Book notes: Becoming a Technical Leader
Tags: books, leadership, management, career
Published: 2019-12-10 18:26:36

---
published: true
canonical_url: https://danlebrero.com/2019/11/27/becoming-a-technical-leader-book-notes/
title: Book notes: Becoming a Technical Leader
tags: books,leadership,management,career
keywords: Book review notes becoming a technical leader
description: Book notes on Gerald Weinberg's "Becoming a technical leader"
cover_image: https://danlebrero.com/images/blog/becoming-technical-leader/becoming-a-technical-leader.jpg
series: Book notes
---

These are my notes on Gerald Weinberg's [Becoming a technical leader](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/714344.Becoming_a_Technical_Leader). 

This is the first book that I read about leadership, so even if I found it insightful, I do not have any other reference to compare against. 

# Key Insights

* Leadership is a skill and as with any skill it can be learn.
* Leadership is not an instinct.
* Leadership is the process of creating an environment in which people become empowered.
* Organic leadership leads the process, not the people.
* An environment must have *MOI*:
    * Motivation - why.
    * Organisation - to move ideas to practice.
    * Ideas or Innovation - seeds, vision.
* Motivational leadership is just one type of leadership.
* Technical leaders emphasise innovation. A problem-solving leadership style consist on:
    * Understanding the problem.
    * Manage flow of ideas.
    * Maintain quality.
* All problem-solving leadership leaders have faith that there is always a better way.
* Manager != Leader. Manager is an appointed leader.
* Best working groups, leadership comes from everybody.
* The paradox of the appointed leader:
    * We think the appointed leader is the essential part of an organisation, so
    * When there is trouble, everybody turns to the appointed leader, so
    * This increases the load on her, so she either:
        * Breaks, or
        * If she does not break, she has been the most active during the crisis, so
    * The paradox if reinforced, as she is seen as the essential part during the crisis.
    * This is why appointed leaders are replaced when a team does not perform. This is a fallacy. Systems are not linear.
* Will I lose my technical skills if I become a leader?
    * Yes.
* [Obstacles for innovation](#ch-6):
    * No-problem syndrome.
    * Self-blindness.
    * Single solution belief.
* Becoming a leader means shifting the focus from your ideas to ideas of others.
* People without vision cannot influence others.
* Find a vision: child-like, but not childish. 
* Clear communication, tell:
    * What you perceive.
    * How you feel about what you perceive.
    * How you feel about the feeling.
* If you are a leader, the people are your work. There is no other work worth doing.
* Offer to help only if you would want to be helped in the same situation and do it in the way you would want to be helped.
* You cannot care for others if you don’t care for yourself.
* Everybody wants to feel useful.
* [Mature patterns of behaviour](#mature-patterns)
* [Consensus in organizations](#ch-17)
* [Obstacles for organizing](#ch-18):
    * Not using people's judgement.
    * The more precise your orders, the more frustration when they are not understood, and the less creativity for the one ordered.
    * Doing the work yourself
        * A leaders job is not to solve a single problem, but to create an environment in which many problems will be solved, not just for today, but for the future.
* Everybody is doing their best, under the current circumstances. Hence if you think they there are not, it is because you don't understand the circumstances.
* The person at the top makes the rules, which is another way of saying it breaks the old rules.
* If you don't fail, you are not testing yourself thoroughly.
* Take responsibility for your own education.
* Make the most of your organisation's learning opportunities.
* Make time: Don’t redo work you have assigned to others. Allow if you must make them mistakes.
* Seeking support is a sign of strength, not weakness.
* Do not obsess to become a manager or leader. Ask yourself:
    * Why do I want to do this?
    * What assets do I have to contribute?
    * What liabilities do I bring?    

