by Elyse | Jun 30 | Management
There are hundreds of books written on management and leadership. Management books have been written for decades. But, it is only in more recent years that there have been books for software engineering managers written.
While software engineering managers deal with the same challenges that managers in other fields do, they also deal with their unique challenges. Software engineering managers need to know the differences between managing, being a mentor, and being a tech lead.
They often need to liaison and communicate with non-technical people and explain complex, technical problems in simple terms. They need to solve and plan for complex technical issues and projects.
Being a software engineering manager is a niche field, and general management books often fail to address some problems you may face.
Top 3 Books for Software Engineering Managers
These books were written to fill the gap that general management books failed to fill.
Here are, the top 3 books for software engineering managers:
An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
This book is the most “engineer-y” of these three books. The hardcover is a beautifully bound book that makes an excellent reference.
It is written by Will Larson, who has an impressive resume. The book is broken up into significant topic chapters and then smaller sections of each idea covered in that topic.
The book is written in a very digestible way and is easy to reference when you are looking for insight on a particular topic.
This book is the most technical on the list. It will help you develop a way of thinking about engineering in your organization and the management style that will suit highly-productive and intelligent engineers.
Resources:
Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager: How to Be the Leader Your Development Team Needs
This thick reference book covers the management journey from when you first become a manager.
The way this book is written takes you through the emotional journey you will go on as you start your new role as a manager and through each struggle and new challenge you face.
It describes in detail why people expect certain things from an engineering manager and how non-technical people act when they are interested or nervous about one of your projects (and what to do about it!).
Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager is like a bible for anyone who finds themselves managing a software engineering team and covers a wide breadth of topics.
It explains hiring, running one-on-ones, managing your time and calendar, workplace politics, performance reviews, productivity, and more. The book is a very well-rounded resource.
The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
The Manager’s Path is written more like a novel than a reference book, although it still has plenty of good advice for software engineering managers.
The former CTO of Rent the Runway writes it. This book reads from the perspective of her reflecting on her time and her journey to becoming the CTO of a hyper-growth startup and the challenges that came from that position.
This book is the best book to read if you are most interested in how to set up your career to become a CTO or even just a software engineering manager.
It has many good tips for early career and how to best set yourself up for promotions or new opportunities. T
here is also a lot of helpful advice for how to get people to perform at their highest level and what the people you manage or mentor are looking for from you.
She also talks about how most people never really have a good manager, at least as a software engineer, and what you can do to change that and what you need to be a strong manager to your direct reports.
Other Management Books
Since it would be hard to keep this list to just these three, here are some other general management books that are great if you are looking for more resources:
A Final Note
While many general management books are written, few touch on the unique challenges and difficulties a software engineering manager faces. These are the top 3 books for software engineering managers that will give you guidance and direction for your role.
by Elyse | Mar 2 | Management, New Managers
What makes a good manager? People who become managers because they enjoy working with people want to know the answer to the question: how do I become a good manager?
What does it entail? What should I be doing? How should I be doing things?
Being a manager can be very fulfilling as a career path, but it can feel like a lot to learn and a little guidance when starting.
There are actions, habits, and behaviors that make good managers. And these things are learnable because a lot of them are skills.
So, what makes a good manager?
As the author states in the introduction of the book, The First Time Manager, “The advice in this book centers around two overarching messages: Be thoughtful in your actions and always conduct yourself with class.”
After all, management is dealing with people, so the most critical aspect of being a good manager is to care about the people you are managing.
“Management is about controlling, and leadership is about inspiring.”
-The First-Time Manager
Management is directive and starts as very involved in managing projects and ensuring that projects progress. The goal is to eventually get to a point where you become a leader in your management role.
For more, see Management vs. Leadership.
Since management focuses on people, it requires a very different skill set than those needed as individual contributors. Being a good manager means being good at your job and recognizing when someone else is good.
It can be a standard trap for managers to overfocus on the direct reports working in your previous domain to the detriment of the other functions you are managing now.
You must be able to recognize success in those that you manage.
Focus on people.
People want to feel that you care. And you can show them.
By listening to them and their ideas.
By helping them develop their careers and work on projects, they want and are engaged with.
By inspiring them to do their best work.
By being honest with them.
By being clear in your communication with them
By supporting them.
By not judging them.
People want to feel supported, heard, and cared for.
