Ask HN: What makes a good technical leader – any recommended books?

297 点作者 latentdeepspace将近 5 年前

I just became a technical lead (spiced with a little product manager) for a team who is working with machine-learning/deep-learning technologies (I have ~6 years of background in this field). I feel like I am performing well, but there is a lot of room for improvement on: how to plan for the future, how to communicate success, how to assign engineers and researchers to tasks, how to define tasks, etc.Do you have any recommendation on what should I do, read to become better and better every day? I want my team to be successful, and to show the improvements we make to the company.

51 条评论

colebowl将近 5 年前

The best book on leadership I read was Jocko Willink's Extreme Ownership[1]. He was a career US Navy SEAL and bring a lot of great leadership approaches from the SEALS and correlates them to the business world. His principles lead back to the idea of taking extreme ownership of everything related to your team and the "mission". I really liked his no nonsense approach.The best lesson I learnt on leadership is to listen to and believe in your team. They are the experts, not you anymore. Your job now is to clear the path to their success. Different people need different things to succeed, it's your job to figure that out and try your best to provide it.What I recommend: Figure out what kind of leader you want to be. Read as much as you can and talk to other leaders inside and outside of your company to see what works and doesn't work for them.Finally, make sure your team has a crystal clear definition of what success is and the milestones to get there. Ensuring this understanding will help your team move in the same direction.Good luck![1] <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23848190-extreme-ownership" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23848190-extreme-ownersh...</a>

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gregdoesit将近 5 年前

Congrats on the transition! I have several books to recommend that I all read are on my bookshelf, some with reviews[1]. YMMV vary but these were the most helpful for me:1. The First 90 Days - a good reminder that when you transition, it's like starting a new job2. Become and Effective Software Engineering Manager - a hands-on book for people transitioning to management, starting at a new company or looking to make more of an org-wide impact.3. The Manager's Path - a short reference handbook for managers at all levels.4. The Goal - written in the '80s, yet a timeless novel on what management is about, may that be a manager of a team, an organization or an industrial plant.Also, I wrote a post about my learnings on transitioning from engineer to manager that has some good comments on HN[2][1] <a href="https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/my-reading-list/#engineering-management-books" rel="nofollow">https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/my-reading-list/#engineer...</a>[2] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15326652" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15326652</a>

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goopthink将近 5 年前

1. "An Elegant Puzzle - Systems of Engineering Management" by Will Larson. His blog & "Staff Eng" posts are helpful as well. <a href="https://lethain.com/tags/staff-eng/" rel="nofollow">https://lethain.com/tags/staff-eng/</a>2. "The Phoenix Project", "The Unicorn Project" (novels), and "DevOps Handbook" by Eugene Kim, on how different parts of a tech + non-tech organization come and work together.3. "High Output Management" by Andrew Grove on overall technical management.4. "Measure What Matters" by John Doerr on setting objectives and measuring their progress.5. "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande on thinking through replicable processes.6. "Who" by Geoff Smart on hiring.7. "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek and "The Culture Code" by Daniel Coyle on creating culture and reasons for why people do the work. It's an important part of any management process, double import because of how often it is lost in technical management.

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philk10将近 5 年前

Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach - Jerry Weinberg (and many other great books by him) - a book I've read and re-read many times. A brief review here - <a href="https://blog.mkorman.uk/book-review-becoming-a-technical-leader/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.mkorman.uk/book-review-becoming-a-technical-lea...</a>

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ta1234567890将近 5 年前

This book is not about technical management in particular, but it can help you a lot in understanding and dealing with people better, it's called The Charisma Myth: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Charisma-Myth-Science-Personal-Magnetism/dp/1591845947/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=charisma+myth&qid=1594135403&sprefix=charisma+my&sr=8-3" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Charisma-Myth-Science-Personal-Magnet...</a>The book is an interesting read, but merely reading it won't do anything. There are one or two exercises per chapter, and you should work on them if you really want to see the benefits.Also, if you want to do a little test before reading the whole book follow these tips from the intro:> Three quick tips to boost charisma in conversation: Lower the intonation of your voice at the end of sentences, reduce how quickly and how often you nod, and pause for two full seconds before you speak.From this summary: <a href="https://github.com/mgp/book-notes/blob/master/the-charisma-myth.markdown" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/mgp/book-notes/blob/master/the-charisma-m...</a>

