One of the better books (although not necessarily the easiest to read) on leading teams was written a few years back by Professor Richard Hackman of Harvard University.
The book "Leading teams: Setting the stage for great performances" (Harvard Business School Press, 2002) emphasizes that it is not so much what a leader does once the team is in place that is important. Rather, it is how the team is constructed in the first place that counts the most.

Think about it for a minute.

There must be hundreds of books out there that talk about "how to lead" in terms of how to treat people, what to have as day-to-day priorities, how to create effective communication, trust, honesty, ethical conduct, etc. But barely any books out there on how to structurally set up a team to help it succeed.

Professor Hackman's points are fairly simple & straightforward, yet often neglected in real time.
In order to have a successful team, you need to design the team properly up front, not focus on leading it once it is established. Proper team design focuses on issues such as:

• Does the task actually require a team? Does the team have a goal that will compell and motivate people of itself, or is it simply drudge work?
• Does the team have the right people? Do the team members have the skills, knowledge, and authority to accomplish the task? Are the members on the team from the beginning, or is membership constantly changing - forcing the team to re-justify all of its decisions every week?
• Does the team have a supportive structure? Are people rewarded for team work? Do they have access to information, and are they encouraged to learn from and teach their team members? Do they have access to technical resources & coaching when needed?

If you design a team properly, it is much less dependent upon the leader than a poorly designed team. Consequently, the team leader is able to spend more time focused on other team issues such as suggesting performance strategies and working the relationship between the team and its external environment (gaining resources, minimizing political interference, etc.). The team members, in turn, benefit from this increased independence by having a greater sense of their own accomplishment, and being able to really push the use of their own abilities (individually and collectively).

Again, its not always the easiest read (as opposed to many of the personality-based, popular leadership books). However, if you can begin to act upon these principles, your teams will get off the ground much sooner, have far fewer authority conflicts, and ultimately will be more productive.

Check it out!