The hottest Management Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

Rules, Rules Rules

Trying to Understand the World • 7 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
🚌 Education Management
  1. Organizations often create more rules and regulations when they lack a clear sense of purpose and long-term goals, leading to a focus on detail rather than overall objectives.
  2. The abundance of rules and bureaucracy, especially in modern society, can hinder problem-solving and practical decision-making, as well as replace traditional customs with overly complex regulations.
  3. The Professional and Managerial Caste (PMC) proliferation of rules can result in controlling mechanisms rather than fostering productive environments, ultimately leading to dysfunctional organizations and discontent among staff.

023. Startup equity: The obvious, yet often-bungled way to motivate employees

Safe For Work (SFW) • 7 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
💼 Business Management
  1. Employees often undervalue their equity in startup companies, leading to a lack of motivation and missed opportunities for potential financial gain.
  2. Startup leaders need to openly and honestly discuss equity with employees to help them understand its value and make informed decisions about their compensation.
  3. Engaging with the emotional aspects of equity and providing guidance on how to value it can lead to better employee motivation, productivity, and retention in tech startups.
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Automate, Delegate, Eliminate

Perspectives • 9 implied HN points • 01 Sep 23
💼 Business Management
  1. Identify tasks that can be automated, delegated, or eliminated to work more efficiently.
  2. When transitioning to a managerial role, focus on empowering and growing your team.
  3. Prioritize building leverage in your life by streamlining tasks and freeing up time.

Growth in a downturn

The Engineering Manager • 9 implied HN points • 08 Sep 23
💼 Business Management
  1. In uncertain times, focus on what you can control, like supporting your team's growth.
  2. Avoid making promises about outcomes you can't control, instead focus on building trust and providing support.
  3. Invest in increasing your impact, even if you can't control the scope of your role.

📈 📊 How to Develop and Write KPIs: A Guide for Product Managers 📋

The Product Channel By Sid Saladi • 3 implied HN points • 27 Oct 24
💼 Business Management
  1. KPIs are important tools that help product managers measure how well their product is performing. They show how close you are to reaching your business goals.
  2. To create effective KPIs, start with your business objectives and define specific, measurable metrics that relate directly to those goals.
  3. Regularly monitor your KPIs and be prepared to adjust them as necessary. This helps you stay on track and make informed decisions about improvements.

How to create buy-in and move immovable things; To Interim CMO or not?; Ten commandments of consumer behaviour

Femstreet • 7 implied HN points • 03 Dec 23
💼 Business Management
  1. The '15% + 1 level' rule for creating buy-in and moving immovable things emphasizes thinking one level higher to get buy-in for ideas.
  2. The ten commandments of consumer behavior stress understanding human nature for successful product adoption and growth.
  3. Consider hiring an interim CMO as a low-risk, high-return option to build your leadership team effectively.

Parkinson's Law: The Power of Deadlines

FutureIQ • 1 implied HN point • 13 Jun 25
💼 Business Management
  1. Work tends to fill the time you give it, so if you set a shorter deadline, you'll likely finish faster. This is known as Parkinson's Law.
  2. Setting tight deadlines can actually improve quality instead of harming it. It helps you avoid distractions and keep your focus where it matters.
  3. Finding the right balance in deadlines is key. They should be tight enough to challenge you but not so tight that you feel overwhelmed.

So you want to be a Manager - Part 1: Are you sure?

The Caring Techie Newsletter • 9 implied HN points • 12 Jul 23
💼 Business Management
  1. Transitioning from individual contributor to engineering manager requires deep reflection and research.
  2. Engineering management involves leading and coordinating engineering activities, but it's not as easy as it may seem on paper.
  3. Successful engineering managers need a different skill set than individual contributors, including strong people skills and patience.

#42: Room for discovery

The Uncertainty Mindset (soon to become tbd) • 19 implied HN points • 19 Aug 20
📚 Literature Management
  1. A book can be interesting to many types of readers, not just one specific audience. It can appeal to people who enjoy high-end cuisine or want to know more about restaurant culture.
  2. People often wonder why traditional ways of running businesses don't work well anymore. Understanding new hiring and goal-setting methods can help create better workplaces.
  3. Publishing is tricky because books often have to fit into one category. This can make it hard for unique books to reach the right readers.

