BRILLIANT LEADERSHIP

Martin, Google’s director of global marketer training, presents an overview of the dynamics of teambuilding in the business world.

“Deep down,” the author writes in her nonfiction debut, “you probably know you need to find a way to improve in your role, but the demands of your work seem to make it impossible to find time to take yet another training course or workshop that may or may not be any help in meeting your challenges.” In the realm of corporate leadership and team dynamics, this book aims to be that training course, with Martin exploring everything from onboarding new hires to productively resolving conflicts between employees. She’s sensitive to the necessity of creating environments of “psychological safety,” viewing it as important to shaping high-performance teams that can self-evaluate and have tough discussions with long-term benefits. She describes several kinds of teambuilding exercises, always stressing the importance of respecting the psychologies of each person involved. She writes in clear, approachable prose, covering familiar business-book territory with appealing energy. Her book is also well laid out, with each chapter ending with a series of reflection questions, such as “How would you rate your ability to truly listen when people speak?” That said, the concepts reviewed in these pages touch on fairly basic management skills, which can give the book a feeling of over-explanation at times: “Where you and your team get energy is just one element of your individual team members’ working preferences that you’ll want to consider, but uncovering these nuances takes effort.” However, Martin also thoughtfully explores the idea that nothing in manager-team relationships is completely neutral, and even experts will find that it never hurts to go over first principles.

An accessible and sometimes thought-provoking look at the fundamentals of working with others.