The best 74 Teamwork books

Trust (2023) is a sensitive and practical guide to this essential part of human relationships. It reveals the deep significance of trust as a factor in our lives and outlines the five essential elements for building and maintaining it.

Who Not How (2020) introduces a new way of thinking about entrepreneurship, goal setting, and collaboration. Developed by business coach Dan Sullivan, the Who Not How mindset shows the importance of delegating tasks to others. By inviting them to help you achieve your goals, you’ll gain more free time, increase your income, and develop valuable, lasting professional relationships.

Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (2020) is the 12th and only current authorized edition of the widely accepted standard reference for parliamentary procedure, replacing all previous editions that date to 1876. It outlines principles and guidelines that establish equal rights among members of deliberative and decision-making groups to improve the fairness and efficiency of meetings.

The Leader in You (1993) reveals how tapping into your enthusiasm and creativity can help you connect more effectively and work more productively. Drawing on insights from leaders across a wide range of fields, this practical guide includes strategies to hone your leadership strengths, boost your self-confidence, and achieve your personal and professional goals.

Rising Strong (2015) is your guide to picking yourself up and dusting yourself off after a failure – and to becoming stronger, braver and kinder because of it. Whether you dream of being an entrepreneur or maintaining a loving relationship, these blinks supply you with the three vital steps to dealing with any struggle.

Leaders Eat Last explores the influence that neurochemicals have on the way people feel and consequently act, and examines the discrepancies between how our bodies were designed to function and how they function today. Ultimately, we need true leaders to direct us back on the right path.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002) presents the notion that teams are inherently dysfunctional, so deliberate steps must be taken to facilitate great teamwork. A knowledgeable team leader can do a great deal to make his or her team effective, and the book outlines practical tools for achieving this.

Multipliers (2010) examines the difference between good leaders, known as Multipliers, who can join any team and make it flourish, and bad leaders, known as Diminishers, who can drain any team of its energy and drive. Author Liz Wiseman explains how to recognize the different types of Multipliers and Diminishers, while comparing the skills you should strive to develop with the ones you should avoid at all cost.

The Enneagram at Work (2021) reveals how applying the Enneagram – an emotional intelligence metric – can elevate leadership in the modern workplace. It explores the different Enneagram types and shows how tapping into self-awareness can make teams stronger and spark innovative solutions. From managing conflict and building mentorships to giving and receiving criticism, it provides the tools to foster personal growth and long-lasting success in the office.

The Handbook of Strategic 360 Feedback is a guide to the pros and cons of 360 Feedback, including detailed guidance on how to implement the process as well as how to avoid pitfalls such as unconscious bias or people who try to game the system. 

Humor, Seriously (2021) explores the value of a human-centered approach to business, and of the funny that can be found and created in any environment. It relies on science, psychology, and humorous anecdotes from experts in the field to show how using humor can create a culture of levity, build trust, and unlock creativity.

Daniel Coyle’s The Culture Code (2018) digs into the findings of psychologists, organizational behavior theorists and his own firsthand knowledge of the contemporary business world to provide answers. What makes a group tick? Why do some teams outperform other seemingly evenly matched competitors? As well-researched as it is practical, this study of group dynamics is packed full of illuminating ideas and considered, hands-on advice about getting the best performance out of groups.

Simple Truths of Leadership (2022) explores simple principles that elevate leaders from good to great. It reveals the common mistakes that leaders make – and uncovers the behaviors that result in better team performance and closer working relationships. 

The Fearless Organization (2018) delves into psychological safety and how the workplace can become an environment in which everyone feels confident enough to pitch in and do their best. These blinks explain why people hold back on sharing their ideas at work, how this harms businesses, and how leaders can encourage a culture of openness, questioning, and experimentation that leads to learning and innovation. 

The Ideal Team Player (2016) explores the role teamwork plays in today’s business environment and shows you how to build a team geared for success. These blinks explain what makes a good team player, how to find them and which strategies you’ll need to build a company around the concept of teamwork.

Collaborative Intelligence (2015) is a guide to developing your own personal form of intelligence by utilizing your unique ways of thinking. These blinks will teach you how to identify and build on your strengths as well as those of others, while adjusting your communication accordingly.

Six Thinking Hats offers you valuable tools for group discussions and individual decision making. The book shows ways to compartmentalize different ways of thinking to help you and your group use your brains in a more detailed, cohesive and effective way.