kingkongjaffa将近 5 年前

Read/listen to <a href="https://www.manager-tools.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.manager-tools.com/</a> they posit that all good managers do these four things in abundance:1. 1 on 1's (which are for the benefit of the direct report not the boss) weekly for 30 minutes - 15 minutes for you, 15 minutes for the direct report.2. Giving feedback both good and bad in a constructive way3. Providing coaching and context to the reports work4. Tactical delegation of tasks both that you know they can do so they feel good about their work, and also some difficult tasks to stretch them (with coaching)This plus understanding the different types of role power within an oganization, and knowing which type of power to use when and with who.(hint it's often never the right answer to user your role power to say ''do this because I am the boss'' use role power sparingly)

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kamyarg将近 5 年前

I would say ask for feedback from the team you are leading in an honest way and evaluate what you get back and try your best to change if it makes sense.Usually your actions affect them the most and if you do something that "annoys" them(e.g. Too authoritarian, micromanaging, Not giving the credit when due, Not defending them against external forces etc.), most would not approach you from below to mention it(exceptions exist), after all you are the lead/manager imagine how you would(or would not) give feedback to a Senior Director if they did not ask for it. Giving unsolicited feedback is also weird and some people don't receive feedback well, so them making the first move is all but risk unless they know you want it.Not every feedback makes sense and not every person can give feedback properly(being too shy or too harsh etc.). You would also need to learn how they communicate their concerns and calibrate what they say. For example "I don't like X because Y" of a very introvert person carries more weight than same sentence of someone that can easily discuss things they don't like openly.Edit: As you have asked specifically for books, I can recommend "Making of a Manager" by Julie Zhuo. It is a very good and structured read.

mathattack将近 5 年前

- The Mythical Man Month by Brooks talks about ways to avoid the traps of blindly throwing more people at problems.- Out of the Crisis by Deming is useful for thinking about achieving quality by improving the systems rather than focusing on the individuals.- Peopleware by Demarco for arguing the opposite.- Everything ever written by Tom Peters for staying focused on customers and engaged in the game.

wenc将近 5 年前

The type of knowledge relevant to becoming a good technical lead seems to me to be "tacit knowledge".Books can provide vocabulary and ideas, as well as ways of thinking about the subject. I know that Andy Grove's "High Output Management" gave me way of thinking about the corporate world that helped shape my interactions in the workplace and with senior management. There's no doubt that through great books one gets to pick the brains of geniuses whom one might never get to meet in real life, so there's inherent value in that.That said, to truly get better though, I believe one needs to be apprenticed or coached by someone who knows what "being good" looks like. That is, to find someone who has real expertise (not just commenters on HN who've never managed anyone), shadowing them and synthesizing their expertise to fit one's own style.Most people who are "good" can't explain why they're good (some can, most can't) -- so one almost has to study them up close. There's an old saying that "leadership is caught, not taught"... sounds like a tired old cliché, but seems to be somewhat true in my observation.

vikeri将近 5 年前

An Elegant Puzzle by Will Larson was very interesting. It's a bit of a handbook and you don't necessarily have to read it cover to cover but instead you can dive into whichever section that is relevant for you at the moment: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732265186" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732265186</a>

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jqcoffey将近 5 年前

Crazy that no one mentioned the Mythical Man Month by Fred J. Brooks (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13629.The_Mythical_Man_Month" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13629.The_Mythical_Man_M...</a>). I thought it was the definitive classic.I also like to recommend Coders at Work by Peter Seibel (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6713575-coders-at-work" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6713575-coders-at-work</a>). It's incredibly useful to read about just how different 16 ultra high performing software engineers are/were. Nothing prepares you for technical leadership better than understanding that.EDIT: just saw that Mythical Man Month was added 1 minute prior to my comment.

