This is talked about in this book

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0...

In short a manager's job is smooth out the bumps, make all the little things go right. A leader sets the direction, inspires people, etc.

Consider weekly "all hands" meetings and the concept of "psychological safety"

https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/wh...

Consider Code reviews and other ways of making feedback a regular part of the process. If you have to wait a year to get feedback that is way too long, particularly in a startup.

I like the approach to leadership that Jim Collins talks about in this book

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0...

in particular he talks about the value of having an organization where everybody from top to bottom understands the business case for the business and the futility of painting on "alignment" when the fundamentals are not in place. If you address the fundamentals that Collins talks about some of the barriers to feedback working will melt away.

Good To Great - https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0...

DOM Enlightenment - https://www.amazon.com/DOM-Scripting-Design-JavaScript-Docum...

Definitive XML Schema - https://www.amazon.com/Definitive-XML-Schema-Charles-Goldfar...

I am a better developer because of building my thinking about software around a deeper appreciation of data structures setting goals by focusing on personal considerations of ethics.

Books that have improved me but not my career:

Principles - https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Ray-Dalio-audiobook/dp/B07...

Lots and lots of fiction.

Your opinion on the product does matter.

Even if you get a lot of pleasure out of puzzle solving and other technical aspects of your work, you will experience moral injury if you are working on a product that you think is harmful.

I defer to subject matter experts where I work, I am very much a specialist in the details of the system, but I know the product I work on makes some people happy and it gets mentioned on the news (in a positive way) almost every day.

That adds to the satisfaction of my work.

This book

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0...

says that a good corporate culture has a mission that is obvious to everyone who works there and that everybody can understand how what they do relates to that mission.

It might not be "I am pumped to work on this product" but it is "having a story that makes sense", which is absent in many workplaces.

A great resource to get you thinking along the right lines: the book Spin Selling[1]. This book is about doing selling involving long sales cycles, where it could take you a good amount of time to close the deal. This is often the case with enterprise software.

An example of a great concept from this book that has shaped the way I approach things: You've heard of the concept of closing, where you ask the customer to buy the product. Spin selling extends that concept in the realm of a longer sales cycle that involves many steps such as demos, consulting sessions and so on. Every interaction you have with the customer has some desired outcome that eventually leads to the final sale. For example, your initial contacts with the prospect, the goal of those initial interactions is to get the demo scheduled. Or perhaps it's to introduce you to someone closer to the decision maker. In each interaction, you keep a goal in mind and close towards that goal.

Three other books that were amazing and formative for me are below. These aren't about sales in particular but about making your own business in general, which includes sales in various degrees: 2. Good to Great 3. Crossing the Chasm 4. The E Myth

Also an honorable mention goes to this book, which is more about marketing than sales: Winning Through Intimidation. The book isn't actually about intimidating people, but it's about branding, image, and approach. Despite the evil sounding title, it's an amazing resource.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Spin-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/05660768... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0... [3] https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-Mainstr... [4] https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About... [5] https://www.amazon.com/Winning-through-Intimidation-Victor-B...

I learned so much about structure and organization from https://www.amazon.com/Definitive-XML-Schema-Charles-Goldfar...

I learned the value of utility from Nicomachean Ethics in that it establishes a value hierarchy starting from the fragment: that which exists for its own sake.

I liked this book for establishing ethics as the basis for rapid growth in business: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0...

A lot of people struggle with CSS. It’s not hard but it take some solid practice to master. This is the best book: https://www.amazon.com/CSS-Pocket-Reference-Visual-Presentat...

Honesty is important. Brutal honesty forces changes to culture and everybody wins. It forces you to act with ethics for the welfare of the group: https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Life-Work-Ray-Dalio/dp/150...

Fear of innovation is a form of hecklers veto, more so when popularity or a majority is threatened. Originality, even when wrong, is always more important: On Liberty.

My favorites are Good to Great and Principles

* https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0...

* https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Life-Work-Ray-Dalio/dp/150...

