book recommendations

In this section I present books that I like and can strongly recommend. They helped me to grow in my field and work.

Topic: Leadership / Engineering Manager

L. David Marquet: Turn The Ship Around!

As an engineering manager I am a big advocate for a bottom-up leadership style which has become more and more common in new work companies. I also used to be a volunteer firefighter (see How my firefighter experience influenced my leadership style as an engineering manager) and therefore, I was wondering for a long time if a bottom-up leadership style could also work in a very hierarchical traditional environment, such as the world of firefighters or military. I was surprised, it is! In Turn The Ship Around! L. David Marquet proves it by telling his own true story. He took over the role of the commander of a nuclear-powered submarine in the navy including a very dysfunctional hierarchically led team. Marquet describes how he applied the bottom-up leadership style and empowered people in this traditionally very hierarchical environment to finally, become one of the best performing ship in the navy. The book covers a lot of aspects how to empower people to take responsibility for themselves and to grow in their roles. I can strongly recommend this book to any lead and especially engineering managers. At the end the difference between navy specialists and IT specialists might be smaller than expected ;)