Becoming A Technical Leader

Whether you manage people, are managed by people, or just want to change the way you interact with others, this book is about success. How to plan it, how to make it happen--Becoming a Technical Leader shows you how to do it!

Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal—especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager. From mentoring interns to working with senior staff, you’ll get actionable advice for approaching various obstacles in your path. This book is ideal whether you’re a new manager, a mentor, or a more experienced leader looking for fresh advice. Pick up this book and learn how to become a better manager and leader in your organization. Begin by exploring what you expect from a manager Understand what it takes to be a good mentor, and a good tech lead Learn how to manage individual members while remaining focused on the entire team Understand how to manage yourself and avoid common pitfalls that challenge many leaders Manage multiple teams and learn how to manage managers Learn how to build and bootstrap a unifying culture in teams

Software startups make global headlines every day. As technology companies succeed and grow, so do their engineering departments. In your career, you'll may suddenly get the opportunity to lead teams: to become a manager. But this is often uncharted territory. How can you decide whether this career move is right for you? And if you do, what do you need to learn to succeed? Where do you start? How do you know that you're doing it right? What does "it" even mean? And isn't management a dirty word? This book will share the secrets you need to know to manage engineers successfully. Going from engineer to manager doesn't have to be intimidating. Engineers can be managers, and fantastic ones at that. Cast aside the rhetoric and focus on practical, hands-on techniques and tools. You'll become an effective and supportive team leader that your staff will look up to. Start with your transition to being a manager and see how that compares to being an engineer. Learn how to better organize information, feel productive, and delegate, but not micromanage. Discover how to manage your own boss, hire and fire, do performance and salary reviews, and build a great team. You'll also learn the psychology: how to ship while keeping staff happy, coach and mentor, deal with deadline pressure, handle sensitive information, and navigate workplace politics. Consider your whole department. How can you work with other teams to ensure best practice? How do you help form guilds and committees and communicate effectively? How can you create career tracks for individual contributors and managers? How can you support flexible and remote working? How can you improve diversity in the industry through your own actions? This book will show you how. Great managers can make the world a better place. Join us.

Being an excellent individual technical contributor does not guarantee success as a leader. The skill sets are not the same. The good news is that leadership skills can be learned just like technical skills can be learned. Both skill sets take time and practice. The path to becoming a leader starts with self-reflection and knowing yourself. This book covers a range of aspects of self-discovery with respect to technical leadership including understanding your own personality, discovering your unique strengths, acknowledging your needs and values, your preferred methods of information processing, your tolerance for risk and uncertainty, and learning emotional intelligence. Technical leadership shares many characteristics with leadership of people in general, but there are some key distinctions that make leading in technical organizations different. This book discusses those differences and highlights areas where technical leaders should pay special attention. Exercises in each section will allow you to consider your own principles, values, motivations, and perceptions of leadership. Knowing yourself is the first step to successful technical leadership and this book will set you on that path.

A book for Tech Leads, from Tech Leads. Discover how more than 35 Tech Leads find the delicate balance between the technical and non-technical worlds. Discover the challenges a Tech Lead faces and how to overcome them. You may be surprised by the lessons they have to share.

In this second edition, Williams and Emerson update their popular handbook for professional women in engineering, science, and technology with timely information and practical tips for career success.

Software Experts Debate Leadership Qualities and the Hazards of Shortcuts and Stupid Tricks Joined by coeditors Marie Benesh and James Bullock, consultant's consultant Gerald M. Weinberg highlights forty experts' secrets for building and sustaining a leadership role in software development. Participants of the SHAPE forum, many of them software consultants and managers at the world's most successful software companies, logged in to help each other identify the "stupid tricks" that developers are tempted to employ in design, code, and documentation--tricks that seem clever in the short term but have damaging longterm effects. Topics include programming, design, documentation, teaching, learning, educating management, being yourself, and much more. Presented in an easy-to-read dialogue format, true to the comments' original appearance on the Web, this is the second stand-alone book drawn from Weinberg's SHAPE forum, following Roundtable on Project Management. Contributors include Jim Batterson, James Bullock, Pat Ferdinandi, Fritz, Phil Fuhrer, Jesse Gordon, Don Gray, Brian Gulino, Peter Harris, Joseph Howard, Kevin Huigens, Steve Jackson, Jim Jarrett, Bob King, Dave Kleist, Henry Knapp, Brian Knopp, Fredric Laurentine, Pat McGee, Nate McNamara, George Olsen, Mark Passolt, Sue Petersen, Dwayne Phillips, Brian Richter, Sharon Marsh Roberts, Brett Schuchert, Stuart Scott, Dave Smith, Steve Smith, Daniel Starr, Wayne Strider, Pete TerMaat, Phil Trice, Bill Trierweiler, Marianne Tromp, Jerry Weinberg, and Kay Wise.

Get ready to be an effective digital leader, influencer, disruptor, and catalyst for change in the digital world! As a leader you need to constantly evolve to achieve sustained success. The world is being transformed by Digital. The pace of change is constantly accelerating and volatility and complexity are the new norms. Digital leaders are at the forefront of these waves of change, creating new markets and transforming traditional ones. This book is a framework and set of tools that will help you develop a deep awareness of yourself, your teams, and your stakeholders. The powerful four-step process (designed to remain relevant over time) ensures that you are embracing adversity, driving disruption, and unlocking your full leadership potential. What You'll Learn Be an influencer, disrupter, and catalyst for change in a disruptive world Know five key career recommendations from 40 digital leaders with more than 400 years of combined experience Use the four steps of the Unnatural Selection framework to facilitate your personal evolution and digital leadership success Demystify what makes people tick using the Human Full Stack, which is a model analogous to the technical full stack, so that complex behaviors are easier to understand Embody intentionality to avoid distractions and achieve what’s important—your personal evolution, growing amazing teams, and influencing stakeholders Who This Book Is For Leaders who come from a technical background or are leading technical teams/organizations and want to be a part of building tomorrow's digital world