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The Art of Leadership: Small Things, Done Well
Many people think leadership is a higher calling that resides exclusively with a select few who practice and preach big, complex leadership philosophies. But as this practical book reveals, what’s most important for leadership is principled consistency. Time and again, small things done well build trust and respect within a team.
Using stories from his time at Netscape, Apple, and Slack, Michael Lopp presents a series of small but compelling practices to help you build leadership skills. You’ll learn how to create teams that are highly productive, highly respected, and highly trusted. Lopp has been speaking and writing about this topic for over a decade and now maintains a Slack leadership channel with over 13,000 members.
The essays in this book examine the practical skills Lopp learned from exceptional leaders—as a manager at Netscape, a senior manager and director at Apple, and an executive at Slack. You’ll learn how to apply these lessons to your own experience.
Using stories from his time at Netscape, Apple, and Slack, Michael Lopp presents a series of small but compelling practices to help you build leadership skills. You’ll learn how to create teams that are highly productive, highly respected, and highly trusted. Lopp has been speaking and writing about this topic for over a decade and now maintains a Slack leadership channel with over 13,000 members.
The essays in this book examine the practical skills Lopp learned from exceptional leaders—as a manager at Netscape, a senior manager and director at Apple, and an executive at Slack. You’ll learn how to apply these lessons to your own experience.
164 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 13, 2020
348 people are currently reading
3261 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
June 23, 2020
A very good read.
I'm not sure whether you agree, but IMHO books about management/leadership are rarely fun to read. They can be very informative, interesting, thought-provoking, but rarely "fun".
TAoL is "fun".
First thing - the language. It's very direct, informal. I'd call it: blog-post style. Sometimes funny, but always relaxed and approachable. It doesn't even feel like a "traditional" book.
Second thing - the structure. It's split into 30 chapters that do not try to present the whole topic (leadership) end-to-end. Yes, you have the split into three "levels", but it's meant to add some gradation to the applicability of the "lessons", not to present the complete perspective on any position.
Third thing - the content. Refreshing. Because it feels like you're reading the thoughts of someone who actually HAS something to pass further. Some real-life lessons learned, not the generic, theoretical knowledge. Plus - he has the talent to communicate his thoughts: pretty much the whole book resonate with me.
Good stuff.
I'm not sure whether you agree, but IMHO books about management/leadership are rarely fun to read. They can be very informative, interesting, thought-provoking, but rarely "fun".
TAoL is "fun".
First thing - the language. It's very direct, informal. I'd call it: blog-post style. Sometimes funny, but always relaxed and approachable. It doesn't even feel like a "traditional" book.
Second thing - the structure. It's split into 30 chapters that do not try to present the whole topic (leadership) end-to-end. Yes, you have the split into three "levels", but it's meant to add some gradation to the applicability of the "lessons", not to present the complete perspective on any position.
Third thing - the content. Refreshing. Because it feels like you're reading the thoughts of someone who actually HAS something to pass further. Some real-life lessons learned, not the generic, theoretical knowledge. Plus - he has the talent to communicate his thoughts: pretty much the whole book resonate with me.
Good stuff.
July 26, 2020
I really enjoyed reading this leadership book. Picked up something for myself.
few of my notes:
1. Tasting the soup by asking small, but critical questions is important part of leadership
2. Delegate until it hurts
3. Say the hard things. Actively hearing the hard things.
4. Build your org chat not based on people, but build it around your product or technology.
People based org chats describes only power structure.
few of my notes:
1. Tasting the soup by asking small, but critical questions is important part of leadership
2. Delegate until it hurts
3. Say the hard things. Actively hearing the hard things.
4. Build your org chat not based on people, but build it around your product or technology.
People based org chats describes only power structure.
May 28, 2020
This is a heartfelt and brilliant book.
If you, like me, have been reading the blog Rands in Repose for many a year -- or whether you're completely new to the mind of Rands -- a.k.a. Michael Lopp, you're in for a treat. I've been following the blog for something verging on 15 years but every "small thing" in this book is brand new.
The "small things" are like finely crafted gemstones -- faceted and polished to focus their light of wisdom. Each small thing manages to capture and distill an “unspoken truth” about what makes effective management and leadership (as well as the difference between them!)
