The Art of Leadership: Small Things, Done Well

Michael Lopp is a veteran Silicon Valley-based engineering leader who builds both people and products at historic companies such as Slack, Borland, Netscape, Palantir, Pinterest, and Apple. When he's not deeply concerned with staying relevant, he writes about leadership, bridges, superheroes, and humans at the popular weblog Rands in Repose. This is the way. Michael also rides bikes which each have names, wonders about semicolons, drinks red wine, and tries to understand how forests work amongst the redwoods of Northern California because curiosity is how you grow.

Many people think leadership is a higher calling that resides exclusively with a select few who practice and preach big, complex leadership philosophies. But as this practical book reveals, what's most important for leadership is principled consistency. Time and again, small things done well build trust and respect within a team. Using stories from his time at Netscape, Apple, and Slack, Michael Lopp presents a series of small but compelling practices to help you build leadership skills. You'll learn how to create teams that are highly productive, highly respected, and highly trusted. Lopp has been speaking and writing about this topic for over a decade and now maintains a Slack leadership channel with over 13,000 members. The essays in this book examine the practical skills Lopp learned from exceptional leaders-as a manager at Netscape, a senior manager and director at Apple, and an executive at Slack. You'll learn how to apply these lessons to your own experience.