CLICKING: A Team Building Strategy for Overloaded Leaders Who Want Stronger Team Trust, Better Results, and More Time

by Daria Rudnik

You’ve worked hard to become the leader you are today—but if your days are filled with back-to-back meetings, constant firefighting, and a growing sense that your team can’t function without you, something’s broken. The traditional model of leadership—where you solve every problem and carry the team on your shoulders—isn’t just unsustainable. It’s holding you back.

CLICKING offers a refreshingly practical roadmap for leaders who are ready to move beyond over-involvement and start building resilient, self-sufficient teams. Drawing on 15 years of hands-on experience with leaders from high-growth startups to Fortune 500s, executive coach, ex-Deloitte, and former Chief People Officer Daria Rudnik introduces the CLICK a tested method for turning disengaged, overly reliant groups into high-performing teams that run with clarity and autonomy.

The CLICK framework focuses on five critical

Clear Define why your team exists—and what drives them.Linking Build trust that fuels collaboration.Integrated Establish team processes that foster autonomy.Collaborative Empower teams to act without top-down control.Knowledge Create a culture where feedback and learning flow freely.CLICKING is the rare leadership book that’s both strategic and deeply practical. It addresses the real challenges modern leaders face—like burnout, misalignment, and constant firefighting—and offers a clear, step-by-step path to building teams that don’t just function, but thrive.

This is the book you’ll return to again and again—especially when your team is stuck or your calendar’s out of control. If you’re ready to reclaim your time, scale your leadership, and empower your team to perform without you in the room, CLICKING will show you how.

228 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 28, 2025

Reviews

[Natalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hooked right from the intro thanks to the author’s vivid personal story—a rare case when I didn’t want to skip it. The CLICK framework is clear, practical, and easy to apply, and the Team Maturity Questionnaire is a great tool for any leader. As someone who works mostly with distributed teams, I really value how the book acknowledges modern realities and offers tools that work beyond traditional office settings. A must-read for overloaded leaders who want stronger teams and better results.

[Gabrielle Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clicking is a well thought out and easily understood book that helped me as a software technology leader, to come away with immediately applicable and a backlog of ideas to build my engineering teams up. Ms. Daria is brilliant in her well thought out and organized approach to this book. It can be read straight through, and also use as a reference book. Highly recommend!

[Anemari Fiser · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Practical and Insightful Toolkit for Building Stronger Teams

Even though I was already familiar with many of the concepts covered in this book, I was pleasantly surprised by the fresh perspective it offers. It presents a clear and objective look at team dynamics - what often goes wrong, why it happens, and how to fix it.

The book is packed with real-world examples from a variety of companies, which help ground the theory in everyday practice. I especially appreciated the framework-based approach - it gives managers and team leads practical tools they can apply right away to diagnose and address common issues like lack of collaboration, unclear ownership, or low engagement.

One of the biggest strengths of this book is that it doesn’t just describe problems - it helps you take action. Whether you’re not sure if there’s a problem, or you know something’s off but don’t know where to start, this book gives you both clarity and direction.

I really liked the “CLICK” framework - it brings structure to the principles of what makes a team work well, in a way that feels both intuitive and actionable.

Overall, this is a fantastic toolkit for any manager. It’s something you’ll want to return to again and again as your team evolves.

[Peter McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely outstanding—a thoroughly practical guide for leaders at any level.

Each chapter delivers step-by-step frameworks you can immediately apply to real team challenges, making this far more actionable than most leadership books.

What sets it apart is the author’s blend of personal stories, wisdom from hands-on experience, and practical tools you can use not just once, but as an ongoing reference. The CLICK framework is clear, memorable, and works across different team types and industries.

Unlike other books packed with theory, this one stands out for its straightforward, field-tested advice- ideal for busy managers, coaches, and HR professionals. I especially appreciate how it helps you shift from firefighting to building long-term trust and autonomy within your team. The tools encourage reflection, actionable team purpose, and better communication.

I’m already putting many of the tools I found here to the test, and I am confident this book will become a key resource for leaders and teams for years to come.

Highly recommended!

[LC · Rating 5 out of 5]

A practical and relatable guide with tangible steps that leaders, managers and anyone working in an organization can take, for more cohesive and effective teams.
Clicking is easy to read and understand, and synthesizes insights from other books and the author's experience into a handbook with questionnaires and tools. Recommend.

[oreneus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read book for any manager or individual contributor working in a team.
Daria Rudnick lays out the principles and Foundations for building successful teams across organizations with tons of practical advice and articulate writing. Highly recommended, five stars!