# TOC

* [Part one: Definition](#part-one)
    * [1 - What is Leadership, Anyway?](#ch-1)
    * [2 - Models of Leadership Style](#ch-2)
    * [3 - A Problem-Solving Style](#ch-3)
    * [4 - How Leaders Develop](#ch-4)
    * [5 - But I can't because …](#ch-5)
* [Part 2: Innovation](#part-2)
    * [6 - Obstacles to Innovation](#ch-6)
    * [7 - Improve self-awareness](#ch-7)
    * [8 - Developing Idea Power](#ch-8)
    * [9 - Vision](#ch-9)
* [Part 3 - Motivation](#part-3)
    * [10 - First Great Obstacle to Motivation - clear communication](#ch-10)
    * [11 - Second great obstacle to motivation - Putting task over people](#ch-11)
    * [12 - The Problem of Helping Others](#ch-12)
    * [13 - Learning to Be a Motivator](#ch-13)
    * [14 - Where Power Come From](#ch-14)
    * [15 - Power, Imperfection and Congruence](#ch-15)
* [Part 4 - Organization](#part-4)
    * [16 - Gaining organisation power](#ch-16)
    * [17 - Effective organisation of problem-solving teams](#ch-17)
    * [18 - Obstacles to Effective Organising](#ch-18)
    * [19 - Learning to Be an Organiser](#ch-19)
* [Part 5 - Transformation](#part-5)
    * [20 - How You Will Be Graded as a Leader](#ch-20)
    * [21 - Passing Your Own Leadership Tests](#ch-21)
    * [22 - A Personal Plan for Change](#ch-22)
    * [23 - Finding Time to Change](#ch-23)
    * [24 - Finding Support for Change](#ch-24)
* [Epilogue](#epilogue)

# <a name="part-one"></a>Part one: Definition

## <a name="ch-1"></a>Chapter 1 - What is Leadership, Anyway?

* Leadership is a skill and as with any skill it can be learn.
* Leadership is not an instinct.
* You maybe a reluctant leader, because leading is conceived as "telling people what to do", which feels wrong.
* You are a leader if people comes to ask for advice, and you like that.
* Who is the leader of a team? You cannot ask the team or the observers of a team.
* Leadership means influence.
* Many model of leadership:
    * Linear:
        * one effect, one cause.
        * Example: thread/reward.
        * You feel stupid if it doesn't work.
        * Person: 
            * Place individual into categories.
            * “Growth” == how well you fit into a category.
        * Relationship:
            * Good for large scale.
            * Your position == your authority.
        * Change:
            * Expect change to be orderly, one thing at a time.
    * Organic: 
        * close to system thinking.
        * One effect, hundreds of causes, including the passage of time.
        * Good for complex situations.
        * Bad if we become paralysed until we fully understand the problem.
        * Person:
            * Are unique.
            * Find common ground.
            * Help find inner harmony.
    * Relationship:
        * Everybody is equal.
        * Everybody benefits of problem solving.
        * Joy of discovery.
    * Change:
        * Expect change to be messy, ambiguity.
        * Change is an opportunity to grow.          
* Definition of Leadership:
    * Is the process of creating an environment in which people become empowered.
    * Organic leadership leads to the process, not the people.
    * Organic model is important for innovation.

## <a name="ch-2"></a>Chapter 2 - Models of Leadership Style

* For change to happen, an environment must have *MOI*:
    * Motivation - why.
    * Organisation - to move ideas to practice.
    * Ideas or Innovation - seeds, vision.
* Leadership style is how much of the above you use.
* Examples:
    * Pure "M": Politician able to sell any idea.
    * Pure "O": Supper efficient office manager, for last year problems.
    * Pure "I": Genius that cannot work with others neither can organise the work for his ideas.
* Technical leaders emphasise innovation. A problem-solving leadership style consist on:
    * Understanding the problem.
    * Manage flow of ideas.
    * Maintain quality.
* The above is accomplished with MOI strategies.
* To improve leadership, we ADD strategies, do not remove.
* All problem-solving leadership leaders have faith that there is always a better way.

