Reading List for New Managers
These are the books we recommend for engineers-turned-managers.
While there are many great books on self-help, management, and leadership, we know the analytically-minded engineer wants more than just good stories; they want rigorously researched approaches to being a better person, manager, and leader.
These books come from preeminent thinkers and researchers, not just people sharing their experiences.
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Managing Yourself
The father of modern management practice, Peter Drucker, knew that to manage others, one must first be able to manage oneself - no easy task. Almost all other books on management are built on the foundation set by Peter Drucker.
Discover the seven practices of extremely productive people. This book is organizational psychology in a nutshell. The research appendix will demonstrate how statistical analysis works in social sciences and the reference list will keep you busy for a lifetime.
The ultimate, research-based approach to developing habits that change your life. It will also provide the understanding of behavioral psychology necessary for managing other people.
Exercise your brain like you exercise your body. The tenants of Positive Intelligence® are life-changing and will help you develop the skills necessary to lead others.
In a world competing for our attention, it's tough to focus. This book is a guide on how to reclaim your attention and your time.
Managing Others
It may be silly, but if you want role-clarity in a couple of hours, this book breaks down your new job with such simplicity it's hard to ignore.
If you still spend 75% or more of your time on your old job doing task work, this book will show you how to manage people in the precious few minutes you have.
Communication is the universal skill required of good managers. This book will show you how you may get in your own way and how to communicate with 100% honesty AND 100% respect.
Organizational alignment occurs because of frontline managers. OKRs and one-on-one meetings may be the most significant tools a manager can adopt without waiting for their organization. This book will show you how.
A must-read for any project manager and engineer. If you are so used to working on complicated problems, when you are faced with a complex problem you don't know where to start. This phenomenal book makes the problem type distinction clear and shows you how to make sense of complexity.
Leadership
Created by an engineer, this is the ultimate DIY'ers book for understanding your leadership style, your role, and for aligning your group to a singular focus. A perfect guide for any supervisor.
You weren't put into a leadership position because you were ready; you were put there because someone saw potential. This book guides you in how to rise to the higher order expectations and gives you snapshot of why every level of leadership exists.
This is also the go-to book for leadership succession planning, a core responsibility of every business leader.
Organizational development is a no-B.S. game. Rather than catering to the whims of your workforce, this book builds the case for clarity of purpose and for leading in such a way that sets high expectations and unapologetically holds people accountable.
All of the CliftonStrengths® resources are a must for new managers. It demonstrates how there is not a single best way to be a leader, rather, each person must understand their strengths and build their leadership style themselves.
Strategic thinking is a common expectations of new managers. But what does that even mean? This book not only helps you see the complexity of the world, but it gives you a framework for strategic thinking that all executives aspire to but rarely achieve.
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DISCLAIMER: the links in this blog post may be sponsored. However, we created this list ourselves, and whether a paid sponsorship was available or not had no bearing on our selection.