About the Book

There are so many ways a team can go wrong. Does your team make decisions so slowly that nothing ever gets done, or does it go too fast and miss critical issues that come back to bite you later? Does your team bicker endlessly or smile and nod while avoiding the tough issues? Too often, team dysfunction leads to abysmal productivity and zero innovation for your organization, as well as misery and wasted time for you. Most team members sit and wait, feeling trapped in a team that just isn’t working.

Five common problems your team is susceptible to–and the one thing you can do to fix all of them

You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done presents a radical new idea: you can change your team. Author Liane Davey shows how you, from any seat at the table, even without support from your colleagues or your team leader, can transform even a toxic team. It starts with living up to five responsibilities that will change the workings of even the most dysfunctional team.

• Addresses the five most common ways your team can become toxic
• Gives you a diagnostic to see if your team is at risk
• Doles out practical suggestions to deal with the crisis in the short-term
• Instructs you on how to disrupt the patterns that leave you in an endless cycle of dysfunction
• Replaces those patterns with positive interactions and even productive conflict
• Gives you the right words to say to change your team for the better—starting today
• Written by Liane Davey, PhD, a highly sought-after consultant and Principal of Knightsbridge Leadership Solutions and the Vice President of Global Solutions and Team Effectiveness

Designed for front line employees, middle managers, executives, or anyone who works regularly in teams, You First will help you figure out how to make your team happier, healthier, and more productive.

What Readers Say

“Bringing together a team in a very short period of time has its own unique challenges. And with thousands of athletes from around the world counting on us to create an exceptional games, we have to get it right. You First provides exactly what we need to make that happen. I recommend this book for anyone who has to make their team work.”
~Ian Troop, Chief Executive Officer, TORONTO 2015 Pan American/Parapan American Games Organizing Committee

“You First is just what the doctor ordered — an Rx for teams that upends old thinking and offers a new antidote to dysfunctional teamwork everywhere. No team should be without this book!”
~Adrian Gostick, New York Times bestselling author of The Carrot Principle

“Finally, a book about building teams that gives clear, actionable and relevant advice that does not involve trust falls. Collaboration is the wave of the future in every industry, and Dr. Davey gives you the tools to thrive in team-based environments.”
~Pamela Slim, Author and Business Coach, Escape from Cubicle Nation

“You First” offers smart thinking on what it takes for teams to be successful and that is reason enough to read it. But Liane’s writing is so accessible that you’ll feel like you’re having a session with your own personal team advisor.
~Stew Friedman, Practice Professor of Management, The Wharton School