Manager Tools

If you’re looking to be a better leader, start with the trilogy and keep going! Wish I would have found this before my first manager role. The advice is simple, easy to understand and they provide step by step instructions on how to implement. You won’t find better, but you may pay more. 😂

I used to love this podcast for the actionable content, thoughtful structure and forward-looking insight. Those days are, regrettably, long gone. The new hosts are arrogant, condescending. They fill the first 90% of the episode with rude or irrelevant fluff before getting to solid content. That dynamic is puzzling at best. You’d expect a podcast on management to be well-managed and professional with coherent material. Or at least, that’s what I expect. I’ve canceled my membership and will now steer clear of this podcast.

I understand fluffing up the podcast. I don’t mind it in itself. But you can tell from the tone and cadence how fake it is. I point this out because I believe the messages in there are great! But I have difficulty listening to it and it certainly makes me wonder if a paid membership means needing to suffer through more 30 minutes of dialogue that pains me. And doing that just more often for 30 seconds of useful content.

I’m a busy person and listen to podcasts to generate ideas for leading my team, growing my career, and gaining advice on topics where I have gaps. What I like: There are nuggets of great advice and information in this podcast. The hosts seem to have real world experience and that translates well in their conversation. What I don’t like: It often takes forever to get to the point. It seems like 90 percent opinion and fluff with 10 percent actionable content. For example, a recent 5-part series on engagement surveys spent 4.5 episodes on why they are garbage and maybe .5 of that on what managers can actually do about them. It doesn’t help front line managers to know why engagement surveys are garbage — The surveys are not going anywhere. The hosts often go on extended tangents and repeat the same opinion in different ways multiple times, often those opinions have nothing to do with the topic at hand. To keep me as a listener: Tighten up your agenda and talking points. Come prepared with points and with time limits for each. Provide peer reviewed evidence of the topic at hand and not just opinion. Opinion is fine, it just can’t be everything. Using the paid transcripts to gain the ability to weed out all the fluff isn’t a great selling point.