## <a name="ch-3"></a>Chapter 3 - A Problem-Solving Style

* Understand the problem:
    * Read the spec.
    * Encourage others to read the spec.
    * Resolve arguments by referring back to the original spec.
    * Seek clarification from customer.
    * Refer back to the spec after some work has been done.
* Manage flow of ideas:
    * Contribute with a clever idea.
    * Encourage copying of useful idea.
    * Elaborate on an idea that a teammate contributed.
    * Drop one's idea in favour of an idea the team want to develop.
    * Refuse to let an idea drop until everybody understands it.
    * Resist time pressure and take time to listen when other people explain their ideas.
    * Test ideas contributed by other people (outside teams or company).
    * Withhold quick criticism of teammates ideas, in order to keep ideas flowing.
    * Criticise an idea, not the person behind the idea.
    * Test your own ideas before offering them.
    * When time and labor are running short, stop working in new ideas and just pitch in.
    * Encourage the team to drop ideas that succeeded earlier, but cannot be extended to the new situation.
    * Revive a dropped idea later, when it has value for other part of the problem or different context.
* Control quality:
    * Measure quality as the project proceeds.
    * Design tools and processes to measure quality as you build a solution.
    * Measure the speed of implementation. Compare it to the schedule and be prepared to change the solution procedure.
    * Step back from the project to refresh your perspective and assess its viability.
    * Check ideas with the customer before implementing them.
    * Restore morale when an idea collapses.

## <a name="ch-4"></a>Chapter 4 - How Leaders Develop

* Practice makes perfect.
* Learning is like:

![Learning curve](https://danlebrero.com/images/blog/becoming-technical-leader/learning-curve.jpg "Learning curve")


* Huge jumps in productivity.
* Ravine before breakthrough.
* Plateau with little improvement.
* How do you know there is something after the ravine?
* Metacycle: learning to learn.

## <a name="ch-5"></a>Chapter 5 - But I can't because …

* I am not a manager
    * Manager != Leader. 
    * Manager is an appointed leader.
    * We tend to forget things that do not work, things that do not fit our models.
    * Best working groups, leadership comes from everybody.
    * The paradox of the appointed leader:
        * We think the appointed leader is the essential part of an organisation, so
        * When there is trouble, everybody turns to the appointed leader, so
        * This increases the load on her, so she either:
            * Breaks, or
            * If she does not break, she has been the most active during the crisis, so
        * The paradox if reinforced, as she is seen as the essential part during the crisis.
    * This is why appointed leaders are replaced when a team does not perform. This is a fallacy. Systems are not linear.
* I am not the leader type
    * Motivational leadership is just one type of leadership.
    * Problem-solving leadership is more appropriate for me.
* I will lose my technical skills
    * Yes you will.
* I am in danger of growing
    * Yes.
    * But you can chose when.
    * Again, manager != leader != boss.
* I don’t want that much power
    * What BS is the author talking about?

# <a name="part-2"></a>Part 2: Innovation
## <a name="ch-6"></a>Chapter 6 - Obstacles to Innovation

* Self-blindness:
    * The only way we can see ourselves is through other people, so
    * Find somebody to watch over you and give you honest feedback. Keep it mutual.
* No-problem syndrome:
    * What: 
        * Finding a solution before understanding the problem. 
        * You know the answer to all problems.
    * Test to find out:
        * Ask the problem solver to repeat back the problem to be solved.
        * If she replies with a solution, then she has the problem solver syndrome.
* Single solution belief:
    * Just one solution.

## <a name="ch-7"></a>Chapter 7 - Improve self-awareness

* Test if you want to change: start writing a personal journey for the next 3 months.
* When? Whenever fits you.
* What? About yourself. 
    * Maybe follow: facts, feelings, findings.
    * Maybe: work ideas and fixed bugs.

## <a name="ch-8"></a>Chapter 8 - Developing Idea Power

* You must believe that any real problem has one more solution, which nobody has found yet.
* New ideas:
    * Every mistake is a new idea.
    * Steal ideas:
        * Plagiarising.
        * Research.
        * Talks to others to be able to do this!
    * Misunderstand stolen ideas.
    * Copulation:
        * Mix two ideas into a better one.
        * Coupling of ideas.
        * Best way to solve arguments between two parties.
* Error, theft and copulation: all things that we learn not to do since school.
* Relation with 3 obstacles to innovations:
    * Error == self-awareness: we do not error.
    * Theft == no-problem syndrome: we are so clever that we do not need others ideas.
    * Copulation == single-solution belief: if there is only one solution, there is no point on mixing.

