The Power of a Positive Team: Proven Principles and Practices that Make Great Teams Great

by Jon Gordon

A book about teams to help teams become more positive, united and connected.

Worldwide bestseller -- the author of The Energy Bus and The Power of Positive Leadership shares the proven principles and practices that build great teams - and provides practical tools to help teams overcome negativity and enhance their culture, communication, connection, commitment and performance.

Jon Gordon doesn't just research the keys to great teams, he has personally worked with some of the most successful teams on the planet and has a keen understanding of how and why they became great. In The Power of a Positive Team, Jon draws upon his unique team building experience as well as conversations with some of the greatest teams in history in order to provide an essential framework, filled with proven practices, to empower teams to work together more effectively and achieve superior results.

Utilizing examples from the writing team who created the hit show Billions, the National Champion Clemson Football team, the World Series contending Los Angeles Dodgers, The Miami Heat and the greatest beach volleyball team of all time to Navy SEAL's, Marching bands, Southwest Airlines, USC and UVA Tennis, Twitter, Apple and Ford, Jon shares innovative strategies to transform a group of individuals into a united, positive and powerful team.

Jon not only infuses this book with the latest research, compelling stories, and strategies to maintain optimism through adversity... he also shares his best practices to transform negativity, build trust (through his favorite team building exercises) and practical ways to have difficult conversations--all designed to make a team more positive, cohesive, stronger and better.

The Power of a Positive Team also provides a blueprint for addressing common pitfalls that cause teams to fail--including complaining, selfishness, inconsistency, complacency, unaccountability--while offering solutions to enhance a team's creativity, grit, innovation and growth.

This book is meant for teams to read together. It's written in such a way that if you and your team read it together, you will understand the obstacles you will face and what you must do to become a great team. If you read it together, stay positive together, and take action together you will accomplish amazing things TOGETHER.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Nonfiction, Self Help, Professional Development, Audiobook, Personal Growth

176 pages, Hardcover

Published June 13, 2018

About the author

Jon Gordon is an American business consultant and author on the topics of leadership, culture, sales, and teamwork.

Jon Gordon's best-selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous NFL, NBA, and college coaches and teams, Fortune 500 companies, school districts, hospitals and non-profits. He is the author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller The Energy Bus, The No Complaining Rule, Training Camp, The Shark and The Goldfish, Soup, The Seed and his latest The Positive Dog. Jon and his tips have been featured on The Today Show, CNN, Fox and Friends and in numerous magazines and newspapers. His clients include The Atlanta Falcons, Campbell Soup, Wells Fargo, State Farm, Novartis, Bayer and more.

Jon is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Masters in Teaching from Emory University. He and his training/consulting company are passionate about developing positive leaders, organizations and teams.

When he's not running through airports or speaking, you can find him playing tennis or lacrosse with his wife and two "high energy" children.

You can find him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jongordonpage

Reviews

[Becki Iverson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will never understand why this book is as highly rated as it is. If I hadn't been required to read it for work I never would have finished it, and I can finish almost anything. I hate to be a cynic, but this is the most oversimplified kumbaya drivel I've ever read. I was so thoroughly underwhelmed with this. I think for anyone who struggles with emotional intelligence or has never had a leadership training this might be somewhat helpful, but I got nothing out of it. It's only redeeming quality is that it's as short as it is so it won't waste too much of your time that could be spent reading something more engaging. Clearly I am an outsider here considering the vast number of high ratings, so I'm not sure what I'm missing - but this was neither interesting nor practical for me and I can think of several other books I'd have preferred on the same subject over this one. Hard pass.

[Erika Molyneux · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t believe that there are so many positive reviews. Let me sum it up for you- it’s every positive mantra that exists with a lot of sports references. Basically love each other, accept criticism, and get everyone on the bus for the power of we and you will read tons of examples of how this worked for people. The problem? All of the examples are surface level. I would like to have seen more detail and information on the challenges of getting everyone on the bus, more in how to better handle the naysayers or those not participating. How to engage the lowest levels of the team and those in other divisions.

Nice message overall but way too surface level to be meaningful.

[Jaclyn Allain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. As someone who has served on and been the leader of many teams, I identified with so many things in this book. The first half of the book had me really motivated. I made tons of notes on things I want to do with different teams I lead at my school and about how I can be a more effective leader. I was really into the whole book but the first half of the book really pushed me to want to do things. I will have to re-read it again to see if I can pull more from the second half of the book. There were tons of quotes throughout the entire book that I would love to have made into posters on my walls. Jon does it again!

[Jeffrey Swarr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fortunate to receive a pre-launch copy of The Power of a Positive Team.

Jon places a number of examples of the traits that positive teams exhibit. He also sets the book up to be used by teams as a "self-study" or guide to becoming a positive team.

