Are you a leader or manager who is looking for the best team building books?
Great teams don’t just happen; they are actually built. So, in order to develop a winning team, you need to have the right knowledge and tools.
In this article, we’ve compiled a list of 25 books that will help you build and lead a highly productive workforce, and foster teamwork in your workplace.
25 Best Team Building Books for Managers and Leaders
Here are 25 helpful team building books for you that are available on Amazon. The link to the respective book’s page is given below each description just in case you want to get it. Okay?
So, let’s start!
(Note: I earn a small commission when you make a purchase using these links at no extra cost to you.)
#1. The Power of a Positive Team: Proven Principles and Practices that Make Great Teams Great
By: Jon Gordon
Who’s it for: Leaders, Managers, and All Group Members
This book consists of practical tools that help teams overcome negativity, build trust, and collaborate more effectively. Here the author discusses the issues that cause a team to fail while providing solutions to boost its creativity and growth. This is one of the best team building books that help your teams become stronger and achieve substantial results.
#2. The Twin Thieves: How Great Leaders Build Great Teams
By: Lucas Jadin
Who’s it for: Anyone who wants to build a winning team
In this book, the author calls the fear of failure and the fear of judgment the Twin Thieves. Every team must overcome these fears to be a champion. With an inspirational story of the Westlake Aviators football team, you’ll learn everything you need to build a great team.
#3. The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues
By: Patrick M. Lencioni
Who’s it for: Anyone in a leadership role, Recruiters, and Team Players
If you’re a leader who wants to create a culture around teamwork, this is the book you must read. This book comes with the tools and techniques for finding, hiring, and developing ideal team players.
#4. HBR’s 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)
By: Harvard Business Review
Who’s it for: Leaders and Managers of all levels
This set consists of six different books along with five bonus articles. It includes:
HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The Essentials
It covers the best thinking from management experts and helps you understand the basics.
HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself
It includes ideas to stay engaged throughout your work life, stick to your core values, and become more resilient.
HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing People
It consists of ideas to bring out the best performance of your employees, motivate them with responsibility instead of money, and build trust.
HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership
It discusses how to build your team’s confidence, set direction, promote smart risk-taking, and much more.
HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategy
It helps you develop a winning strategy that will differentiate your company from your competitors.
HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Change Management
It talks about how to minimize resistance and promote change in your business.
#5. Hiring for Diversity: The Guide to Building an Inclusive and Equitable Organization
By: Arthur Woods
Who’s it for: Leaders, Managers, and Recruiters
Do you want to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization? Then, Hiring for Diversity is a must-read book for you. It includes the best practices for implementing a diversity hiring strategy so that you can build highly effective teams.
#6. Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates
By: Karin Hurt
Who’s it for: Leaders of all levels
‘Courageous Cultures’ helps you create a high-engagement culture based on sharing ideas, solving problems, and rewarding contributions from all levels. It provides the practical tools to take advantage of the best ideas from every level of your company. You can apply these tools throughout all levels of your organization to reengage and motivate your staff.
#7. I Love It Here: How Great Leaders Create Organizations Their People Never Want to Leave
By: Clint Pulver
Who’s it for: Individuals who are in a management/leadership position
This book consists of the best methods to identify talent, develop a sense of ownership, and create a strong workplace culture. Moreover, the author discusses the strategies to reduce employee turnover and build a team that actually works.
#8. The Science of Dream Teams: How Talent Optimization Can Drive Engagement, Productivity, and Happiness
By: Mike Zani
Who’s it for: All leaders
This book helps you have an invincible competitive advantage no matter what industry you’re in. Here the author discusses a data-driven approach to talent optimization. It helps leaders to be efficient and effective in hiring, motivating, and managing employees.
#9. From Start-Up to Grown-Up: Grow Your Leadership to Grow Your Business
By: Alisa Cohn
Who’s it for: Startup Founders
This book helps you build a successful company with a set of core values that everybody lives by. Here the author discusses various self-management tools that will help you manage yourself as well as your teams.
#10. Virtual Teams For Dummies
By: Tara Powers
Who’s it for: Anyone who runs/wants to build remote teams
This book offers guidance to build, lead, and sustain highly productive remote employees. It is comprised of case studies, interviews, and solid advice from popular companies that are successfully running virtual staff.
#11. Welcome to Management: How to Grow From Top Performer to Excellent Leader
By: Ryan Hawk
Who’s it for: New Leaders and Managers
If you’re quite new to the management or leadership position, “Welcome to Management” is the best book to read. With this book, you’ll learn how to lead yourself, build your team, and lead it.
#12. The CEO Test: Master the Challenges That Make or Break All Leaders
By: Adam Bryant
Who’s it for: Anyone who is in a leadership/management position
In order to build great teams, you need to be a great leader. The CEO Test is an excellent book that will prepare you to face all the leadership challenges. Here the authors explain seven critical leadership challenges that include developing strategies, building great groups, handling crises, etc.
#13. Chief Inspiration Officer: How to Lead the Team Everyone Wants to Be On
By: Val Ries
Who’s it for: Anyone who runs/wants to build a team
Everyone wants to lead a team with an inspiring culture. In this book, the author reveals the critical techniques to maximize your group’s potential. So, you’ll be able to increase loyalty, engagement, and results.
#14. Performance Conversations: How to Use Questions to Coach Employees, Improve Productivity, and Boost Confidence (Without Appraisals!)
