Synopsis

Most team problems can be traced back to misunderstandings, communication breakdowns, and relational issues. It’s the relationships-dimension—not the task-dimension—that constantly challenges team leaders. Targeted at team leaders—usually promoted into leadership for their technical know-how—who often struggle with the relationships-dimension of their managerial role. To add to the demands of leadership, business rewards task achievement, whether it’s more sales, producing better widgets, or superior service delivery. The emphasis is on technical capability and task accomplishment, when it’s the people factor that can transform the team.

"The Eight Keys of Winning Teams: How to Apply the All Black’s Blueprint to Your Team" offers practical and easy-to-implement tools for building a new model of team identity, based on eight research-based characteristics of high-performing teams that focusing on the often-neglected relationships-dimension of teamwork. Additionally, a team profile and roadmap are offered to assist the team leader to navigate their way through the maze.

Dr Tim Baker has worked with teams across 21 industries in 12 countries over two decades. He believes the key to building high-performing teams lies with building robust working relationships with and between team members and their key stakeholders. Team leaders Tim works with are looking for a clear, coherent model and a set of practical and easy to implement tools for higher performance.

Sales arguments

• The book offers a new model of team identity and the eight characteristics of high-performance.
• The book has a built in team profile for assessing your team against these eight characteristics of high-performance.
• The book offers the team leader eight practical and easy-to-implement tools for developing the characteristics of a winning team.
• This book will be appealing to sports lovers; it uses anecdotes and illustrations from the world's most successful sporting team: the New Zealand All Blacks.

Similar titles

• "Legacy: What the All Blacks can teach us about the business of life" James Kerr, London: Constable, 2015. This book is primarily about the All Blacks, with leadership lessons for business. My book is about creating a high-performing team, drawing on lessons and anecdotes from the All Blacks.
• "Building high-performance teams" Carol M Lehman & Debbie D DuFrene, Mason, OH, USA: Cengage Learning, 2018. This book focuses on the four stages of team development using the well-known Tuckman model of team development. My book is an original addition to the team literature. At $146 USD, this book is a likely to be prohibitive to team leaders.

Audience

Team leaders promoted on the basis of their technical knowledge and skills.

Advance praise

“Most times the pathway to success is more like a minefield if the journey starts on hope.

"The Eight Characteristics of Winning Teams" delivers the triggers and evidence of success for new leaders. If that’s you, then you might have some homework to do once you start this journey.

Tim Baker has done a wonderful job in dismantling the mystique of continued and sustainable success and presented to the interested reader real challenges and great opportunities. He creates guidelines
that some leaders think they already possess. …. Mistakenly.

As a busted up old Wallaby, I love that rugby is the catalyst here, and that a team like the All Blacks are the model in this conversation. I’d also like to think that at times I was fortunate enough to be the beneficiary of some excellent leaders both on and off the paddock.

Picture yourself as you travel through these chapters; you may be very surprised with the result.”

Tom Lawton
Former Wallaby and business leader