The Eight Essential People Skills for Project Management (2018) is a hands-on guide designed to help team leaders diagnose and solve people problems in today’s increasingly horizontal workplaces. The fruit of years of first-hand experience, Zachary Wong’s playbook for effective leadership is packed full of actionable advice on how to boost motivation, confront underperformers and push through fear of failure.

The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety (2020) is a practical handbook for creating and maintaining psychological safety in the workplace. In order for employees to take risks, ask questions, challenge the status quo, and make mistakes – all while learning and growing – they have to feel included and safe. This book shows how leaders can reduce social friction while encouraging collaboration and innovation.

Lead Like a Coach (2018) is a how-to guide to the coaching model of leadership. Packed with advice and insight, these blinks are the perfect companion for any leader looking to up their game. Making a clear case for the benefits of coaching over older managerial styles, they explain why coaching is so relevant today and why many organizations are opting to switch to this model.

These blinks outline the key principles for building a healthy organization where all the employees pull together in the same direction following the same objectives. This enables organizations to achieve their full potential, while unhealthy competitors waste resources in internal squabbles.

Kahnweiler explores the specific challenges introverts face in an extroverted business world. She then sets out to show how introverted executives can push their limits, employ their characteristic strengths and still become great leaders.

No Bullsh*t Leadership (2019) dispels the myths we often hear about what makes a great leader. Whether you’re managing a company, school or sports team, the principles behind effective leadership aren’t rocket science. Nor do they require impressive titles or expensive suits. In this timely volume, experienced leader Chris Hirst explains how any of us can learn the philosophy behind great leadership if we put our minds to it.

The Fifth Discipline (1990) is a comprehensive guide to creating learning organizations – workplaces that nurture innovation and personal growth. The author argues that, in our rapidly changing world, companies can only succeed if they change the way in which they deal with problems. In his view, a reactive approach, based on constantly putting out fires, no longer works. Instead, businesses need to adopt what he calls a systems thinking method. This method is proactive, and its purpose is to identify underlying patterns and generate innovative solutions. But this approach only works if you have motivated staff who share the company’s vision. 

In The Effective Executive, author Peter Drucker offers a step-by-step guide to becoming a more productive and effective executive. By mastering a few procedures and principles, you can develop your own capacities as a leader and also support your employees’ strengths, with the goal of improving results across your organization.

The Power of a Positive Team (2018) shares proven principles that help good teams become great. Using real-life examples from the author’s many years of work in business consulting, the blinks explain how you can improve your team’s communication and commitment while dispelling negativity.

Team of Teams (2015) lays out the many ways that even large organizations can benefit from the agility and savvy of small teams. By building a team of teams, companies can better manage the complex, interconnected issues that often mean life or death for a company.

Leading without Authority (2020) explores how non-managerial employees can drive change and influence their coworkers. These blinks outline simple techniques for making a big impact in the workplace, regardless of your official title.

Getting Along (2022) describes the importance of workplace interactions and their effects on productivity and creativity.

Leading from Anywhere (2021) is a guide to leading a remote team, covering everything from building a company culture, managing performance, and running virtual meetings to providing feedback to team members. In addition to setting out the best way to manage a team remotely, it makes a strong case for remote work in general. 

Serve Up, Coach Down (2018) is a corporate leadership guide for middle managers. It empowers workers to “master the middle” by sharing the strategies they need to effectively manage both their team and their boss.

Everyone Deserves a Great Manager (2019) provides business leaders with six crucial practices that will transform team members into high performers. Offering practical solutions, it fills in the gap many new managers encounter when they’re promoted without receiving any leadership training. 

The Scrum Fieldbook (2019) is a practical, hands-on guide to the scrum organizational framework within the Agile mindset. This concise manual recaps how scrum works to increase work velocity and to ensure any team delivers the right impact for the business. It also explains how to implement Scrum in any organization across all industries from software to home renovation and even to the military.

In The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner explain how anyone can become a better leader. Citing various examples from their 25 years of experience and extensive research, the authors present their theories on what makes a successful leader, and give practical advice on how to learn good leadership behavior.

The Elements of Scrum (2011) explains how outmoded software development processes are holding companies back in an ever-changing market. Today’s successful teams need to be agile and flexible; and the best companies do this by adopting a methodology called scrum. This book gives you everything you need to know to start a scrum-based process in your own organization.

In his book Boost! (2017), author Michael Bar-Eli uses decades of experience with world-class athletes, and the many hard-won lessons he’s learned along the way, to explain the dynamic power of sports psychology. The author not only shows how athletes can use psychology to their advantage, but how this element can be used to improve the performance of any team player, whether on the court or in the office.