## <a name="ch-9"></a>Chapter 9 - Vision

* Becoming a leader means shifting the focus from your ideas to ideas of others.
* Success can lead to failure.
* People become leaders because the way they react to failure:
    * Not only overcome adversity, but turn it to their advantage.
* How? Special kind of vision, one that combines:
    * "Ordinary" mission in life.
    * And personalising the vision.
* In other words, something worth doing, but must have a unique part that only I can contribute.
* People without vision cannot influence others.
* Find a vision: child-like, but not childish .

# <a name="part-3"></a>Part 3 - Motivation
## <a name="ch-10"></a>Chapter 10 - First Great Obstacle to Motivation - clear communication

* Inability to see yourself as others see you.
* Top problem solvers tend to believe that they had success without other people help. When they become leaders, they act more like a chief surgeon than an athletic coach. Basically, they think teammates cannot solve problems
* Testing question: Are you willing to appear fooling in front of other peoples? 
* An Satir’s interaction model:

![Interaction model](https://danlebrero.com/images/blog/becoming-technical-leader/interaction-model.jpg "Interaction model")

* Inner me steps:
    * Sensory input.
    * Interpretation.
    * Feelings.
    * Feeling about feelings.
    * Defense.
    * Rules for commenting.
    * Outcome.
* This is just the receiving part, the sending part goes through something similar, so the opportunity of misunderstanding is big.
* Reasons why communications go awry:
    * Perception.
    * Wrong time.
    * Wrong place.
    * Wrong person.
    * Self-worth.
* Satir says that 90% of communications are incongruent.
* Incongruent comms are deadly for motivation.
* Clear communication, tell:
    * What you perceive.
    * How you feel about what you perceive.
    * How you feel about the feeling.
* By telling all of these, you may look as a fool, that why the testing question.

## <a name="ch-11"></a>Chapter 11 - Second great obstacle to motivation - Putting task over people

* Pretend/Think that there is a conflict between people and a tasks. (Conflict == that you have to chose one over the other).
* People and tasks are indivisible. They cannot be separated.
* Every task derives from people.
* Lessons of task vs people oriented leaders: 
    * When survivals is concerned, there is no choice but to put people first.
    * If the job is not highly technical, the leader need not to be competent, but can lead by fear.
    * People with strong technical background can convert any task into a technical task, thus avoiding work they don't want to do.
    * Leaders who don’t care about people don’t have anyone to lead, unless their followers don’t have a choice.
    * No amount of caring for people will hold your audience if you have nothing to offer.
    * Task-oriented leaders tend to overestimate their own accomplishments.
    * Very little work we do is really so important that it justifies sacrificing the future possibilities of the people doing the work.
    * When the work is complex, no leader can be absolutely sure that plans won’t "gang aft agley".
    * To be a successful problem-solving leader, you must keep everybody’s humanness at the forefront.
    * If you are a leader, the people are your work. There is no other work worth doing.

## <a name="ch-12"></a>Chapter 12 - The Problem of Helping Others

* You cannot help if people don't want to be helped.
* Start by agreeing what is the problem.
* You can stop helping if it doesn't work.
* In every offer to help, the helper expect to get something, even if he is not conscious.
* No matter how strange it may look, most people are actually trying to be helpful.
* Golden rule regarding help:
    > Offer to help only if you would want to be helped in the same situation and do it in the way you would want to be helped
* If you don't care about people whom you lead, you will never succeed as they leader.
* You cannot care for others if you don't care for yourself.

## <a name="ch-13"></a>Chapter 13 - Learning to Be a Motivator

* Chapter about self-esteem: each of us have survival rules.
* Survival rules do not allow to be effective leader.
* We can change survival rules to guidelines.
* We also have meta-rules (rules about our survival rules) that govern how we can change our survival rules.
* So when your leadership is not working, maybe you need to find if there is a survival rule interfering.

