In Team Players, Mark Murphy offers a fresh and insightful take on what truly makes a successful team. Rather than relying on vague ideas of "team chemistry" or one-size-fits-all solutions, Murphy dives deep into the different types of people that make up high-performing teams. Through engaging real-world success stories, he highlights the value of team diversity.

Murphy categorizes team members into five distinct roles: Director, Achiever, Stabilizer, Harmonizer, and Trailblazer. Each of these roles brings unique strengths to the table, and Team Players makes a compelling case for why a balance of all five is essential.

This book inherently focuses on the importance of understanding and enhancing team dynamics. The author utilizes his extensive experience to identify 5 key roles of a high performing team Director, Achiever, Stabilizer, Harmonizer, and Trailblazer. Throughout the book, the author elaborates on each roles' strengths and perspectives, how to balance these roles on a team, and how to work as a team to drive success. This book is not only useful in defining and identifying your team members, but really takes the next step to try to guide the reader to improving their team and success through understanding and utilizing these roles. As a newer manager myself, this is helping me have a deeper understanding of my team and how I can best set them up for success. However, I don't think only supervisors would find this read useful - I think experiences leaders, project managers, and even those on a team could find this knowledge useful. Ultimately, this read is a valuable resource for leaders and team members alike, offering a structured approach to understanding team roles and enhancing collaboration.