Being a part of a team can be either incredibly challenging or extremely fruitful. That said, it has been proven over and over again that a team that grows together sees great results. This kind of growth can come from learning proper conflict resolution or it can come from each member understanding their unique place on the team. Whether you are leading a team of entrepreneurs, pastors, or leaders, we are confident that there are some great tools available to you and your teams to grow together.
Here are 17 team-building books for you and your team to read together:
1. The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork by John Maxwell
In this book, John Maxwell gives us the principles required to build a strong team. He breaks down age-old cliches and gives us a framework for what real teamwork looks like. Each law helps us understand the steps necessary to be a part of a working team. Maxwell does this by sharing stories of successful and failing teams to give us a clearer picture of what it takes!
2. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
Sometimes understanding good team leadership requires us to learn from failures. That is what Lencioni offers us in his book. He tackles topics like Absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. Together, you and your team can learn how to avoid these pitfalls and create healthy teamwork.
3. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, et al.
Communication is absolutely critical on teams. Where there is no healthy communication, there is no teamwork. This book doesn’t discuss the structure of a strong team, but instead gives teams the important tools for good communication. In Crucial Conversations, teams will learn about how to avoid unnecessary conflict and how to deal with unavoidable conflict.
4. Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sineck
Without trust, teams will not succeed. Leaders Eat Last is centered more around the leadership of a team, but it emphasizes how leaders can build trust and respect throughout the team. Each person must trust the leader, but that also impacts the trust among the entire group.
5. Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, et al.
General Stanley McChrystal, a retired army general, teaches us about his years of experience in the U.S. Army. He learned that the most effective strategy was to develop a team of teams. This strategy developed more flexibility, but also empowered teams to accomplish the mission before them.
6. The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey
Steven Covey, the author of The 7 Habits for Highly Effective People, emphasizes the necessity of trust in a team. All relationships begin with trust and can also end when trust is lost. High trusting teams will be able to accomplish much more than those who lack trust. Everyone on the team must be committed to building trust and must fight to avoid trust-breaking behaviors.
7. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle
Culture is a driving force for healthy team building in organizations. Coyle provides a plan for developing a healthy culture in organizations and among teams. While team building can facilitate healthy culture, The Culture Code suggests that it’s actually a strong culture that will build thriving teams.
8. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Dr. Travis Bradberry and Dr. Jean Greaves
Emotions can be overwhelming to us as individuals, but on a team, they can be a pure mystery. We may not understand why the person on our team is angry, but as we grow in emotional intelligence, we can strengthen our teams. Bradberry and Greaves lay out several key factors in emotional intelligence: Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
9. Revolutionize Teamwork – Eric Coryell
In his book, Revolutionize Teamwork, Eric Coryell suggests we redefine our team structure. Instead of reporting up, we must build a structure for trust so that our teams can become more people-facing.
10. Stick Together: A Simple Lesson to Build a Stronger Team by Jon Gordon and Kate Leavell
This lesson is learned by following a high school basketball coach, Coach David. At the start of a new season, he gives each of his players a stick and they’re tasked with a mission. It’s simple, practical, and will help any team excel and move to a new level.
11. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick M. Lencioni
An organization is healthy when things are well defined and clear and there is a unified culture. This is a great book for teams to read together and then practice the exercise of defining and clarifying everything throughout the organization. Doing this as a team will help strengthen the unity of the entire team.
12. You Are The Team: 6 Simple Ways Teammates Can Go From Good To Great by Michael Rogers
We aren’t born knowing how to participate on a team, but we can all learn. Reading this book together will help your team go from good to great as each individual improves as a member of the team. As a part of a team, each member has a personal weight and responsibility and some of those are accountability, selflessness, respect, and honesty. Rogers helps us understand the part each of us can play as a teammate to improve the team.
13. The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon
The Energy Bus is an engaging story to teach each of us how we can overcome through positive and forward-thinking. This story reveals 10 secrets to living our lives and working with that kind of success. For any team, this would be a great read. As each member improves their own thought life, the overall energy of the whole team increases.
14. 10 Laws of Trust, Expanded Edition: Building the Bonds that Make a Business Great by Joel Peterson
How does it feel to be a part of a team that works with deep trust? What does it look like to be trusted by others and to give trust to others? While good ideas and innovation may help a team strengthen and grow, trust is far more valuable. This book will plant seeds of trust and bring unbelievable results for you and your team.
15. The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues by Patrick Lencioni
Lencioni, using inspirational storytelling, gives three virtues for an effective team player. Those can’t just be recognized but must also be cultivated and developed. For teams who are newly established or looking to increase overall strength by improving the individuals, The Ideal Team Player will give you the boost that you need.
16. The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player by John Maxwell
No matter where you are, these 17 essential qualities can be applied. At home, work, or on the sports field, you can use each of these things to become a stronger team player. The strongest teams are made up of individual members who bring the full weight of who they are with the commitment to working well as a team. Maxwell gives us a fantastic framework for what it takes to be a good team member.
17. The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and the World by Pete Scazzero
Transforming your inner life will help transform your team. Scazzero tackles the heart of each individual and believes that changing the way we live with Christ will completely shift everything else around us. For teams that are struggling and teams that are thriving, this is a book that will bring growth to each individual on your team, which will in turn improve the team.
Patrick Lencioni says, “teamwork is not a virtue. It is a choice—and a strategic one.” For you and your teams, teamwork will be a game-changing choice. These 17 team-building books for you and your team to read together will help you as you make that choice together. In utilizing these resources, we hope that your team will grow together in trust and effectiveness throughout this year!
