Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
21–30 of 159 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#22Just a meta-comment - if you're new to all this, it's good to know that management != leadership. If you're starting out, you'll want to learn both, and you'll need both. More practically, here's a fun blog where you can ask specific questions: https://www.askamanager.org/
Not everyone can be effective at both. I learned that I can be a great leader, but I do not have the patience required to manage people. I have had managers that were terrible leaders. Definitely different skills, and you need both to climb the ladder into the C-suite.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#23I'm a big fan of Turn the Ship Around! By L. David Marquet as fun read that shows what some good leadership can do by pushing responsibility to the lowest appropriate level in an organisation.
https://davidmarquet.com/turn-the-ship-around-book/
The anecdotes are good fun. I've not used it specifically as a model but I like the general principles it represents.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#24I had a lot of trouble with this in my early 20s. Everything I read was bullshit. There are two important distinctions: how you manage mediocre workers you didn't hire, and how you manage good workers. The former will require 98% of the effort of the latter, and will give you a fraction of the same results. If you are running a tech company, the former will probably prevent you from ever running things well or smooth…
>The best way to manage those people is to fire them as fast as possible.
Depending on the country you're in, this can be really difficult legally.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#25Just a meta-comment - if you're new to all this, it's good to know that management != leadership. If you're starting out, you'll want to learn both, and you'll need both. More practically, here's a fun blog where you can ask specific questions: https://www.askamanager.org/
^ THIS. Where I’ve worked, there has been a severe degradation over time of actual leaders, and an increase in managers who have no clue how to lead or inspire. One thing I have oriented myself to doing is being a servant leader. As I told one team I led, “I’m your bitch. Tell me where your rocks are and I’ll move them out of the way so you can get your work done.” And then I do exactly that. I’ve had to work miracle…
My experience regarding the servant manager is that it is really important that you also figure out what is in it for you.
There is a big risk that your career stops at that - being a servant.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#26I think Peopleware deserves a mention: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Proje...
Peopleware is in fact the best I've ever read. The problems of an organization are very rarely technical, and are almost certainly the people.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#27Peopleware, Five disfunctions of a team
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#28Just a meta-comment - if you're new to all this, it's good to know that management != leadership. If you're starting out, you'll want to learn both, and you'll need both. More practically, here's a fun blog where you can ask specific questions: https://www.askamanager.org/
Not everyone can be effective at both. I learned that I can be a great leader, but I do not have the patience required to manage people. I have had managers that were terrible leaders. Definitely different skills, and you need both to climb the ladder into the C-suite.
You definitively don’t need either to make it to C-suite. To get there you need political skills. To be effective there you absolutely need both though.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#29I think Peopleware deserves a mention: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Proje...
Peopleware is in fact the best I've ever read. The problems of an organization are very rarely technical, and are almost certainly the people.
So you're saying they're always people who lack certainty?
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#30Joel Spolsky https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/08/07/three-management-m...
As always, Spolsky makes blunt but good points. At the end he mentions additional approaches: "You will certainly find other methods of management in the wild (there’s the exotic “Devil Wears Prada” Method, the Jihad Method, the Charismatic Cult Method, and the Lurch From One Method To Another Method)." Others are relatively obvious but I'm curious about the "Jihad Method."