The Manager's Path

A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change

by Camille Fournier

Paperback, 244 pages

English language

Published Aug. 26, 2017 by O'Reilly Media.

ISBN:: 978-1-4919-7389-9

(8 reviews)

Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal—especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager.

From mentoring interns to working with senior staff, you’ll get actionable advice for approaching various obstacles in your path. This book is ideal whether you’re a new manager, a mentor, or a more experienced leader looking for fresh advice. Pick up this book and learn how to become a better manager and leader in your organization.

Begin by exploring what you expect from a manager
Understand what it takes to be a good mentor, and a good tech lead
Learn how to manage individual members while remaining focused on the …

Begin by exploring what you expect from a manager
Understand what it takes to be a good mentor, and a good tech lead
Learn how to manage individual members while remaining focused on the entire team
Understand how to manage yourself and avoid common pitfalls that challenge many leaders
Manage multiple teams and learn how to manage managers
Learn how to build and bootstrap a unifying culture in teams

1 edition

Sofie reviewed The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier

A pratical Guide for Tech Leaders

5 stars

The book is divided into chapters for different management roles. Every chapter describes in a practical and pragmatic way the challenges that come with a role. Unfortunately some generic information about assessment, conflict handling, and culture is hidden in mutliple chapters. Therefore is it not enough to read a few chapters for your actual situation to get the whole picture. You have to get through every chapter to extract important information that is applicable to all management roles.

Nicolas Delsaux reviewed The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier

Review of "The Manager's Path" on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Pour mon travail, et grâce à l'excellente conférence de N. Helleringer à Devoxx (www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWARXoZrx10), j'ai lu cet excellent ouvrage sur l'art du management. Evidement, c'est loin de mes lectures habituelles. Du coup mes notes ne seront sans doute pas du même accabit.
Ce lvire est constitué de différents chapitres consacrés aux différentes étapes de l'évolution du manager, avec les éléments qui y apparaissent. Cette évolution est bien détaillée, et évidement spécifique au monde de l'informatique. Chaque chapitre propose en outre des évaluations à réaliser soi-même, qui fournissent des bases de réflexion très intéressantes. J'adorerai d'ailleurs avoir ces auto-évaluations sous une forme simplifiée ...
Dans l'ensemble, même si je n'ai pas lu les deux derniers chapitres, qui s'adressent aux CTO, j'ai beaucoup appris sur les aspects humains de ce travail.

Christof Damian reviewed The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier

Review of "The Manager's Path" on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I should start a list of books I wish I read earlier. This one would definitely be on that list. Thankfully it is fairly recent, so I don't have myself to blame.

Most people that I know in some kind of lead or management role stumbled into them. This was certainly the case for me. One day you are the lone developer in a small shop or start-up and without your fault it does start to grow. All is well until you have a handful of people in the team, suddenly there is a need for some structure and dare I say the word "management".
A lot of developers, including myself, are introverts and also prefer the technology side of a company. Taking on the role of a lead or manager will force you to talk to more people and reduces your time on the keyboard. I never wanted to manage people, but working at my start-up (guideguide, war stories another time) I realised that someone had to do it and if I cared for the company it probably had to be me.

This is where "The Manager's Path" comes in. It explains the path you might take from being a lone contributor to taking on more responsibilities like mentoring, leading on the technical side, to managing teams and finally being a CTO.
It explains every role in great details with real life examples and asks questions to assess your own situation.

Even if you are happy to just being a developer this might be helpful to understand the other side and what to expect from your lead. Maybe it also helps to decide that management is not for you yet and you want to learn more about the technology before you take the next step. Or you decide you just are happy where you are and might never go further than on the technical side.

I did see myself in a lot of the chapters and wished I had someone tell me these things 20 years ago.
Now I will keep it on hand as a reference to look up when I have to reassess roles and help others to grow.
While my title is Technical Director at the moment, in the book I am somewhere between manager of team(s) and manager of managers with a sprinkle of CTO.

I wonder if there are similar books for other professions, reading this book might be good, but a lot of things are specific to technical careers.