I first heard about Manager Tools from a member of my PMO team. One day we were discussing management training resources and she recommended this podcast. Of course I looked it up and my world has been changed ever since. After about a month of listening, basically nonstop, I implemented the first item they recommended: O3s (one-on-one’s). Implementing 1:1’s with all of my direct reports, I had 5 at the time, meant I had to commit to at least 3 hours a week of meetings. This simple change, meeting weekly for 30 minutes, has fundamentally changed how I look at my role as a manager and a professional.

What You Can Learn

This isn’t just a management podcast, it’s a podcast for any professional, in any role, that takes their career seriously and wants to improve. Below is a link to a keynote that Mark Horstman gave – the following is a description from the YouTube clip:

If you’re a manager of others, you know how hard it is to manage people. Individual work is easy compared to managing others. But that’s only because you’ve never been taught the simple basics, or because what’s you’ve been taught is wrong: be “fair”, become friends with your team, Asians/Indians/Americans are different, etc. All of this is wrong, following Mark Horstman. There are two things that matters more than anything else as a manager: get results, and keep the people who work for you. If one of them isn’t doing the job, it’s your fault. You are the one doing the interviews so you’re the one to blame.

Some of the younger professionals in my circle have said this is “old school” management, I disagree. It’s practical and pragmatic management (if you want to actually do amazing things while growing your company).

Website Link: https://www.manager-tools.com/
Books: The Effective Manager / The Effective Hiring Manager