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nurettin将近 5 年前

> Do you have any recommendation on what should I do, read to become better and better every day?It helps to write a hello world for every hot new tech out there. Not to follow trends, but to actually be knowledgeable enough to have a valid opinion. Think of yourself as a radio station who has to buy or at least sample every popular track. Crystal is hot? Set up a web server and connect to sql. Set up a Vert.X server and write a consumer. Set up a simple neural net with torch, train it a little, load it in java. These all take an hour max each day. An hour well spent compared to scouring books for managers in order to deduce some insight on how to manage people. Developers will appreciate and respect you when you know their job at this precision level and it will make your job a lot easier.

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anticonformist将近 5 年前

Remember that it is not "your" team but that you are just a member of the team, in good standing, with the relevant experience, that is volunteering to take on some additional responsibility.Focus on the job at hand. Don't get into unnecessary political disputes. You're a tech lead, so keep it technical and focused on solving business problems.Be kind and understanding of people's personal issues. It's a marathon, not a sprint, so it's fine if people's productivity goes up and down over time. As long as they contribute well over time, there should be no problem.Make sure people take time off. Burn out sneaks up on people. Taking weeks off regularly is essential.Do plenty of grunt work yourself, don't pawn it all off.Write the most documentation and help your teammates write theirs.Share the credit. Credit the team and individual team members frequently. Point out when people do well.Downplay failures. Unless a mistake is malicious, you should blame the technology and the processes in place rather than the people involved. Humans make mistakes and it's through technology and process that we avoid them causing damage. Fixing the weakness in your technology or process is what really matters.Most of all: lead by example. You should be an exemplar team member. Not perfect; no one is. Not an expert in every dimension; no one is. You should simply perform your duties in a way that your teammates could emulate with success.There are a hundred other things, of course. That's just a few ideas.

pjmorris将近 5 年前

My two favorites for this are 'Becoming a Technical Leader', Gerald Weinberg, and 'Making Things Happen', Scott Berkun.

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kitsune_将近 5 年前

Podcasts:Coaching for Leaders (Gold mine with hundreds of great episodes, as an example <a href="https://coachingforleaders.com/podcast/maximize-team-performance/" rel="nofollow">https://coachingforleaders.com/podcast/maximize-team-perform...</a>)Manager Tools (They even have a section for new managers: <a href="https://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/important-topic-feeds/new-managers-feed" rel="nofollow">https://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/important-topic-feeds...</a>)Books:The Effective ManagerThe Speed of TrustFive Dysfunctions of a TeamTurn The Ship AroundIf you want to look further than traditional command and control structures, I recommend looking into Deming, Sociocracy, teal organizations or the aforementioned book "Turn The Ship Around".Also, look into norming, storming, forming performing and team operating guidelines.

wins32767将近 5 年前

I've found that Switch[1] is really helpful for technical leaders. A large part of the job of a leader is successfully implementing change and too many leaders with a technical background lean too much on logic and reasoning to try to make changes happen. Switch offers a playbook for successfully implementing change and when I've followed it closely I've been much more successful than when I wing it.[1]<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/ref=sr_1_1?crid=14KDF62P1N9YT&dchild=1&keywords=switch+how+to+change+things+when+change+is+hard&qid=1594133848&sprefix=switch+how%2Caps%2C157&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/038...</a>

flamtap将近 5 年前

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is a perennial classic, though not tech focused. But that's probably okay in combination with more tech-industry focused literature.

jeffbee将近 5 年前

What "tech lead" means varies hugely from organization to organization and from team to team and person to person. For general success of teams, this is my favorite book: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Debugging-Teams-Productivity-through-Collaboration/dp/1491932058" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Debugging-Teams-Productivity-through-...</a>

