Top Team Building books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite Team Building books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of Team Building

Understanding the concepts of Team Building starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High

“[Crucial Conversations] draws our attention to those defining moments that literally shape our lives, our relationships, and our world…. This book deserves to take its place as one of the key thought leadership contributions of our time.” ―From the Foreword by Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People “The quality of your life comes out of the quality of your dialogu…

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Leaders Eat Last

Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things. In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed…

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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

After her first two weeks observing the problems at DecisionTech, Kathryn Petersen, its new CEO, had more than a few moments when she wondered if she should have taken the job. But Kathryn knew there was little chance she would have turned it down. After all, retirement had made her antsy, and nothing excited her more than a challenge. What she could not have known when she accepted the job, h…

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The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world’s most successful organizations—including the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs—and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation, and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind.

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The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues

In his classic book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni laid out a groundbreaking approach for tackling the perilous group behaviors that destroy teamwork. Here he turns his focus to the individual, revealing the three indispensable virtues of an ideal team player. In The Ideal Team Player, Lencioni tells the story of Jeff Shanley, a leader desperate to save his uncle’s company …

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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

After her first two weeks observing the problems at DecisionTech, Kathryn Petersen, its new CEO, had more than a few moments when she wondered if she should have taken the job. But Kathryn knew there was little chance she would have turned it down. After all, retirement had made her antsy, and nothing excited her more than a challenge. What she could not have known when she accepted the job, h…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Additional Team Building Reading

These books are not required for you to learn Team Building, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy

The Energy Bus, an international best seller by Jon Gordon, takes readers on an enlightening and inspiring ride that reveals 10 secrets for approaching life and work with the kind of positive, forward thinking that leads to true accomplishment at work and at home. Jon infuses this engaging story with keen insights as he provides a powerful roadmap to overcome adversity and bring out the best i…

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Harvard Business Review on Building Better Teams

Most teams underperform. Yours can beat the odds.If you need the best practices and ideas for superior team building--but don't have time to find them--this book is for you. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place.This collection of HBR articles will help you:- Boost team performance through mutual accountability- Motivate large, diverse groups to tackle complex project…

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Unbreakable: Building and Leading Resilient Teams

An essential guide for managers and leaders on building resilient teams in turbulent times. As a result of global economic changes, new technologies, and increased competition, business environments are becoming increasingly turbulent and unpredictable, requiring new forms of resilient work teams. Due in part to the increasing complexity of business environments, more and more organizations wo…

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Team Building: Proven Strategies for Improving Team Performance

Now in its fifth edition, Team Building is a classic in the field of organization development. In this new edition, the authors strengthen the Four Cs framework that was introduced in the fourth edition and add a wealth of new illustrative examples, a chapter on the challenges of managing cross-functional teams, and a chapter on leading innovative teams in a competitive environment. To complem…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

This list is curated by MentorCruise and can include Amazon affiliate links. Have any other suggestions? Add here.

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Hi there~ Nice to meet you! Currently AI engineering consultant at Gentoro, formerly a senior engineering manager at Carousell and a lead engineer at Yahoo along with two startups experience even before. I am a big advocate of knowledge transfer and mentorship - a Scrum trainer (Scrum Master and Product …

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Started my career in aerospace as a systems engineer before converting to product management at Google. Over my time at NASA, Google, Uber, and others I've built a successful toolkit of approaches to diverse and complicated product problems. I specialize in mentoring career transitions into product management and converting teams …

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I help startups to achieve their goals and avoid the most common mistakes. Main info about me: — Have raised $10M for startups — Made 1 successful exit (one startup has been sold to Snapchat for $8 000 000) — Launched 10+ products from scratch — Fluent in 5 languages …

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Hi there, my name is Soroush Salehian, though I go by Rush. I am a leader, a coach, a mentor and a people person. About me: I have spent nearly 20 years as an engineer working on distributed, world class software that has been used by millions of users around …

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  • "Naz is an amazing person and a wonderful mentor. She is supportive and knowledgeable with extensive practical experience. Having been a manager at Netflix, she also knows a ton about working with teams at scale. Highly recommended."

  • "Brandon has been supporting me with a software engineering job hunt and has provided amazing value with his industry knowledge, tips unique to my situation and support as I prepared for my interviews and applications."

  • "Sandrina helped me improve as an engineer. Looking back, I took a huge step, beyond my expectations."