A Country Is Not a Company

Some Unpleasant Arithmetic • 9 implied HN points • 30 Jun 23
💼 Business Management
  1. Understanding how markets function is crucial for businesses to operate efficiently.
  2. Companies exist to simplify complex decision-making and to manage relationships between owners and workers.
  3. The dynamics of a country's economy are vastly different from those of a single company due to the scale, complexity, and interdependence of various factors.

Wartime and Peacetime TPM

Building Rome(s) • 9 implied HN points • 03 Jun 23
💼 Business Management
  1. There are two types of Technical Program Manager personalities: Wartime and Peacetime.
  2. Different environments require different approaches: Wartime programs demand focus and urgency, while Peacetime programs allow for more experimentation.
  3. Wartime and Peacetime TPMs have distinct qualities: Wartime TPMs are decisive and action-oriented, while Peacetime TPMs focus on process and consensus-building.

Impact of AI on organizations

Fish Food for Thought • 5 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Management
  1. Technological advancements, like AI, are reshaping organizational structures by influencing how tasks are divided, management roles are designed, and leadership is approached.
  2. The integration of AI in teams could lead to a future where individual contributors are not only expected to showcase leadership but also to take on managerial responsibilities, overseeing AI counterparts to effectively manage tasks.
  3. Offloading routine tasks to AI can boost the creative and strategic capacity of team members, allowing for a focus on innovation and problem-solving to drive project objectives efficiently.

How to break the cycle of firefighting and build engineering excellence

The Incrementalist • 2 implied HN points • 01 Jan 25
💼 Business Management
  1. Focus on identifying patterns in recurring problems so you can address the underlying issues, not just the symptoms. This can save time and resources in the long run.
  2. Engage your team in analyzing and understanding events to develop better strategies. Involving everyone ensures a shared understanding and ownership of solutions.
  3. Create processes and structures that promote proactive thinking and continuous improvement. This helps teams work more effectively and reduces the chaos of constantly putting out fires.

Small Changes

Fish Food for Thought • 5 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
💼 Business Management
  1. Small changes in processes can lead to significant impacts.
  2. In business and products, incremental changes can often result in remarkable outcomes.
  3. Consider the small components of a system and how tweaking them can bring about large improvements.

Corporate culture starts at the top

Klement on Investing • 2 implied HN points • 16 Dec 24
💼 Business Management
  1. Leadership sets the culture of a company. If managers are good, employees will stay, but bad managers drive people away.
  2. High employee turnover often means poor corporate culture. People leave bad work environments, showing how they really feel about their jobs.
  3. Companies with staggered boards tend to have worse cultures. This setup allows old board members to stay, making it hard for shareholders to demand changes.

On the Limits of One Mind

TeamCraft • 6 implied HN points • 20 Nov 23
💼 Business Management
  1. When a CTO takes over as a CPO, it can lead to negative outcomes for both engineering and product functions.
  2. Expecting one individual to excel in both technology and product domains can be detrimental due to cognitive limits and lack of focus.
  3. A dual CTO/CPO role can result in a lack of product thinking, bias towards technical solutions, strategic edge loss, communication challenges, and difficulty in balancing responsibilities.

Cross-Pollination is also Cross-Pollution

TeamCraft • 6 implied HN points • 06 Nov 23
💼 Business Management
  1. Cross-functional dependencies can make middle manager's life difficult.
  2. Tech middle managers in cross-functional tech companies may lack clear objectives and authority.
  3. Middle managers in cross-functional teams must navigate limited authority and negotiate to influence change.

Shadow Leave: How to Hand off Work

Patrick Auld: It Depends • 2 implied HN points • 21 Nov 24
💼 Business Management
  1. Prepare before taking time off to avoid chaos. Let your team know you will be away and give them a chance to handle responsibilities.
  2. Creating a 'shadow leave' phase allows you to see where help is needed. This way, you can fix any issues before your break.
  3. Enjoying peace of mind is important. By preparing well, you can relax knowing your team can manage while you're away.

(Re)Introducing myself + Elpha AMA + Something special...

