Team Building:

Adaptive Leadership Cultivates Innovation

Team building is more than a buzzword – it’s a crucial element for leadership success in today’s fast-paced, interconnected workplace. Effective team-building begins with who you are as a leader. Your team is impacted not only by what you do but by who you are.

Adaptive leaders are able to skillfully navigate uncertainty, manage change, and encourage teams to be flexible and innovative.

You may achieve this, in large part, by bringing a coaching mindset to your role and by developing your team members’ skills and resilience through regular feedback and encouragement. Although adaptable, team-building leaders are also decisive. You know how to make timely, well-informed decisions after considering input from your team.

How can you, as a leader, grow high-performing teams that are highly engaged, innovative and productive?

TED Talk: Turning a Group of Strangers into a Team

Business school professor Amy Edmondson studies "teaming" — where people come together quickly (and often temporarily) to solve new, urgent or unusual problems.

Recalling stories of teamwork on the fly, such as the incredible rescue of 33 miners trapped half a mile underground in Chile in 2010, Edmondson shares the elements needed to turn a group of strangers into a quick-thinking team that can nimbly respond to challenges.

Watch this informative TED Talk

Tools & Tips: Books on Team Building

Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others

Stephen M. R Covey believes that employees are creative, collaborative, and full of potential; through trust, you can inspire them to do their best work. Trust and Inspire is a simple yet radical shift in how business must be done in the 21st century and an expansive, visionary, and inviting guide to the future of leadership.

Best Team Ever: The Surprising Science of High-Performing Teams

Dr. David Burkus understands that to build the best team, you must first shape the habits and practices that bring out the best in each member. Best Team Ever reveals what some of the world's most effective teams do, and shows you how you can do the same.