Synopses & Reviews
There are so many ways a team can go wrong.Some teams make decisions so slowly that nothing ever gets done, while others go too fast and miss critical issues that come back to bite them later. Some teams bicker endlessly, while others smile and nod while avoiding the tough issues. Too often, team dysfunction leads to abysmal productivity and zero innovation for your organization, as well as misery and wasted time for you. Most team members sit and wait, feeling trapped in a team that just isn't working. They're waiting for you to do something.
You First presents a radical new idea: you can change your team. Author Liane Davey shows how you, from any seat at the table, even without support from your colleagues or your team leader, can transform a toxic team. It starts with living up to five responsibilities that will change the workings of even the most dysfunctional team.
No matter what kind of team you're working onCrisis Junkie, Bobble-Head, Spectator, Bleeding Back, or Royal Rumbleyou'll learn how to diagnose your team's ills and begin to apply emergency medicine to stop the decline. Then, learn how to diagnose yourself and embrace the role you play in transforming your team. You First delivers practical, real-world guidance on how to:
- Set aside your biases and start with a positive assumption
- Overcome your shortcomings and add your full value
- Amplify other voices, even if it slows down the decision process
- Know when to say "no" and when to say "yes"
- Embrace productive conflict
You First instructs you on how to disrupt the patterns that leave your team in an endless cycle of dysfunction and replace those patterns with positive interactions. It gives you the right words to say to change your team for the betterstarting today. Designed for frontline employees, middle managers, executives, and anyone who works regularly in teams,You Firstwill help you figure out how to make your team happier, healthier, and more productive.
Synopsis
Team dysfunctions are discouragingly prevalent throughout most businesses as there are so many ways a team can go wrong. Sometimes the results of team dysfunction are relatively innocuous. The team might just be a little slower or a little less rewarding than you would like. But in too many teams, the problems are more severe. People find themselves dreading a job they used to enjoy because their teammates are bickering, or rejecting new ideas, or simply not pulling their weight.
This book presents new ideas and processes for increasing team effectiveness. The author proposes that a healthy team needs two basic things: first, team members need to bring diverse talents and perspectives into alignment around the unique value they can add for the organization. Second, they need to trust each other enough to engage in productive conflict.
The book addresses the 5 most common ways in which teams become toxic – and destroy any chance of creating the value the organization is counting on them to produce. Then, it spells out the antidotes to those dysfunctions that will protect teams from self-destructing. Finally, it concludes by instructing team members on the language they can use to begin to change their team. Designed for front line employees, middle managers, executives teams, or anyone who works regularly in teams, the book helps you figure out how to make your team more productive.
Synopsis
Five common problems your team is susceptible to—and the one thing you can do to fix all of themThere are so many ways a team can go wrong. Does your team make decisions so slowly that nothing ever gets done, or does it go too fast and miss critical issues that come back to bite you later? Does your team bicker endlessly or smile and nod while avoiding the tough issues? Too often, team dysfunction leads to abysmal productivity and zero innovation for your organization, as well as misery and wasted time for you. Most team members sit and wait, feeling trapped in a team that just isn't working. You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done presents a radical new idea: you can change your team. Author Liane Davey shows how you, from any seat at the table, even without support from your colleagues or your team leader, can transform even a toxic team. It starts with living up to five responsibilities that will change the workings of even the most dysfunctional team.
- Addresses the five most common ways your team can become toxic
- Gives you a diagnostic to see if your team is at risk
- Doles out practical suggestions to deal with the crisis in the short-term
- Instructs you on how to disrupt the patterns that leave you in an endless cycle of dysfunction
- Replaces those patterns with positive interactions and even productive conflict
- Gives you the right words to say to change your team for the better—starting today
- Written by Liane Davey, PhD, a highly sought-after consultant and Principal of Knightsbridge Leadership Solutions and the Vice President of Global Solutions and Team Effectiveness
Designed for front line employees, middle managers, executives, or anyone who works regularly in teams, You First will help you figure out how to make your team happier, healthier, and more productive.
Synopsis
Praise for You First"Bringing together a team in a very short period of time has its own unique challenges. And with thousands of athletes from around the world counting on us to create an exceptional game, we have to get it right. You First provides exactly what we need to make that happen. I recommend this book for anyone who has to make their team work."
