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From Techie to Boss
From Techie to Bossteaches technical people who are making or mulling the transition from team player to team leader all the management techniques and soft leadership skills they never needed before but need now, pronto. Veteran team lead and project manager Scott Cromar lays out the classical management training course, but stripped down to precisely the essentials that techies need to start managing on the fly. He gets it that a front-line techie getting a field promotion to team leader just doesn't have the time to wade through an MBA textbook bulging with irrelevant material. The author appreciates how you got to the place where you need this book. Management tapped you instead of some experienced manager from the outside because you know the technical challenges, company culture, and team players better than anyone else: you're ready to hit the ground running. But the skills that make you an excellent techie are not sufficient to make you a successful manager. The rules of your world have abruptly changed. You will now be judged not by your puzzle-solving elegance but by how effectively your team contributes to the organization's bottom line.
From Techie to Boss shows you how to translate and adapt the analytic skills that made you an outstanding techie to your new responsibilities as a technical manager. Even more crucially, this book teaches you a whole new set of interpersonal, organizational, and metrical skills you never needed before, but without which you cannot succeed as a manager."
From Techie to Boss shows you how to translate and adapt the analytic skills that made you an outstanding techie to your new responsibilities as a technical manager. Even more crucially, this book teaches you a whole new set of interpersonal, organizational, and metrical skills you never needed before, but without which you cannot succeed as a manager."
- GenresLeadershipBusiness
241 pages, ebook
First published April 16, 2013
8 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 5, 2013
It’s extremely common for technical people who do well in their job to be offered promotion as a reward for their efforts. Unfortunately, the same people who had previously performed well struggle once they are in a supervisory position.
They find that being a respectable manager is not the same as being technically capable; and that they need a completely new set of skills from outside of their previous field of competence.
This book offers a wide range of advice for the technician that has been newly promoted to a leadership role; amongst some of the key topics, there is information on time and project management, how to motivate and control staff or resolve conflict, determining strategy and policy; as well as the right way to go about communicating with staff and more senior managers.
Essentially, it’s a guide to the ‘softer’ skills that may be needed in the new position, that the technical person may not have previously had the chance to learn.
It’s broken up into modules that each focus on one specific area, allowing the reader the opportunity to pick out the particular topic that they want to learn about; and this makes the book a highly valuable resource for those that are trying to get to grips with their new responsibilities.
It’s quite a lengthy book, so is not really suitable for being read through in depth from cover to cover; it might be appropriate to ‘skim read’ it first. Rather, it should be seen as something to be kept to hand and referred to as the need arrives.
Within the text, there are considerable references to other resources from which the author has drawn a lot of the ideas and solutions that he offers. Many of these contain proven techniques that are used by a very large number of highly successful managers in many other fields; and the book provides a clear set of arguments for following the instructions. Without question, this is an informative book with a solid background.
However, even though they could well be used to reading much longer and more technical books, a number of people might be put off reading it simply because of its size and the depth of subject matter.
This is a shame, as there is no question that it does provide excellent advice and it would be of immense value in making the newer manager much more effective in their role. The recommendations in the book are absolutely sound; and it should be seen as a way to understand how to be successful as a leader.
This book would make a great addition to any manager’s library.
Reviewed by: A P Sutcliffe, PG Dip CCI, MBCS
They find that being a respectable manager is not the same as being technically capable; and that they need a completely new set of skills from outside of their previous field of competence.
This book offers a wide range of advice for the technician that has been newly promoted to a leadership role; amongst some of the key topics, there is information on time and project management, how to motivate and control staff or resolve conflict, determining strategy and policy; as well as the right way to go about communicating with staff and more senior managers.
Essentially, it’s a guide to the ‘softer’ skills that may be needed in the new position, that the technical person may not have previously had the chance to learn.
It’s broken up into modules that each focus on one specific area, allowing the reader the opportunity to pick out the particular topic that they want to learn about; and this makes the book a highly valuable resource for those that are trying to get to grips with their new responsibilities.
It’s quite a lengthy book, so is not really suitable for being read through in depth from cover to cover; it might be appropriate to ‘skim read’ it first. Rather, it should be seen as something to be kept to hand and referred to as the need arrives.
Within the text, there are considerable references to other resources from which the author has drawn a lot of the ideas and solutions that he offers. Many of these contain proven techniques that are used by a very large number of highly successful managers in many other fields; and the book provides a clear set of arguments for following the instructions. Without question, this is an informative book with a solid background.
However, even though they could well be used to reading much longer and more technical books, a number of people might be put off reading it simply because of its size and the depth of subject matter.
This is a shame, as there is no question that it does provide excellent advice and it would be of immense value in making the newer manager much more effective in their role. The recommendations in the book are absolutely sound; and it should be seen as a way to understand how to be successful as a leader.
This book would make a great addition to any manager’s library.
Reviewed by: A P Sutcliffe, PG Dip CCI, MBCS
December 4, 2013
Well... I guess it was an ok book. Not terrible and to be honest I didn't finish it. I just felt that there was nothing new in this book that I haven't already read many times over.
Some of the items were pretty obvious and maybe I am the wrong demographic. I don't want to say the book was terrible just wasn't for me.
Some of the items were pretty obvious and maybe I am the wrong demographic. I don't want to say the book was terrible just wasn't for me.
December 12, 2016
It had a lot of good tips for the transition from a technical role to a management role.
That being said, it has a lot of information that is redundant of other more general management books. It is aimed primarily at the IT industry from what I gather, but it does have some useful generalizations.
That being said, it has a lot of information that is redundant of other more general management books. It is aimed primarily at the IT industry from what I gather, but it does have some useful generalizations.
September 4, 2014
Lots of good resources, but it felt a little shallow.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews