Leading Your Team: How to Involve and Inspire Teams by Michael Maynard
This guide is for team leaders everywhere on the practical aspects and people skills of positive teamworking, with a wealth of practical ideas, tips, quotes, case studies and examples. The book focuses attention on the new style of leadership now required in an increasingly competitive environment, where obtaining the best from people is the main route to long-term success. The authors show what it takes to be a facilitating, supportive leader whose style unlocks personal potential. Right from the start, the book adopts an entirely hands-on approach. It explains how to lead an inspiring team meeting, how to deliver an inspired team briefing and how to set inspiring team goals. Later chapters tackle the creation of self-managing teams, ways to develop a team, methods to review its progress, and how to ask for the moon and get it. All teams have their difficult members, and there is a useful chapter on ways to inspire a change of behaviour. There are workable solutions for becoming an adaptable leader, and ways of harnessing the team's full power. The problems of encouraging inter-team working, and also leading cross-cultural teams are also covered in separate chapters. The final chapters explore the issue of team roles and processes, and there is a strategic view of teams as well. Andrew Leigh is the author of 20 Ways to Manage Better, and co-author (with Michael Maynard) of The Perfect Presentation and Ace Teams.