The prose is direct, honest, and warm. Think of an old friend or mentor offering you advice for different stages of your career. The author spans the range: starting out as a manager, to a manager of managers (director), to a manager of manager of managers (executive). The description of the New Manager Death Spiral (Small Thing 9) is eerily accurate and worth the price of the book alone. The insights into and explanations of the thoughts and worries of directors (Delegate Until It Hurts, Small Thing 11) and executives (why they always seem to be fire-fighting and How to Build a Rumor, Small Thing 24) are incredibly valuable, whether you’re an executive or whether, like most, you (eventually) roll up and report into one.
There is much to learn from in this book -- it can be read straight through, but it also demands to be returned to, drawn upon in the movements when the poignant lesson of one of its “small things” might just what is needed.
If you, like me, have been reading the blog Rands in Repose for many a year -- or whether you're completely new to the mind of Rands -- a.k.a. Michael Lopp, you're in for a treat. I've been following the blog for something verging on 15 years but every "small thing" in this book is brand new.
The "small things" are like finely crafted gemstones -- faceted and polished to focus their light of wisdom. Each small thing manages to capture and distill an “unspoken truth” about what makes effective management and leadership (as well as the difference between them!)
The prose is direct, honest, and warm. Think of an old friend or mentor offering you advice for different stages of your career. The author spans the range: starting out as a manager, to a manager of managers (director), to a manager of manager of managers (executive). The description of the New Manager Death Spiral (Small Thing 9) is eerily accurate and worth the price of the book alone. The insights into and explanations of the thoughts and worries of directors (Delegate Until It Hurts, Small Thing 11) and executives (why they always seem to be fire-fighting and How to Build a Rumor, Small Thing 24) are incredibly valuable, whether you’re an executive or whether, like most, you (eventually) roll up and report into one.
There is much to learn from in this book -- it can be read straight through, but it also demands to be returned to, drawn upon in the movements when the poignant lesson of one of its “small things” might just what is needed.
July 16, 2020
Incredibly entertaining read. Lopp is a master at telling engaging little stories that demand your attention. Unfortunately many of the chapters, while well-written, were a little too fluffy for my taste. I am a fan of advice that sounds equally good no matter whose mouth it's coming from. I fear that for a lot of the advice found in this book, one's opinion on its quality hinges on one's attitude towards the believability of the author (which as far as I can tell is rather high). That being said there were a few nuggets of wisdom and leadership metaphors ("fires burn faster uphill", "feedback is a gift that needs to be unwrapped", "taste the soup") that I think will stick with me and to be fair Lopp starts the book by telling you to skip the "small things" that don't speak to you.
August 22, 2022
I listened to the audiobook.
This book is hardly a book. It’s more like a collection of short vignettes, as if he copy and pasted snippets of blog posts into “chapters” to get a payday. Every chapter could be a tweet (seriously, they’re that short) and the book reads like a twitter thread.
I really wanted to like this book, but here at the end I am left feeling empty. While I did appreciate that Lopp made an attempt to be more specific in his advice than other leadership books that are written for a generic audience, I don’t consider this book to be “the art of leadership.” It would be better titled “Sample size of one: advice I learned in my Silicon Valley startup career that may help you if you work in Silicon Valley and aspire to lead.”
This book is hardly a book. It’s more like a collection of short vignettes, as if he copy and pasted snippets of blog posts into “chapters” to get a payday. Every chapter could be a tweet (seriously, they’re that short) and the book reads like a twitter thread.
I really wanted to like this book, but here at the end I am left feeling empty. While I did appreciate that Lopp made an attempt to be more specific in his advice than other leadership books that are written for a generic audience, I don’t consider this book to be “the art of leadership.” It would be better titled “Sample size of one: advice I learned in my Silicon Valley startup career that may help you if you work in Silicon Valley and aspire to lead.”
June 15, 2020
Déjà vu if you've read "Managing Humans"
January 18, 2022
Strengths of the book:
Easy to read, practical, like a handbook for beginner managers. The chapters can be read randomly, or one after the other. One will find useful advice about how to manage teams, how to behave in certain situation as a newbie manager.
It is full of personal stories, gathered from his work experience. The examples are easy to understand, and the tips and advice he gives are easy to follow.
The style is highly informal, highly verbal, like chatting with a more experienced friend.
Weaknesses:
It doesn’t bring that much on the table. Sometimes it feels like he is talking about the same thing over and over again. It feels like he has a bag full of anecdotes and situations and he tries to give them some constructive narrative and turn them into useful information.
