A Day in the Life of a Senior Leader (Category Management)

I've read a lot of management books in my life, but with Michael Lopp, it's an interesting story -- he doesn't just write management books, his books are like fireside stories:) It's third. bookI read it and they all look like a collection of essays that are united by one topic. This time, Michael tries to take the aura of superheroics from senior leadership and show what this day is really made of: time, people, priorities, meetings, fires and the search for meaning.

The previous two books are

• "Managing HumansA book about development management, where the author cited a set of managerial “arrows”, talked about processes and described human types.
• "The Art of Leadership" - a book that builds leadership as a sequence of practices on three levels: manager, director and top manager" And in the new book, Michael tells not only about beautiful stories from the lives of tops, but rather about the reality where you need to make difficult decisions, build communications, go to meetings, move the product forward and not die of lack of time. The book is still being written and I have only read it. 8 Chapters where there are the following interesting points

1. Michael’s mantra in one of the first chapters goes something like “ask questions, repeat the hard parts, and listen” – this is about how a good leader does not take the decision away from the team, and questions, repetition of difficult places and attentive listening leads people to their own decision.
2. The chapter on “contagion” talks about how false narratives spread throughout the company and why people are more likely to believe in a convenient explanation than in an accurate one under stress.
3. The chapters "The Seven Circles of Meeting Hell" and "Late Again" discuss leadership dysfunction: poor meetings, chronic busyness, and lateness as not a "fun feature," but a strategic management defect. (||Have you noticed such systemic delays in your colleagues?||)
4. The chapter of "Managing Up" tells almost about the plot from the Brave Soldier Schweik, where the honest transmission of important information is replaced by a convenient plot masking the difficult moments of real life.
5. I like the chapter in Prestige Writing because Michael describes it as a central skill: the higher the role, the more you control not with your hands, but through text, framing and narrative. I’ve noticed a lot of people underestimate this skill.
6. The chapter "The Product Engineer" about the fact that people who actually build a product, should have an equal voice in product solutions and this is about engineers and conditional products managers or designers.

Interestingly, these chapters are based on fresh essays - they are relevant, interesting and poignant. I plan to read the rest of the chapters that will appear during the quarter. (The page of the book says that it will be released in June. 2026 year).

#Management #Leadership #Software #Engineering #Product #Writing #Processes