The coaching habit

What Hacker News says

1. dimitrios1Jun 2026
   Not to be a contrarian, because I agree for a lot of the industry, but there are some genuine gems out there. Few examples:

   Extreme Ownership really helped me be a better leader and take more accountability for my own actions

   Atomic Habits really helped me think about goal setting and what the underlying driver was

   Coaching Habit improved my 1:1s drastically (I basically stopped talking or advice giving and just listened -- profound, I know, but the book helped smack me in the face with it)

   Many more examples, but there is definitely a ton of self-help hack slop out there as well.

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2. nraweDec 2025
   The Coaching Habit is a fantastic book and is the right way to do. Managers don't exist to solve other peoples problems; it's vice versa.

   Managers are accountable for a problem, and responsible for building a team that can solve it in the most cost effective way. Their team members are responsible for solving the problem. Managers are also responsible for a lot of other things (tracking, reporting, cost management, roadmaps, change management, hiring/firing, process improvement). IME the managers who don't like the coaching side largely don't really want to be managers or don't understand that distinction in responsibilities. (Not helped, TBF, by lots of pretty awful promotion schemes that don't support people on that path).

   What The Coaching Habit does leave out is the need for mentoring. Mentoring is not a synonym for coaching, it's active: "my report does not know how to do this thing, I need to tell/show them how to do it." While coaching: "my report knows how to do this, they need a soundboard for getting to the right answer."

   It can distinctly suck some time, for both parties. However, in the long run, when managers stop coddling, their team members start growing. One person who hated me bitterly when I started on the coaching road with them now thanks me for it because it helped them to build their confidence and ultimately their skills to become a CTO. I have similar stories from others. YMMV.

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3. floydnoelFeb 2025
   sounds just like the advice in the book "The Coaching Habit" which i thought was great
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4. ykat7Jul 2021
   This was a nice succinct writeup. On the topic, here are some books I'd recommend for ICs making the jump to a manager role (or thinking about it):

   1. The Making of a Manager (https://www.amazon.com/Making-Manager-What-Everyone-Looks-eb...)

   2. The Manager's Path (https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...)

   3. Crucial Conversations (https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Talking-Stakes-...)

   4. The Coaching Habit (https://www.amazon.com/Coaching-Habit-Less-Change-Forever-eb...)

   5. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Len...)

   I'm still due to read High Output Management (https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove-e...) and Extreme Ownership (https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs-eboo...).

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5. yodonDec 2020
   You may enjoy reading the book "The Coaching Habit" which, while not directly talking about coding and code reviews, has a lot of good guidance on how to bring a coaching mindset to them.
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6. giantg2Aug 2020
   Getting to Yes; Exactly What to Say; The Coaching Habit

   These are a few that I read and found useful. I'm not a CTO, just an intermediate developer.

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