Mike Finley

The Accidental Leader
What to Do When You're Suddenly in Charge
by Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley
(paperback: Jossey-Bass 1st ed., 2003)

It could happen today. You are called into the office, and the boss tells you that due to unforeseen circumstances, starting today you will be in charge of a team, a project, an office, a committee, or a business unit. Without any warning (or preparation on your part) you've become an accidental leader.

If you have been thrust into a position of sudden responsibility, you need The Accidental Leader. This book is a first aid kit that gives you the information and inspiration you need to

• Know what you bring to the challenge-- your pluses and minuses
• Define success and achieve it
• Get other people on your side
• Overcome your natural shortcomings
• Get organized-- right now
• See through the apparent system to the culture within
• Direct people and get them to act

The New Why Teams Don't Work
What Goes Wrong and How to Make It Right by Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley
(paperback: Berrett-Koehler 2nd ed., 2000)

The move to teams has largely failed, say Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, mainly because teams themselves are failing to think through the human implications of teaming. The NEW Why Teams Dont Work is a handbook for team members and team leaders to maintain the highest possible level of team intelligencethe skills, attitudes, and emotional flexibility to get the most out of a teams inherent differences.

Describing what teams are really like, not how they ought to be, the book teaches people how to work together to make decisions, stay in budget, and achieve team goals. Robbins and Finley show, for instance, how to get hidden agendas on the table, clarify individual roles, learn what team members expect and want from each other, choose the right decision-making process, and much more.

Updated throughout, the book includes completely new material on team intelligence, team technology, collaboration vs. teamwork, team balance, teams at the top, the team of one, plus all new and updated examples.

Transcompetition
Moving Beyond Competition and Collaboration
by Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley
Businessweek Books
(hardcover: McGraw-Hill 1st ed., 1998)

The award-winning authors of Why Teams Don't Work draw on ideas, lessons and examples from the worlds of current events, business history, psychology, anthropology, and the transcompetitive swarming of ants and bees to present a new trend in management style called transcompetition. Transcompetition combines the best tactics of business war and the new spirit of teamwork to encourage an alliance between individuals and organizations. With easy-to-follow guidelines for transforming your organizational style, the authors explain how to create and maintain a collaborative environment that hires the best and optimizes the rest.

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