Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

61–70 of 220 posts

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

#61

Try "The Manager's Path" by Camille Fournier. http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920056843.do

Also highly recommend this. Unlike some other books, it's highly tailored towards being a leader at a tech startup, and has great, specific advice. It's also broken down by chapter, so you can read the bits that are relevant for your role.

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

#62

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…

“Leadership is influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.”

I was taught a lot of bullshit in my Army days but the definition on the first page of that book is seared into my brain. It’s succinct and I still refer to it when evaluating myself and my efficacy as a leader. It’s a great little manual to start with, especially when most books on leadership are 90% marketing garbage.

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

#63
post #32

The best definition of what's a good leader is found in the book "the captain class" : https://www.amazon.com/Captain-Class-Hidden-Behind-Greatest/... What's interesting is that the author have a data oriented strategy to find a good definition of a leader: he processed a lot of data to find which teams had really exceptionnal success IN THE HISTORY OF ALL SPORTS. When he found the 8 teams with the most exceptionnal…

I am definitely going to read this!

You won't regret it ;)

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

#64

Try "The Manager's Path" by Camille Fournier. http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920056843.do

Having read many of the books recommended here, I found this one to be the most concretely useful of the bunch. No fluff, just solid advice from someone that went from engineer to CTO.

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

#65
post #57

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

Brilliant. Thank you.

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

#66
"On Becoming a Leader" by Warren Bennis

This book is not very big but is exceptionally dense and easy to read. I found a lot of useful information that I apply to my daily life - reflection, being authentic, allowing oneself to make mistakes and much more.

I reread it three times already and I always found new ideas.

(As a technical guy) I developed a great passion for philosophy and arts in general thanks to his book.

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

#67

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 must have missed something, seeing extreme ownership praised so much but I stopped reading it after a chapter or so. The whole macho thing didn’t jive and I’m struggling to find parallels to ordinary life. Lives aren’t at stake for 99.9999% of work out there. The whole military hierarchy and all the idealization doesn’t exist in normal contexts. Leaders aren’t trusted implicitly always or “lives are at stake”. So h…

Veteran here as well and Sinek annoys the hell out of me. If it’s the first and only book you’ve read on leadership then maybe some of the points are helpful, but I find it to be mostly self-absorbed superficial garbage that business majors flock to five minutes after graduating.

It’s the leadership equivalent of that Not Giving a Fuck book.

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

#69
post #40

Gerald Weinberg's "Becoming a Technical Leader" is an often overlooked classic.

Seconded - and most stuff written by Weinberg is worth reading

Agreed, one of my secret goals is reading each and every one of his books ;)

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

#70
post #21

Creativity, Inc. [1] It's not a textbook but a really fun read for the inside stories that pushed Pixar to its success. Maybe it's just me personally but I found it hard to follow some syllabus to learn management --- instead, I enjoy being inspired by other great managers through their concrete stories. [1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FUZQYBO/

This was an amazing read. Ed Catmull explains many nuanced aspects of leadership, management, creative organizations, and related. All of these lessons are wrapped into the personal history and narrative surrounding Pixar, which is fascinating in its own right.
Post reply on HN