PRESS PLAY
Tired of management theory? Want to learn specific skills to help improve your management performance? Then Manager Tools is the podcast for you! Manager Tools is a weekly business podcast focused on helping professionals become more effective managers and leaders. Each week, we discuss specific actions for professionals to take to achieve their desired management and career objectives. Manager Tools won Best Business Podcast Award in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2012 as well as the People's Choice Award in 2008. Find more at http://www.manager-tools.com/
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Manager Tools makes workplace responsibility concrete through behavioral evidence, practical routines, and candid scrutiny of managerial habits.
Manager Tools turns management problems into decisions a manager can make and behaviors a team can observe. Sarah and Mark work through clearly framed questions, using workplace scenarios to move from frustration or received wisdom toward specific action.
Annual reviews lose their jump scare when you've talked performance every quarter.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A skeptical, practical look at generational management and engagement surveys, using history and workplace procedure to puncture fashionable certainty.
Manager Tools takes aim at management advice that borrows authority from sounding current. Sarah and Mark set generational management inside a wider critique of fashionable workplace thinking, then ground the point with an 1895 New York Times letter about young professional men…
A clear, practical case for treating peer relationships as management infrastructure, with calendar sharing as a real test of peer support.
Peer relationships come through here as a basic management tool, not a soft extra. The hosts move from No Dropping Dimes into pre-wire, peer support, and shared calendars, with the best moment centered on a promoted manager whose replacement is left unaware of meetings already…
Quarterly reviews are treated as a simple, repeatable management practice.
Manager Tools presents the quarterly performance review as a steady management habit rather than a formal ordeal. The episode keeps its attention on cadence, the questions to cover, and the format, which makes the process feel practical instead of abstract.
HR slows firing because managers need proof, and the piece makes that case plainly.
Manager Tools turns firing into a management problem instead of a simple burst of frustration, and that framing gives the discussion its edge.
A firing dispute becomes a clear lesson in proof, notes, and misplaced blame.
Sarah and Mark use this second Manager Tools installment to make a familiar management mistake feel sharply recognizable: frustration turns into judgment, and judgment turns into a trip to HR without the proof or notes that should have come first.
Fast signals for leaders watching work change.
Practical psychology for better work.
The episode frames part one of a two-part discussion about current common management scams.
HR takes the heat here, but Sarah and Mark put the pressure back on managers.
Peer relationships move from a broad management principle into a practical operating problem.
This episode teaches managers how to be positive interviewers to improve hiring outcomes.
Sarah and Mark open Part 2 with a plain question: why does HR make it so hard to fire people?
Many managers do not give enough feedback between formal reviews.
This episode explains the difference between line and staff leadership positions and how to handle demands from each.
This episode teaches managers how to conduct positive, effective job interviews instead of adversarial ones.
This episode provides guidance on how to plan and execute a vacation as a professional, including briefing a number two and the team.
This episode debunks popular management scams and offers practical advice on giving negative feedback and interpreting engagement surveys.
This episode teaches managers how to build and strengthen relationships with their peer managers to achieve better results.
This episode discusses the hidden purpose of interviewing and how to create a fair, effective hiring process.