Don Yeager has written a superb book on teamwork and great teams!! There is as much to learn by veteran managers, as there is for those who are new to the management/coaching/team-leadership ranks.
The book is arranged around four pillars and sixteen content areas. Each of the sixteen content areas ends with some “great takeaways”. And they ARE just that, great suggestions for implementing!
The book is loaded with compelling and inspiring stories from the world of sports at the college and professional levels as well as from the business world.
I identified two chapters as standing above the others in terms of importance. I made these selections based on fifty years of observing both high performing teams and managers who were very effective leaders of people and the majority, who don’t know the joy of seeing empowered team members perform independently, effectively, and with passion.
My first “great” chapter: Great Teams Understand Their “Why”. The author describes in detail how the Olympic men’s USA basketball team recovered from losing its sense of purpose, playing for our Country. Jerry Colangelo was brought in in 2005 to be the managing director of USA basketball. He spoke of wanting our players to regain respect for what it meant to represent our country.
Colangelo brought in Mike Krzyzewski to help lead this reshaping of team culture. There are several significant “feel-it” experiences that members of the 2008 and 2012 shared, which reminded players of how blessed they were to be representing their country. The team visit to Arlington National Cemetery saw a soldier paying respects to his fallen comrades. Coach K asked the man to speak with the team, and everyone gathered around to listen to his spontaneous, moving words. When he finished and departed, Krzyzewski turned to his players and said, “This is why we came here—to feel our country.” Kevin Durant, now a member of the Golden State Warriors, said he was forever changed by the visit to Arlington National Cemetery.
My second “great” chapter: Great Teams Speak a Different Language. The team leader of this kind of team is entirely positive, focuses team members on learning, what can be improved, and having fun. Coach Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks is featured.
Jack Clark, head rugby coach for the University of California supercharges his team culture with a secret weapon: praise. He takes what would be a Gallup, Inc., strengths-based approach to coaching. Clark says he spends 70 percent of his conversations on the best qualities of his players. This approach has created opportunities for his team to maximize their strengths in a way that completely overwhelms—and overpowers—opponents. Clark says, “My players leave our individual meetings walking on top of the world.”
Yeager’s great takeaways for this chapter: be an example for others to follow; ask the right questions; use effective verbal praise; affirm character; and know how and where to affirm. He offers specific suggestions as to how to accomplish each takeaway.
I chose to capture both these chapters to use with team leaders interested in improving their teams. They arm the team leader with a purpose around which members can gravitate. They also provide valuable resources like ongoing learning mindsets and opportunities, a positive culture where all are seen as winners, and a strengths-based focus that permits everyone to continue their ongoing competency improvement and contributions to team goals.
The book can serve as a good reference text; it can be used when facing specific team challenges, perhaps even pulling examples from the text to share with a team. It can also be used to scrimmage with, to let certain concepts or ideas or points of view become the new you, the improved you. Becoming an effective leader is a “law of the farm” concept, using the words of Stephen Covey; it’s developmental, ongoing.
Yeager is most deserving of this five-star rating!!!
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What People Are Saying
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Mike Krzyzewski, 5-time NCAA Tournament Champion, 2-time Olympic Gold Medal Winning Basketball Coach"There is nothing more magical than watching a team come together, to manage adversity as a group, selflessly give to others, to find common purpose. Inspiring that to happen year-in and year-out is what keeps us in leadership. Don Yaeger has studied the best of the best. Now it is our turn to study this book." |
Gary Kelly, CEO and Chairman of Southwest Airlines"Everyone wants to work on or play on a Great Team. The differentiator I’ve noticed is that the best teams pay close attention to and protect their culture and their people. Don Yaeger shows in this book that the same lessons are true on the sporting fields. There’s much to be learned within these pages and I know you’ll enjoy." |
GJ Hart, CEO, California Pizza Kitchen"There are so many parallels between building a great sports team and building a corporate one, not the least of which that great culture makes amazing things possible. Great Teams by Don Yaeger provides a roadmap for all of us...in either of those worlds." |
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