This article was originally posted in my blog: https://www.codebymedu.com/blog/7-books-for-tech-lead
If you're already a tech lead or are planning to become a tech lead in the future, I've gathered 7 of the books I've read that helped me become a successful tech lead that you must read too.
I tried to gather practical books with practical steps in them, so instead of learning theory and forgetting everything afterwards, most of these books focus in practical advice.
If you don't know much about tech lead role, it differs a lot from an IC role. You are required to have a vision for the technical part of a product and lead the team there.
"Talking to Tech Leads" by Patrick Kua
This is my favorite book about tech lead stuff. This book involves interviews with more than 35 tech leads and brings learnings from all of them.
It helped me extremely when I first started as a tech lead to see the potential problems I might have later. And guess what, I ended up dealing with most of the issues that were mentioned and I already had ideas what to do.
"The Manager's Path" by Camille Fournier
This book is critical about learning soft skills such as communication, and learning how to mentor other people.
It's useful for both tech leads and engineering managers. That's why its a must read as it will give you more ideas how people are leaded and managed.
I'd suggest this book more if you're already a tech lead as it provides a lot of ideas for improvements on existing processes you might be doing.
"Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the Management Track" by Will Larson
To be honest, I didn't know the term Staff Engineer existed and companies actually used it till I read this book.
It was suggested to me be a more senior engineer and I enjoyed every page of it.
This book explains ways you can grow in your career as engineer without having to go to management. It shows different paths including tech lead and what they mean.
Its a small book, so I strongly suggest you check it out as well.
"Drive" by Daniel H. Pink
This is a more advanced book that you can read after a while of becoming a tech lead. Otherwise you might not actually learn anything from it.
It talks about what motivates people and most importantly how to motivate people.
The reason I say you should read it only after becoming tech lead is that you probably don't notice the team motivation deeply as an IC, since you're focused in finishing your tasks.
Remember a not so skilled, but motivated team will go much further than a skilled but not motivated team.
"The Staff Engineer’s Path" by Tanya Reilly
This book does very well with the Staff Engineer book we mentioned above. It goes in more details about the path of Staff Engineers and the lessons apply very well in a tech lead role no matter what level.
You can read this book both before or after becoming a tech lead.
"Engineering Management for the Rest of Us" by Sarah Drasner
This book you only have to read if you're planning to transition to an engineering management role. It teaches a lot about leadership in a form that's easy for technical people to understand.
Though some of the concepts are already useful even if you're planning to stay as tech lead.
"The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by Ben Horowitz
The second non technical book in this list is a must read as well. Since tech leads must have a bigger picture of the company and how the company works in order to successfully lead the team, this book makes it easier to understand why some processes are ran the way they are.
In addition it also provides lessions about leadership that are critical in a tech lead role.
Conclusion
I shared 7 of the books I read as a tech lead. I'd suggest taking a look at each one of them and reading the most interesting one.
If you have more books you've read and would like to suggest for this list feel free to reach out to me at contact@codebymedu.com
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