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jakevoytko将近 5 年前

I wrote a blog post about this forever ago[0] summarizing what I've seen work.The most important thing to realize is how success will be measured. It will no longer be your individual contributions. Instead, you will be measured by how successful your team is. So you need to use your time to make your team more effective.So the most important thing you can do is prevent anyone from becoming blocked. The next-most important thing is unblocking people when they become blocked.How do you prevent people from becoming blocked? Make sure that everyone knows where they are going, and they know what to do when they get there. Make sure everyone knows what they are working on, and what they will be working on next. Promote good practices, and ensure that processes have consistent documentation.How do you unblock people? Review their code quickly. Learn to differentiate "I don't want you to submit this because I don't prefer this" (bad attitude) from "I don't want you to submit this because it's going to have a negative consequence"). Learn how to phrase that second sentence in a way that doesn't make your coworkers dread getting reviews from you. Spend your time fixing tech debt that's adding drag to the team.As you do this more, you should also make sure that people on your team are growing. Give them harder tasks than they had before. Ensure that junior engineers are getting mentored. Correct imbalances: if a specific engineer is always taking notes in meetings, create a notes rotation so that everyone has to do it.[0] <a href="https://www.bitlog.com/2017/10/12/what-does-a-tech-lead-do/" rel="nofollow">https://www.bitlog.com/2017/10/12/what-does-a-tech-lead-do/</a>

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thomk将近 5 年前

A few things that have helped me.1. Have a one-on-one meeting with every member of your team, for 30 minutes each week. They know when that meeting is coming up, and you know, so things that they want to tell you in private can come up then.2. A good leader anticipates what his team is going to need before the team knows they need it. Try to do that. If there's a big release coming up next month, do what you can to make that 100% successful. Make sure there are no vacations, company meetings or other things that would impede that. Give your team room to breathe and make sure they are not bogged down with distractions.If you can make their lives easier, they will make your life easier by kicking ass for you.3. Oh, one more thing. If you are in a meeting and you are having a group discussion on how to solve a problem, make sure you call in people who are quiet. After the conversation has quieted down a bit and you are dialing in on an answer, if Jim hasn't said much simply say "Jim what do you think?"

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tensor将近 5 年前

Contrary to most people, in my experience managing technical people is the same as managing anyone else. The best general management book I've read is: Becoming the Evidence Based Manager. The information in this book is backed by science studies and is also extremely actionable and easy to understand. It's really changed my life as a manager.<a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Gary-Latham/dp/1473676975/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-p13n1_0?cv_ct_cx=becoming+the+evidence+based+manager&dchild=1&keywords=becoming+the+evidence+based+manager&pd_rd_i=1473676975&pd_rd_r=c14cc298-7cb1-46f0-a8ef-64852464351b&pd_rd_w=lHbtO&pd_rd_wg=uFv97&pf_rd_p=5dc9bb73-73b1-4abd-a228-ac5c707beb7e&pf_rd_r=23NSX8AAT6989PEV6ZY5&psc=1&qid=1594140442&sr=1-1-70f7c15d-07d8-466a-b325-4be35d7258cc" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.ca/Gary-Latham/dp/1473676975/ref=sxts_sxw...</a>

nhumrich将近 5 年前

Two absolute must reads:PeoplewareAccelerate: The Science of Lean SoftwareBoth are scientifical approaches to what makes effective teams.

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gen220将近 5 年前

The classics are all covered in other comments. For some hyper-relevant content (the sand to fill the in-between spaces filled up by big philosophies and principles), I've found Will Larson's blog (<a href="https://lethain.com/" rel="nofollow">https://lethain.com/</a>) and book (<a href="https://press.stripe.com/#an-elegant-puzzle" rel="nofollow">https://press.stripe.com/#an-elegant-puzzle</a>) to be really useful.It provides tools for solving specific problems, and a language to discuss what's going wrong and what the solution looks like. <a href="https://lethain.com/durably-excellent-teams/" rel="nofollow">https://lethain.com/durably-excellent-teams/</a> The concepts he covers in this post, in particular, have been invaluable.

jaspal747将近 5 年前

Put yourself in the CEO's shoes and see the entire company end to end. Then see how your team is contributing to the bigger story. Work on bringing business context to tasks. Help your team members see the business/strategy line of thought behind decisions. Once team members have context to the work they do, they are better motivated and bring in valuable insights. Always appreciate and bring spotlight on them for successes. Always take on the blame and never forward criticism directly to your team members. You are the buffer. Read books on strategy/business to gain greater perspective. Train yourself and your team in second and third order thinking. Helping them come up with all kinds of scenarios around their tasks. Finally, be humble, caring, and be nice to everyone. Cheers!

