Product Description

Where can a person go to learn how to become a better team player? Your choices are definitely limited. John C. Maxwell takes the pain out of knowing what makes a team tick. If you want to have a better team, you have to develop better players. Great team players, like great teams, are formed from the inside out.

The qualities Maxwell teaches quickly take you to the heart of teamwork. Anybody can understand them and apply them -- whether at home, on the job, at church, or on the ball field. If you learn the 17 essential qualities of a team player, you can become the kind of person every team wants. If everyone on your team does it, there will be no holding you back.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #210226 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Amazon.com Review
The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player is another in a long line of titles by John Maxwell aimed at helping people attain their personal and leadership potential in the workplace. The book is organized into short chapters, each devoted to one of the 17 qualities that Maxwell deems essential to a successful and harmonious workplace, qualities such as competence, discipline, adaptability, commitment, selflessness, and preparedness. Maxwell's prose reads like a series of sermons, peppered with inspirational stories and quotes from personalities as diverse as Vince Lombardi ("The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender") and Henry Ford ("Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success"). The book is for Maxwell fans and anyone looking for a sensible and formulaic approach to improving their lot, both at work and in life. --Harry C. Edwards

Customer Reviews

Synopsis and Review
The title John Maxwell chose for this book could not be much more self-explanatory. The subject of The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player is just that. In his introduction, Maxwell shows he believes one of the best ways to improve a team is to "improve the individuals on the team." He continues, "You can become a better team member by embracing the qualities outlined in the following pages." Each of the following chapters focuses on one of these seventeen essentials.

The first chapter entitled, "Adaptable," shows team players need to be able and willing to accept and initiate change, as circumstances demand it. The second, "Collaborative," expresses the need for teammates to work together. The third, "Committed," indicates the need for team members to exude loyalty for one another and to the project the team is working on. They must also be able to express themselves freely to one another as the next chapter, "Communicative," indicates. In the fifth chapter, "Competent," Maxwell expresses the need for team players "to be well qualified" for their jobs, and then, in the sixth, he shows they must be responsible, consistent, and "Dependable." Maxwell titled the seventh chapter, "Disciplined," and shows this should be reflected in the areas of intellect, emotions, and actions. The next chapter, "Enlarging," refers to the need for team players to build up the other members of their team through encouragement and edifying actions. Then, "Enthusiastic," expresses how essential it is for people to be excited about what they are doing. The tenth chapter, "Intentional," points out the importance of living and working with purpose, and the eleventh ties in by exhorting team players to stay "Mission Conscious." The next chapter rightly follows by showing the need to be "Prepared" to take the intermediate steps necessary to see goals fulfilled. The thirteenth chapter reminds the reader every team has a necessary "Relational" component that must not be overlooked. "Self-Improving" is the subject of Maxwell's next chapter. In it he points out, "There is nothing noble in being superior to someone else; progress is becoming superior to your previous self." The author shows the importance of putting others first in the fifteenth chapter entitled, "Selfless," while the sixteenth stresses the benefits of being "Solution Oriented" rather than dwelling on problems. John Maxwell closes with encouragement to be "Tenacious," and he shows that a person possessing this team player essential does not give up when the task gets difficult, instead he or she "hangs on until the job is finished."

While Maxwell covers quite a list of essentials for team members to work on, he does it in a very consistent manner, which helps the reader fully grasp the concepts he presents. Each chapter is similarly broken up into five sections. The first section gives an extended real-life illustration of the chapter topic. Following these initial illustrations, the reader will find a heading labeled "Fleshing It Out." This is where Maxwell explains the topic and often breaks it down into three or four subheadings, which show how these qualities can and should be implemented in the lives of team players. Next, under the subheading of "Reflecting on It," Maxwell asks the reader pointed questions to help him or her see how they have been doing in the past in regards to the chapter's topic and whether or not there is room for improvement. The fourth part of each chapter is entitled, "Bringing It Home." This is where the author lists specific steps the reader should take to become a better team player in the area on which the chapter focuses. Then each chapter concludes with what Maxwell calls the "Daily Take-Away." Somehow touching on the topic at hand, the author closes each chapter with an inspiring anecdote before moving on to another of his seventeen essentials.

Team Making
An easy read on the basics of being a part of a team- being a team player, decision making, management, etc. Easy to follow, mostly interesting. Broken into segments that make it easy to reflect.

Great discussion of Team Player qualities
Order was shipped the next day and arrived as I expected. Excellent service unlike another book I ordered the same day from a different vendor that didn't ship for 2 1/2 weeks! I would highly recommend this vendor and use them again without hesitation.