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You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done

You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done

by Liane Davey
Publisher: Wiley
Release Date: September 2013
ISBN: 9781118714751
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Book Description

Five common problems your team is susceptible to—and the one thing you can do to fix all of them

There 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.

Table of Contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Chapter 1: Change Yourself, Change Your Team
    1. The Great Promise of Teams
    2. The Sad Reality of Teams
    3. Teams Are Here to Stay
    4. What I've Learned about Fixing Teams
    5. There's One Catch
    6. The Road Ahead
    7. Change Your Team
  6. Chapter 2: Toxic Teams
    1. How Sick Is Your Team?
    2. Coping
  7. Chapter 3: The Crisis Junkie Team
    1. The Value of Crisis
    2. Origins of a Crisis Junkie Problem
    3. Impact of Being a Crisis Junkie Team
    4. Diagnostic
    5. Triage and Emergency Medicine
  8. Chapter 4: The Bobble Head Team
    1. The Desire for Harmony
    2. Origins of a Bobble Head Problem
    3. Impact of Being a Bobble Head Team
    4. Diagnostic
    5. Triage and Emergency Medicine
  9. Chapter 5: The Spectator Team
    1. Overload
    2. Origins of a Spectator Team
    3. Impact of Being a Spectator Team
    4. Diagnostic
    5. Triage and Emergency Medicine
  10. Chapter 6: The Bleeding Back Team
    1. Civility
    2. Origins of a Bleeding Back Team
    3. Impact of Being a Bleeding Back Team
    4. Diagnostic
    5. Triage and Emergency Medicine
  11. Chapter 7: The Royal Rumble Team
    1. Engagement
    2. Origins of a Royal Rumble Team
    3. Impact of Being a Royal Rumble Team
    4. Diagnostic
    5. Triage and Emergency Medicine
  12. Chapter 8: The You in Team
    1. Team Building
    2. It's about You
    3. Your Responsibilities
  13. Chapter 9: Start with a Positive Assumption
    1. It's Over before It's Begun
    2. Start with a Positive Assumption
    3. Competence, Reliability, and Integrity of Your Teammates
    4. Health Check: Are You Starting with a Positive Assumption?
  14. Chapter 10: Add Your Full Value
    1. Pale Imitations
    2. Add Your Full Value
    3. A Word about Vulnerability
    4. Adding the Wrong Value
    5. Health Check: Are You Adding Your Full Value?
  15. Chapter 11: Amplify Other Voices
    1. The Need for Speed
    2. Drowning Out Minority Voices—The Power and the Peril of the Majority
    3. The Importance of Diversity
    4. Amplify Other Voices
    5. What Is Diverse?
    6. Health Check: Are You Amplifying Other Voices?
  16. Chapter 12: Know When to Say “No”
    1. Spread Too Thin
    2. Know When to Say “No”
    3. How to Say “No”
    4. Help! It Didn't Work
    5. Times to Say “Yes”
    6. Health Check: Do You Know When to Say “No?”
  17. Chapter 13: Embrace Productive Conflict
    1. We Stink at Conflict
    2. Why We Don't Fight the Good Fight
    3. Embrace Productive Conflict
    4. The Path Forward
    5. Health Check: Are You Embracing Productive Conflict?
  18. Chapter 14: You First
  19. Notes
  20. Acknowledgments
  21. About the Author
  22. About Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions
  23. Index