You First

There are so many ways a team can go wrong.

Some teams make decisions so slowly that nothing ever gets done, while others go too fast and miss critical issues that come back to bite them later. Some teams bicker endlessly, while others smile and nod while avoiding the tough issues. Too often, team dysfunction leads to abysmal productivity and zero innovation for your organization, as well as misery and wasted time for you. Most team members sit and wait, feeling trapped in a team that just isn't working. They're waiting for you to do something.

You First presents a radical new idea: you can change your team. Author Liane Davey shows how you, from any seat at the table, even without support from your colleagues or your team leader, can transform a toxic team. It starts with living up to five responsibilities that will change the workings of even the most dysfunctional team.

No matter what kind of team you're working on--Crisis Junkie, Bobble-Head, Spectator, Bleeding Back, or Royal Rumble--you'll learn how to diagnose your team's ills and begin to apply emergency medicine to stop the decline. Then, learn how to diagnose yourself and embrace the role you play in transforming your team. You First delivers practical, real-world guidance on how to:

• Set aside your biases and start with a positive assumption
• Overcome your shortcomings and add your full value
• Amplify other voices, even if it slows down the decision process
• Know when to say no-- and when to say yes
• Embrace productive conflict

You First instructs you on how to disrupt the patterns that leave your team in an endless cycle of dysfunction and replace those patterns with positive interactions. It gives you the right words to say to change your team for the better--starting today. Designed for frontline employees, middle managers, executives, and anyone who works regularly in teams, You Firstwill help you figure out how to make your team happier, healthier, and more productive.

Praise for You First

Bringing together a team in a very short period of time has its own unique challenges. And with thousands of athletes from around the world counting on us to create an exceptional game, we have to get it right. You First provides exactly what we need to make that happen. I recommend this book for anyone who has to make their team work.

--Ian Troop Chief Executive Officer, TORONTO 2015 Pan American/Parapan American Games Organizing Committee

You First is just what the doctor ordered--an Rx for teams that upends old thinking and offers a new antidote to dysfunctional teamwork everywhere. No team should be without this book!

--Adrian Gostick New York Times bestselling author, The Carrot Principle

Finally, a book about building teams that gives clear, actionable, and relevant advice that does not involve trust falls. Collaboration is the wave of the future in every industry, and Dr. Davey gives you the tools to thrive in team-based environments.

--Pamela Slim Business Coach and Author, Escape from Cubicle Nation

You First offers smart thinking on what it takes for teams to be successful and that is reason enough to read it. But Liane's writing is so accessible that you'll feel like you're having a session with your own personal team advisor.

--Stew Friedman Practice Professor of Management, The Wharton School