Useful Leadership Resources

Here are some books and resources that I recently shared with some folks on my team at work. As others might find them useful recommendations, I thought I’d post them here.

Books

• Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity – read this article to get a good introduction to the topic, which is fully fleshed out in Kim Scott’s book.
• Managing Humans by Michael Lopp is a fun and insightful read. I recommend his work often, especially his blog. His writing is a bit developer-focused, but still accessible for non-developers. If you purchase the book, be sure to get the third edition as there have apparently been a bunch of changes.
• First, Break All the Rules paired with the follow up Now, Discover Your Strengths break things down a bit further. The first uses a wealth of data to highlight what good managers do right. The second turns the tables on the concept of trying to help someone fix their weaknesses, and instead proposes helping people capitalize on what they’re good at.
• Team of Teams – I haven’t read this yet, but have heard a couple of podcasts around the concept, including with the authors and it meshes well with the way I see leadership – keep everyone involved, be clear about who does what and then let them do it. This podcast might be a good intro.
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Death by Meeting – are a bit more fun, as they are fictional narratives (“leadership fable”) that aim to eliminate annoyances among teams and help groups thrive
• The Leadership Pipeline is helpful once you’ve been leading for a while and are looking to craft the structure that will help to build strong leaders within the company.

Articles

• Management is not about asking people to do stuff
• Management Debt
• Lara Hogan has some great posts about management and leadership on her site:
  • This one breaks down the differences of working at different levels of management
  • Setting expectations
  • Handling tough times as a manager
• Some great posts from @catehstn, a new-ish manager who is posting as she learns. I haven’t read all of them, but I read a good bit of her posts. She works with a fully distributed team, so there are some interesting facets to her posts:
  • 6 MONTHS. 6 LESSONS.
  • Things to Figure Out as a New Manager: Part 1, Your Schedule (first in a five part series)
  • The Organised Manager
• Average Manager vs. Great Manager – read this one when you need a break from the other ones.