Teach Your Team to Fish: Using Ancient Wisdom for Inspired Teamwork - Hardcover

Kenneth Blanchard; Laurie Beth Jones

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0609606794 ISBN 13: 9780609606797

Publisher: Crown Business, 2002

Synopsis

Laurie Beth Jones has given hundreds of thousands of business readers insight into how the ideas of Jesus can be used to enhance performance. One of the most critical work areas for anyone, whether a manager or a CEO, a teacher or a pastor, is cooperative teamwork. Leaders today face their greatest challenges not only in defining strategies and getting updated information but also in getting diverse human beings to pull together without falling apart.

Jesus can be a role model for team leaders everywhere. When Jesus called out to his future disciples, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” he transformed them from people who worked for themselves to people who were part of a larger team. Jesus was constantly exhorting his people to “gather in my name” and “go out two by two” and always think and pray “as one.” Jesus’ final prayer was “that they might be one, Father, even as you and I are one,” which is ultimately about union and communion, common values and purpose—all of which form the bedrock of an inspired team.

Teach Your Team to Fish offers dozens of stories from the Bible showing how Jesus managed his team of disciples and other followers, with suggestions for how to apply these lessons to real-world teambuilding and management problems. It offers guidance and inspiration on:

* how to excite your team in order to motivate them;
* how to ground them so they’ll be realistic about what can be achieved;
* how to transform them into a truly well-functioning team;
* and how to release them into the world to improve other teams elsewhere.

Along the way, the book gives examples of companies in which teams work well together and offers lessons that can help team leaders everywhere sustain themselves and achieve their common goals.

About this title

From the Back Cover

“Once again, Laurie Beth Jones shows us a practical pathway to teambuilding illuminated by the spark of the eternal and divine.” —Michael A. Volkema, chairman, president, and CEO, Herman Miller

“Think of it. Whoever built a higher performing team than Jesus! Now Laurie Beth Jones makes this ancient wisdom accessible and useful to twenty-first-century leaders. Learn from the Master.”—Bob Buford, author of Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance and Stuck in Halftime: Reinvesting Your One and Only Life

“This is Laurie Beth Jones’s best book yet, and that’s saying a lot. Teamwork is a hot topic in America today, and this book is going to be a classic on the subject.” —Pat Williams, senior vice president, Orlando Magic

“Laurie Beth Jones beautifully points aspiring team leaders and builders to the Master Servant Leader and Builder, Jesus Christ. Teach Your Team to Fish is rich in inspiration and instruction . . . well worth the read, and can be life-changing.” —Commissioner Robert A. Watson, retired national commander, The Salvation Army, and author of The Most Effective Organization in the U.S.

“Once again, Laurie Beth Jones has taken the example and life of Jesus to teach us how to lead—to be teacher-learners as we motivate others to do even more and greater things than we are able to do. It is a must-read for those who seek to lead people through challenging and turbulent times as we enter the twenty-first century.” —C. William Pollard, chairman, ServiceMaster

“Laurie Beth Jones understands that good business is built upon good relational skills. She uniquely teaches us how to apply these principles of ancient wisdom in today’s work environment.” —Jim Ellick, president, Strategy for Living

About the Author

LAURIE BETH JONES is the author of the national bestsellers Jesus, CEO; Jesus in Blue Jeans; and The Path. She is an acclaimed speaker whose topics include leadership and management skills and teambuilding. She also consults one on one with CEOs and leadership teams and trains facilitators to help coach their organizations, departments, and groups. For more information, visit her website at www.jesusceo.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown Business
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0609606794
• ISBN 13: 9780609606797
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224