Former professional athlete, renowned speaker and leader in the team building industry, Mike Robbins, shares his core principles for building and leading a successful team in his latest book, We’re All in This Together.

When it comes to working alongside others, you don’t always get to choose your teammates.

This can be a recipe for disaster or an opportunity for success. Introducing the principles of fostering an environment of psychological safety, honoring diversity and inclusion, Robbins addresses navigating conflict, building trust and how to balance healthy expectations and empathy. Robbins covers a wide berth of scenarios and demonstrates with easy-to-follow exercises, tools, techniques, perspective shifts and candid conversations how you can transform a troubled team into one that is high-performing.

The book is organized by his four pillar model for success and digs deep into how to tap into the strength of team members and positively and productively channel those toward the greater collective. From one who’s worked with individuals struggling with team dynamics, I would highly recommend this read to everyone who works with or leads a team. It gives you a proactive approach to working alongside others harmoniously and opens the door to sound and applicable strategies for addressing hiccups and proactively ensuring success.

Where team members are often compelled to just get along, this book demonstrates how that is not a sustainable approach. Rather, by setting healthy intentions and including members of the team in open and transparent conversations, the dynamic shifts from one of awkwardness to authentic cohesion.

But this isn’t a soft “let’s all get along approach.” While there is the overarching tone of emotional and psychological safety, it’s coupled with calling people out, radical candor and accountability. A healthy dose of each establishes that while this team is responsible for prioritizing results and outcomes, it’s still made up of people.

It’s clear that Robbins is an expert in the field and has created and culled a plethora of team building insights. From coaching a soccer team to leading a Fortune 100 company, this book applies to every team opportunity and challenge imaginable.

Image courtesy of Hay House, Inc.