Recently, someone asked me: “Hey, which books would you, as a software engineering manager, recommend to read?”. It’s a tough question, given the plethora of fantastic reads there. However, it inspired me to compile a list of the 10 books that influenced me as a manager (yeah, a novel idea for a post😅).
To be crystal clear, these specific books may not be my absolute favorites (though some are), but they influenced my “managerial” basis in the very beginning of my career. Thus, I would recommend them to those just starting their Engineering Management path. These books shaped the way I think, lead, and manage teams.
So, without further ado, here are my top picks (in no particular order).
[I didn’t mention any technical-focused books, because they need their own separate list 😄]
1️⃣ Kim Scott – Radical Candor
My personal favorite in this list.
The book introduces the concept of “Radical Candor” where you “Care Personally” while “Challenging Directly”. This approach fosters a culture of open communication and trust. It emphasizes the importance of balancing direct feedback with genuine care in professional relationships. The book gives a lot of practical advice on how to build relationships at work, provide and receive feedback, understand people’s motivation, build strong teams, and create a more productive work environment.
Honestly, I fell in love with this book. I do believe this is how a truly caring manager must work with people and help them develop.
2️⃣ Patrick Lencioni – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
An incredibly well-known guide on how to build a strong team. There’s no need to say much about it.
The book is a leadership fable that describes 5 typical challenges that hinder teams from their success. These dysfunctions are absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. The book illustrates how each dysfunction builds on the others and how makes team inefficient. The book suggests practices on how to overcome them, such as fostering vulnerability-based trust and encouraging healthy conflict. Ultimately, the book emphasizes the importance of addressing these dysfunctions to build a cohesive and high-performing team.
Right after reading this book, I started using advised practices and results were quick to follow.
3️⃣ Peter M. Senge – Fifth Discipline
My first foray into systems thinking. Some might say the book is too theoretical, boring, and written in difficult language. Likely, it is true. But I found it transformative. It’s a source to change your way of thinking.
The book explores the concept of learning organizations, where people continually expand their ability to achieve desired results, develop new patterns of thinking, and learn to see the whole together. The five key disciplines necessary for a successful learning organization are: Systems Thinking, Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Building Shared Vision, and Team Learning. Systems Thinking, the cornerstone discipline, integrates the others, by focusing on how things relate to each other and change over time, instead of just looking at isolated events.
4️⃣ Jurgen Appelo – Management 3.0
This one is a great guide for a new line management. It offers a modern people managing approach, emphasizing the importance of engaging people, improving work, and delighting clients. The book introduces a managerial model consisting of six key areas: Energize People, Empower Teams, Align Constraints, Develop Competence, Grow Structure, and Improve Everything. Managers are considered as facilitators who support and enable teams rather than control and command. The book offers practical tools and techniques to foster a more agile, responsive, and people-centric organization. Through its principles, “Management 3.0” aims to create environments where both employees and organizations thrive.
What I also like in this book is that it provides some brief overview of seemingly non-related topics, such as system and lean thinking, agile, etc.
5️⃣ Will Larson – An Elegant Puzzle
I used this book as my first “how to” guide once I became an engineering manager. It is an exceptionally valuable engineering management guideline with tons of advice from an experienced practitioner.
This book provides insights into managing engineering teams and organizations effectively, into importance of balancing growth and stability, and systems thinking to address complex problems in engineering management. The book covers various aspects, such as team dynamics, technical strategy, organizational design, teams scaling, and processes improvement.
6️⃣ Marty Cagan – Inspired
I do believe an ideal engineering manager must know about product management approaches almost as much as product managers. At least theoretically. And Marty Cagan’s book helps with this.
It is a comprehensive guide to building successful products. After reading you will know why it is important to understand customer needs and iterate on product ideas quickly. Why cross-functional teams (including product managers, designers, and engineers) matter, and why they should collaborate closely throughout the product development process. The book gives suggestions on identifying and validating product opportunities, setting clear goals, and prioritizing features.
Overall, after reading this book, I understood the product management side much better.
7️⃣ Craig Larman/Bas Vode – Scaling Lean & Agile Development
Yup, this book is about some specific agile framework, Large Scaled Scrum (LeSS). And someone may say: it seems to be relevant to agile coaches, but not to engineering managers…
However, this book is a great read to start your journey into organizational design and behavior. It provides a comprehensive framework for implementing agile principles in large organizations. Spiced with system thinking, lean management, and motivational approaches, the book offers a lot of advice and practices that can be used even if you are not going to implement LeSS in your organization.
8️⃣ Dale Carnegie – How to Win Friends and Influence People
This classic book is still relevant today. It offers a lot of insights into motivation, negotiation, building relationships, and people management. Many trendy practices nowadays, such as active listening and embracing feedback, were deeply reviewed there (with a portion of practical guidelines).
When I read modern management books, I almost always find myself thinking that I’ve already read something similar in Dale Carnegie’s book.
Overall, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is a timeless guide for personal and professional success.
9️⃣ Richard Hackman – Collaborative intelligence
This book was a reason for me to reconsider some beliefs about building and developing productive teams. Some factors I was assuming as basis appeared to be derivatives of more fundamental ones.
After reading it you will learn the dynamics of team performance and the main aspects that contribute to effective collaboration. Backed by thorough research, Hackman emphasizes the importance of well-designed teams, highlighting the need for clear and compelling direction, an enabling team structure, and a supportive organizational context.
You will learn that the way teams are designed and set up plays a crucial role in their success, rather than merely relying on team members’ skills and team nurturing. Highly recommend!
🔟 Steven Levit, Stephen Dubner – Freakonomics
This funny and captivating book that you can’t put down.
It explores the hidden side of everyday life through the lens of economics. The authors use economic theories and data analysis to uncover surprising insights about human behavior and societal issues. The book reviews unconventional questions, such as the impact of abortion on crime rates and naming trends vs socioeconomic status.
The book emphasizes that conventional wisdom is often wrong, and that data can reveal unexpected truths about the world.
Despite the fact that this book does not directly relate to management, it encouraged me to think outside the box, consider “big picture” and non-obvious relationships.
Afterword
There are countless other great books for managers out there. I suggest the above list to those just starting their journey in Engineering Management. In one of the future posts, I will share my list of “advanced books” for EMs.
Share your Top N books!