You do not find anything new, no new theory or concept. The way he uses common sense managerial practices and knowledge feels a bit like cherry picking, whatever fits best for the selected example or anecdote.
Easy to read, practical, like a handbook for beginner managers. The chapters can be read randomly, or one after the other. One will find useful advice about how to manage teams, how to behave in certain situation as a newbie manager.
It is full of personal stories, gathered from his work experience. The examples are easy to understand, and the tips and advice he gives are easy to follow.
The style is highly informal, highly verbal, like chatting with a more experienced friend.
Weaknesses:
It doesn’t bring that much on the table. Sometimes it feels like he is talking about the same thing over and over again. It feels like he has a bag full of anecdotes and situations and he tries to give them some constructive narrative and turn them into useful information.
You do not find anything new, no new theory or concept. The way he uses common sense managerial practices and knowledge feels a bit like cherry picking, whatever fits best for the selected example or anecdote.
April 10, 2021
A sorta autobiographic collection of anecdotes and tactics. I struggled to get to 50% - the main message of the book is basically the bullet lists on page 2.
June 27, 2021
You can’t hack leadership.
Over the years, I've read many of Rands' blog posts and I've also read his previous book "Managing Humans". Thus a lot of the content was not new to me. Yet, I still liked this newest book "The Art of Leadership" and I found some new things to jot down for myself.
Over the years, I've read many of Rands' blog posts and I've also read his previous book "Managing Humans". Thus a lot of the content was not new to me. Yet, I still liked this newest book "The Art of Leadership" and I found some new things to jot down for myself.
August 26, 2023
Nice collection of "small things" to do as a leader in different situations, told as fictionalized anecdotes. As the introduction suggests not all of them might be helpful to you but some certainly are at any point in time.
Not all of the articles this book collects are available on the randsinrepose.com blog, and those as well as the framing structure make it worth reading the book form.
Not all of the articles this book collects are available on the randsinrepose.com blog, and those as well as the framing structure make it worth reading the book form.
January 23, 2021
There are some gems in there and I like the structure of the book into different eras of a manager’s life. However, and this is personal: I’m tired of reading management advice from grizzled white men, because that comes with a certain flair I stopped enjoying anymore.
August 3, 2024
My "golden hour" these weeks was reading this book.
November 29, 2020
It unfortunately didn’t teach me much and Lopp’s/Rands’ experiences did not sink in. Now it could be because I’m not the target market since I am not in or aiming to be in software engineering management.
May 27, 2021
I'm a big fan of Michael Lopp and this book extends the utility I found from his earlier book Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager. There's a lot here about being an effective leader that I think I do pretty intuitively, but I can backslide, so I obtain high value from a reading session with Lopp's books.
This one is a little unusual in that the essays are divided into three categories:
* Manager
* Director
* Executive
As the book moves along, the guidance becomes more nuanced and abstract following the increasing responsibilities of these roles.
One thing I would recommend as you read: When you like a chapter, put a check by it in the table of contents. Then when you're done with the book, reflect on which chapters got the check. My bet is that the checks will cluster where you need to do the most work in terms of responsibility. For instance, if you're an executive but all of your checks are in the "Manager" section, it may suggest that you've lost some of your baseline tactics with the people who report to you (the basic stuff like privileging 1:1's should never go away).
A few beauties from the book:
Pp. 134ff: Good guidance on describing emergent situations in writing and then socializing to increasingly wider circles in the company.
Chapter 24 ("How to Build a Rumor") - The perils of groupthink, and how to mitigate the risk.
Pp. 119-121. Everyone must lead. "There are many good reasons for an engineer to want to move into management but if their only reason is the perception that management is the best place to grow as a leader, then the leadership team has created the perception that leadership is not the job of individuals. This is a disaster" (p. 119).
Chapter 20 ("The Guard") - The culture split between the old-timers and new hires. This is especially a thing in startups. Read Lopp on the trust burden between these groups.
P. 101. Innovation bias. Let's say your company needs an agile process or a "ladder" for engineering roles, and you have something from a prior gig. Lopp says: Use it, and don't try to build something from scratch again. You just don't have time. I agree with this fully and think organizations that do their own design of such things might be better off adopting something "off the shelf" and then modifying it as needed.
Chapter 12 ("How to Recruit"). Apparently some engineering organizations don't know the basics. Lopp tells you.
