A Team of Leaders: Empowering Every Member to Take Ownership, Demonstrate Initiative, and Deliver Results - Paperback

by Paul Gustavson (Author), Stewart Liff (Author)

The fresh approach taught in this indispensable guide will transform passive groups of disparate people into the effective teams of leaders you didn't know was possible to have.

Every team needs a leader, but why do we often think that means the appropriate workplace team needs to consist of one gem of a worker complemented with a bunch of obedient order-takers and yes men? What if the complementary fits between the team members were not with how well they performed the tasks handed down to them but with how they all used their unique strengths to share knowledge, push the envelope, and lead together?

The authors behind A Team of Leaders explain how the key to your company's success is creating successful teams of leaders combining their individual talents and strengths into a single, unstoppable driving force.

The proven principles and techniques within these invaluable pages include:

• The Five-Stage Team Development Model that maps the transition from traditional to self-directed teams
• Best practices in team process design
• A Team Value Creation Tool that allows members to appreciate the significance of what they contribute each day
• Visual Management and more

A Team of Leaders shows you how to design systems within your organization and management procedures that nurture the leadership potential of every employee, not just the ones they ear-marked as having potential for promotion.

Front Jacket

No matter how many good people you gather, most workplace teams settle into the same old rut. Once the initial enthusiasm dissipates, they become little more than order takers, satisfied with so-so results.

A Team of Leaders offers a completely new way to approach the team experience and an empowering formula for improving performance. At the core of the team dilemma is a little-known truth: It's not the people who need to change but the design of the team that needs an overhaul. By improving the core design components--the systems, the processes, knowledge management, and visual management--you'll get far better results. Unmotivated teams will be transformed into energized groups of employees who take responsibility for long-term outcomes. It all starts with the Five-Stage Team Development Model, which outlines a distinct set of characteristics that teams exhibit as they move from traditional Stage 1, leader-directed teams to self-managed Stage 5 teams full of knowledgeable people who think and act like leaders. The book supplies the tools, processes, and principles for putting them on this path to reinvention. It explains how to: - Incorporate the Team Design Model into your plans and recognize the importance of choosing the right team structure, information systems, people systems, and more - Design integrated processes that support leadership growth, from on-boarding new members to building capabilities to managing disengagement - Adapt a Value Creation Tool that pinpoints the contribution each team member makes each day--and highlights the urgency of everyone pulling together - Capture and quickly disseminate the key knowledge that teams need to become effective, self-managing units - Use visual management techniques to highlight critical organizational requirements, keep people focused on goals, improve information sharing, and more As the authors point out: "Teams are perfectly designed to get the results that they get." Lackadaisical design brings lackluster outcomes. But rigorous design can transform a meh team into a motivated group that continually strives for outstanding performance--a team of leaders. Paul Gustavson is an organizational design consultant and the founder of Organization Planning & Design, Inc. (OPD), which helps companies around the world create and sustain high-performance teams. He is the former chair of the Marriott School of Management's OB/HR Advisory Board and coauthor of The Power of Living by Design and Running into the Wind. Stewart Liff is an HR and visual management expert and the president and CEO of the consulting company Stewart Liff & Associates. During his long career with the Department of Veterans Affairs, his office was selected for Vice President Al Gore's first Hammer Award for Reinventing Government because it successfully used the principles described in this book. He is the author of five books, including Managing Government Employees and Managing Your Government Career.

Back Jacket

Tremendous! A Team of Leaders is a superb guide for all those who work in teams and who aspire to perform at the very highest levels. Simultaneously filled with deep insight and practical applications, this wonderful book delivers both the why and how in producing literal 'teams of leaders' at every level. Highly recommended!-- Stephen M. R. Covey, New York Times bestselling author of The Speed of Trust and coauthor of Smart Trust: The Defining Skill That Transforms Managers into Leaders

"Leadership is a team sport and teams require collective leadership. Through their insightful 'Five-Stage Team Development Model' Gustavson and Liff instruct and shape high perform-ing teams and individuals. Their ideas are grounded in their deep consulting expertise and they are presented with tools and examples to make them usable to others. Any leader who recognizes the job of making others better will find this book a thoughtful and practical guide."-- Dave Ulrich, professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan; partner, The RBL Group; coauthor of HR Transformation: Building Human Resources from the Outside In "As a head coach, I can't be everywhere all the time. To be great, I need a 'team of leaders' among my staff as well as the student athletes who will step up and lead on and off the football field. The principles, concepts, examples, and practical applications shared in this book are helping us accomplish that. I would recommend this book to anyone who is serious about helping teams grow, develop, and succeed--at home, at church, or wherever else they might find themselves."-- Bronco Mendenhall, head football coach, Brigham Young University "Gustavson and Liff lay out a practical, step-by-step approach for creating an organization that recognizes, rewards, and capitalizes on its most valuable asset--employees. Vision and determination alone are not enough to fundamentally change an organization or to thoroughly engage employees. You also need a carefully thought out plan that considers all of the elements necessary to succeed as well as an awareness of how to avoid dead ends and rabbit holes. This book shows you how to do just that. A must-read for those who undertake this most difficult--but ultimately rewarding--of journeys."-- Joe Thompson, former Undersecretary for Veterans Benefits, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs "If you've tried the team approach but never got past the forming and storming stages this book will tell you how to do it right. Teams are designed--usually inadvertently--to get the results they get. Gustavson and Liff show you how to design teams of leaders that get the results you need."-- Bob Stone, former Chief of Reinventing Government in the Clinton administration and author of Confessions of a Civil Servant "Paul Gustavson and Stew Liff show how to elicit more powerful results from teams working in complex and demanding environments. It's said that 'attention is the currency of leadership'; here is an artful approach to capture the attention of team members in order to create better value through better design, process and knowledge that applies to both public and private sectors."-- W. Scott Gould, EVP Medical Affairs, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield; former Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Author Biography

PAUL GUSTAVSON is a former chair of the Marriott School of Management's OB/HR Advisory Board and founder of OPD, which helps organizations around the world create and sustain high-performance teams. STEWART LIFF is a human resources and visual management expert and the author of Managing Government Employees.