How to Be a Positive Leader examines cutting-edge research from the field of positive organizational behavior, in which companies aim to foster both a positive attitude to work and high performance among employees. The research is complemented with vivid examples from real organizations.

Teams That Work (2020) presents the seven drivers that make any team effective. Packed with the latest research and real-world examples, this practical guide draws on the many years of experience of coauthors Scott Tannenbaum and Eduardo Salas in helping teams succeed.

High Impact Tools for Teams (2021) offers flexible tools for project planning, assessment, and creating an empowering environment for your team members. At the center is the Team Alignment Map, a simple chart that will transform the way you conduct meetings, track progress, and identify problems before they occur.

Making Ideas Happen deals with the obstacles that lie between your ideas and their implementation. It offers insight into the ways in which successful individuals and creative departments overcome these obstacles, by offering real-life examples from some of the world’s leading brands and creative minds.

Team Genius (2015) is a comprehensive guide to teamwork in business. These blinks explore the different forms of teamwork and how you can optimize your teams to keep them productive, motivated and innovative.

Staring Down the Wolf (2020) is a leadership guide to forging great teams in the face of adversity. Drawing upon the teachings of the Navy SEALs, one of the world’s most elite military units, it shows what it takes to command an elite team.

Rapid Growth, Done Right (2020) sets out a blueprint for leading an organization focused on growth. It explains how a symbiotic relationship among creative, technical, and business minds is a prerequisite for success. To achieve this success as a leader, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with each of these different areas, communicate fluently, and inspire innovation. 

Doing the Right Things Right (2015) cuts to the core of successful leadership. It teaches you how to manage a team and how to work with others to achieve profitable and productive results. Get ready to feel confident and lead your team to success.

Spark (2017) is a how-to guide on transforming yourself into the most valuable asset in your organization. It shows how anyone, from administrative assistants to executive officers, can inspire others to greatness and ignite the spark that will take their team to amazing heights.

Twelve and a Half (2021) is a frank, straight-talking guide to the twelve emotional skills that will bring you success in business and in life. Combining anecdotes from the author’s experience as well as typical business scenarios, it shows how, in the grand scheme of things, “soft” skills can actually be more important than the oft-prioritized “hard” skills. With a strong foundation in emotional intelligence, executives, founders, and entrepreneurs can navigate even the most difficult of situations with poise and confidence.

Power (2010) is a realpolitik guide to leading a successful career. It offers unusual insights and advice you wouldn’t normally find in other career literature, with tips and techniques you can start using now to achieve long-term success.

Winning (2005) is a collection of no-nonsense advice and original thinking on successfully running a company, managing people and building a career. It answers the toughest questions people face both in and outside their professional lives.

Humble Inquiry (2013) sets out the basic principles of the art of asking the right questions in the right way. It examines how your approach to inquiry affects your relationships at the office, your ability to get quality work completed and, ultimately, your success as a leader.

I Don’t Agree (2020) is a practical guide to improving your conflict resolution skills. Disagreement is seen as bad, and even scary. But, actually, conflict can be a powerful engine for growth if you know how to deal with it effectively. I Don’t Agree provides ten practical strategies that will help you become an expert in dealing with conflict in all areas of your life.

Meltdown (2018) unpacks the weaknesses shared by local and global systems. With diverse and astonishing examples, it provides empowering solutions to avoid failure. The Financial Times named it one of their best books of 2018, and the book’s message is ultimately hopeful – that the answers are easily within reach if we look for them. 

Meetings Suck (2016) is a guide that’ll help your company save time and money by eliminating the common pitfalls of boring, unproductive meetings. Meetings needn’t be dreary and dreadful; they can be a true delight. After all, meetings are where ideas are born, information is shared and people gain the skills they need to become tomorrow’s inspiring leaders.

Conscious Business (2006) pushes beyond conventional measures of success to show you how to create a dynamic organization based on core human values. You’ll learn why companies that empower employees to align their work with the values they hold dear are the companies that succeed in today’s marketplace.

Beyond Measure (2015) shows that transforming a struggling company into a thriving one is a simple matter of making small systemic changes that empower people to speak up, collaborate and share. Discover you can stop your company from being controlled by one overworked CEO and make it into an innovative powerhouse where ideas can flourish.

Rituals Roadmap (2021) is a modern-thinking guide about how to create workplace rituals that increase employee engagement and strengthen team commitment. It’s an essential piece of wisdom for the human workplace.

