Great Business Teams: Cracking the Code for Standout Performance

by Howard M. Guttman

Book Overview

Understand and decode the inner workings of great business teams with the more than 30 in-depth examples in Great Business Teams: Cracking the Code for Standout Performance . Author Howard Guttman examines and dissects teams at top-management, business-unit, and functional levels and isolates five key factors that drive team performance to offer you insight into the ways these teams achieve success. Using this book, go directly to the marketplace...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470122439
• ISBN13: 9780470122433
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

How developing high-performance individuals and teams will create and then sustain a high-performanc

Howard Guttman draws upon several decades of wide and deep experience will thousands of executives within hundreds of companies throughout the world when offering in this volume everything he has learned about how developing high-performance individuals and teams will create and then sustain a high-performance organization. He asserts that there is a "code" to be cracked and cites several dozen examples of executives who have done so. He correctly points out that effective collaboration is essential at all levels and in all areas of an organization, whatever its size and nature may be. Moreover, the focus must be on cross-functional team initiatives. "Great teams make great organizations. Period, Good and mediocre teams make good and mediocre organizations. They meet deadlines; they stay within budget; they maintain the status quo. But they do not push the envelope. They do not typically reach for performance breakthroughs. It is unlikely they will set the world on fire. And over the long haul, they will take you out of the game." According to Guttman, great business teams are led by high-performance leaders who create a "burning platform" for change, are visionaries and architects, know they cannot do it alone, build and nourish authentic relationships, model the behaviors they expect from their team members, and in unique and effective ways "redefine" the fundamentals of leadership. I wholly agree with Guttman that members of great teams are "us-directed": they tend to use only first-personal plural pronouns (i.e. we, us, our). Great teams play by protocols such as these ten agree-upon ways of working together at Chico's FAS in areas such as conflict resolution, decision making, meetings, and when determining performance expectations for both individual team members and for their leader: 1. Be candid and straightforward. 2. Be receptive to others' points of view. 3. Be accountable for your results and behavior. 4. Hold others accountable for their results and behavior. 5. Let go of "stories." 6. Resolve it or let it go. 7. Do not triangulate. 8. Do not accuse or allege in absentia. 9. Depersonalize (i.e. focus on issues, not individuals) 10. Structure decision making and follow process. Guttman asserts that great teams continually raise the performance bar rather than allow complacency. They also have a supportive performance management system that provides whatever resources may be needed. "In order to effect permanent behavior change, a team's performance management system must support the new expectations [perhaps what Jim Collins characterizes as a "BHAG," a Big Hairy Audacious Goal]. Team and individual goals have to be crystal clear; the necessary technical and interpersonal skills have to be provided; performance has to be monitored; and feedback has to be timely and well thought out...Unless there are positive consequences for staying there [in support on the given initiatives] - and negative ones for retreating - most people wil

Excellent book

Many books come across my desk as a department chair, and I send most to junior faculty to read. I held on to this one because I couldn't put it down. Very well written. Flawlessly edited. Full of content and references to business. In my last book about leadership In Extremis Leadership: Leading As If Your Life Depended On It (J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation) I wrote about high performing teams in high risk contexts. But Guttman's book has much broader applicability and is laser focused on teams--it will soon be a classic among leaders and managers. It's the best book I read all summer. Great Business Teams will find its way into my classroom, but I'm even more excited about applying the ideas in this book to the teams that I help lead. This one's a gem. Tom Kolditz

Very insightful look at the mechanics of high-performance business teams

I used to think that it was impossible to create a high performing business team. My thinking was guided by the old axiom that you cannot teach an old dog a new trick. This book totally changed my viewpoint by showing me not only how it can be done, but tangible proof that it works. I found this book to be insightful, practical, well-organized and extremely useful. I particularly enjoyed the discussion about "the five musts for building great organizations." This book should be required reading for all managers and executives.

John J. Hughes

It is sometimes those books and articles which bring business leaders back to basics that seem to have enduring impact. Great Business Teams is the kind of book that consultants, managers and executives will be referencing for years to come because it is both informative and well written. While we have all suffered through team situations that lacked the appropriate protocols, Howard has identified those that are key to achieving higher performance. I still can't believe he got so many executives to admit to their growing pains.

Great Guide for Building Successful Business Teams

Whether your aim is to lead or become a player on a high-performing team, read Great Business Teams carefully. It cuts though to the heart of performance, provides examples drawn from real companies and their teams, and offers hard-hitting, often counterintuitive advice that will challenge and change your thinking--and behavior. J Kevin Day, Founder and Principal, Day & Associates