Amazing CTO
Amazing CTO
The missing manual for managing
About the Book
Your hard skills landed you the management position, but it’s your soft and management skills that will drive your success. Numerous books cover architecture and processes, "Amazing CTO" stands out as the essential guide for managing effectively, authored by influential CTO Coach Stephan Schmidt.
The one book for CTOs and techmanagers. The CTO role is the most difficult role from the perspective of diverse skills and change. With AMAZING CTO the job gets much easier with proven advice and many ideas to succeed.
Example Rule
#14 Sets up people for success not failure
In my coaching one of the common mistakes is to hire someone or delegate something but then set up the person for failure. Happy for the help, and because the reason was to safe time, they do not invest enough time to make the employee successful. When I hear a coachee say, "That developer failed, he was a mis-hire" I say "Most probably you did set up the developer for failure." Set up for failure is not investing into a new hire. The Amazing CTO sets people up for success. She thinks, "What are all the things I can do to make the person successful?" Does the person need to know something? Do I need to communicate his role? Do I need to introduce him to someone? Does he need tools? Does he need a budget? Do I need to give authority? Setting up people for success leads to a happier work environment that gets results instead of a string of failures.
Excerpt Table of Contents
The book has nine parts of rules, here the example of one part:
“Hunting High And Low” . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Takes leaving not personally . . . . . . . . 67 Actively promotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68 Knows technology is a fashion industry . . . 69 Knows processes are swimming wings . . . . . 70 Knows processes are solved conflicts . . . . 71 Handles underperformers . . . . . . . . . . .72 Fires people herself . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Is a professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Manages her boss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Leads the team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Knows what she loves . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Budgets expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Does dailies when hiring . . . . . . . . . . 79 Is kind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 Gives honest feedback . . . . . . . . . . . .81 Is creative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 Encourages people to think . . . . . . . . . 83
Reader Testimonials
Oliver Wehrens
Associate Partner Tektik Consulting
Rapid fire, super condensed advice how to be awesome at your job. I think every other C Level should also read it to know what to expect. And every aspiring Tech Leader.
Mladen Miljic
Senior Manager IoT
The experience of 30 years, crisp and to the point. And on top of that, an extremely practical checklist that nobody should be without. The appendix alone is worth the book.
David Gebhardt
CTO mobile.de
This book condenses knowledge and experience of decades in easy to apply rules. They are thought provoking and challenge the CTO in you with one specific goal: become an even better CTO tomorrow.
Steinunn Arnardottir
VP Engineering SPREAD
Stephan is a very experienced tech leader and an exceptional mentor and coach. Amazing CTO is a great book with golden insights for anyone in engineering management
André Neubauer
CTO Trusted Shops
This book is everything I looked for when I've started but also enjoy reading today. 140 topics rolled into one book. Every topic clear and to the point … everything to initiate the thought process and challenging the status quo
Dr. Raphael A. Bauer
MBA Interim CTO, Fearless organizations
I really enjoyed reading the book and learned many new tricks from Stephan. For example, the CTO Café is a great way to interact with your peers - and of course, I'll be wearing a company T-shirt at every opportunity in the future to attract new hires! A highly recommended read!
