Hacker News Books

'First, Break All the Rules' is a great read. For new managers, I highly reccomend 'The First 90 Days'

Remember not to just accept everything in these books. They should be read with the expectation that you will have to pull out the useful pieces that are relevant to you.

Indeed. "The First 90 Days"[0] is a great book that provides a framework and techniques for being strategic when starting a new job.

0: http://www.amazon.com/The-First-90-Days-Strategies/dp/159139...

edit -- links, how do they work

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz and The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins.

Some good advice in this thread, but missing the most important thing: people & process.

(1) You need visibility. You don't seem to be plugged in - what were the CEO's goals? How did his exec team manage towards them, what orders were passed down, and how did you execute on them? If you don't know, it's because you weren't plugged in - for all you know, you _were_ irrelevant.

(2) How to get visibility? You need to set meetings: project kickoffs, 30-day SteerCos, quarterly updates, AND end-of-project readouts. Out of sight, out of mind. You need to get in front of people who matter, and explain the value of what you do in a way that they can claim credit to their boss.

(3) When you get in front of $important_people, you need to speak their language. Show them the money (your exec summary is always the same: I [made, saved] $X M in the past Y months, which is Z% of total revenue). Mark progress against a roadmap. Make pretty presentations they can forward to their boss. And talk slowly (not so they can understand, but so _you_ can avoid looking silly).

When you're a freelancer, the above is _more_ important, not less. I'm sorry you got screwed (if engineers have to be good at business management crap, WTF are business managers for?) but these are, I think, the skills you're looking for here.

A good book to read on this is The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins, if you're curious.

It sounds like you've taken the most important step, which is appreciating that "what got you here won't get you there".

One of my favorite books when stepping into a new role is M. Watkins, "The First 90 Days", which is very helpful in formalizing an effective approach to succeeding quickly when in a new management role.

It is worth trying to get some education in people management. While much of it is common-sense, it's worthwhile covering the basics -- the applicable laws, managing conflicts, that sort of thing. I have yet to find a good, practical book on organizational engineering (if anyone has a suggestion, please post it), but this is an area that I feel someone in your role should seek to understand well, because it has a big impact on the success of a business.

One of the most important, fundamental skills for a senior level manager is understanding finance. I recommend B. Knight, "Financial Intelligence" as a primer.

My favorite book on business strategy is M. Porter "Competitive Strategy", however, this book and all other business strategy books should be taken with a large grain of salt. They often suffer from survivorship bias, being applicable only to certain industries and times, and in at least one famous case, allegedly faking the data used to draw their conclusions. I treat business strategy books as leisure reading that simply provides another perspective.

Congrats on the transition! I have several books to recommend that I all read are on my bookshelf, some with reviews[1]. YMMV vary but these were the most helpful for me:

1. The First 90 Days - a good reminder that when you transition, it's like starting a new job

2. Become and Effective Software Engineering Manager - a hands-on book for people transitioning to management, starting at a new company or looking to make more of an org-wide impact.

3. The Manager's Path - a short reference handbook for managers at all levels.

4. The Goal - written in the '80s, yet a timeless novel on what management is about, may that be a manager of a team, an organization or an industrial plant.

Also, I wrote a post about my learnings on transitioning from engineer to manager that has some good comments on HN[2]

[1] https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/my-reading-list/#engineer...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15326652

Been an EM for a few years. A few quick tips since a lot of people have covered stuff:

* D E L E G A T E => Your job is to keep your people productive and effective. Doing that starts with yourself - do the things only YOU can do and delegate the rest to the people who are better served to handle that.

* Check out the Manager Tools podcast and focus on the basics (https://www.manager-tools.com/manager-tools-basics)

* The 2 books I got solid, actionable advice from were "The First 90 Days" [1] and "The 27 Challenges Managers Face" [2]

[1] https://www.amazon.com/First-90-Days-Strategies-Expanded/dp/...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Challenges-Managers-Face-Step-Step/dp...

I have 2 recommendations:

1. "Thinking Strategically," written by a professor at the Yale School of Management and an economics professor at Princeton.[1]

This one is basically a primer on game theory, which I think would be useful for you particularly if you are facing off someone at work. It gets you thinking about incentives of each party and figuring out the different ways situations could play out.

2. "The First 90 Days," published by Harvard Business Review Press.[2]

Obviously, it's targeted at those transitioning into a new leadership position, but in my opinion the strategies can apply even to those who are in incumbent positions as it's never too late to turn the page and start taking a fresh approach or step up one's level of effort at work.

It includes an actionable plan for feeling out the pain points of others you need to impress and tackling their problems in a visible manner. This one is less about politics per se but more about being a very effective leader in a highly visible manner, which can help one to move up the ladder.

[1] http://amzn.to/2vwXwhH

[2] http://amzn.to/2uLYXLI