aprdm将近 5 年前

I have been a team lead for four years now in different companies / teams.I think empathy and radical candor are the most important skills ! There’s a book called radical candor that I really recommend.Other than those I recommend reading how very effective leaders did their job, Eleven Rings by the NBA coach Phil is absolutely amazing on how to build a winning team as is Leading from Ferguson (soccer). Turn the ship around is another great book by someone’s experience in the navy.Creating a safe space where people know the goals clearly, communicate effectively and helping to unblock them are part of the goal !

exabrial将近 5 年前

Here's two really good articles, not books, on the subject:* <a href="https://www.hashtagcoder.dev/blog/director-of-engineering" rel="nofollow">https://www.hashtagcoder.dev/blog/director-of-engineering</a>* <a href="https://humanwhocodes.com/blog/2012/06/12/the-care-and-feeding-of-software-engineers-or-why-engineers-are-grumpy/" rel="nofollow">https://humanwhocodes.com/blog/2012/06/12/the-care-and-feedi...</a>

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comvidyarthi将近 5 年前

Read The Manager’s Path by Camille Fournier. It’s not just about managers, it’s also about tech leads.

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agotterer将近 5 年前

Here's the list of books I've been recommending new managers and leaders read:Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Small-Unit-Leadership-Commonsense-Approach/dp/0891411739/ref=sr_1_1" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Small-Unit-Leadership-Commonsense-App...</a>The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0787960756/?coliid=I12MQNI6MIK6JR&colid=133LYQFI0Z2OA&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/0787960756/?coliid=I12MQNI6MIK6JR&...</a>High Output Management <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0679762884/?coliid=I2G1Y1JLPP55SY&colid=133LYQFI0Z2OA&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/0679762884/?coliid=I2G1Y1JLPP55SY&...</a>Measure What Matters <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525536221/?coliid=I1G6EQRC0QYPE1&colid=133LYQFI0Z2OA&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525536221/?coliid=I1G6EQRC0QYPE1&...</a>Death by Meeting <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0787968056/?coliid=I38A8AYMZGSLYZ&colid=133LYQFI0Z2OA&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/0787968056/?coliid=I38A8AYMZGSLYZ&...</a>Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1455554790/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1455554790/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...</a>The Hard Thing About Hard Things <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/B00I0A6HUO/ref=sr_1_2" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/B...</a>Start with Why (you can prob skip the book and just watch <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en" rel="nofollow">https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_insp...</a>) <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591846447/?coliid=I2Q0IN84LJ230W&colid=133LYQFI0Z2OA&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591846447/?coliid=I2Q0IN84LJ230W&...</a>

Blahah将近 5 年前

Anything from the Harvard Negotiation Project [1]. Their books set the standard for universal, transferable, actionable, and evidence-based advise about how to optimise social situations for the benefit of everyone involved. They have online classes for various different skillsets and situations. Almost every mentor I have has recommended either the project as a whole, or a specific resource of theirs, to me.Just in general I want to commend you for taking the time and energy to learn about this. It's a tragedy of the modern world that highly skilled people tend to be promoted into management roles and then stagnate, so that many tech organisations end up with people who are great at their specialism and terrible at managing people in managerial roles. Taking the initiative to really try to understand and excel at management is going to benefit not just you, but everyone who works with you. Bravo.1: <a href="https://www.pon.harvard.edu/category/research_projects/harvard-negotiation-project/" rel="nofollow">https://www.pon.harvard.edu/category/research_projects/harva...</a>

k__将近 5 年前

I'd say, don't lead/manage but assist.Don't decide on your own if possible.Decision coming from top? Communicate that. Otherwise, ask your team what it think is the best course of action.Only decide on your when something would be blocked.I always read about two sides."Managers are needed, because there are tough decisions to make and people need to be led!""Managers aren't needed, people can govern them on their own!"I think the truth is in the middle.

ulisesrmzroche将近 5 年前

Few things I’ve learned recently is that mistakes happen, as long as an honest effort was made, it shouldn’t be a big dealAll arguments are communication problems.If you’re coding all day you’re doing it wrong. Delegation is the most important. Communication is critical. Tech leads who crash and burn are usually the strongest developers.Happy team is a productive team. Always expect the best from people.

