This post is for those who are interested in having a better understanding of “Management” and “Leadership”, and are looking for resources to learn more. I am using this place to save a few resources for myself so that I can check them out later!

  • Management: Helps with running a process smoothly and efficiently.
  • Leadership: Helps with influencing team, and providing direction for what should come next

Those are not titles. If you look at your work closely, you can found examples for those. I am going to review some of my works here to show how you can show your “management” and “leadership” skills.

  • Example 1:

    I took owenship of changing our 20+ pipelines so that they meet the requirements of a stakeholder (data office). I started with writing down the components involved, and broke down the required process to several steps, each with clear scope. After planning the work, writing down the steps, and assessing the potential risks, I created a timeline and system-oriented tasks, meaning the tasks were chained to reflect the actual work that needs to be done for the system, either sequentially or in parallel if a resource is available.

  • Example 2:

    In the middle of the work, a new resource was introduced. The problem? She was new to the project. So, inevitably, a certain time needs to be spent so that she can understand the system itself to some extent before even applying changes. I understood the issue and I needed a way to resolve it. So, I decided to narrow down the scope of her work. I only explained a part of system to her. Then, we started with a pull request and I broke down the tasks for her, and we reviewd the progress every two days. I encouraged her to feel free to ask questions if she feels a certain part needs further clarification, and helped her to understand the “why” and the “goal” for each task, and I asked her to think about breaking down each task to some substasks. That allowed her to take small steps and became more comfortable gradually.

  • Example 3:

    I also took ownership of adding a a new feature for our business users. That work required collaboration with different groups of team. One of my goal was to avoid miscommunication as much as possible. Miscommunication can happen if workflow is ill-defined and when a certain set of expectations is not disclosed in advance. So, I followed the IPO mindset, i.e. input -> process -> output. I started from there and tried to identify pieces at high-level. Then, I reached out to each group and asked them to review their relevant piece, assess the effort and share with me their input. This allowed me to put together a realistic timeline.

Some of us probably share similar experiences. I believe it is good to improve our skills on “management” and “leadership” regardless of your current position. It allows us to manage our works better and provide better impact and influece on our team.

I did a bit of research and I am planning to find some time to check out the following books that cover skills on “management”, “leadership”, “habit”, “communication”, etc.

  • The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  • The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
  • Extreme Ownership
  • Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
  • Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
  • Why by Simon Sinek
  • Good to Great by Jim Collins (A bit outdated but still has some relevant stuff)
  • Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
  • Leading Change by John P. Kotter
  • The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
  • Team Roles at Work
  • Time To Think by Nancy Kline
  • Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
  • Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
  • Rapport by Emily and Laurence Alison
  • The TED Talks official guide to public speaking by Chris Anderson
  • Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
  • To Sell is Human by Daniel H. Pink
  • Principles by Ray Dalio
  • Peak by Robert Pool and Anders Ericsson
  • The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
  • Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

Finally, I would like to share this link that might help you understand how you should adjust the way you communicate depending on who you are communicating with.