About my only concerns about this book are: (1) That it's so engineering-focused. Lopp's counsel is generally useful but I think he stays in his comfort zone with the nerds maybe too much. And, (2): In Lopp's world, it seems that reports always work for the person tom whom they report. I have noticed in agile organizations that the "work" may be organized by product owners and scrum masters, but reporting will be up through a different hierarchy. The split between the work and the reporting has a lot of benefits and also perils: I'd be curious to learn what Lopp thinks of that.
This one is a little unusual in that the essays are divided into three categories:
* Manager
* Director
* Executive
As the book moves along, the guidance becomes more nuanced and abstract following the increasing responsibilities of these roles.
One thing I would recommend as you read: When you like a chapter, put a check by it in the table of contents. Then when you're done with the book, reflect on which chapters got the check. My bet is that the checks will cluster where you need to do the most work in terms of responsibility. For instance, if you're an executive but all of your checks are in the "Manager" section, it may suggest that you've lost some of your baseline tactics with the people who report to you (the basic stuff like privileging 1:1's should never go away).
A few beauties from the book:
Pp. 134ff: Good guidance on describing emergent situations in writing and then socializing to increasingly wider circles in the company.
Chapter 24 ("How to Build a Rumor") - The perils of groupthink, and how to mitigate the risk.
Pp. 119-121. Everyone must lead. "There are many good reasons for an engineer to want to move into management but if their only reason is the perception that management is the best place to grow as a leader, then the leadership team has created the perception that leadership is not the job of individuals. This is a disaster" (p. 119).
Chapter 20 ("The Guard") - The culture split between the old-timers and new hires. This is especially a thing in startups. Read Lopp on the trust burden between these groups.
P. 101. Innovation bias. Let's say your company needs an agile process or a "ladder" for engineering roles, and you have something from a prior gig. Lopp says: Use it, and don't try to build something from scratch again. You just don't have time. I agree with this fully and think organizations that do their own design of such things might be better off adopting something "off the shelf" and then modifying it as needed.
Chapter 12 ("How to Recruit"). Apparently some engineering organizations don't know the basics. Lopp tells you.
About my only concerns about this book are: (1) That it's so engineering-focused. Lopp's counsel is generally useful but I think he stays in his comfort zone with the nerds maybe too much. And, (2): In Lopp's world, it seems that reports always work for the person tom whom they report. I have noticed in agile organizations that the "work" may be organized by product owners and scrum masters, but reporting will be up through a different hierarchy. The split between the work and the reporting has a lot of benefits and also perils: I'd be curious to learn what Lopp thinks of that.
November 27, 2022
I'll split this book into 2 main parts: the importance of 1:1s & how to conduct them and depiction of really impressive author's experience after working in multiple high-tech companies where he had to deal with a lot of stress and challenges that're the main attributes of every growing company.
The book is very well-written, if I were in the business of allusions to dishes this particular book would be a molecular caviar. Standing on shoulders of giants of the past, with a pinch of bleeding edge terminology and references to the companies that are hot.
If I condense the whole book in a bullet list, that'd be
Conduct 1:1s, no matter what
Embrace the change, it's inevitable
Trust to delegate or you'd crumble under load
Find time to innovate
Be enthusiastic about what you do and either lead or leave
Be kind to people
My score is 5/5.
The book is very well-written, if I were in the business of allusions to dishes this particular book would be a molecular caviar. Standing on shoulders of giants of the past, with a pinch of bleeding edge terminology and references to the companies that are hot.
If I condense the whole book in a bullet list, that'd be
Conduct 1:1s, no matter what
Embrace the change, it's inevitable
Trust to delegate or you'd crumble under load
Find time to innovate
Be enthusiastic about what you do and either lead or leave
Be kind to people
My score is 5/5.
June 16, 2020
I really enjoyed the book.
I am familiar with his blog and podcast and some of the content also made it into the book.
I like the idea of "Small Things, Done Well", how he introduces a concept and backs it with reason.
His writing style is probably like his communication style, very direct and condensed.
I don't give the full five stars, because some of the later chapters in the Executive section seemed to be just fillers to get the book done. Some were straight copies from the blog and others were just not as polished as the first two thirds of the book.
Still, a worthwhile read and something I will come back to in the future to read up on certain topics and review my notes.
I am familiar with his blog and podcast and some of the content also made it into the book.
I like the idea of "Small Things, Done Well", how he introduces a concept and backs it with reason.
His writing style is probably like his communication style, very direct and condensed.
