The two management books that jump started my tenure as an executive
When I was offered an executive position at JP Morgan I was equal parts excited and terrified. I was joining a group of my former Fast colleagues, a company whose innovative engineering culture I’ve been chasing ever since it went under. This new position felt like a second chance to work with the best engineers I’ve ever worked with in my career and I felt immense responsibility to not let that opportunity slip through my hands again. The only thing that gave me pause was that this was a management position, not an individual contributor (“IC”) one. I was a solo engineer at the time with very little experience of knowing what a good manager looked like, so before my start date I panicked and read 9 books on management. As of this month I have survived (and possibly thrived?) for a full year and I can confidently say that two of the books I read have heavily defined the start of my tenure. I think about them daily and recommend them to my team any chance I get.
Let’s get into them:
The two must read books (in no particular order) are:
- “Turn the Ship Around” by David Marquet
- “Creativity inc” by Ed Catmull
“Turn the Ship Around” by David Marquet
Navy submarines aren’t usually your first thought when it comes to ground breaking engineering management tactics but this book is incredible. It hits on so many levels: leadership, philosophy, and scratches a history-loving itch.
One of the biggest things you need to worry about as a manager is how to scale yourself. This book coins the “Leader → Leader” model, which is the antithesis to the usual “Leader → Follower” model of management. This model (and the “I intend to” strategy) allowed them to scale through training petty officers to think as if they were the next level up, better preparing candidates for promotions at the end of the year. This was a win-win for everyone because the the number of promotions was one of the performance metrics for how successful the submarine was. What an incredible playbook.
Another thing I really appreciated about this book is the philosophy side of it all. Normally with management books the authors will be the hero of most stories and then will recap what that story was supposed to teach you (blaaaah). This book is more of a first-person view as he goes into his thought process in the moment. This was incredible because you go through the emotions with him, better calibrating yourself to what it’s like to logic through tough situations. He’s also not the perfect hero of every story and admits when the system was wrong and makes things right (like in the big “sled dog” story). I really appreciate this because if you can’t admit when you or the system is wrong, you’ve just killed any opportunity to improve.
Read👏 it👏
“Creativity Inc” by Ed Catmull
This book surprised me by making me think in ways I haven’t thought before. Ed has a background in higher education and wanted to replicate the innovation of a college lab at Pixar. My background is in Neuroscience, and I think the “college lab innovation vibe” is what attracted me to my team at Fast and is exactly what I’d like to achieve wherever I go.
In story after story this book dives into incredibly thoughtful thinking processes for how to make your team more creative and functional. One of my favorite stories is when he realized that the shape of the table for table reads was hindering people from feeling comfortable participating. They were initially using a beautiful rectangular table that intentionally placed the most important people in the center through coveted place cards. This is a pretty standard set up so nothing to see here, right? However, he took a step back and realized that everyone’s level of perceived importance decreased as they sat farther away from the center of the table. Due to this, there was a direct correlation between distance from the table’s center and how comfortable people were to offer their ideas. Collaboration increased when they changed the table to a large, square table and randomized the place cards. I think work space changes like this are on to something, because I noticed that the equal placement of a fully remote Zoom call also did this for engineering culture over the pandemic.
There are so many books about “getting more” out of your team, and this book does that but it also goes into what happens when your team goes too far. I “ugly cried” reading the chapter about the making of Toy Story 2. What an eye opening lesson in work/life balance. I could go on.
Read👏 it👏
In Conclusion / TLDR;
Will reading a ton of books on management make you a great manager? Absolutely not, but they will help you think in different ways and better prepare you to make better decisions. Because of this, if you’re thinking about going into management you should read everything you can on the subject. If you read anything, read “Turn the Ship Around” and “Creativity inc”. I’d love to have a coffee and discuss them with you.
