Geek Philosophy

A few months ago, I wrote about professsional development for managers and alluded to listening to some podcasts on the subject of management. I’d like to take the time to call out one podcast that, in the short time I’ve been listening to it, has already paid dividends with respect to career growth and professionalism. That podcast is Manager Tools.

Manager Tools - A treasure trove of managerial wisdom

With over 400 podcasts, approaching the Manager Tools catalog can be daunting, but there’s a helpful “Basics” section that contains foundational podcasts that subsequent, more advanced episodes build on. I haven’t worked my way through all of them yet, but there are a few I feel are worth drawing attention to.

The three part Coaching Dilemma (1 2 3) offers an extremely deep look into how to pick who to coach when time and resources are tight. When given 4 team members, A, B, C, & D, do you spend your marginal time coaching super-productive star-performer A, above-average solid worker B, slightly below average C, or struggling, not-up-to-par D? Their answer may surprise you, but their reasoning is sound.

Professional Subordination (1 2) covers how to act toward the organization (your superiors as well as your direct reports) when a decision is made with which you disagree. This was the first podcast whose value was immediately apparent to me, as I was going through such a situation at the time. The terminology and thought process covered in this episode also came in useful in my recent interview experience when I was asked almost an identical question: “Give an example of a time when you disagreed with a decision that was made. How did you react?” What timing!

I expected How to Assign Work Tasks (1 2) to be largely irrelevant to me, since I support self-organizing teams with shared priorities, but that’s really an ideal – at one point or another, I’m going to need to to ask someone to do something for me, and these casts provide some common-sense-yet-useful guidance that can be found in most Manager Tools episodes.

There are several more that I really like (I recently got a lot of mileage out of the “How to Resign” episodes – more on that in a future post), but at this point it’s probably best for you to go off and listen to them yourself. It’s worth noting that Mark and Mike are very opinionated, and don’t hesitate to point out certain ways of thinking as “wrong” or “right” with great confidence. That said, even if you’re not a manager, there are usually good points that you can put into practice to help raise your level of professionalism. There’s also a sister podcast, Career Tools, that is focused on professionalism in a more generic context.

If you’re already familiar with Manager Tools / Career Tools, what’s your opinion on them? If not, do you have any other management podcasts that you’d recommend, or recommend I stay away from? Please leave a comment!