## <a name="ch-14"></a>Chapter 14 - Where Power Come From

* You don’t "possess" power. Power is a relationship.
* Example: Technical expertise is "power" in a team of junior people, while not so much in a team of senior.
* You need to understand what you want power for.
* When changing role, your old power will banish and a new one will emerge. This is because your relationship with others has changed.
* Personal power: when you have a clear understanding of what you really want.

## <a name="ch-15"></a>Chapter 15 - Power, Imperfection and Congruence

* Everybody wants to feel useful.
* Mechanical problems: one that seem complex but turns out to be solved by a technical solution with no emotional or psychological turmoil.
* Some mechanical problems are hard to handle because of the reaction to the event.
* <a name="mature-patterns"></a>List of mature patterns of behaviour, to help fixing a problem:
    * Be clear when dealing with others.
    * Be aware of your own thoughts and feelings.
    * Be able to see and hear what is outside yourself.
    * Behave towards other people as separate from yourself and unique.
    * Treat differentness as an opportunity to learn and explore rather than a threat or signal for conflict.
    * Deal with persons and situations in their context, in terms of how it is rather how you wish it were or expect it to be.
    * Accept responsibility for what you feel, think, hear and see, rather than denying it or attributing it to others.
    * Have open techniques for giving, receiving and checking meaning with others.
* These are all social and communication skills.
* Be congruent.
* Be open with others about what you perceive, how you feel and be open to learn.

# <a name="part-4"></a>Part 4 - Organization
## <a name="ch-16"></a>Chapter 16 - Gaining organisation power

* Organisation power: to obtain resources (money, training, office space, tools) for your team.
* Power conversion: convert other kinds of power into organisational power.

## <a name="ch-17"></a>Chapter 17 - Effective organisation of problem-solving teams

* Possible organisations:
    * Individual: no org, everybody works on its own.
    * Voting: Vote without previous discussion.
    * Strong leader: one person makes all decisions, privately consulting the team.
    * Consensus: everybody agrees after the discussion:
        * Everybody agrees in principle.
        * Everybody backs up the decision with logic and facts.
        * Avoid changing your mind only to avoid conflict.
        * Avoid techniques to reduce conflict (like voting, averaging, …)
        * Facts and only facts.
        * Consider other opinions helpful, as long as they are supported by facts and logic.
        * Do not withhold information just to be nice.
        * Can use intuition, but make it clear that is intuition.
    * Voting:
        * Better than individual.
        * Require less time.
        * No information exchange.
        * Better than consensus, if consensus breaks down.
        * Better than strong leader, if leader is bad.
    * Strong leader:
        * Depends a lot on the leadership style and knowledge of the leader.
    * Consensus:
        * At first, time consuming and frustrating.
        * Usually highest quality decisions.
        * Can be harmful if consensus process breaks down.
        * Whole team feels responsible for the decision, so more productive.
    * Best one?
        * Depends on the organisation context.
        * Remember that organisation context can change.
        * To check if it is working, see if the organisation is providing an environment for people to understand the problem, manage the flow of ideas and maintain quality (== problem-solving org).

## <a name="ch-18"></a>Chapter 18 - Obstacles to Effective Organising

* First Obstacle: Believe that you just have two choices: order or be ordered.
* Second Obstacle: Think that people can take and interpret orders as computer.
    * People have judgement and you want them to use it.
    * Communication is never perfect.
    * The more precise your orders, the more frustration when they are not understood, and the less creativity for the one ordered.
* Third: doing the work yourself.
    * A leaders job is not to solve a single problem, but to create an environment in which many problems will be solved, not just for today, but for the future.
* Forth: Reward ineffective organising:
    * Reward heroics.
    * Organizing is not about solving “crisis”/problems, but avoiding them.
* Giving and taking orders are means to an end, not an end in themselves.