The Caring Techie Newsletter • 6 implied HN points • 18 Oct 23
🕹 Technology Management
  1. Irina has had a diverse career journey from software engineer to tech lead to manager at big tech companies like Google and Uber.
  2. Coaching became a passion for Irina after realizing the joy of helping her team find their own solutions.
  3. Big tech companies have more structured and hierarchical leadership styles, while startups lean towards entrepreneurial and hands-on leadership.

You Shouldn't Start a Community

David Spinks' Newsletter • 8 implied HN points • 23 May 23
💼 Business Management
  1. Building a community is a massive amount of work and takes 10x more time than expected.
  2. Measuring the success and impact of a community is challenging as it is removed from revenue.
  3. Creating and managing a community involves dealing with various challenges like content creation, conflict management, and difficult decisions.

Avoid these risk communication anti-patterns

Building Rome(s) • 9 implied HN points • 22 Feb 23
💼 Business Management
  1. Risk communication patterns can be ineffective, even with simple green, yellow, red indicators.
  2. Teams reporting different patterns of risk may reveal underlying issues like confidence, uncertainty, or fear.
  3. To improve risk communication, dig deeper into dependencies, shift uncertainties to red, and promote clear reporting and decision-making.

Exclusive January Offer: Save 10% on SEO MBA Courses Today

The SEO MBA • 5 implied HN points • 02 Jan 24
💼 Business Management
  1. The importance of communicating the value of SEO to senior management will continue to grow in 2024.
  2. SEO MBA courses are offering a 10% discount until Jan 31st on two key courses: Executive Presence and The Art of Client Management.
  3. The SEO MBA newsletter will focus on delivering more quality content in 2024, with guest columns being opened up as well.

The Slasher Revolution

Perspective Agents • 6 implied HN points • 14 Sep 23
💼 Business Management
  1. Leaders need to be multiliterate to navigate future worlds.
  2. Disruptions challenge leaders, creating perspective deficits.
  3. Future leaders should embody qualities of guardians, guides, pioneers, and innovators, like Slashers.

Valid Concerns of Middle Management

TeamCraft • 6 implied HN points • 04 Sep 23
💼 Business Management
  1. Middle managers face challenges in being sandwiched between executives and individual contributors.
  2. Sharing power as a middle manager can be difficult, especially when dealing with power dynamics and responsibilities.
  3. Being an effective interface between executives and teams is crucial for middle managers, requiring transparency about their power and educating teams on company operations.

Fantastic Builders and Where to Find Them, 3rd installment

Building the Builders • 2 implied HN points • 04 Nov 24
💼 Business Management
  1. Estée Lauder believed strongly in her products. She felt that to sell beauty, you have to genuinely love and believe in beauty yourself.
  2. Her journey was not just about business; it was a lifelong mission to teach women how to be and feel beautiful. This passion shaped her identity and life choices.
  3. Estée's experiences with beauty began in childhood, leading her to realize that creating beauty could be more than just a hobby; it could be a serious, fulfilling career.

Sweating small stuff / Milestones & Estimates / We need to change how we interview TPMs

Building Rome(s) • 7 implied HN points • 13 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Management
  1. Sweating the small stuff is crucial in tech program management, focusing on minor details that can lead to major obstacles.
  2. Using milestones instead of estimates can improve project planning and organizing tasks effectively.
  3. There is a need to revamp the way Technical Program Managers (TPMs) are interviewed, with a more tailored approach to assess their skills.

TWH#S6: What I Read This Week

The Hagakure • 8 implied HN points • 12 Mar 23
💼 Business Management
  1. Tech companies often struggle with planning and hitting targets despite available wisdom.
  2. Being a great manager of managers involves coaching, developing the team, and sensing the organization.
  3. Life and work should focus on enjoying the journey, not just winning finite games.

Ask Aadil - Wrong way to use the TPM function

Building Rome(s) • 7 implied HN points • 12 May 23
💼 Business Management
  1. Technical Program Managers operate on two planes: strategic and tactical.
  2. The real value of TPMs comes from operating on both strategic and tactical planes.
  3. To fix the situation of using TPMs in the wrong way, help evangelize the TPM role, ensure the culture is right for a TPM, and ease in the TPM role while establishing a Program Charter.