Ian Troop Chief Executive Officer, TORONTO 2015 Pan American/Parapan American Games Organizing Committee
"You First is just what the doctor orderedan Rx for teams that upends old thinking and offers a new antidote to dysfunctional teamwork everywhere. No team should be without this book!"
Adrian Gostick New York Times bestselling author, The Carrot Principle
"Finally, a book about building teams that gives clear, actionable, and relevant advice that does not involve trust falls. Collaboration is the wave of the future in every industry, and Dr. Davey gives you the tools to thrive in team-based environments."
Pamela Slim Business Coach and Author, Escape from Cubicle Nation
"You First offers smart thinking on what it takes for teams to be successful and that is reason enough to read it. But Liane's writing is so accessible that you'll feel like you're having a session with your own personal team advisor."
Stew Friedman Practice Professor of Management, The Wharton School
About the Author
LIANE DAVEY, PhD, is a Principal of Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions, Inc. and the Vice President for Global Solutions and Team Effectiveness. She is sought out by executives at some of North America's leading financial services, consumer goods, high-tech, and healthcare organizations to rehabilitate teams that have become toxic and to work with healthy teams that want to take their performance to the next level. A dynamic keynote speaker, Liane takes her message about vital teams to leaders at conferences and management retreats around the world.She is the coauthor of Leadership Solutions.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Change Yourself, Change Your Team 1The Great Promise of Teams 3
The Sad Reality of Teams 4
Teams Are Here to Stay 4
What I’ve Learned about Fixing Teams 5
There’s One Catch 7
The Road Ahead 8
Change Your Team 10
Chapter 2 Toxic Teams 13
How Sick Is Your Team? 19
Coping 20
Chapter 3 The Crisis Junkie Team 23
The Value of Crisis 27
Origins of a Crisis Junkie Problem 28
Impact of Being a Crisis Junkie Team 30
Diagnostic 33
Triage and Emergency Medicine 34
Chapter 4 The Bobble Head Team 39
The Desire for Harmony 44
Origins of a Bobble Head Problem 45
Impact of Being a Bobble Head Team 47
Diagnostic 49
Triage and Emergency Medicine 49
Chapter 5 The Spectator Team 55
Overload 59
Origins of a Spectator Team 60
Impact of Being a Spectator Team 62
Diagnostic 63
Triage and Emergency Medicine 64
Chapter 6 The Bleeding Back Team 69
Civility 73
Origins of a Bleeding Back Team 74
Impact of Being a Bleeding Back Team 76
Diagnostic 79
Triage and Emergency Medicine 79
Chapter 7 The Royal Rumble Team 85
Engagement 89
Origins of a Royal Rumble Team 90
Impact of Being a Royal Rumble Team 92
Diagnostic 94
Triage and Emergency Medicine 94
Chapter 8 The You in Team 101
Team Building 103
It’s about You 106
Your Responsibilities 107
Chapter 9 Start with a Positive Assumption 111
It’s Over before It’s Begun 113
Start with a Positive Assumption 119
Competence, Reliability, and Integrity of Your Teammates 126
Health Check: Are You Starting with a Positive Assumption? 128
Chapter 10 Add Your Full Value 131
Pale Imitations 134
Add Your Full Value 138
A Word about Vulnerability 145
Adding the Wrong Value 148
Health Check: Are You Adding Your Full Value? 149
Chapter 11 Amplify Other Voices 153
The Need for Speed 156
Drowning Out Minority Voices—The Power and the Peril of the Majority 157
The Importance of Diversity 159
Amplify Other Voices 162
What Is Diverse? 168
Health Check: Are You Amplifying Other Voices? 169
Chapter 12 Know When to Say “No” 173
Spread Too Thin 176
Know When to Say “No” 181
How to Say “No” 187
Help! It Didn’t Work 189
Times to Say “Yes” 190
Health Check: Do You Know When to Say “No?” 191
Chapter 13 Embrace Productive Conflict 193
We Stink at Conflict 197
Why We Don’t Fight the Good Fight 198
Embrace Productive Conflict 201
The Path Forward 203
Health Check: Are You Embracing Productive Conflict? 211
Chapter 14 You First 215
Notes 223
Acknowledgments 225
About the Author 227
About Knightsbridge 228
Index 229