I don't give the full five stars, because some of the later chapters in the Executive section seemed to be just fillers to get the book done. Some were straight copies from the blog and others were just not as polished as the first two thirds of the book.
Still, a worthwhile read and something I will come back to in the future to read up on certain topics and review my notes.
March 26, 2021
Oh, Rands... I really enjoy the writing and there's a lot of great advice in here, but there's quite a lot of material that seemed to be super familiar. Not sure if it's because I had seen some of it on the blog, the prior book, or what... Even so, I found myself highlighting a lot and making notes, so it clearly was worthwhile.
February 16, 2021
Really enjoyed the short chapter and structure of the book however majority of the concepts or views presented aren’t new or things we can’t work out for ourselves. Meanwhile the book does a great job introducing different ‘pain points’ but it likes evidence based solutions or clear learning outcome. For me the author spend very long time talking in circles. This was just not a book for me.
July 23, 2021
Written like it is been spoken by a mentor. Rarely this happens in a book. The outcome makes you think and act on your thoughts, not on the book's author.
One of these books where you will need to come back to, every now and then.
One of these books where you will need to come back to, every now and then.
April 6, 2021
Engaging. Not many new insights.
July 6, 2022
I found The Art of Leadership more entertaining than dense with insights, but an overall enjoyable read. Lopp uses stories, metaphors and a casual, humorous narrative to make the chapters fun to read. But as I was taking notes from the book, I often found myself traversing a lot of narrative to get to the key message.
Metaphors and homebrewed concepts sometimes got in the way of the key message or argument of a given chapter. I'd get drawn in to the chapter called "Anti-Flow" to realize it was just saying to leave some unstructured time to have shower thoughts. My key takeaway from "Spidey-Sense" was that you should trust your intuition, and use the intuitions of other people when there's not enough data. And a chapter called "Kobayashi Maru Management" used an elaborate Star Trek narrative to describe how to use avoid mistakes in change management through gradually broadening feedback and communication circles.
If you appreciate a creative narrative with a sense of humor, you'll love this format. If you're here for density of insights or advice, this might not be the best resource.
My favorite chapters talk about a few things that happen at companies but we don’t talk about enough:
- Chapter 12 talks about how we often neglect the engineering part of the hiring funnel, missing opportunities to optimize, but crucially leaving the candidate with too many gaps to visualize themselves at the company.
- Chapter 19 talks suggests that executives gather context and avoid acting in the first 90 days. And how when they start acting, they often fall into the trap of trying to build consensus for everything even in situations where they could act quickly based on experience.
- Chapter 20 acknowledges the split that tends to form between the new guard and the old guard in growing companies, and suggests some ways to begin to address that split.
I loved the author’s humility and sense of humor throughout. Overall, I’d recommend this book as an audiobook to read casually rather than something to read cover to cover.
✍️ My notes from the book
Metaphors and homebrewed concepts sometimes got in the way of the key message or argument of a given chapter. I'd get drawn in to the chapter called "Anti-Flow" to realize it was just saying to leave some unstructured time to have shower thoughts. My key takeaway from "Spidey-Sense" was that you should trust your intuition, and use the intuitions of other people when there's not enough data. And a chapter called "Kobayashi Maru Management" used an elaborate Star Trek narrative to describe how to use avoid mistakes in change management through gradually broadening feedback and communication circles.
If you appreciate a creative narrative with a sense of humor, you'll love this format. If you're here for density of insights or advice, this might not be the best resource.
My favorite chapters talk about a few things that happen at companies but we don’t talk about enough:
- Chapter 12 talks about how we often neglect the engineering part of the hiring funnel, missing opportunities to optimize, but crucially leaving the candidate with too many gaps to visualize themselves at the company.
- Chapter 19 talks suggests that executives gather context and avoid acting in the first 90 days. And how when they start acting, they often fall into the trap of trying to build consensus for everything even in situations where they could act quickly based on experience.
- Chapter 20 acknowledges the split that tends to form between the new guard and the old guard in growing companies, and suggests some ways to begin to address that split.
I loved the author’s humility and sense of humor throughout. Overall, I’d recommend this book as an audiobook to read casually rather than something to read cover to cover.
✍️ My notes from the book
July 9, 2023
The Art of Leadership" contains reasonably good advice delivered in a reasonably interesting way. I can't imagine anyone find it being particularly revelatory. On the other hand, there are a few places where I thought "that's a good idea; I wouldn't necessarily have thought of that."
