Peopleware, Five disfunctions of a team
Five disfunction of the team was the dumbest shit filled crockery ever to be put into print. Please save your self the loss of braincells and skip this book.
Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
81–90 of 159 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#82Not an article but this oft-linked HN comment from Slava Akhmechet is very accurate about how subordinates' motives can sabotage your intended goals and objectives : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18003253
Haha, wow, I remember reading this when it was written. I do think it's probably a bit too cynical though, probably colored by the author's own world-view and personal experience. I do think that some companies are just filled with BS; don't get me wrong. But I think that there are also a subset of companies who are filled with people trying their best, but who are making mistakes and/or being incompetent in a way th…
Ha, this is actually a really good case in favor of not hiring the best people. Any metric you have for estimating "best" will be gameable.
Now I'm reminded of https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2019/04/15/mediocratopia-4.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#83Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a strange comment. Everyone in a corporate structure is a servant. How you advance is by demonstrating that you are helping solve the problems deemed important by your chain of command. Theoretically this should be aligned from top to bottom; in practice competing priorities, communication overhead, and incompetence in the wrong places can greatly distort things. This reality leads a lot of folks into learned…
Your answer is reasonable but I don't agree that it is a "strange comment" as you say. Is it not possible to see yourself as having thought too much about maximizing your companys success without thinking about your own needs? I wouldnt qualify this as toxic. And they can go alongside if you make it clear for yourself and your manager.
Thanks for your measured response. You're right that it's not inherently toxic to think of yourself. The reason I reacted that way is because that mentality (whether explicit or not) is what leads to operating in a very transactional way or empire-building fashion that works against good outcomes in the long-term.
I honestly don't think being too selfless is an adequate explanation for career stagnation though. Selfless behavior will generally help you get ahead in life and in your career, because good relationships matter a lot. However you won't get promoted just because you help everyone. What if you are just servicing the squeaky wheels rather than solving the biggest problem on your plate? A good manager will only look to promote you because you have demonstrated you are capable of solving larger problems. There are other things too: like the business actually has the need for a higher level role. If that's the case, then your behavior is irrelevant—you just need to leave to someplace that does have the growth opportunity.
Overall the reason I said your comment was strange is because it clearly comes from some personal experience you had, but it lacks enough context to be actionable to anyone who reads it. I can think of a dozen different ways I've seen a "servant leader" mentality succeed or fail, but it all depends very much on context. Ultimately if you want to succeed you need to understand what game is being played and not fallback to abstract platitudes.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#85"You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership." [0, 1]
- Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, USN
0: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper 1: https://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/hopper-wit.html
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#86This one is a little dramatic, but in the article she provides a devastating description of what it means to be a bad manager (or partner).
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#87There is a big list of resources related to engineering management which might be relevant: https://github.com/ryanburgess/engineer-manager
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#88I think these blog series is illuminating for most companies https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...
No joke hese articles were the reason I started going to therapy. I think before reading them I didn’t consider workplace issues to be a part of my “real life”. In some sense I was aware of work life balance but I didn’t fully appreciate that they are balanced on a single fulcrum (i.e., “me”!)
Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#89Just 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 fi…
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Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?
#90The Mochary Method is a google doc that has been making its rounds for awhile. It's not the most visually stunning set of guidelines to read but the content is excellent. https://docs.google.com/document/d/18FiJbYn53fTtPmphfdCKT2TM...
The Mochary Method I found is much better for folks managing other managers. If you manage individual contributors with a lot of these ideas (e.g. meetings start on time), you'll definitely have a hard time.
His writing vs talking stuff though is truly great, and I changed how I run many meetings through it.