Written as a business parable, Game of Teams is a 2x Silver Medal Award-winning book in 2025 that introduces an innovative yet coherent 'operating platform' using soccer's strategic lessons to develop collaborative leaders and teams, preparing them to face rapid changes in markets and companies that Artificial Intelligence is quickly transforming. It is essential to train leaders and teams to react with the synchronization and speed of a professional soccer team, where offensive and defensive resources are shared across the entire team to tackle challenges and deliver results. In today's workplace where teams continue to grow yet struggle to effectively collaborate to produce results, collaborative leadership is essential. Without it, teams fail!As the story unfolds, we follow the learning and development journey of a newly promoted team manager, Jim Hernandez. He is confronted with the need to develop a nonperforming team. To succeed he must develop a collaborative mind-set and skill set - all in real time, as in soccer. With the help of an external coach, Toni Burns, he embarks on a journey that challenges his commitment and confidence to become a collaborative leader. On his journey, he will need coaching to help him:
- Learn a new ‘operating platform’ to lead and managing his team
- Lead with a ‘collaborative mind-set’ made up of several team principles
- Apply a ‘collaborative skill’ set made up of a series of essential competencies
- Develop his ‘self-awareness’ and emotional intelligence
- Tackle ‘blind spots’ that show up in the form of interpersonal competencies
- Be open to performance feedback from his coach – and others
- Challenge his team’s ‘underlying assumptions and values’, if needed
- Develop new leadership skills beyond his technical and functional skills
- Leverage ‘relationship building’ to support his team ‘s development
- Create a ‘collaborative culture’ for his team
- Transition to a ‘coaching role’ as needed to support his team's developme
His journey is a never-ending challenge, requiring his personal commitment to learning and development. Although it may not take him places where no one has gone before, it will be a journey on a road less traveled. His commitment to coaching is the key to his success.
Part business parable and part handbook,
Game of Teams reveals why team leaders (and teams) often fail to effectively collaborate. Winsor offers a powerful framework for overcoming these shortfalls, enabling team leaders (and teams) to succeed.
Game of Teams was revised and updated in December 2024. It won Silver Medals in 2025 from Axiom Business Book Awards and North American Book Awards.
Winsor Jenkins is an accomplished senior-level business leader, management consultant, and coach. He is author of the award winning book, The Collaborator, and contributing author of the book, Focus On Them. His latest book, Game of Teams, is a sequel to his first book, introducing a new process to develop team leaders and their teams. Jenkins has a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of Idaho. He lives in Meridian, Idaho.