## <a name="ch-19"></a>Chapter 19 - Learning to Be an Organiser 

* Practice: at work and outside work.
* Observe how people organise and experiment (introduce little changes to observe what happens).
* Look for incongruences:
    * What things are vs the way they look. Example: 
        * org chart vs real org. 
        * Official channels vs informal channels.
    * (Seed model) Everybody is doing their best, under the current circumstances. Hence if you think they there are not, it is because you don’t understand the circumstances.
* Look for cross wires:
    * If everybody is motivated, and
    * If everybody is agrees on the problem
    * Then look for a mistake/misunderstanding in the organisation.
* Legitimize differences:
    * Sometimes the cross wires happen because orgs do not account for people being different. 
    * Look at the Myers-Briggs model. Read “Please understand me”.
* Use yourself as a model of the team.
    * You can see your own internal conflicts as a model of people conflicts.
    * For example, conflict of wanting to finish now vs wanting to do a perfect job.
    
# <a name="part-5"></a>Part 5 - Transformation
## <a name="ch-20"></a>Chapter 20 - How You Will Be Graded as a Leader

* Grading is multiplicative. If you have a 80% in tech and 60% people’s skill your score is 0.8 * 0.6 = 0.48.
* This is because as a leader, people expects a lot more.
* To make things even harder, as a technical leader, you are going to be graded in more dimensions.
* Improving an are with the least grade has more impact. 
    * From the previous example, if we can improve 10 points:
        * (0.8+0.1) * 0.6 = 0.8 * 0.6 + 0.1 * 0.6 = 0.54
        * 0.8 * (0.6+0.1) = 0.8 * 0.6 + 0.1 * 0.8 = 0.56
* Until some trust is build, tech leaders are scored by the minimum of the grades.
    * Try to delay the area that you are weak at.
    * You don’t need to answer any question immediately.

## <a name="ch-21"></a>Chapter 21 - Passing Your Own Leadership Tests

* The person at the top makes the rules, which is another way of saying it breaks the old rules.
* A leadership trait is withstand testing, because you are going to be tested all the time.
* To pass a leadership test, you either use:
    * Motivation, also called personality style.
    * Organisation, also called planning style.
* Tech people are usually better at the planning style.
* Paradox: to avoid your weakest style, you have to strengthen it.
* Both style are important.
* If you don’t fail, you are not testing yourself thoroughly.
* If you are not testing yourself thoroughly, you will learn little. 
* If you learn little, you can be good but not exceptional. You cannot jump to your next plateau.

## <a name="ch-22"></a>Chapter 22 - A Personal Plan for Change

* When trying something new:
    * We are in a special state of alertness.
    * When we stop paying attention, we go back to the old, safe behaviour.
* A series of small, ordinary changes can put you on the brink of a large and extraordinary one. You have to have the courage to take the plunge.
* You need a plan.
* Take responsibility for your own education.
* Make the most of your organisation’s learning opportunities.
* Learn your learning style.

## <a name="ch-23"></a>Chapter 23 - Finding Time to Change

* Make time:
    * Don’t redo work you have assigned to others. Allow if you must make them mistakes.
    * Avoid trivial technical arguments to prove your technical superiority.
    * Choose your own priorities and don’t wait for a crisis to organise your activities.
    * Avoid administration.
    * Pay attention to what you do when there is nothing to do.
    * Listen to what other people has already learned.
    * Do two things at once:
        * Find activities where you get multiple benefits.
        * Kill two birds with one stone.

## <a name="ch-24"></a>Chapter 24 - Finding Support for Change

* Seeking support is a sign of strength, not weakness.
* Nurture relationships for:
    * Technical support.
    * Services you cannot perform (like criticism of your own writing).
    * Growth: people that give you things you didn’t know you did want to know.
    * Recovery, emotional and spiritual support.
* There are three types of supporters:
    * Conservatives: they don’t want you to change.
    * Radicals: they want you to change.
    * Friends: “Do whatever you really want to do”.

# <a name="epilogue"></a>Epilogue

* Do not obsess to become a manager or leader.
* Whenever you want to do something, ask yourself:
    * Why do I want to do this?
    * What assets do I have to contribute?
    * What liabilities do I bring?