When Teams Work: How to develop and lead a high-performing team: How to develop and lead a high-performing team

by Mike Brent, Fiona Dent, Nigel Melville

Discover the secrets to high performing teams from the success stories of sport, military and restaurants – and what to do if your team isn’t working. Teams are At work we are part of many different the department team, the sales team, the planning team and the project team. At play we join the football team, the netball team, the swimming team, the bridge team and the dance team. Socially we support teams, watch teams and are served by teams in restaurants, hotels, shops and at events. But how much do we really know about them, what makes a successful team and why do teams fail? Effective teamworking is a perennial issue – there are so many difficulties and traps. We have all worked in teams and seen these problems at first hand and have suffered from them. This book will help you to We will look at how sports and business teams are developed and work, as well as giving examples and learning lessons from specialist teams in the many different areas such as the military, restaurants, orchestra’s, aerobatics and many more. These examples will be woven in throughout the book, and lessons drawn about what we can learn for our own teams. Developing high performance teams and effective teamwork is a perennial issue for team leaders and team members alike. Most of us work in teams yet few of us have the capacity to fully assimilate what it takes to resolve common issues such as conflict, low engagement, lack of purpose and accountability in teams. This book is for team players, team leaders and anyone who is setting up and supporting a team. It sets out all that you need to know to create a successful team and how to fix it if things start to go wrong. We think the combined experience of the authors and their direct experience of working with both sports and organisational teams is unique. The combination of an academic perspective with a high level practical experience of coaching and leading high performance teams brings clarity and understanding to the concepts , balanced with a pragmatic perspective on how to put these into practice The book draws together the combined experience of Nigel Melville as a High Performance sports coach and Chief Executive , and Mike Brent as an academic, author of several bestselling business books and specialist in team dynamics.

216 pages, Paperback

Published October 2, 2022

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 5 out of 5]

When teams work, illustrates what we need to have for well working teams. Understanding others, influence, safety, engagement, trust, purpose.

Not everyone is part of a team: A group of people working together is a work group. When that group has a common purpose achieved by people with different skills and preferences we can start calling it a Team. Teams will help you to keep up in an agile world. Teams are supported by flexible leaders, coined down as Host Leadership. This is a mix between stepping forward as a Heroic leader and stepping back as a Servant leader. The concept of Host Leadership lets a leader take up six roles and four positions depending on the situation.

The 6 roles that are desribed In their book:

1. Initiator – Getting things started.
2. Inviter – Thinking invitationally. Inviting people and contributions.
3. Space creator – Creating the space for people to speak up and express themselves.
4. Gatekeeper – Including or, where needed, excluding.
5. Connector – Making connections and introductions.
6. Co-participator – Joining in as a contributor and team member.

The four positions:

1. In the Spotlight: up front, in full view. Taking the lead.
2. With the Guests: participating and contributing with your colleagues.
3. In the Gallery: when you need to have an overview. The so-called helicopter perspective.
4. In the Kitchen: a private reflective space. A place and time to stand back and reflect on what is going on.

[Ninja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly taut book of advice on working on high performance teams, with the authors bringing their experience from things like rugby and sports.
Some parts felt a little weak and generic like 'accountability', but otherwise there's plenty of focus, specific advice and strategies. The examples are fairly good, even if sometimes you have to stretch them to fit outside the specific areas they come from. Change and facilitation were fairly good sections, if brief.