Table of Contents
- 1:Part 1 - Introduction
- 140 opinionated rules for engineering managers
- On Pronouns
- Prolog
- My Story
- Be An Amazing CTO
- 2:Part 2 - Rules
- “Relax”
- Starts with a yes
- Asks for help
- Does ruthlessly 1:1s
- Knows it is all about people
- Holds people accountable
- Is explaining the world
- Gives purpose
- Does not take shortcuts
- Loves technology
- Is curious
- Is not defensive
- Talks about expectations
- Has passion
- Sets up people for success not failure
- “Land of Confusion”
- Gets the cow off the ice first
- Is not her tools
- Knows the business side
- Self validates
- Is not letting people wait
- Does not waste other peoples time
- Lives up to her commitments
- Delegates everything
- Recruits herself
- Cares about bugs
- Is listening
- Works on things with impact
- Is focused
- Knows the Why
- Is inclusive
- “Running Up That Hill”
- Is prepared for a meeting
- Is a storyteller
- Develops her reports
- Cares about privacy
- Doesn’t do illegal things
- Is agile
- Is a tortoise not a hare
- Is not a CIO
- Guides people
- Has a meeting agenda
- Talks last
- Changes her mind
- Admits when being wrong
- Gives negative feedback in private
- Compliments others
- Delivers
- Admits not knowing everything
- “Hunting High And Low”
- Takes leaving not personally
- Actively promotes
- Knows technology is a fashion industry
- Knows processes are swimming wings
- Knows processes are solved conflicts
- Handles underperformers
- Fires people herself
- Is a professional
- Manages her boss
- Leads the team
- Knows what she loves
- Budgets expenses
- Does dailies when hiring
- Is kind
- Gives honest feedback
- Is creative
- Encourages people to think
- “Self Control”
- Is a coder at heart
- Knows missing Disaster Recover can kill him
- Takes quality to her heart
- Translates tech for business
- Translates business to tech
- Builds the right product
- Does not ignore problems
- Is transparent and open
- Aligns employees and teams
- Moderates meetings
- Does not work in a feature factory
- Encourages responsibility
- Fixes retention before she hires
- Has a mentor
- Works with peers
- Has an opinion
- “Maniac”
- Is a role model
- Manages security
- Cares about his health
- Knows herself
- Actively manages her time
- Is in control of the tech zoo
- Capitalizes development costs
- Knows how to deal with pressure
- Does not invent excuses
- Does not take failures personally
- Trusts people
- Earns her trust
- Knows assumptions are bad
- Fixes performance first
- Automates everything
- “Call me”
- Says no
- Has sit-downs to solve conflicts
- Knows her role
- Lives radical simplicity
- Invests in her growth
- Has weekly team meetings
- Encourages leadership
- Gives responsibility
- Invests in relationships
- Gets the best out of people
- Does not go to all meetings
- Invests in recruiting
- Forces decisions
- Manages technical debt
- “Brothers in Arms”
- Does skip level meetings
- Manages culture
- Knows her talents
- She innovates
- Picks her battles
- Can scale a team 10x
- Can scale systems 10x
- Invests in employer branding
- Doesn’t make tech decisions
- Stops the buck
- Works on deep features
- Helps others with their careers
- Knows they are not bound by rules
- Is a team player
- Pays the right salary
- “Xanadu”
- Supports the CEO
- Wants to be amazing
- Is on top of things
- Knows fear
- Takes the blame
- Acts and doesn’t ask
- Invests half her time in the team
- Understands the nature of a crisis
- Knows what to build and what to buy
- Trains a successor
- Gives talks
- Thinks about the future of software development
- Has a vision
- Knows that strategy is for people
- Connects with the tech community
- Deals with politics
- Has a personal brand
- “Relax”
- 3:Appendix
- Lists and Checklists
- The CTO Blues
- 1:1 Questions
- ChatGPT Proof Interviewing
- Checklist for Job Ads
- Delegation Checklist
- Hiring Notes
- Roles during an incident
- Interview Questions
- Laying someone off
- Onboarding
- Performance Feedback
- Performance Factors
- Very Basic Security Checklist
- Someone Resigns
- Models
- Pyramid Of Change
- Motivation Model
- Pyramid Of Relationships
- Delegation Vicious Circle
- The Management Triad
- Employee Life Cycle
- 9 Box Talent Model
- Four States of a Development Team
- Culture Model
- ZigZag Model of Strategy and Vision
- Three Gaps of Management
- Startup Phases
- Icebergs of Development
- The Coding Cycle
- Examples Of Developer Roles
- Lists and Checklists
- Reflections on the future of CTOs
- Epilog
- About Stephan
- About the cover
- OST Amazing CTO Book
- The Curious Incident Of The Vending Machine in the Night-Time
- Recommended Books for CTOs
- Feedback
- 1:Part 1 - Introduction
The Leanpub 60 Day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
Now, this is technically risky for us, since you'll have the book or course files either way. But we're so confident in our products and services, and in our authors and readers, that we're happy to offer a full money back guarantee for everything we sell.
You can only find out how good something is by trying it, and because of our 100% money back guarantee there's literally no risk to do so!
So, there's no reason not to click the Add to Cart button, is there?
See full terms...
Earn $8 on a $10 Purchase, and $16 on a $20 Purchase
We pay 80% royalties on purchases of $7.99 or more, and 80% royalties minus a 50 cent flat fee on purchases between $0.99 and $7.98. You earn $8 on a $10 sale, and $16 on a $20 sale. So, if we sell 5000 non-refunded copies of your book for $20, you'll earn $80,000.
(Yes, some authors have already earned much more than that on Leanpub.)
In fact, authors have earnedover $13 millionwriting, publishing and selling on Leanpub.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them