deeblering4将近 5 年前

I recommend learning about, and practicing, servant leadership to the furthest extent possible in the role.I don't have a specific book for you, so will link the wikipedia article as a jumping off point:<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_leadership" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_leadership</a>

tmaly将近 5 年前

I would recommend the One Minute Manager. It is written in story format, and its a very simple set of three concepts.I have tried other books, but they usually have too much to remember.One other book I found useful was The Coaching Habit. It gives you a different perspective on how to deal with the emotional aspect of leadership.

bluGill将近 5 年前

First figure out what they want, and then figure out what is best for the project/company, finally figure out what how to turn it into the future you want.What they want is important. This could be a way to recognize that you are great without giving you architecture power, they want you to continue to do what you are doing no more (this is unlikely but be aware of it). They may want you to write a little less code and turn some of the "lesser" developers into a 10x developer. They may want to give you permission and power to re-architect the system so it will work for the future. They may want you to spend all your time estimating effort so they can decide which interesting project is worth doing. This may be the title they give to the boss of small teams and you no longer do technical work.What is best for the company/project is sometimes different. Sometimes that means what you need to do to make a success is different from what they think. If so this is tricky ground that will either get you fired for not doing you job, or a great promotion for saving the company. More likely you have options in your position and so you need to figure out which option is worth spending your time on and which are less useful for your company now. There are interesting tools that won't solve your biggest problems even though they would make some other lesser problems better, choose wisely what to spend your time on.Last where do you want to be in the future. Within the above you have choices. If you are interested in something not the most important thing to work on you need to decide how much to focus on each. (different situations have different answers, sometimes you have to focus on the important things, others you can only give it a little attention and that is good enough) sometimes you will refuse the promotion. Sometimes you will decide what is best for the company is best for you. Sometimes you take the promotion but need to focus on your personal life to ensure the job doesn't kill it, other times they are compatible. Sometimes you realize you are in the wrong job.

webmaven将近 5 年前

So many good book recommendations here, but no one has mentioned Tom DeMarco's The Deadline: <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=5_kJAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.com/books?id=5_kJAQAAMAAJ&printsec=fron...</a>In style and content, it's a bit like an older version of "The Phoenix Project" that was focused on delivering packaged software, and mostly oriented around a "stocks and flows" model of the development process.The framing narrative is much more amusing, though.Also worth reading Edward Yourdon's Death March:<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=FdAZUX9H_gAC&printsec=frontcover" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.com/books?id=FdAZUX9H_gAC&printsec=fron...</a>

sharkbot将近 5 年前

I've just started reading "Agile Conversations" [1], and I found it's a nice complement to the other books mentioned in the thread. It's a little idealistic at times, but I like the focus on shared understanding and aligning perspectives. I used a couple of the approaches from the book quite recently and found that it kept the discussion focused on improvements rather than blaming.[1] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Agile-Conversations-Transform-Your-Culture-ebook/dp/B07YZP8LC9" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Agile-Conversations-Transform-Your-Cu...</a>

janwillemb将近 5 年前

How to win friends and influence people, by Dale Carnegie. Despite the somewhat creepy title, it's a really good book on how to get good relationships with other people. It's not necessarily for tech folks.

iwd将近 5 年前

I've written a lot about this as a resource for my colleagues at work, perhaps you would find it useful as well. There's a list of recommended books embedded in there, but a lot of other info as well: <a href="https://ianwdavis.com/advice-new-lead.html" rel="nofollow">https://ianwdavis.com/advice-new-lead.html</a>

rvivek将近 5 年前

The biggest change is to change your mindset to "it's your job to enable the team to do the work vs you doing it." So, whenever you are thinking about doing X, think about how to enable your team to do X. This is not trying to be lethargic but working to make yourself redundant, which is the highest success for a leader, IMO.

chapati2301将近 5 年前

I have a little hobby project which aims to answer that exact question: <a href="https://leadership-library.dev" rel="nofollow">https://leadership-library.dev</a>It’s essentially a collection of books / podcasts / newsletters on modern technical leadership :)

kevsim将近 5 年前

I really liked “Managing Humans”. Super useful and told in a story format that makes it ultra accessible

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mrtimo将近 5 年前

"Adventures of an IT Leader" from Harvard Business School Press - is good. It is perhaps more general than what you are looking for. It is written from the CIO perspective. You can often find the audiobook in your local library.

