Honestly? High Output Management. Written by Intel's CEO during its climb, it seems to have the focuses in the right areas even today for the more technical among us
Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
31–40 of 159 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
^ 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.
The best managers/leaders I've had in this vein are sufficiently recognised for their part in the performance of their team.
Wouldn't it be a small red flag about an organisation if this wasn't the case?
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#33I cannot recommend "Crucial Conversations" enough (https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Third-Talking-S...), excellent source for everyone but esp. for managers. It will teach you how to broach difficult topics with reports and how to deal with difficult personalities, which inevitably you will encounter.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#34A related question, what are the best books or classes on managing people?
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#35I 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…
Solid advice!
Fire these people first since they have a tendency to be manipulate the truth: "high IQ people who are constantly screwing around and coming up with elaborate excuses".
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#36By Adm. Rickover
https://govleaders.org/rickover.htm
https://www.powermag.com/blog/hyman-rickover-on-nuclear-desi...
Books
The Never-Ending Challenge of Engineering: Admiral H.G. Rickover in His Own Words
The Rickover Effect: How One Man Made a Difference
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#37Another related question, what are some good resources on leadership?
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#38Just 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…
>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.”
Great mindset and thoughts, but I hope this isn't what you actually said. I'd also like to point out serving someone or some thing doesn't make you a bitch.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#39High output management (Andy Grove) is a classic that I've found a lot of value from over the years — written in the 80s and shows its age here and there, but otherwise good for the fundamentals: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/d...
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#40Just 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/
Leadership is a seductive concept, but in the main, leadership = management - work. In a healthy engineering culture, a management goal should be enabling the maximum number of people to exercise their own leadership. Even the newfangled concept of "servant leadership" is premised on a separation of agency between those who "serve/lead" and those who "are served/led".
Effective management --- do not groan before I finish this sentence --- tends to look a lot more like adminship on Wikipedia than it does, like, war leadership. It's about picking up a mop and a bucket and making the way clear for people to do their best work. And, in our field, doing one's best work often means making and communicating big decisions, which is what leadership is.
There's also a distinction between the kind of leadership the whole company needs --- hard decisions about where to allocate resources and what bets to make --- and the day-to-day "leadership" involved in getting things done as a team. I term I hear a lot is "vibes based management", which is a recognition that somebody (probably not engineering management!) is making these kinds of decisions and communicating them just well enough for line engineers to make good choices.
If you're looking for management advice because you're running a whole company, that kind of leadership is in scope! But if you're looking to learn how to be a good engineering manager, I'm not sure how much "leadership" has to do with doing a good job.