The Effective Manager

“The Effective Manager” by the people behind Manager Tools (a great podcast) is a really, really good view of this. Re: Communication, this book starts there and builds upon that foundation. It’s targeted at line managers, but anyone in a leadership position can and will benefit. For example, I don’t do one-on-one’s with my team. I do “Project Management 1:1’s” or “Weekly project status updates.” I don’t always give feedback the way they prescribe (because the team doesn’t formally report to me). I do, however, go out of my way to say “Just to let you know, when you do X, Y happens.” And from the book, learned that there’s a 10:1 ratio of positive to negative feedback to strive for. Side note: Manager Tools has a great podcast series that is arranged into a “map of the universe” [1] which shows a huge list of topics, and how to discuss everything from good or bad performance, dealing with various types of conflict, to even how to structure emails or how to address a personal scent issue (which I’ve actually used). [1] https://www.manager-tools.com/map-of-the-universe

Engineer turned engineering leader here. "Good Strategy / Bad Strategy" by Richard Rumelt - An awesome book on strategy, which explains very plainly how to construct a reasonable strategy, and see signs of bad strategy. It (among other things) dissects NVIDIA's rise in the late 2000's, and predicts (more or less) the next ten years of where the company went. "The Effective Manager" by Mark Horstman - All the things that no one says or tells about management and communication. "Team Topologies" by Skelton and Pais - A really good view of organizational design patterns and anti-patterns for software teams rooted in the premise of Conway's Law.