The thing about "The Art of Leadership" is that it's a book very narrowly based on the author's experiences and perspective. On the plus side, that gives it a certain personability and intimacy that's very appealing. On the negative side, it never really questions its premises. Why is it what it is saying more than just the leadership preferences of the author? Under what circumstances is leadership different? What other ways might there be of pursuing leadership? What is leadership in the first place? Why is pursuing the kind of leadership articulated here even a good idea of anyone else?
Reviewing this book makes me realize I don't entirely find the idea of leadership as expressed in this book appealing or interesting compared to engineering or design practices explicated elsewhere. I think of Kenya Hara or Christopher Alexander or Bruce Sterling or Gunther Vogt or Herbert Simon as all offering something more compelling. There's a point-of-view about what these people are up to and why.
Overall, I still liked it. There's a lot here worth pursuing around giving basic respect to those you work with. Yet, it's not the road into leadership for me.
The thing about "The Art of Leadership" is that it's a book very narrowly based on the author's experiences and perspective. On the plus side, that gives it a certain personability and intimacy that's very appealing. On the negative side, it never really questions its premises. Why is it what it is saying more than just the leadership preferences of the author? Under what circumstances is leadership different? What other ways might there be of pursuing leadership? What is leadership in the first place? Why is pursuing the kind of leadership articulated here even a good idea of anyone else?
Reviewing this book makes me realize I don't entirely find the idea of leadership as expressed in this book appealing or interesting compared to engineering or design practices explicated elsewhere. I think of Kenya Hara or Christopher Alexander or Bruce Sterling or Gunther Vogt or Herbert Simon as all offering something more compelling. There's a point-of-view about what these people are up to and why.
Overall, I still liked it. There's a lot here worth pursuing around giving basic respect to those you work with. Yet, it's not the road into leadership for me.
August 14, 2023
One of the most profound ideas I took from this book: leadership is about TRUST. First, With new people and new teams, You have to win the trust of those people - without it it’s impossible to lead people. I actually have been good at this, but I never thought of that as the most important value. Everyone trusts me and I take great efforts to always do what I say, to keep my promises. And on the other hand, I open up easily for people to take down their guards (= trust). I have NEVER thought about it as that being my superpower. But lets keep the review short - if You want to be better at gaining trust, do read this book. But of course there a re a lot of other wisdom nuggets in here - mostly about starting with a company that is already in the size of 100 people (the author has done it many times successfully, with mayor startups in the world that You have heard about). He definitely is an expert on that - and I praise all books written by experts about their own experience.
July 18, 2021
Last week I finished "The Art of Leadership: Small Things, Done Well" by Michael Lopp. I read his "Managing Humans" recently and joined his leadership channel in slack that has more than 15 thousand members. In 30 articles borrowed from his long running blog "Rands in Response" and divided equality for line managers, directors and executives in topics, he tells us that Leadership practices are small things done repetitively over time. He touches on several ideas - reading the room, using spidey-sense to render decisions, delegating until it hurts, getting feedback, giving compliments, understanding the culture, being kind. I liked this book as well although I would rank his other book Managing Humans a bit higher.
Source: http://www.dragon-bishop.com/2021/07/...
Source: http://www.dragon-bishop.com/2021/07/...
December 14, 2023
One of those books I listened to as an audiobook and now think I need to buy it as a physical copy!
The book contains 30 "small things" that any leader or manager can do to be better. The wisdom in this book is all from the author's own career experience, told in plain English, and with humility and humour. I felt like I was listening to a mentor who has already trodden the path I'd like to take.
Your mileage may vary on which of the small things are relevant to you, which you can adopt, and which you're already doing, but I'm convinced everyone can find at least one small thing to do from this book. My personal favourites were Small Thing 22: Anti-flow (the phrase "weaponised inspiration generation" just made me happy!) and Small Thing 27: A Precious Hour (and the description of a "faux-zone" that hit close to home!).
The book contains 30 "small things" that any leader or manager can do to be better. The wisdom in this book is all from the author's own career experience, told in plain English, and with humility and humour. I felt like I was listening to a mentor who has already trodden the path I'd like to take.
Your mileage may vary on which of the small things are relevant to you, which you can adopt, and which you're already doing, but I'm convinced everyone can find at least one small thing to do from this book. My personal favourites were Small Thing 22: Anti-flow (the phrase "weaponised inspiration generation" just made me happy!) and Small Thing 27: A Precious Hour (and the description of a "faux-zone" that hit close to home!).