A couple of my favorite quotes from this book are:

1. "Positive teams confront the reality of challenging situations and work together to overcome them."

2. "It’s a purpose beyond oneself that truly drives and energizes people and teams."

3. "Don’t run from the difficult conversation. Don’t be scared of feedback. It is not meant to define you. It’s meant to help refine you so you can do your job better for your team."

If you lead a team at school, sports, business, or simply your family at home, this book is for you.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our senior leadership team is reading this book as we go through the process of forming, storming, and norming. This book is helping to establish the guidelines, principles, and expectations for which to hold the team accountable. The overall goal, then, is to create a positive culture where everyone serves each other to achieve collective greatness.

In true Jon Gordon style, he outlines that the basis of a positive team and a committed organization are: faith, belief, connection, communication, trust, optimism, and empathy. Included in this quick and easy read are great lessons for all types of teams!

[Ashley Osgood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept waiting for this book to start. It was very topical and repetitive. The ideas are not bad ones, just nothing revolutionary. The author mentioned “as we will discuss later in this book” and never actually got into the depth that was promised. It felt like a 140 page introduction that hadn’t been edited yet.

[Bianca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Published in 2018, written by a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Masters in Teaching from Emory University. Became pretty famous through selling books and talks on topics of leadership and teamwork.
A book about optimism, communication and teamwork.
I found it to be a little too obsessive about being positive and too phobic of negativity. Other things are too repetitive.
I didn't find any of his ideas to be new in any way, he is simply propagating known theories and methods and making money out of it.
He's written a crazy amount of books and I'm pretty sure that he's just repeating ideas from one to another. I think there are other better books on positivity out there.

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is cumbersome (bad). It's a collection of (barely) anecdotal stories. This is not one of them, but I could slide it in and no one would notice: "Once I worked with a soccer team who was bad. I told them to start communicating more. They saw amazing results and won lots of games. Communcation is important in sports and business."

If you are looking for a book on positive thinking, try Ehrenreich instead. BRIGHT SIDED: How the Culture of Positive Thinking is Undermining America.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

The message is great but the author is too self-absorbed in this book. He constantly references his own books. Almost all of his examples are from sports teams which doesn't resonate with non-fans. Also, he never sites any specific studies or data. Every single example is anecdotal.

[Amanda Nelson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had to read this for work and YIKES. This is everything you’ve heard before about what makes a strong team, just in this guy’s words. Unoriginal.

[kell. · Rating 1 out of 5]

no.

[Jack Nickerson]

The Power of a Positive Team by: Jon Gordon talks about a lot of positivity. The Date of Publication when this book was written is June 2018. The Genre of the book is a Self Help Guide Book. The Setting is Worldwide and Current because Gordon continues to work and speak to many companies and teams. He looks at several sport teams and industry leaders. Jon Gordon works with these big companies such as: Golf Channel, Google, and Apple. Jon Gordon speaks about how Sport Teams can get better, one way is by trying hard and just practice and practice. Another way how businesses can be more successful is by trying harder, asking questions and doing their best. How they can always do better related to positive mindsets is by saying ¨I will do my best, and I want this team to win¨. One of the themes is to think positively with no sports and how to create a better team.

The Power of Positive Team by Jon Gordon is an ok book in my opinion. What I liked about this book first is that it talks about sports which makes it fun and fascinating. Another thing I like about this book is that it talks about Football which is my favorite Sport, and the specific team specifically they talk about is Clemson Football. Another thing I liked about it is that they mention and talk about the Los Angeles Dodgers which is a Baseball Team, which is a good team that I like. Another thing I liked also is that Jon Gordon talks to some companies and Apple and Google. The Thing I do not like about this book is that they talk about the same stuff over and over. I love sports, but the thing is when they repeat talking about the same stuff over and over it gets annoying. It also kind of drives me crazy when they move on to other topics. What matters is that you should always think positively and if you think positive and if you like it your dreams will come true.

[Elior Zaremba · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sometimes it’s noticeable and sometimes it isn’t but teamwork is extremely vital for humanity to survive. There are better structured groups than others and that’s because they are able to cooperate. The Power of a Positive Team by Jon Gordon is a 2018 nonfiction “instruction manual” on how to forge a good team. The book is Mr. Gordon reciting experiences of how he helped fortune 500 teams get up to date and helped NFL, MLB, NHL and so many other teams get along. Jon may know how a team works but he really doesn’t know how to team up and collaborate on a book. Over the course of multiple sections and chapters we get to hear a man repeatedly boast about his experience over the course of his life.