Attitude Reflects Leadership (2015) exposes why the modern world of work is rife with bad bosses. These blinks illuminate the elements of leadership that drive top performance, from knowing the difference between managing and leading to fostering the right attitude in your team. You’ll learn that while exceptional leadership is rare, it is something you can learn.

Move (2017) provides an actionable framework for establishing long-term organizational change and introduces the MOVE model, which helps businesses overcome chronic issues ranging from employee skepticism and task prioritization to making restructuring an integral part of company culture.

Meetings That Get Results (2021) is a practical guide to the art of running more effective and efficient meetings. Designed for leaders tasked with facilitating meetings and group discussions, it emphasizes collaborative approaches to decision-making and problem-solving. 

The Wisdom of Crowds explores why, and under which circumstances, groups of people can come up with better solutions to problems than any one person – even if that person is an expert. By analyzing the way individuals and groups make decisions, the book gets to the bottom of the wisdom of crowds, and shows how this wisdom can be used to make reliable decisions.

A Team of Leaders (2014) provides companies facing internal problems, such as lost productivity, high turnover and low employee commitment, with a powerful solution. These blinks outline practical methods and tools, including the five-stage team development model, to guide you toward an engaged and high-performance work environment.

The Evolved Executive (2018) offers today’s business leaders a step-by-step guide on how to revolutionize their leadership and workforces for the modern era. Author Heather Hanson Wickman provides advice on how to move away from the bygone business beliefs and structures that strike fear in the hearts of employees, and adopt a more sensible, effective and loving approach. With these tips you can create a more productive and flexible workplace filled with empowered and motivated employees. 

Creative Acts for Curious People (2021) collects insights about creativity and design taught in the classrooms of Stanford’s renowned Hasso Plattner School of Design, also known as the d.school. In addition to essays about the mindset and skills required for creative action, it offers over 80 practical exercises used by instructors from dozens of fields including medicine, education, and nonprofit to help improve your ability to solve problems, whether personal or on a global scale.

Wellbeing at Work (2021) explores how the different spheres of our lives contribute to our overall sense of well-being. It also outlines how leaders can positively impact their employees’ well-being, and sheds light on the link between employee well-being and organizational success. 

The Cactus and Snowflake at Work (2021) offers a brand-new take on workplace relationships. It suggests that everyone falls into one of two personality types, the Cactus or the Snowflake, and that our types drive the way we think, feel, act, and collaborate. Learning your type – and how to deal with other types – can set you up for professional success.

Peopleware provides an in-depth look at the common mistakes project managers make, and offers concrete insight on the ways to correct them. By following a few simple steps, you can transform your development team into the productivity powerhouse that they’re waiting to become.

Holacracy (2015) describes a revolutionary new management system championed by some of today’s most forward-thinking companies, like Zappos and Medium. These blinks explain how authority and responsibility are defined and distributed within a Holacracy – and why this system leads to a more effective and dynamic organization.

Extraordinary Influence (2018) delves into the latest neuroscientific research to shed light on the secrets behind effective leadership. The key? Communication. Getting that right, clinical psychologist and corporate consultant Tim Irwin argues, doesn’t just keep team members motivated – it also drives them to go the extra mile and perform at their highest level. 

Superbosses (2016) is the insider’s guide to understanding how charismatic, often controversial but unforgettable leaders tick. These blinks reveal the patterns and strategies of top-performing bosses, and explain how you can help your employees succeed by becoming a superboss yourself!

Future Shaper (2020) describes the challenges leaders face in an increasingly fast-paced and technologically driven world. It’s the ultimate manual for leaders seeking to improve their leadership skills, embrace new ideas and innovations, and prepare for the future.

The Power of Giving Away Power (2021) explains how leaders, organizations, and businesses can harness power by giving it away. By replacing traditional ideas of hierarchy with a mindset centered around constellations, we can create flexible networks that allow us to get big things done, better. 

In Chief Joy Officer (2018), Richard Sheridan shares how he created a company culture built on joy. Sheridan’s book is packed with anecdotes from his own career and offers a clear guide to building a company with a purpose and a workplace that people can love.

The Promises of Giants (2021) offers a series of strategies that will transform you into an extraordinary leader. Regardless of what you do or where you are on your career journey, this series of practical tips will expedite your success while empowering those around you. 

Profit from the Positive explains how leaders can increase productivity, collaboration and profitability by using the tools of positive psychology to boost their employees’ performance. It gives clear examples of how small changes can make big differences.

Social Physics offers a crash course in the new self-declared field of science. It asks questions about how we can best use the treasure troves of data available to companies and researchers today to better understand human interaction and social organization, and hopefully create a better society.