A Team of Leaders: Empowering Every Member to Take Ownership, Demonstrate Initiative, and Deliver Results Paul Gustavson and Steward LiffAMACOM (2014) 226 pages, hardcover, $26.95Do you manage teams or belong to a team? The vast majority of us will respond yes to this question. As a college professor, I often have students work in teams for the entire semester to complete assignments and projects. Interestingly, it is one of the activities they most dislike, second only to public speaking. Yet, when they enter the workforce these skills may be the most important ones they possess. In general, universities recognize that courses to improve communication skills need to be in the curriculum, but those that include team building and performance primarily cover theory. Perhaps we need a course in which team building activities are instructed, practiced, evaluated, and improved.In the meantime, organizations must conduct the training for these skills in-house or seek expert advice because we understand that team skills are central to organizational success in the 21st century. This understanding is the reason A Team of Leaders: Empowering Every Member to Take Ownership, Demonstrate Initiative, and Deliver Results by Gustavson and Liffis so important. Gustavson and Liffhave spent decades developing the expertise that they share with us in this book. As a manager or member of a team, this book is a rich and valuable resource, and one that I expect will be referred to frequently as your organization evolves through this transformation.Gustavson and Liffprovide us with six chapters of information including tools, models, actions, and expected outcomes for developing a team of leaders. In their experience, the authors find that the highest performing teams are those that include self-sufficient and more engaged members. In addition, they believe that most problems within teams are caused by the design of the team as well as management systems and processes. They are not assigning blame, but providing insight to what improvements are possible in order to achieve the organizational outcomes we desire.It follows, therefore, that a basic premise of the book is that creating a team of leaders requires altering the roles of the team's leader and members as well as a redesign of the organization's systems and processes. A five stage model to develop this team of leaders is the subject of the book with the ultimate goal that everyone on the team steps up and provides leadership. This allows the formal team leader to become an advisor while members of the team rotate through the lead role, provide shared leadership, and are involved and committed.At the beginning of each chapter, the authors include a Key Principle that provides insight into the chapter contents and anticipated outcome. Guidelines, frameworks/models, tool kits, and examples support the material and offer the reader a series of questions to ask in order to appropriately apply the information within their organization. At the end of each chapter two additional resources assist in understanding this process: (a) challenges, tensions, and key facts during implementation; and (b) how the chapter topic will help build leaders. The first resource recognizes that change is difficult and that this process will be different in each organization; the second reinforces the key concept of the chapter and its strategic role in the process toward developing a team of leaders.In chapter one, each of the five stages in developing a team of leaders is summarized in a chart and detailed in the reading. This chapter serves as the foundation for the rest of the book. Gustavson and Liffhighlight that communication is key to the process. …