Teams At the Top

It is common knowledge that CEOs declare their direct reports as a "team at the top." Yet with a culture of individual accountability and self-reliance pervading executive suites, few management groups ever function as real teams. Now, in a natural follow-up to his bestselling The Wisdom of Teams, Jon Katzenbach offers practical guidelines for increasing leadership capacity at the highest executive levels. He shows how even the strongest and most successful CEO can improve a company's performance by turning the senior executive group into a real team--without sacrificing each member's individual leadership capabilities. Teams at the Top explains how to recognize when a team effort at the management level is preferable and when a work group under single leadership will do. Then, the book shows how to develop the capability to shift into whichever mode is appropriate. With stories and examples from well-known companies including Avon, Ben & Jerry's, Citicorp, and Clorox, Teams at the Top will help companies of all sizes and in all industries maximize the full potential of their leadership. "Rigorously objective and relentlessly realistic, Teams at the Top performs the greatest service a management book can render by deliberately avoiding simplistic, trendy prescriptions in favor of something much more enduring and substantial: understanding and insight. Jon Katzenbach stands as one of the most thoughtful and consistent contributors to the art, science, and practice of people working together to accomplish shared objectives."--Jim Collins, Coauthor of Built to Last "While this rich and rewarding work focuses on senior management, its message is equally applicable to all 'teams who runthings.'"--European Quality