Emotional Intelligence
Another skill crucial for good managers is emotional intelligence.
Good managers are emotionally intelligent. According to the book Primal Leadership, emotional intelligence can be improved. The book also posits that emotional intelligence is the number one factor in determining if someone will be a successful leader.
The book classifies four domains of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
Within each of these domains, there are specific skills. And because they are skills, they are learnable if you want to learn them.
Improving your emotional intelligence skills is one the most impactful things you can do as a manager since those will affect everything you do in your organization.
A Final Note
As a manager, you have a lot of influence over the people who report to you. It is something that should not be forgotten, and it is something that should be handled with care.
People want to know that you care, and they want to see that you are competent. You can demonstrate these things with emotional intelligence: communicating with them, having good relationships throughout the organization, making sound decisions and listening to people, and being fair.
“As a manager, think of class as ‘style and elegance in one’s behavior.'” –The First-Time Manager.
by Elyse | Nov 14 | Management
Conducting effective one-on-one meetings is one of the most important and impactful things you can do as a new manager. But often, new managers don’t have positive past experiences to pull from when it comes to how to run an effective one-on-one meeting or proper training available to teach them.
Why One-On-One Meetings Are Important
As a new manager, it can be confusing to figure out what you are expected to do, what is important and how you are performing. It is equally as difficult to figure out how you can best help those who are now reporting to you.
Depending on your role, you may have one but up to many people now directly reporting to you. They are also looking to you for guidance, support, direction and even resources.
Building positive, impactful, and collaborative relationships with your direct reports is one of the most essential parts of your job as a manager.
The way these meaningful relationships are built are through your one on one’s.
One on ones are meetings that occur every week between you and each of your direct reports. They are regular, private and focused on what your direct report needs. These are the backbone of the managerial relationship you have with your direct reports.
How Often Should You Have One-on-One Meetings?
These one-on-one meetings should occur regularly and with consistency. One-on-one meetings should last at least thirty minutes but they can also be longer. They are there for the purpose of supporting your direct reports, with technical problems they may be having, conflicts they may be having or to talk about their career and professional development growth.
It is so important that as a manager, you make sure these meetings happen. It is equally important that you make sure one on one’s with your own manager happens.
These meetings should occur consistently at the same time every week and you should take care to show up on time and prepared.
Your First One-On-One With a Direct Report
It can be daunting to have a one on one with a new direct report. It is possible that you have no relationship with this person at all yet or that your new direct report was once a peer or even close friend.
In your first one-on-one meeting with a new direct report you should focus the meeting on discussing and establishing clear expectations and goals for the meetings going forward. The first one-on-one meeting should also focus on learning the preferences of new direct reports:
- How do they like to receive feedback?
- What would they most like help with?
- What is their preferred working style?
There are many articles that have a structured format for questions to ask your direct reports during your first one-on-one meeting.
These are the types of conversations that you want to have to make your future one-on-one meetings effective and these are also conversations that should be ongoing over the course of your relationship as you each change, evolve and grow as people as well as in your careers.
How to Prepare For a One-on-One Meeting
Part of holding an effective one-on-one meeting is to make sure that you are properly prepared ahead of time. You don’t want to just show up without having an idea of what you want to talk about or without having reviewed what you discussed in your last one-on-one meeting.
What you want to do to prepare for a one-on-one meeting as an effective manager:
- Review the notes you took from your one-on-one meeting last week
- Write down anything you want to be sure to touch on, including any questions you may have
- Complete any tasks that you committed to doing for your direct report in your last one-on-one. (This last step is what separates the truly extraordinary and effective managers from those that are just mediocre).
- After the meeting make sure you add any tasks you committed to doing to your own to-do list
What Should One-on-Ones Not Be Used For
One-on-ones are not status meetings so try not to turn them into status updates. You should be getting status updates from your team in some other fashion throughout the week.
An effective one-on-one is for the benefit of your team so you want to make sure that each one of your direct reports is getting what they want and need during these meetings. Status reports are boring and repetitive and miss the point of what a one-on-one is truly about.
A Final Note
One-on-one meetings when lead effectively can be powerful tools in your job as a manger and can also be incredibly impactful in the experience your direct report has at work while you are their manager. Spending the time to prepare for them properly and also learn how to lead with with confidence will serve you for the entirety of your management career.
