A book about teams to help teams become more positive, united and connected.
Worldwide bestseller - the author of The Energy Bus and The Power of Positive Leadership shares the proven principles and practices that build great teams - and provides practical tools to help teams overcome negativity and enhance their culture, communication, connection, commitment and performance.
Jon Gordon doesn’t just research the keys to great teams, he has personally worked with some of the most successful teams on the planet and has a keen understanding of how and why they became great. In The Power of a Positive Team, Jon draws upon his unique team building experience as well as conversations with some of the greatest teams in history in order to provide an essential framework, filled with proven practices, to empower teams to work together more effectively and achieve superior results.
Utilizing examples from the writing team who created the hit show Billions, the National Champion Clemson Football team, the World Series contending Los Angeles Dodgers, The Miami Heat and the greatest beach volleyball team of all time to Navy SEAL’s, Marching bands, Southwest Airlines, USC and UVA Tennis, Twitter, Apple and Ford, Jon shares innovative strategies to transform a group of individuals into a united, positive and powerful team.
Jon not only infuses this book with the latest research, compelling stories, and strategies to maintain optimism through adversity… he also shares his best practices to transform negativity, build trust (through his favorite team building exercises) and practical ways to have difficult conversations - all designed to make a team more positive, cohesive, stronger and better.
The Power of a Positive Team also provides a blueprint for addressing common pitfalls that cause teams to fail - including complaining, selfishness, inconsistency, complacency, unaccountability - while offering solutions to enhance a team’s creativity, grit, innovation and growth.
This book is meant for teams to read together. It’s written in such a way that if you and your team read it together, you will understand the obstacles you will face and what you must do to become a great team. If you read it together, stay positive together, and take action together you will accomplish amazing things TOGETHER.
Table of Contents
No One Creates Success Alone 1
1 The Power of Positive 7
2 Positive Teams Create Positive Cultures 13
Create Your Culture 16
Culture Is Dynamic, Not Static 17
Make Your Bus Great 18
Make Your Culture a Priority 18
Invest in the Root 19
Decide to Be Vitamin C 21
The Power Is on the Inside 22
What Do We Want to Be? 22
3 Positive Teams Work Together toward a Shared Vision with a Greater Purpose 25
Shared Vision 28
Greater Purpose 28
Purpose-Driven Goals 29
Vision + Mission 31
Telescope and Microscope 32
Creating Billions and Winning Gold 32
The World’s Largest Family 34
The Table 35
Keep Your Vision and Purpose Alive 36
Make Your Vision and Purpose Come Alive 37
One Word 38
Make Sure Everyone Is on the Bus 39
Everyone Means Everyone 40
4 Positive Teams Work Together with Optimism, Positivity, and Belief 41
Stay Positive Together 43
Believe Together 44
Encourage Each Other 46
Feed the Positive Dog 47
Talk to Yourself 48
Replace Have To with Get To 49
Make the Next Opportunity Great 50
L.O.S.S. 50
Shark or Goldfish 52
Think Like Rookies 52
Defeat Murphy 53
Inside Out 54
Distort Reality 56
Fear or Faith 56
The Positivity Experiment 57
Don’t Stop Believing 59
The Best Is Yet to Come 60
5 Positive Teams Transform and Remove Negativity 63
No Energy Vampires Allowed 66
It Starts at the Culture Level 67
The First Step Is Transformation 68
Remove the Negativity 68
It’s Not Okay to Be Moody 70
Implement the No Complaining Rule 71
Weed and Feed 72
Positive Conflict 73
6 Positive Teams Communicate and Connect 77
Connection Is the Difference between Good and Great 80
It Starts with Communication 82
Where There Is a Void, Negativity Will Fill It 83
Fill the Void 84
One-on-One Communication 85
Why Don’t We Communicate? 85
On a Scale of 1 to 10 87
Listening Enhances Communication 88
Communicate to Connect 89
Team Beats Talent When Talent Isn’t a Team 89
Team + Talent 91
Team Building 93
It’s Worth It 97
Team Grit 99
7 Positive Teams Commit and Care 101
Play Your Notes 104
Team First 104
We before Me 107
Commitment Recognizes Commitment 109
Committing Makes Everyone Better 110
Serve to Be Great 111
Commit to Your Team 112
Do You Care? 113
Care More 114
Craftsmen and Craftswomen 115
You Can’t Fake It 116
8 Positive Teams Are Always Striving to Get Better 119
The One Percent Rule 122
Own the Boat 122
Elite of the Elite 123
Love and Accountability 124
Family and Team 125
Love Tough 127
Positive Discontent 127
Tell-the-Truth Mondays 128
Have the Difficult Conversations 129
Like versus Love 130
Forged in the Fire 132
9 We Are Better Together 133
Meraki 140
Are You a Real Team? 143
11 Thoughts about Teamwork 145
References 147
Let us help you build a Positive, United,and Connected Team 149
Power of a Positive Team Resources 151
Positive U 152
Other Books by Jon Gordon 153
