The World's Best Book Summaries
What’s the key to team empowerment? What are ways to give your employees autonomy? In The First-Time Manager, Jim McCormick writes that you can nurture a high-performing team by empowering your employees to be innovative and to make independent decisions. He believes that teams can operate with self-efficiency and keep up with the fast pace of business. Read on to learn the basics of team empowerment.
Where do you find prospective candidates for a position on your team? What’s the process of hiring new employees? To build a strong and effective team, you must hire the right people and train them to succeed in their roles. Bad hiring decisions can cost you time and money while hiring the right person can add immense value to your team. Let’s look at some tips for identifying, selecting, and training the right candidates.
How should you motivate employees as a manager? What two types of motivation are people driven by? To run an empowered team, you need to keep your employees motivated. To do this, figure out what drives them individually and keeps them engaged in their work. Here’s how to be a motivating leader at work.
What levels are there on the software engineering career ladder? Once you’ve become a software engineer, where can you go next? The software engineering career ladder includes six levels: mentor, tech lead, junior manager, engineering director, large group management, and senior manager. Titles may vary between companies, but the method for how to become an engineering manager and more are the same. Read on to learn more about how to become a software engineering manager by developing new skills and advancing on the software engineering career ladder.
What’s the best approach for mentoring engineers? What do new engineers need from a mentor, and how can you use your experience to help others? Mentoring engineers requires communicating well, both listening and explaining thoughtfully. Effective mentorship also means planning your mentee’s workload strategically. Learn more about how to be an effective mentor with these mentoring tips and strategies.
How should managers work to improve themselves? How can you run efficient meetings? In The First-Time Manager, organizational risk expert Jim McCormick explores tips for excelling in your management role. These tips include using your time and resources wisely, developing yourself, working with your superiors, and preparing for future opportunities. Below we’ll dive into these management tips so you can be the leader you’re meant to be.
What does a tech lead do? Within a software engineering team, what’s the role of a technical lead? A tech lead does strategic planning and oversees engineering projects from start to finish. The role of a technical lead is to ensure that each person on the team knows their role and contributes meaningfully. Learn more about technical lead roles and responsibilities in engineering.
What does it take to be a software engineering manager? In The Manager’s Path, how does Camille Fournier describe the path from engineer to manager? In The Manager’s Path, Camille Fournier describes each step in the engineering career ladder, from early mentorship roles to large group management. She also details key skills necessary for engineers looking to move into management. Learn more about the path from engineer to manager as laid out in The Manager’s Path.
What does strategic management look like in information technology? When you’re managing an engineering team, how can you plan for success? Strategic management of information technology involves learning how to prioritize projects, divide tasks, and foresee future challenges. A manager must plan engineering strategy with business goals in mind. Read on to learn strategic technology management skills in engineering.
How do you prioritize tasks at work? When you have limited time, how do you decide what gets done? To prioritize tasks at work, you can use the Eisenhower Priority Matrix, which takes into account both the urgency and the importance of each task. From there, you can decide what needs to be done now and what you can plan to do in the future. Learn more about managing priorities at work with these strategies from Camille Fournier’s The Manager’s Path.