January 4, 2021
Exceptional leadership book. Builds on the content in Managing Humans nicely.
Lopp's leadership philosophy particularly resonates with me because he is a rampant incrementalist (I'd like to think I am the same, Atomic Habits anyone?). Book has lots of practical advice that you can apply to your job as a leader immediately.
My favourite part is that he preaches `kindness` above all things and sharing critical information as leadership philosophies, which I wholeheartedly agree with
One of the few, slight disappointments in the book is some of the language, which can be very abstract and confusing for people who don't know Star Trek (The Kobayashi Maru chapter for example).
Long live Lopp/Rands.
- A fan of your leadership style
Lopp's leadership philosophy particularly resonates with me because he is a rampant incrementalist (I'd like to think I am the same, Atomic Habits anyone?). Book has lots of practical advice that you can apply to your job as a leader immediately.
My favourite part is that he preaches `kindness` above all things and sharing critical information as leadership philosophies, which I wholeheartedly agree with
One of the few, slight disappointments in the book is some of the language, which can be very abstract and confusing for people who don't know Star Trek (The Kobayashi Maru chapter for example).
Long live Lopp/Rands.
- A fan of your leadership style
December 25, 2020
Unfocused but interesting
This book promises a list of small things you can do to improve your leadership skills, but really it’s a much more philosophical book than that. Often, I had to really dig to figure out what the “small thing” or action I was supposed to glean from an example. Sometimes I couldn’t find it. The organization of the book really doesn’t make sense, it’s more like “anecdotes about leadership and lessons to be learned from them”, and splitting the book up between Manager, Director, and Executive is not relevant to most of the examples and stories. Anyway, it was interesting!
This book promises a list of small things you can do to improve your leadership skills, but really it’s a much more philosophical book than that. Often, I had to really dig to figure out what the “small thing” or action I was supposed to glean from an example. Sometimes I couldn’t find it. The organization of the book really doesn’t make sense, it’s more like “anecdotes about leadership and lessons to be learned from them”, and splitting the book up between Manager, Director, and Executive is not relevant to most of the examples and stories. Anyway, it was interesting!
February 18, 2021
I enjoyed Lopp's previous book "Managing Humans" but felt that it was occasionally repetitive and suffered a little from being what it was: a compilation of blog posts. While I've read a few of the chapters in "Art of Leadership" as blog posts as well, this book feels more planned and internally consistent. It's clear that the idea for the book was well thought-out, and there's a story arc that pulls it together, avoids repetition, and makes it a cohesive object rather than a collection of objects. It's an enjoyable read and will be a useful reference, and offers plenty of food for thought to any engineering (and probably other) leader.
June 28, 2021
This book has a ton of solid advice from years of the author's experience. I recognize a lot of this from my time in Big Tech, but each essay focuses that advice in such a concise way that i found many things said to me in fresh ways.
While this is a solid collection of individual essays that is jam-packed with gems, it felt a bit disconnected as a whole. Some essays felt like they were in the wrong section and in the final section about being an Executive, there is a quick description about what separates that from the Director role before, but then that difference is not focused on again.
While this is a solid collection of individual essays that is jam-packed with gems, it felt a bit disconnected as a whole. Some essays felt like they were in the wrong section and in the final section about being an Executive, there is a quick description about what separates that from the Director role before, but then that difference is not focused on again.
February 10, 2023
I really enjoyed reading this book and I recommend it for anyone interested in the engineering management career path.
The book has 3 parts, referred as Acts, where the author share his tips and experiences on what it is expected and how to be a good manager (Act 1), Director, (Act 2) and Executive (Act 3).
Well written and easy to read, most of the content resonated well with my own managerial believes and experiences.
I also liked that he was using his own career to each of the acts (Netscape, Apple and Slack).
It is the type of book that I will keep closely so that I can regularly review and use the ideas on my work.
The book has 3 parts, referred as Acts, where the author share his tips and experiences on what it is expected and how to be a good manager (Act 1), Director, (Act 2) and Executive (Act 3).
Well written and easy to read, most of the content resonated well with my own managerial believes and experiences.
I also liked that he was using his own career to each of the acts (Netscape, Apple and Slack).
It is the type of book that I will keep closely so that I can regularly review and use the ideas on my work.
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