Hello, tomorrow we are gathering development leaders from various well-known companies around one table — six eternal questions: how to measure development efficiency, implement changes, hire, and so on. The day before, we decided to raise the seventh eternal question — what to read to grow?
Professional literature is a complex issue, especially when it comes to literature for leaders in the IT field. To understand how to spend the ever-scarce time, we surveyed the subscribers of the channel 'Team Lead Leonid' and compiled a selection of about fifty books*. We then added reviews from our team leads to the most popular ones. Since the list below is deeply subjective and based on reviews from people you don’t know, we will evaluate the literature in 'spherical owls'.
1. 'Jedi Techniques: How to Raise Your Monkey, Empty Your Inbox, and Save Mental Fuel' / Maxim Dorofeev
TL;DR
From this book, you will learn:
- how our thinking and memory work;
- where we lose mental fuel — waste our brain’s resources inefficiently;
- how to preserve mental fuel, focus, properly formulate tasks, and recharge for productive work;
- how to implement all the acquired knowledge into life and avoid common mistakes.
I would recommend starting to improve time management with this book. But if you've already read several books, you'll definitely find many techniques and ideas in this one as well. Useful for *everyone*. It’s easy to read, and the language is excellent. I also noted all the books mentioned and added them to my backlog.
Rating: 6.50 spherical owls.
2. Deadline: A Novel About Project Management / Tom DeMarco
TL;DR
All principles of good management are described here in an engaging and unobtrusive form of a business novel.
If some people, evaluating you as a brilliant leader, were to kidnap you, take you to a foreign country, and offer you to lead the most interesting project under very favorable conditions, you would exactly follow the path of the main character in this book.
Rating: 5.79 spherical owls.
3. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team / Patrick Lencioni
TL;DR
The head of a high-tech company resigned as the company's operations deteriorated visibly under his leadership. "Managers excelled at throwing each other under the bus. The team lost its spirit of unity and camaraderie, replaced by tedious obligations. Every task dragged on, and the quality declined." After some time, a new leader arrives at the company, and the atmosphere intensifies even further — Catherine is determined to tackle the managerial team's issues that nearly drove the successful company to ruin.
This business novel is dedicated to how to build a corporate environment effectively. A new leader enters a technology company on the brink of decline and begins to restructure the managerial team, essentially rebuilding it from scratch. Along with the heroes, readers learn about the five vices that can destroy any team and how they can be neutralized to transform a previously disjointed team into a winning squad.
Rating: 5.57 spherical cows.
4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic / Stephen R. Covey
TL;DR
Firstly, this book presents a systematic approach to defining one’s life goals and priorities. These goals vary for everyone, but the book helps readers understand themselves and clearly articulate their life priorities. Secondly, it illustrates how to achieve these goals. And thirdly, it demonstrates how each person can improve themselves.
This book is worth reading to better understand people (including oneself). It explains the principles upon which human behavior is based, how this manifests externally, and how it affects our lives and relationships with others. It also provides examples of the principles that can be used and how to develop skills for more effective interactions with people and oneself.
Rating: 5.44 spherical cows.
5. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering / Frederick Phillips Brooks
TL;DR
Frederick Brooks' book on project management in software development.
Author (born 1931) — an American scholar in the field of computational systems theory, managed the development of OS/360 at IBM. In 1999, he was awarded the Turing Award.
An overall decent book, but you probably already know 90% of its content from citations by other sources. It's quite easy and quick to read; I don't regret the time spent. It's important to remember that the book is old and some of the points made in it turned out to be erroneous.
Rating: 5.14 spherical cows.
6. Goal 1, Goal 2, Goal 3 (THE GOAL) / Eliyahu Goldratt
TL;DR
The book is intended for organization leaders who wish to improve the business and learn to overcome inevitable crises.
I almost stopped reading due to a factory that's managed based on some strange metrics that slow everything down. Then I recalled my experience in other companies and realized that it's quite realistic, and I read more to understand how such problems are addressed from a human perspective. The most important thought of the book is encapsulated in its title: define the goal and strive endlessly for it.
Rating: 4.91 spherical cows.
7. Herding Cats: A Primer for Programmers Who Lead Programmers
/ Дж. Ханк Рейнвотер (Hank Rainwater)
TL;DR
"Herding Cats" is a book about leadership and management, about how to combine the two. It can be seen as a dictionary of challenging cases in managing IT projects.
The book will be useful for those who have transitioned from programmer to a managerial position, such as a manager or team lead. It's especially relevant for small teams of 4-7 people working on multiple projects simultaneously.
Rating: 4.65 spherical cows.
Additional resources:
* — 50 books in Russian and English with annotations
* of development management, which we will discuss with guys from Avito, Yandex, Tinkoff, Dodo Pizza, Plesk, Agima, CIAN, and Mos.ru.
p.s.
Which of this list have you read and what would you recommend to your colleagues?
Only registered users can participate in the survey. , please.
Which of these books have you read?
"Jedi Techniques"
"Deadline: A Novel About Project Management"
"The Five Dysfunctions of a Team"
"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"
"The Mythical Man-Month"
"The Goal"
"Herding Cats"
72 users voted. 32 users abstained.
Source: habr.com