By: Christopher D. Lee
Who’s it for: Business Leaders and Managers
Are you looking for innovative practices to improve productivity in your workplace? Performance Conversations offers a new approach that will help managers to regulate and enhance their employees’ performance. The ideas presented in this book are applicable to both office and remote staff.
#15. 3D Team Leadership: A New Approach for Complex Teams
By: Bradley L. Kirkman and T. Brad Harris
Who’s it for: Leaders and Managers
This is a straightforward guide for leaders and managers who want to maximize team performance. In this book, there are various ideas to properly diagnose the state of your groups, focus on the elements that require attention, and consequently, deal with the different components of teamwork.
#16. Beyond Team Building: How to Build High Performing Teams and the Culture to Support Them
By: Jeffrey H. Dyer
Who’s it for: Individuals who handle the leadership/management role
In this book, the author introduces a new ‘Five C’ framework that deals with the core aspects of team building. It helps you analyze how your teams are functioning and improve their performance.
#17. The 5 Roles of Leadership: Tools & best practices for personable and effective leaders
By: Wladislaw Jachtchenko
Who’s it for: Leaders and Managers of all levels
You might want to be a leader who empowers your staff and get things done. This book discusses 5 different roles of a leader and how to master each of them. On each page, you’ll see actionable ideas and practical tips that you can incorporate into your daily routine.
#18. Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy
By: Patrick Bet-David
Who’s it for: All Executives, Strategists, and Entrepreneurs
If you’re looking for innovative strategies to take your business to the next level, “Your next five moves” is the book for you. Here the author helps business leaders understand what to do next. So, you’ll learn growth tactics for both good and bad times, skills to build the right teams based on strong values, etc.
#19. The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale, and Improve Bottom-Line Performance
By: James A. Autry
Who’s it for: Servant Leaders or those who want to adopt a servant leadership style
As the title says, this book is ideal for servant leaders or those who love a servant leadership style. Here the bestselling author, James A. Autry, guides you to create a productive, happier, and more successful workplace using servant leadership principles.
#20. Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve
By: Whitney Johnson
Who’s it for: Anyone in a leadership/management position
Do you want to know the secrets of building a highly engaged and productive group? This amazing book will help you with that. It guides you to become a better boss and develop an A-team.
#21. Pulling Together: 10 Rules for High Performance Teamwork
By: John J. Murphy
Who’s it for: Leaders of any team
If you’re a leader who wants to improve teamwork in your workplace, Pulling Together is a must-read. This book contains the ultimate list of advice to achieve greatness on a team. Here the author covers various aspects of teamwork from respecting diversity to building trust.
#22. The Secret of Teams: What Great Teams Know and Do
By: Mark Miller
Who’s it for: Business Leaders of all types
What separates a team that consistently performs well from the underperforming ones? This book has its answer. It helps you know the secrets of building high-performance teams that lead to organizational success.
#23. Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success
By: John Eades
Who’s it for: Business Leaders of all types
If you want to create a world-class team culture, this is the must-read book for you. Here the author explains how to create high levels of performance by balancing “love and discipline”.
#24. Great Teams: 16 Things High Performing Organizations Do Differently
By: Don Yaeger
Who’s it for: Business Leaders of all types
How to build a great team? You’ll get its answer in this book. Here the author discusses 16 habits of a high-performing group. Each chapter provides applicable examples on how to apply these habits in any company.
#25. The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People
By: Gary Chapman
Who’s it for: Managers, Supervisors, and Leaders of all levels
With over 450,000 copies sold, this book can help you learn your colleagues’ language of appreciation, and strengthen workplace relationships. It provides the tools to boost employee morale as well as engagement and create a more positive workplace.
Looking for a Book of Unique Team Building Activities?
If you want some unique team building activities for your employees, you can get my new e-book.
Or Want Some Unique Leadership Development Activities?
If you want some unique activities to equip your employees with leadership skills, qualities, and mindset, you can get my new e-book:
Final Words
Creating a successful and harmonious workplace requires intentional effort, the right resources, and continuous learning. The books listed above provide valuable insights for you to foster strong teams, nurture talent, and build a thriving organizational culture. Whether you are looking to enhance teamwork, appreciate your employees, or develop leadership qualities, these resources can serve as an excellent starting point.
FAQ: Team Building Books
You might have these questions in mind.
What are team building books and why should I read them?
These books provide guidance and tools for business leaders to develop strong teams, successfully manage them, and improve their performance. They are usually written by management experts or well-known industry leaders.
By reading a team building book and applying its principles to your business, you can develop a competent workforce that will deliver the results you want. Subsequently, you’ll be able to stand out from your competition.
What are the best books for building a strong team?
If you want to build an engaged, productive, and successful team, you can start with the following books.
HBR’s 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books) by Harvard Business Review
Build an A-Team by Whitney Johnson
What are the recommended team building books for startups?
If you’re a startup founder or planning to create a new company, these are the recommended books for you.
From Start-Up to Grown-Up by Alisa Cohn
I Love It Here by Clint Pulver
What are the recommended team building books for new managers?
If you’re a newly appointed manager or leader, we recommend reading the following books.
Welcome to Management by Ryan Hawk
The CEO Test by Adam Bryant
What are the best books for building and managing remote teams?
If you have a group of remote employees or want to build one, the following are the best books to read.
Virtual Teams For Dummies by Tara Powers
Performance Conversations by Christopher D. Lee