Build an A-Team

by Whitney Johnson (Author)

What's the secret to having an engaged and productive team? It's having a plan for developing all employees–no matter where they are on their personal learning curves.

Better morale and higher performance happen through learning, argues Whitney Johnson. In over twenty years of coaching, investing, and consulting, Johnson has seen that employees need continuous learning and fresh challenges to stay motivated.

The best bosses know this, and they know how to make it happen by thoughtfully designing people’s jobs around the skills they have today as well as the skills they'll need to be even more valuable tomorrow. That's how entire organizations stay competitive in an unpredictable, rapidly changing business environment.

In this book, Johnson explains how to become one of those bosses and how to build your A-team by:

Identifying what your employees already know and what they need to learn
Designing their jobs to maximize engagement and learning
Applying a seven-step process for leading each person up their learning curve
We all want opportunities to learn, experiment, and grow in our jobs. When our bosses work with us to help us leap to new challenges, the result is a team that knows how to thrive, no matter what the future holds.

Review
Advance Praise for Build an A-Team:

Marshall Goldsmith, executive coach; New York Times–bestselling author, Triggers and What Got You Here Won't Get You There–
"If you want to be a leader who gets hired, and a boss people love to work for, Build an A-Team is a must-read."

Clayton Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; New York Times–bestselling author, The Innovator's Dilemma–
"Management, when practiced well, is a noble profession. Build an A-Team is an important book for managers who desire to help their team members learn, grow, and realize their potential."

Aicha Evans, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Intel–
"Build an A-Team drives the point home that success is rooted in spending the time to build and nurture learning teams. That's the role of the best leaders today."

Raju Narisetti, CEO, Gizmodo Media Group–
"Illustrated by dozens of real-life examples, Build an A-Team is an essential guide for managers."

Maureen Chiquet, former Global CEO, Chanel; author, Beyond the Label–
"Whitney's keen observations and case studies make a thoughtful and timely guide to help both managers and employees contribute to a thriving and innovative

About the Author
Whitney Johnson is a CEO adviser and the author of the critically acclaimed Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work (2015). Previously, she was an award-winning Wall Street analyst and cofounded the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Clayton Christensen. She is a frequent keynote speaker on disruption, is recognized as one of the world's most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50 and Fortune, and hosts the weekly Disrupt Yourself podcast. She is married and has two children.