PDF format - Kartik Subbarao

102 Pages·2013·1.05 MB·English

by  Kartik Subbarao

Enlightening
Technical
Leadership
Kartik Subbarao
Saligrama Publishing
Copyright © 2013 by Kartik Subbarao. All rights reserved.
Published by Saligrama Publishing.
Contact the author at [email protected]
ISBN 978-0-9843812-1-0
Printed in the United States of America
Dedicated to the technologists who enlighten the world

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my parents, Saligrama Subbarao
and Mythili Subbarao, for their encouragement and
support throughout this project. Sharing my first book
with the ones who kindled my interest in reading and
writing has been a special experience. I would also like
to thank my sister, Lakshmi Subbarao, for being a
sounding board for so many of my monologues, and
for putting up with my “leadership” as a big brother.
I would like to express my gratitude to all of the authors
mentioned in this book. They have helped me to see
more clearly, and it is a delight to highlight their work. I
would like to thank Dan Oestreich, one of the most
gifted leadership writers I have come across, for review­
ing a draft of this book and providing thoughtful com­
ments.
I would like to thank my colleagues from my time at
Hewlett-Packard and companies where I have consult­
ed. I have learned incredible things about technology
and about leadership by working with so many talented,
creative and dedicated people.
Through open source projects and open learning
communities, I have learned from and collaborated with
amazing people from all over the world. I thank them
for expanding my sense of possibility and wonder.

Table of Contents
1 - Introduction...........................................1
2 - Mental Models........................................5
Refining Models....................................................7
Shifting Between Models...................................11
Letting Go of Models...........................................19
Helpful Mental Models.......................................31
3 - Open Source and Abundance................37
Identity Labels....................................................38
Giving Freely.......................................................39
Motivational Energies........................................43
4 - Workplace Dynamics............................49
Scarcity...............................................................49
Competition........................................................52
Performance Feedback......................................59
5 - Communication....................................65
Jargon.................................................................66
Feelings and Interpretations..............................68
Influence.............................................................72
Evaluating Leadership Advice............................75
Language............................................................78
6 - Virtualization and Realization...............81
Bibliography.............................................89

1 -
Introduction
One of my favorite quotes is from David Keirsey's
book Please Understand Me II, where he refers to an
engineer describing his inspiration to create and
innovate:
“You want to be the first to do something. You want
to create something. You want to innovate some­
thing...I often think of Edison inventing the light
bulb. That's what I want to do. I want to drive over
the bridge coming out of New York there and look
down on that sea of lights that is New Jersey and
say, 'Hey, I did that!'”1
The visual conjured up by the last sentence is, indeed,
electrifying to me. I too want to drive over the bridge
and look upon that sea of dazzling lights. But in this
context, against that backdrop, the declaration “Hey, I
did that!” isn't just a statement of personal triumph.
Sure, there's the I – being the wizard, the vehicle
through which the magic of advanced technology is
wielded. But then there's the that – bringing light to a
1 References for quotes are provided in the Bibliography.