examples and lessons learned, based on the authors’ experience and interviews with industry leaders. Learn how to make the most of: Hiring: Learn a scalable hiring process for growing your team People management: Use 1-on-1 mentorship, dispute resolution, and other techniques to ensure your team is happy and productive Organization: Motivate employees by applying five organizational design principles Culture: Build a culture that can evolve as you grow, while remaining connected to the team’s core values Communication: Ensure that important information—and only the important stuff—gets through

Hackman (social and organizational psychology, Harvard U.) identifies the factors of being a team leader that will enable a team to work together efficiently to achieve organizational goals. He suggests that five conditions are necessary: having a real team, a compelling direction, an enabling team structure, a supportive organizational context, and expert team coaching. He integrates insights from interviews with team leaders with concepts from the social sciences. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR