Books by Rajeev Dewan
The Leadership
Team Playbook
4 Imperatives to Achieve and Sustain Peak Performance
A group of strong leaders does not become a real leadership team by accident.
Even with capable and committed people around the table, leading together feels harder than it should. People stay in their own lane. Hard truths go unspoken. Decisions drag. Momentum stalls.
It’s tempting to write this off as a frustrating team dynamic. But it’s far more costly than that. When leadership teams struggle to lead together, the effects are felt far beyond the room—diluting focus, slowing execution, and weakening engagement across the people and teams they lead.
A collection of strong leaders does not become a real leadership team by accident. It takes more than good intentions or the occasional offsite. It requires a deliberate system for leading together—one built to integrate both the human and structural sides of how a team works.
The Leadership Team Playbook delivers that system. It brings together what high-performing leadership teams do consistently well, distilled into The Four Imperatives of High-Performing Teams™:
Read the endorsementsThe approach
Four Imperatives
of High-Performing Teams™
A practical system that brings together the human dynamics and structural disciplines of how a leadership team works.
Interact Constructively
Lift the quality of dialogue so conversations are candid, clear, and purposeful. Trust deepens, tension is handled productively, and outcomes improve.
Align Deeply
Establish uncompromising clarity and shared commitment on direction and priorities. Leaders speak and act as one, inside and outside the room.
Operate Deliberately
Build the team-wide rhythms and standards to lead as one. Friction reduces, focus sharpens, and momentum builds.
Execute Tenaciously
Deliver with urgency and accountability. The most critical priorities land consistently and to a high standard.
Praise for The Leadership Team Playbook
Perspectives from leading
thinkers in leadership.
“The Leadership Team Playbook is an insightful guide that shows senior leaders how to turn a group of talented individuals into a high-performing leadership team. Drawing on his personal experience—including, if not especially, on his own leadership mistakes—author Rajeev Dewan offers a compelling and practical approach to improve the work of a leadership team. The result is an invaluable resource for any leadership team committed to elevating its impact while strengthening trust, candor, and accountability.”
author of Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well (Atria, 2023)
“Great leadership teams are built on clear principles, high trust, and disciplined execution. The Leadership Team Playbook offers a practical and thoughtful guide that helps leadership teams turn good intentions into sustained performance.”
best-selling author of The Speed of Trust and Trust & Inspire
“Dewan’s The Leadership Team Playbook is an extraordinarily insightful, comprehensive, and practical field book for senior executives and, indeed, for all sustained collaborations. In a world facing enormous adaptive pressures, Dewan provides the know-how to harness conflict to generate innovation, find the synergy among diverse stakeholders, and build the trustworthiness of executive authority.”
King Hussein bin Talal Senior Lecturer in Public Leadership,
Harvard Kennedy School
“The Leadership Team Playbook captures a truth most leaders feel but struggle to name: Leading together is more important than leading well on your own, but also more difficult. Rajeev Dewan brings clarity to the messy reality of leadership teams and offers a practical guide for those who want to improve how they work together and deliver results.”
New York Times best-selling author of The Earned Life,
Triggers, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
“Every leader says their team matters. Few actually lead like that’s true. The Leadership Team Playbook forces the real conversation: How are you showing up as a team? Not just talking strategy, but doing the work together. Rajeev gives you the structure and language to turn a group of high-performers into a high-performing team. If you’re still managing in silos or leading by title, this book is your wake-up call.”
a #1 New York Times best-selling author of Never Eat Alone,
Who’s Got Your Back, and Leading Without Authority
“First-rate leadership teams do not just happen. They are designed and led with great intentionality. In The Leadership Team Playbook, Rajeev Dewan brings an observant eye and depth of experience with leadership teams to highlight the common stumbling blocks that create teams in name only, and to illustrate the differentiating practices of great ones. From crafting team purposes around vital leadership work, to composing a team of the right people for that work, to chairing great meetings, the playbook is full of concrete steps and vivid illustrations for leaders and team members to bring to life in their own teams. The Leadership Team Playbook deserves a space on the shelf of any leader wanting a team that’s far more than the sum of its parts.”
What it Takes to Make Them Great,
Harvard Business School Press
Put the Playbook into practice.
Explore what the Four Imperatives could mean for your leadership team.
Also by Rajeev Dewan
Be. Do. Live.
Ageless Wisdom Meets Modern Know-how
in a New Action Plan for Lasting Success
A practical guide to creating greater success and fulfilment in your personal and professional life.
Drawing together ideas on personal growth and achievement, Be. Do. Live. helps you clarify what matters, recognise what is holding you back and turn insight into action.
“Be. Do. Live. is like a Swiss army ‘life-knife’ – armed with profound wisdom & tools to change your life and career for the better. An excellent read!”
A Whole New Mind, Drive, To Sell is Human