Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?

#151

Post by muro » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 8:19 PM UTC

charliepark wrote: post #51

The US Army has an exceptionally well-crafted field manual on leadership. No fluff, but also no chest-thumping. It's honestly the best resource I've ever seen on what constitutes a good leader, how good leaders are developed, and how good leaders develop their teams. Being a DOD publication, it's in the public domain: https://usacac.army.mil/sites/default/files/misc/doctrine/CD... I can't stress enough how excellent…

"Small Unit Leadership" is also excellent and also from the US Army.

Good ones are also: "Duty" (Robert Gates) "Call Sign Chaos" (Mattis) "Extreme Ownership"

The one about Mattis has a very long list of book recommendations at the end.

Re: Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?

#152

Post by dhimes » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 8:24 PM UTC

growlist wrote: post #95

rusk wrote: post #82

I think "Team Geek" [0] is probably worth a mention in this light. It's written in that infuriating cutesy techy-language that seems to infuse a lot of the "hipper" books of this genre but there really is some good advice in there. FYI these are the guys that did Subversion, which was a pretty successful project for a while, back in the day. This same writing style pervades the SVN docs as well. Yeuch. In the same ve…

> infuriating cutesy techy-language Happy to see I'm not the only curmudgeon around here. I'd say this trend is at its most loathsome when employed by big corporates - it's as if everyone is so terrified of being mischaracterised as old or uncool (daddio) that noone is willing to point out how facile, affected and obnoxious this type of language is.

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Re: Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?

#153

Post by speric » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 8:31 PM UTC

charliepark wrote: post #51

The US Army has an exceptionally well-crafted field manual on leadership. No fluff, but also no chest-thumping. It's honestly the best resource I've ever seen on what constitutes a good leader, how good leaders are developed, and how good leaders develop their teams. Being a DOD publication, it's in the public domain: https://usacac.army.mil/sites/default/files/misc/doctrine/CD... I can't stress enough how excellent…

The Armed Forces Officer: Edition of 1950 is also excellent in this regard. Covers leadership and also personal career development. Many lessons for tech teams if you pay thoughtful attention. https://www.amazon.com/Armed-Forces-Officer-1950/dp/09883696...

Re: Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?

#154

Post by carapace » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 8:54 PM UTC

stronglikedan wrote: post #127

carapace wrote: post #91

The best book on leadership IMO is the Tao Te Ching, Ch. 17. It's very short, about ten lines, but it contains all that you need to know. The final verse, especially, destroys or subsumes pretty much all concepts of leadership. YMMV: http://taoteching.org.uk/chapter17.html http://www.egreenway.com/taoism/ttclz17.htm https://www.taoistic.com/taoteching-laotzu/taoteching-17.htm https://taoteching.daodejing.org/17.htm h…

But that's only the "what", and not the "how", no?

There are plenty of books mentioned here that have great tactics and strategy already. The Tao is more like the "Alpha and Omega" of wisdom.

Consider a kind of hierarchy:

    Identity
    Values
    Beliefs
    Capabilities
    Behaviours

Most of the other books mentioned here are generally talking about the lower three levels with some attention to Values, whereas the Tao Te Ching spends most of its verses on the upper two levels.

Re: Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?

#155

Post by ghaff » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 8:55 PM UTC

darkerside wrote: post #126

Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporate business leaders here in America tend to be obsessed with trying to apply military-style terminology and doctrines to their business. In their minds, business is war, and "lives are at stake" gets translated to either "jobs are at stake" or "revenue is at stake," depending on the person. There are so many war-isms in business it's impossible to list them all. "In the trenches," "boots on the ground," framin…

> The military demands that soldiers immediately and unquestioningly follow commands given by their superiors (particularly during combat). This doesn't jive with my understanding of US military (or human nature). Out of combat, a top-down command and control hierarchy leads to poor decision making by troops on the ground. A general can't and shouldn't make decisions on day-to-day operations at the platoon-level. In…

See for example Team of Teams by General Chrystal--which is also a good book about organization/business generally.