mtzaldo将近 5 年前

My recommendation:1. Learn Scrum/kanban (not a book)2. Developer Hegemony: The Future of Labor3. The First-Time Manager by Loren B. Belker4. Conscious Business: How to Build Value through Values5. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

b20000将近 5 年前

a good technical leader goes to bat for the scientists and engineers in his team, at the VP and C-level, to make sure they are on top and paid at least equally well if not better, compared to anyone else, including marketing and sales drones.

kablamo将近 5 年前

Leadership:- Turn The Ship Around (Marquet) - make everyone a leader - The Effective Engineer (Lau) - leadership for engineers - Leadership, Strategy, and Tactics (Jocko) - leadership in military/business - Good To Great (Collins) - good companies vs great onesHow to get better at everything:- Mindset (Dwek) - growth vs fixed mindset - Atomic Habits (Clear) - automate good decisions w/habits - Change Your Habits, Change your life (Corley) - data driven selection of which habits matter - Ultralearning (Young) - how to learn anything faster - Anything You Want (Sivers)How to talk to humans- Difficult Conversations (Stone) - how to talk to humans - Never Split the Difference (Voss) - every conversation is a negotiation - Death By Meeting (Lencioni) - short fable - anything else by Patrick LencioniPrioritization and focus:- The One Thing (Keller) - prioritization - Deep Work (Calport) - focus - Indistractable (Li) - focusSee also anything by: Jason Friedman, Jim Collins, Patrick Lencioni, Peter Drucker and biographies in general

edorsey将近 5 年前

Didn’t see this mentioned anywhere:Notes to a Software Team Leader by Roy Osherove

markstos将近 5 年前

"Messages" by Matthew McKay."Mindset" by Carol Dweck.

ajb413将近 5 年前

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

tonioab将近 5 年前

"Becoming better" points to the question of what is a good tech leader and how you can evaluate yourself as you make progress on this path. In my experience and according to Google's research in this area (<a href="https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/managers-identify-what-makes-a-great-manager/steps/learn-about-googles-manager-research/" rel="nofollow">https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/managers-identify-what-...</a>), there are specific traits to cultivate:1. Is a good coach / Supports career discussions and discusses performance"Leader As Coach: Strategies for Coaching & Developing Others" by Mary Dee Hicks and David Peterson. An in-depth, very practical manual on how to coach your reports according to their specific needs and personalities."Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High" by Kerry Patterson et al. Helps you prepare and approach difficult conversations with empathy. Especially useful for performance conversations.2. Creates an inclusive team environment, showing concern for success and well-being"The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable" by Patrick Lencioni. If there is one book to read about team dynamics, this is the one."First, Break All the Rules" by Marcus Buckingham. Slightly more general than the 5 dysfunctions, but with a lot of good content about psychological safety and what makes team work.3. Has a clear vision & strategy / is a good communicator"High output management" by Andy Grove. Probably the most famous book on this list. It gives you a good introduction to setting goals, communicating about your team's work inwards and outwards. It also features more "system thinking" than the other books - how everything fits together as organizations scale, which is useful for developing vision and strategy.I'd also recommend reading biographies and memoirs of famous leaders (e.g. Churchill, Marcus Aurelius). Strategic thinking can be easier to learn through examples and pattern recognition than through abstract / self-help books.4. Is productive and results-oriented / has key technical skills to advise the teamA lot of new managers over-index on the people management side of the job and forget about the key responsibility of a technical leader: choosing a direction, leading others in this direction and delivering results."Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations" by Nicole Forsgren et al. One of the most recent, well-researched books into how to measure the productivity and quality of software teams."The Art of Scalability: Scalable Web Architecture, Processes, and Organizations for the Modern Enterprise" by Martin Abbott et al. This book uniquely blends the technical, organizational and people management aspects of technical leadership.

just-juan-post将近 5 年前

> Do you have any recommendation on what should I doResearch. Why? Because this question has been asked dozens if not hundreds of times.

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lawwantsin17将近 5 年前

Managers are useless guards for the bosses. Quit immediately and let those engineers manager themselves.

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