Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 116 posts

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

#31

Post by agotterer »

Here's the list of books I've been recommending new managers and leaders read:

Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach https://www.amazon.com/Small-Unit-Leadership-Commonsense-App...

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable https://www.amazon.com/dp/0787960756/?coliid=I12MQNI6MIK6JR&...

High Output Management https://www.amazon.com/dp/0679762884/?coliid=I2G1Y1JLPP55SY&...

Measure What Matters https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525536221/?coliid=I1G6EQRC0QYPE1&...

Death by Meeting https://www.amazon.com/dp/0787968056/?coliid=I38A8AYMZGSLYZ&...

Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1455554790/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

The Hard Thing About Hard Things https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/B...

Start with Why (you can prob skip the book and just watch https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_insp...) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591846447/?coliid=I2Q0IN84LJ230W&...

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

#32

Post by aprdm »

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 !

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

#33

Post by mathattack »

- 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.

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

#34

Post by jqcoffey »

Crazy that no one mentioned the Mythical Man Month by Fred J. Brooks (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13629.The_Mythical_Man_M...). I thought it was the definitive classic.

I also like to recommend Coders at Work by Peter Seibel (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6713575-coders-at-work). 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.

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

#35

Post by anticonformist »

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.

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

#36

Post by Jtsummers »

goopthink wrote: post #22

1. "An Elegant Puzzle - Systems of Engineering Management" by Will Larson. His blog & "Staff Eng" posts are helpful as well. https://lethain.com/tags/staff-eng/ 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. "Me…

I'd recommend reading The Goal and, optionally, Critical Chain before The Phoenix Project. It sets up a lot of the context of the ideas around theory of constraints that The Phoenix Project builds on, but doesn't delve into. I read them in the order of The Goal, The Phoenix Project, It's Not Luck, Critical Chain. I found that the last book gave some useful insights into things that The Phoenix Project presented. On the other hand, after recommending these books to colleagues most only read The Phoenix Project and they seemed to not grasp (as it wasn't the core of the book) theory of constraints as well until they later read The Goal (or heard about it enough from me).

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

#38

Post by Jtsummers »

pjmorris wrote: post #7

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

Weinberg's writings are great. You can find most (all?) of his books here: https://leanpub.com/u/jerryweinberg. I haven't read Becoming a Technical Leader yet, but I have read The Psychology of Computer Programming (among other books of his) and I'd recommend it as well for someone wanting to lead a team.

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

#39

Post by k__ »

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.

Post reply on HN