Best of Leadership — March 2026

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    Article
    Avatar of frankelA Java geek·9w

    The Software Architect Elevator

    A review of Gregor Hohpe's 'The Software Architect Elevator' from O'Reilly. The book covers the role of modern architects who bridge business strategy and technical implementation across organizational levels. Structured in 41 short chapters (5-10 pages each) across topics like architecture decision-making, communication, organizational dynamics, and IT transformation. The reviewer praises the experience-driven advice and accessible format, but notes it is strictly organizational rather than technical. Recommended for developers with a few years of experience who feel technical skills alone are insufficient.

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    Article
    Avatar of zaidesantonManager.dev·12w

    Don't become an Engineering Manager

    A former advocate for engineers taking management roles now advises against it in 2026. Three main reasons: the rapid pace of AI-driven tech change makes it risky to step away from hands-on work; the management ladder has flattened significantly (Amazon raised IC-to-manager ratios by 15%), making Director/VP roles scarce; and Staff Engineer compensation now often exceeds EM pay across the industry by 20-30%. The author remains an EM personally because they enjoy it, but recommends senior engineers wait a couple of years before making the jump unless their gut strongly pulls them toward management.

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    Article
    Avatar of staysaasyStay SaaSy·11w

    Avoiding a Culture of Emergencies

    Well-managed teams experience far fewer emergencies than poorly managed ones. Four key practices separate good managers from bad: staying deeply informed about what their teams actually do, maintaining strong conviction about what work truly matters so they can push back on unnecessary requests, building a mental model of the team and business to anticipate future needs, and genuinely caring about team well-being. Emergencies are often a choice — the result of managers prioritizing short-term convenience over their team's long-term productivity. Reducing emergencies leads to happier teams, better retention, and the focused environment that great work requires.

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    Article
    Avatar of techleaddigestTech Lead Digest·11w

    The Rewrite That Was Really a Resignation Letter

    A senior backend engineer spent 18 months escalating structural problems in a routing engine through retrospectives, backlog tickets, and one-on-ones before writing a 22-page rewrite proposal. When leadership rejected it with a vague deferral and no alternative, he left. The post dissects this pattern: how systematic deprioritization of incremental fixes forces engineers toward dramatic proposals, why those proposals are often the wrong solution to a real problem, and what a substantive rejection should actually look like. It argues that 'no to the rewrite' without a committed alternative is indistinguishable from 'never,' and that the rejection gap is where trust and retention are lost. The story ends with the predicted cascading failure occurring six months after the engineer's departure, validating his diagnosis.

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    Article
    Avatar of zaidesantonManager.dev·9w

    Software engineering calories

    Using a calorie-tracking analogy, this piece argues that most engineering teams have no idea how much code (input) they're actually shipping relative to feature adoption (output). It explores why simple metrics like lines of code or PR counts are poor proxies, advocates for ML-based tools like Weave to estimate the real 'caloric value' of engineering work, and cautions that more code isn't always better — some products would benefit from deleting features rather than adding them. The author also warns that AI-generated code may look productive in the short term but degrade product health over time.

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    Article
    Avatar of mikefisherFish Food for Thought·11w

    How Do You Know If You’re a Good Leader?

    Good leadership requires honest self-evaluation, not just confidence. Using Lincoln's private 'Meditation on the Divine Will' as a lens, the post argues that self-doubt and introspection are leadership disciplines, not weaknesses. Leaders are measured from three angles: how their boss, peers, and team experience them. Practical advice includes conducting informal 360 reviews, looking for patterns in feedback, and accepting ownership of perceptions regardless of intent. The core message: the strongest leaders are not the most certain, but the most committed to self-examination.

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    Article
    Avatar of microservicesioMicroservices.io·9w

    Microservices Platforms - part 6: Build platform

    Part 6 of a series on Microservices Platforms, this installment covers the Build platform — the component responsible for providing deployment pipeline infrastructure, reusable pipeline components, and pipeline templates. The Build platform, alongside the Deployment platform, defines the path changes take from a developer's laptop to production, enabling service teams to focus on business value rather than pipeline management. Full content is behind a paywall.

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    Article
    Avatar of staysaasyStay SaaSy·10w

    Management In The Age Of AI

    AI tools reached an inflection point in late 2025, fundamentally changing what good management looks like. Managers in 2026 must become hands-on builders to understand AI tooling firsthand, raise output expectations since powerful tools eliminate many old excuses, actively manage AI spend as pricing shifts to consumption-based models, enforce precise goal clarity to avoid building the wrong things fast, and deliberately force team collaboration as everyone works heads-down with personal agent fleets. Hiring standards must also rise sharply, as the gap between great and mediocre engineers amplified by AI tools is now roughly 100x rather than 2x.

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