The Synergist: How to Lead Your Team to Predictable Success - by Les McKeown (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The Synergist" explains a leadership model that trains managers to come together to deliver success--overcoming the gridlock and comprises that typically water down the team approach.

Book Synopsis

Why do so many teams fail to perform - achieving compromise at best and gridlock at worst? And what does it take to end this gridlock? Wall Street Journal bestselling author and speaker Les McKeown shows how to take any team from gridlock to world class success.

In this book, McKeown argues that every successful team includes a critical player, the Synergist, who can take the three existing types - The bold dreamers (Visionaries), the pragmatic realists (Operators), and the systems designers (Processors) - and knit them together into a dynamic, well-rounded team. Most importantly, according to McKeown, the Synergist is a role that anyone can learn.

While most attempts at teamwork improvement deal only with the symptoms of group dysfunction such as distrust, poor communication, and fear of change, McKeown address the root cause: the innately unstable Visionary-Operator-Processor triangle. Because each of the three styles' motivations, views, and goals are incompatible, without a Synergist every team will eventually implode, stall, or underperform. Only the Synergist can put aside their own agenda and interpret the language of difficult personalities, capture the best from each person, and put the good of the enterprise ahead of their own ego.

McKeown- who has used techniques presented here in his consulting with Harvard University, American Express Financial Services, the US Army, Pella Corporation, Microsoft, United Technologies Corporation, and more- shows how any individual can fill this critical role, whether or not they're the formal leader of the group.

With thought-provoking self-assessments and an extensive Synergist Toolkit, he teaches how anyone can learn to be an effective Synergist by recognizing the vital signs of ineffective teamwork and making the right interventions at these pivotal moments.

Review Quotes

"The Synergist speaks directly to the single greatest challenge leadership teams face today: a lack of relationship and communication. If you want to know what your leadership team needs to succeed, study this book carefully." --Tom Rath, author of StrengthsFinder 2.0 and How Full is Your Bucket?

"If you want to get unstuck and do big things, buy The Synergist. It's the best book I've read on high-quality team-based decision making; the key to accelerated growth and overall success." --Michael Port, New York Times bestselling author of Book Yourself Solid

"Les McKeown's excellent first book, Predictable Success, helped many companies--including the Motley Fool - stay on the right track. Now The Synergist unlocks the secrets to becoming an effective team leader, which anyone can use to achieve personal and professional growth." --David Gardner, cofounder and Chief Rule Breaker, The Motley Fool

"Simple, intuitive, and transformative. The Synergist lays out not only a road map to building highly successful teams, but a process that empowers organizations, fuels progress, and dissolves gridlock." --Jonathan Fields, author of Uncertainty

About the Author

Les McKeown is the president and CEO of Predictable Success, a consulting firm with clients that include T-Mobile, Microsoft, The US Army, Harvard University, Bose, British Aerospace and many more. McKeown's previous book, Predictable Success, hit the Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-seller lists in 2010. McKeown is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and has appeared on CNN, ABC, BBC, Inc, Entrepreneur magazine, USA Today and The New York Times. Les speaks to businesses around the country helping management achieve a systematic approach to success