Between the time a team is launched and the time it delivers results, managers need to know that the team is on course. Whether they have launched a team to achieve a business objective or have inherited a team, they need to monitor effectiveness on an ongoing basis and make course corrections that keep small problems from becoming major disasters. Monitoring and maintaining team performance is a key element of leading a team. You can provide that leadership by paying attention to four important dimensions: team member effort, team member knowledge and skills, team tactics, and group dynamics. By focusing on those four areas, you can assess your team's performance, zero in on areas of weakness, and take the corrective measures necessary to ensure peak performance and to deliver expected results.

Getting your team off on the right foot is critical to its success. This guidebook tells managers and team leaders how to address four critical points during the launch of a team: setting purpose and direction, defining roles and responsibilities, designing procedures and practices, and building cooperation and relationships. Understanding and implementing these key elements is key to a team's achieving the goals the organization has set for it.

You want to start working on the next steps in your career. Your boss made remarks in your last performance review that you want to take action on. You know now the kind of leader you aspire to be and want to pursue your aspirations. You have an enduring weakness that motivates you to improve. You feel bored or stale in your current job and want to develop new capabilities. If you've experienced those things or have had similar experiences, then you know that what makes you successful now won't take you to the next level of performance or leadership. Successful leaders have the ability to adapt, change, and reinvent themselves. They thrive on change. Do you? The FIVE STEPS in Change Now will help you become the leader you aspire to be by guiding you through a process of change. Use this book to identify where to focus your development energy, create goals that work for you, craft a plan for achieving your goals, overcome obstacles, and stay on course. Don't wait. Become the leader you want to be, the leader you need to be.

One of the first steps to take toward increasing team effectiveness is to pay attention to how the team is formed. You can head off most of the problems that beset teams during the formation stage by setting a clear direction, building organizational support, creating an empowering team design, identifying key relationships, and monitoring external factors. When a team is formed with the five high-performance principles described in this guidebook, it has a head start on achieving success.