The Teamworking Pocketbook

How to maximize team performance, and build and lead a team for long term effectiveness. Identifies problems that impede effective teamwork, and presents practical solutions. This hands-on guide covers leadership, conflict management and group behavior.

The Teamworking Pocketbook has long been at the heart of the successful Management Pocketbooks Series. Now in its third edition, this popular title looks at the differences between groups and teams and between teambuilding and teamworking, the types of problems preventing teams from being effective, and offers plenty of practical advice for countering such difficulties. Leadership, conflict management and understanding group behaviour are among the many subjects covered in this illustrated 'hands-on' guide.Also available in the series: Teambuilding Activities Pocketbook, Team Coaching Pocketbook

This pocketbook focuses on the maximization of team performance. It looks at the differences between groups and teams, and teambuilding and teamworking, as well as the types of problems that prevent teams from being effective.

Building teams that are united, motivated and productive is the aim of this collection of practical, easy-to-use activities. They are for use by managers at team meetings and briefings, and for trainers running teambuilding workshops. The lively and persuasive activities are the work of Paul Tizzard who has already established his credentials as a creative developer of training materials with the publication of The Icebreakers Pocketbook and The Openers & Closers Pocketbook, both popular titles in the Management Pocketbook Series. The activities in The Teambuilding Activities Pocketbook are grouped according to their suitability for different stages of team development. From new teams to established teams there is a range of applicable activities to choose from. There are those too that address specific team issues. To help readers identify which activities they need to draw on, there is a questionnaire that will identify at what stage their own team has reached. Also dealt with in the book are facilitation, presentation and coaching skills. Reviewing the book in 'Training Journal' shortly after its publication, Matt Somers wrote: 'I would recommend that anyone who interacts with teams buys a copy and keeps it handy.'

To be competitive businesses are increasingly going further a field for their talent and skills - drawing together teams of people with the best mix of experience and abilities, regardless of their location. This has given rise to the concept of the virtual team, a network of individuals who have a common goal yet rarely if ever meet. Virtual Teamworking - possibly across different time zones and against different cultural backgrounds, and often project-specific and, thus, temporary - poses specific challenges for the team leader. The Virtual Teams Pocketbook looks at the skills needed to lead a virtual team, at the required style of leadership, at the team selection process, at the cultural issues that may arise and at the process of developing trust and building a productive and cohesive unit. Without the recent strides forward in communications technology virtual teamworking would not be effective or, even, possible. This pocketbook looks at the options available and gives advice on selecting the most appropriate method and how to use it to its full potential.

The Time Management Pocketbook is one of our most popular titles, now in its 6th edition. Effective use of time is not just about using your diary better; it calls for many management skills. The author looks at these skills within the context of a time management model. The model breaks down the process of managing time into these headings: managing what you do, managing where you work, managing communications, managing to work with others, and managing everyday. Skills covered include: objective setting, decision-making, problem-solving, creativity, assertiveness, listening, questioning, reading, writing, and handling paperwork and phone calls.

Many if not most teams in the modern workplace fall well short of harnessing their collective capability, maintains Erik de Haan, resulting in loss of performance and poor results. For the author of the Team Coaching Pocketbook and director of the Ashridge Centre for Coaching, this is a depressing thought yet he's quick to point out that poor performance is readily managed if team members are minded to reflect intelligently on how they operate and have the skills to do so. "This is where team coaching can be beneficial", says de Haan. "It helps teams think through what they are doing and why, how they can integrate individual skill sets and how they can innovate." Written by an expert in his field, this is a practical, insightful guide to team coaching which will benefit both coaching specialists and team leaders

Written for leaders at all levels - strategic, organisational and team level - the Leadership Pocketbook explains how to inspire, influence, deal with change and achieve objectives. Illustrated throughout, the book adopts a practical approach, setting out the principles of leadership, the role of the leader, the skills required for effective leadership and the key challenges facing leaders in today's business environment. This 2nd edition sees the addition of a new section about leaders and social responsibility. "Contemporary business leaders must be aware of the major forces shaping society today and understand how their organisations need to respond and contribute to these challenges", author Fiona Dent writes. She is Director of Faculty Development at Ashridge where she is also Programme Director for the Influencing Strategies and Skills Programme. A focus of the book, described by the author as 'perhaps the most necessary skill for any leader', is self-awareness - to know yourself, to realise what your leadership strengths and weaknesses are and when you must continue to develop. "With admirable clarity, Fiona Dent distils the salient leadership issues and skills. Every potential leader and every leader with potential should find a place for this book in their pocket or bag." Philip Hodgson, Director of Leadership Programmes, Ashridge "A practical, easy to use guide for all levels of leadership. It covers a broad range of topics in sufficient detail to make it usable both for fresh learning and for reference." Richard Nicholson, Management Development Manager, Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd