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

Post by nickpinkston » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 12:44 AM 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.

Post by shortandsweet » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 12:59 AM UTC

saberience wrote: post #136

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... […

Simon Sinek has never actually led anything and is basically someone who is an expert at marketing himself. His advice doesn’t say anything new and is usually extremely banal. He’s the classic example of fake it till you make it in modern America. A guy who makes flashy viral videos, has zero actual experience of leading organizations or teams, yet someone has acquired some guru like reputation at a genius leader.

Post by asd4 » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 1:25 AM UTC

mmillin wrote: post #57

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…

It looks like there's a newer version (July 2019) available here: https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/adp6_22.pdf

Post by robertdx » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 1:47 AM UTC

TimTheTinker wrote: post #58

abhiyerra wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leaders Eat Last was one of the best books I read this year. Extreme Ownership was also quite good but Simon really explains the “Why” of leadership that most books are missing. High-Output Management is another classic.

I understand the “why” of leadership very well, but as a high-functioning autistic person, I struggle very much with the “how”, especially around communication. Like - for all possible values of X, if X is what I want someone to do, how do I communicate that so people (a) understand that I want X from them and (b) aren’t offended and understand that it is meant kindly/charitably (which it really is, I often just don’…

Post by ahpearce » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 1:55 AM UTC

madhadron wrote: post #101

bakenator wrote: post #30

When managing people in tech, I think it is equally as important to know how to organize as it is to know how to lead. I would recommend "The Phoenix Project" and "The Unicorn Project" and "The Goal" to all tech managers. No matter how good your communication/leadership skills are, your team will be severely handicapped if they are working in an inefficient/limiting environment. Coming at the same lessons from a diff…

> I would recommend "The Phoenix Project" and "The Unicorn Project" and "The Goal" to all tech managers. Goldratt's "The Goal" and its sequels are interesting reading, but please, please internalize the principles he was arguing from for the theory of constraints before trying to apply it to software. Otherwise you end up with "The Pheonix Project" (whose author is apparently making a nice living as a snake oil proce…