By Steve R. Covey ISBN-13: 978-1471195204 This book was recommended to me years ago when I was running my own business, but I only picked it up recently. I wish I’d read it back then, it would have been even more useful. I was expecting the habits to be things like, get up at 5am, always have a prioritised todo list, only do the things which matter, etc. The vast majority of it is not like that at all. I was pleased to find that I am doing most of the habits already, but there was still plenty for me to learn. I've always been proactive and put the first things first, but the book made me step back and see it from a wider perspective. The habits around Win/Win or No Deal and Sharpening the Saw also stood out for me. Sean Covey’s modern insights were a welcome addition, especially his humorous “7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People.” They made the book feel more relevant without losing the core message. That said, I do have two main criticisms: it’s at least twice as long as it nee...
So you think you can lead a team? I’ve been talking and writing a lot about leading a software engineering team in 2025. I started thinking about it more deeply the year before when I decided to give a colleague, who was moving into team leading, some advice: 'Doing the work' isn't the only way to add value Remember to delegate Pick your battles Talk to your team every day Out of this came a talk, “So you think you can lead a team?” which I gave at work, at meetups and at conferences in various different formats during the first quarter of 2025. I am also turning these ideas, and more, into a book I hope to release towards the end of 2025. I’ve already explored delegation, you can read about it here: https://paulgrenyer.blogspot.com/2025/04/remember-to-delegate-triangle-of-trust.html Seeing the Bigger Picture, you can read about that here: https://paulgrenyer.blogspot.com/2025/05/see-bigger-picture-and-look-around.html And Picking Your Battles, which can read abo...