I believe that this book (The Power of a Positive Team by Jon Gordon) is a failed attempt to emulate how to do teamwork properly and help organizations collaborate without strife. Jon Gordon does something socially people shouldn’t (and mostly [with the exception of Bert Kreischer]) don’t do: brag needlessly and flex about who he knows or is friends with. The entire book is about how he (Mr. Jon Gordon) was on teams, helped sports teams, and corporate giants like airlines. As ironic as it seems, a team doesn’t function when people are excessively bragging. For a book published in 2018 the book aged like a gallon of milk in Arizona during the middle of July. The book is highly trite with all 5 of its points and never deviates from any of its hackneyed objectives. If Gordon decided to boil all of his points down and simply make a pamphlet instead I believe there would be much fewer negative reviews and it would actually be useful. I’ve seen what good teams are and how they can function smoothly while other times they haven’t worked well because it was a bunch of people who just didn’t have anything better to do.

[John Benedetto]

The book The Power Of Postive Team written by Jon gordon published june 2018. This is a non fiction book that is drawn to working together and have positive attitude. There are many different themes of this which explain how to keep a positive mindset.

I likes this book because it make me feel like i have to keep a positive mindset to face all the challenges. As you go through this book there many different themes such as making sure to have good relationships and trust between others to make everyone feel good.

[Sonia G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d say this is more of a 2 star rating for me. Nothing really new or inspirational… no “aha” moments. However, we used this book at work as a book study and it worked out well for discussions so I bumped it up to a 3 star.

[Alli Edelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good. was reading for tennis but got a lot out of it for myself. thumbs up.

[Daniella Stokic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not the kind of book I usually read, but it was a nice quick read that had some interesting points about working in a team.

[ains ☻ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way he managed to write 142 pages about having positive team work amazes me (read this for hs soccer)

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great to finish this week. I started reading this at the beginning of dance team season and am concluding before a big competition. I found it a timely reminder that we are all contributors in a team, regardless of our role.

[Jennifer Speicher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book to use with teams that are striving for more and wanting to become great! The principles outlined are a good beginning point but not deep. Easy read. I love the stories shared by many different professionals that deal with teams daily. They were inspirational and had excellent insight on developing team. Worth the time to read and then implement the principles with confidence and expertise.

[Mleander23 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another touchdown for Jon Gordon! A wonderful book that focuses on “we before me!” PPT shares the inside tracks on building a culture of success through sharing beliefs, difficult conversations from a positive place, and real life results starting from the ground up. A must read for every team and every leader looking to built great teams.

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great reminder of ways to be a positive team member to take a good team to a great team. It gave me a few things to consider and ponder how I can be better, without taking responsibility for others. Teams who want to go from good to great should pick this up.

[Elise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many sports examples.

[kamari · Rating 1 out of 5]

waste of time. the man just flexed about his connections and told everyone to communicate, commit to each other, and don't let negativity get in the way of a championship. 🙄

[Shane G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, Jon Gordon has created a fantastic book. Every coach, leader, manager, teacher, etc., should read this book. It seems obvious that a positive team will create great results, but how do we get there? This book hits all angles on why and how to create a positive team and environment. A must read for those who want to achieve and create greatness.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fortunate enough to receive a pre-launch review copy of the book and found the book a pleasure to read. I had read "The Energy Bus" in 2017 and shared that with my then team and have been able to implement several of those practices into my current business.

"The Power of a Positive Team" is filled with stories from the world of sports, along with ancedotes from other industries including business, the military, and education. While the concept was nothing new, the manner in which Jon presents the concepts and provides realistic examples and easy to take, yet not simple action steps spoke to me.

I have already made a list of several people that I would like to share this book with who are members of teams and that could benefit from the power of Jon's storytelling.

[M Ohman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Jon Gordon has written a wonderful and accessible book which will be invaluable for teams and those who lead them to make great teams great. Jon has a wonderful way of mixing stories of teams, businesses, and organizations to demonstrate his methods for how to move a team into a positive mindset and set of behaviors. I highly recommend this book for teams and for leaders who aim to have their teams be even more positive and successful. I plan to share this book with leaders I work with in my profession, and have it be a springboard to transform us into an even better and more effective team.

[Yvonne Malmstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading many of John Gordon’s other books I jumped at the chance to be part of the launch team for this book. Working in a public school in Texas and getting ready to transition into a true fine arts magnet school, this book is just what we need to create greatness. As a teacher and a mom of an athlete I’ve been around so many teams. This book describes everything teams do to be successful!!! BUY this book! You won’t be able to put it down.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, Jon has a way of presenting the important principles in a way that is both encouraging and easy to understand. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a dose of encouragement to push their teams forward to greatness.

[Stacey Stearns · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance copy of this book and it was a fabulous read. I recommend it to anyone that wants to grow as a teammate and leader. We are all part of a team, and this book brings many of the concepts from Jon's previous books together, as they build the foundation for being a positive team member that can help others grow while also excelling individually.