Soup: A Recipe to Nourish Your Team and Culture by Jon Gordon.  I just finished this short book by Jon Gordon.  Although it was an easy read, styled more like a story than a business book, this is one of the best books I have found for clearly laying out the necessary ingredients for effectively establishing culture and promoting team performance.

The story revolves around a company on the brink of closing.  The newly appointed CEO is facing an impossible task when she happens upon this restaurant serving the most amazing soup.  Once she meets the cook and begins to experiment with some of the "ingredients" for a different kind of soup, she finds the culture, and outlook for her company changing.  Along the way she is reminded of things she learned from her father about coaching and investing in people. The importance of culture is repeatedly emphasized, but in a way that makes it seem like something you would want to do anyway, you just need to be reminded.  I cannot recommend this book enough and will definitely be doing all I can to get every leader to read it..

The ingredients for "soup" are listed below but you will definitely want to get this book and study it to get the best benefit for you and your organization/church.

Stir the pot with love
Lead with optimism
Share the vision
Build Trust
Fill the void with positive communication
Add a big dose of Transparency and Authenticity
Create engaged relationships
Combine inspiration, encouragement, empowerment, and coaching
Fill up with appreciation
Heat with passion
Bring it all together with unity.

The author has written several other books with a similar style around other business topics such as: The Energy Bus, The No Complaining Rule, Training Camp, etc.