Resources
Books, videos and other content that I highly recommend.
Books
Radical Candor
Kim Scott does an exceptional job of taking the reader through the why and how of direct, upfront conversation. This is such a critical leadership skill. The book is easy to consume and will change the way you think about how you talk to people not just in a work setting, but in any valuable relationship.
A Seat At The Table
How do you add value as a CTO in the age of agility, autonomous teams and cradle to grave ownership? Mark Schwartz completely nails the state of the tech industry as it stands (with a focus on software) and tells you how to be effective as a tech leader. I've listened to this as an audiobook at least twice - it's a gem.
Leadership Is Language
David Marquet, of "Turn the ship around" fame, with another offering that I personally think is even better. I've seen the disastrous impact of poor language use from managers and those of influence and, conversely, the inspiring effect from great use of language.
Creativity Inc
The inspiring story and useful insights from Ed Catmull's time at Pixar, creating a culture that drove creativity and engagement to new heights. Ed continues the story into the new challenges faced by the acquisition from Disney, a company with a very different culture, and how Pixar influence grew.
Escape Velocity
There's such a focus on velocity in most agile teams. The fact is that there are a number of metrics that you're going to want to balance if you want to make informed decisions. Doc Norton explains that velocity can and will be gamed and a complete focus on this metric will neglect other critical aspects of the business. This is not just about development team metrics, to really improve things, you need a holistic business view.
Teaming
Amy uses the word "Teaming" to encapsulate getting people working well together. This is clearly a key ability for any business and she does an excellent job of how to achieve this in a knowledge economy.
Videos
An exceptional talk given by Gerard Beckerleg highlighting the reality of software estimates. He talks about why we might want estimates, the problems that arise from relying on them and discusses alternative approaches.
A six part video series discussing all of the ideas that Robert Martin has written about over the years. Easily the most valuable 7+ hours of video binging you can do. Is binging a word?
Podcasts
Legacy Code Rocks
This gem was recommended at a talk I attended on making legacy code safe to work with - what a find! It's one of the few podcasts that I keep coming back to, I find myself making notes to find out more about ideas and tools that are discussed in almost every episode. Gold.
The Skeptic Guide To The Universe
Although not technically related to software management, if you want to keep your critical thinking neurons firing at full capacity, I can highly recommend this show.