Jim Collins throws down the gauntlet to Steven Covey in this book

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0...

when it comes to "mission statements", "alignment" and similar things. Briefly, Collins says if you are for real and walking the walk, you will be aligned. If you are bogus, you won't be aligned and you can't paint alignment on.

This is an interesting question, because it signals that you are most likely very new to hiring, and maybe ill-equipped to handle managing people in general. Although, at least you're asking questions.

First, very rarely does a manager regret a hire even though it's very common for a hire not to work out. Hiring and interviewing are in terrible shape right now, and more often then not lead to terrible hiring/job acceptance choices.

Second, you regret hiring PEOPLE, not developers because regrettable hires aren't specific to developers. When they are, it's because an engineer was given too much access to something they should not have been and a theft/breach occurs.

Examples of these concepts in play: The NSA probably regrets hiring Edward Snowden. I don't regret hiring the last JS dev I hired even though it didn't work out and he moved to a different company.

Lack of technical expertise is a problem sometimes, but it can be nurtured. Lack of personal skills is a huge problem in an office environment, and is much, much harder to nurture. But neither of these are regrettable in-and-of themselves.

The thing to remember is that you have to weigh the urgency of hiring against the long term impacts of hiring the wrong person. In other words, be careful and set up controls, but don't allow decision paralysis.

Good luck with your project, keep your head up, and expect failure. Great employees are rare, so just keep at it.

post mobile edit:

Go read:

Good To Great: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0...

How to Win Friends and Influence People: https://www.amazon.com/How-win-friends-influence-people-eboo...

Emotional Intelligence: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JMKVCG/

I'm a huge believer in going back to primary texts, and understanding where ideas came from. If you've liked a book, read the books it references (repeat). I also feel like book recommendations often oversample recent writings, which are probably great, but it's easy to forget about the generations of books that have come before that may be just as relevant today (The Mythical Man Month is a ready example). I approach the reading I do for fun the same way, Google a list of "classics" and check for things I haven't read.

My go to recommendations:

http://www.amazon.com/Structure-Scientific-Revolutions-50th-... - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn, (1996)

http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master... - The Pragmatic Programmer, Andrew Hunt and David Thomas (1999)

Things I've liked in the last 6 months:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Measure-Anything-Intangibles-Busin... - How to Measure Anything, Douglas Hubbard (2007)

http://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineerin... - Mythical Man Month: Essays in Software Engineering, Frederick Brooks Jr. (1975, but get the 1995 version)

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/00... - Good To Great, Jim Collins (2001)

Next on my reading list (and I'm really excited about it):

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Interface-No-brilliant-technology... - The Best Interface is No Interface, Golden Krishna (2015)

Here is what I did when I moved from development to product & Marketing

1. Follow people in the same field 2. Ready up on blogs and posts : I use Zite, Flipboard and medium 3. A book that helped me to a large extent is Good to great by Jim Collins (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/00...)

Also The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman http://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-World-Class-Business-Educ...

4. Video from people in the same field. 5. This article https://medium.com/@noah_weiss/50-articles-and-books-that-wi...

Some great tools:

1. Trello - Project/product and pretty much manage any thing 2. Qlikview - Data Analysis : Excel on Steroids

It's a very short list, but I am learning on the job :)

In my experience the bottom line is that you need good people around you in order to succeed. It doesn't matter if that's a co-founder, a CEO, developers, etc.. If you don't have good people around you helping you in your journey of success you won't have any.

For example, in my first startup I had a very good co-founder but we were both very young and inexperienced. We didn't hire the right people to surround us and help us in our journey. As a consequence we had a great run but were out maneuvered by other companies. In the startup I'm doing now, I started with great co-founders and we then proceeded to hire more great people to surround us. We haven't completed our journey yet but the driving force in the company now is not only me (the other co-founder left to pursue other interests) but many others that share my passion and goals.

Take your time and look for people that share your vision and passion. These people are out there it just takes time. And remember, no one can do it by themselves.

If you never read it, by a copy of Good To Great (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/00...). There's a whole chapter devoted to how great companies need great entourages.