Re: Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?

#156

Post by meristem » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:11 PM UTC

muro wrote: post #151

charliepark wrote: post #51

The US Army has an exceptionally well-crafted field manual on leadership. No fluff, but also no chest-thumping. It's honestly the best resource I've ever seen on what constitutes a good leader, how good leaders are developed, and how good leaders develop their teams. Being a DOD publication, it's in the public domain: https://usacac.army.mil/sites/default/files/misc/doctrine/CD... I can't stress enough how excellent…

"Small Unit Leadership" is also excellent and also from the US Army. Good ones are also: "Duty" (Robert Gates) "Call Sign Chaos" (Mattis) "Extreme Ownership" The one about Mattis has a very long list of book recommendations at the end.

Extreme Leadership is interesting if contrived. It clearly hones in on 2 qualities of leadership often overlooked: 1. Clear communication of desires and expectations, 2. Ownership of results, not of success. The stories will feel contrived to anyone who has read similar books as they seem constructed to prove a point instead of lived in.

Re: Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?

#157

Post by reggieband » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:18 PM UTC

bmmayer1 wrote: post #149

charliepark wrote: post #51

The US Army has an exceptionally well-crafted field manual on leadership. No fluff, but also no chest-thumping. It's honestly the best resource I've ever seen on what constitutes a good leader, how good leaders are developed, and how good leaders develop their teams. Being a DOD publication, it's in the public domain: https://usacac.army.mil/sites/default/files/misc/doctrine/CD... I can't stress enough how excellent…

This paragraph speaks to perhaps the most common mistake I see business leaders make, especially at startups: "Because subordinates learn best by doing, leaders should be willing to take prudent risks and accept the possibility that less-experienced subordinates will make mistakes. Risk assessment and risk management help determine existing risks and mitigation strategies. If subordinate leaders are to grow and devel…

As a team lead I was completely surprised by the consequences of this. Most of the time when you indulge a junior engineer trying to stretch their wings they end up failing as you might expect. As long as they aren't going to throw a sprint completely out of whack, cause massive deadline slips or damage critical code modules I usually let them have at it, often with some boundary on the time I'm willing to allow them to make the attempt. My experience is that preventing someone from "scratching an itch" leads to them losing motivation very quickly. But the surprises are the successes. I've seen junior engineers pull off some extraordinary efforts resulting in objective improvements that positively affect the entire team. Those moments are among the most rewarding and memorable of leadership. I thought they were going to learn a lesson but they end up teaching me one about trust.

Re: Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?

#158

Post by robbiep » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:39 PM UTC

Bumerang wrote: post #18

Everything by Simon Sinek, but most important for me is "Leaders Eat Last" [0]. I haven't read the last one (The Infinite Game), but I've heard it's pretty good as well. Also Extreme Ownership [1] and Dichotomy of Leadership [2] by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. All of these books had tremendous impact on me as a leader and I highly recommend them. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Leaders-Eat-Last-Together-Others/dp/B... […

I can’t handle the level of repetition. You read one chapter and you’ve read the entire book. It could literally just be a bumper sticker - ‘real leaders eat last’ - ok got your thesis

Re: Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?

#159

Post by chasedehan » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:43 PM UTC

“Score takes care of itself” By Bill Walsh

While not necessarily a “tech” book, the parallels to leading high performing teams are incredible. For me, this was the book that changed the way I think about leading my team.

Re: Ask HN: Best book / resources on leadership, especially for tech teams?

#160

Post by dcolkitt » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:48 PM UTC

This is a little bit out-of-left field. But I'd recommend the classic Foreign Policy essay "Why Arabs Lose Wars". On the surface it's obviously about military doctrine, and how it's affected the various conflicts in recent Middle Eastern history.

But fundamentally its about management culture, and what factors distinguished well-run organizations from dysfunctional ones.

[0] https://www.meforum.org/441/why-arabs-lose-wars