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Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?

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Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?

#141

I haven't been super thrilled with a lot of stuff, but I have found that I've enjoyed Joel Spolky's stuff[0], in general. I don't think he's that popular, hereabouts. For example, his book Smart and Gets Things Done [1] is great. Although not management , per se , Steve McConnell's stuff[2] has been of invaluable assistance, in my career. He talks about Quality Process, and that's the kind of stuff that managers shou…

This guy sucks and the Glassdoor score proves it. He also invented FizzBuzz, the plague of tech interviews.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?

#142
For me, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" is still the best management book out there for 2 reasons:

1. It clearly explains the difference between a leader and a manager, and how those are 2 different roles

2. "Stewardship management" is so powerful that another book has been written about the application of that concept: "Turn the ship around"

I always evaluate everything about management to the previous 2 concepts.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?

#145
post #141

I haven't been super thrilled with a lot of stuff, but I have found that I've enjoyed Joel Spolky's stuff[0], in general. I don't think he's that popular, hereabouts. For example, his book Smart and Gets Things Done [1] is great. Although not management , per se , Steve McConnell's stuff[2] has been of invaluable assistance, in my career. He talks about Quality Process, and that's the kind of stuff that managers shou…

This guy sucks and the Glassdoor score proves it. He also invented FizzBuzz, the plague of tech interviews.

Didn’t Imram Ghory invent that?

Which company has a bad Glassdoor score? StackExchange? Fog Creek? Construx? All of the above?

Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?

#146

I’m reading some articles on managing people all the time (mostly from Software Lead Weekly newsletter). And recently, I’ve opened Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice to read a few chapters on a problem I’m facing at work. And WOW a proper book on the topic is SOOO much better than any random article that I find, be it from SWLW, HN, Reddit, or any other source. Articles and posts are easy to l…

I found this blog post by rand pretty enlightening: https://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-update-the-vent-and-t...

Rands is awesome, and “Managing Humans” is just about the best management book I own.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?

#148
Books are going to be better than articles because you can dive deep into topics and you know it isn't written for SEO, clickbait, selling some silver bullet process or ad revenue. I'll recommend two to learn good practices from and then two that will help learn to recognize horrible practices. You're likely to run into horrible management at some point and its good to recognize dog shit before you step in it.

* Peopleware, Demarco & Lister

* Rands - anything/everything he has written. Start with Managing Humans.

* The 5 dysfunctions of a team, Lencioni

* Gervais Principle (broke my rule, its a set of articles about The Office) https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...

Re: Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?

#149

The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome ( https://hbr.org/1998/03/the-set-up-to-fail-syndrome ) is a great resource for how to handle situations where you feel an employee is underperforming.

I thought that was a good article, but it dances around the core of the issue by not declaring what motivation is and how managers should think about it at the start. Intrinsic motivation is a function of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. A managers purpose is to promote intrinsic motivation. When you identify a weak performer without understanding which pillar of motivation is weak, it generally results in a direct an…

Is there something you would recommend to read about the intrinsic motivation? Sounds like not an obvious subject.
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