The 14 Best New Managers Podcasts (2026)

Kim Nicol started teaching her Essential Skills for New Managers course back in 2017, and the podcast is basically an extension of that work. She runs mostly solo episodes -- usually 12 to 25 minutes -- where she breaks down one specific management challenge at a time. Think confidence-building, direct communication, executive presence, or handling burnout. Her background in mindfulness shows up in how she frames things, but this is not a meditation podcast. It is grounded, practical stuff about becoming the kind of boss people actually want to work for. With 269 episodes and a biweekly release schedule, there is a huge back catalog to dig through. Nicol has a calm, clear delivery style that makes complicated interpersonal dynamics feel manageable. She recently tackled topics like AI tools for managers and trauma-informed workplace practices, so she is keeping up with where the conversation is going. The episodes on transitioning from individual contributor to manager are particularly strong -- she understands that shift in identity better than most. If you are early in your management journey and want something you can listen to on a lunch break, this one fits perfectly. Rated 4.7 stars from 54 ratings on Apple Podcasts.

Dave Stachowiak has been doing this show weekly since 2011, and it shows in the best possible way. With 777 episodes, 50 million downloads, and a 4.8-star rating from nearly 1,400 reviews, Coaching for Leaders is one of the most established leadership podcasts around. Stachowiak brings in bestselling authors, executives, and researchers for 30-to-40-minute conversations that consistently go deeper than the typical interview format. Recent guests include Charles Duhigg talking about remote communication and Graham Allcott discussing workplace kindness and setting expectations. What makes this different from other interview shows is that Stachowiak clearly does his homework -- he asks questions that pull out genuinely useful insights rather than letting guests recite their talking points. He also runs a leadership academy with over 300,000 followers, so there is a real community built around the show. The free membership gives you searchable archives organized by topic, which is genuinely helpful when you need advice on a specific situation Tuesday morning. His style is warm but substantive, and he has a gift for making academic research feel actionable without dumbing it down. For new managers who want to learn from people who have been leading teams for decades, this is essential listening. The production quality has stayed remarkably consistent across all those years, which says a lot about the dedication behind the microphone.

Mamie Kanfer Stewart runs The Modern Manager as two shows in one, and both halves are worth your time. Her solo episodes function like mini-courses -- she picks a topic like unspoken team norms or salary negotiations and delivers a structured breakdown with concrete takeaways you can apply that same week. The guest episodes are more conversational, bringing in experts to talk about everything from supporting neurodiverse employees to the real dynamics of hiring friends. With 403 episodes and a weekly release, there is a massive library covering meeting practices, communication skills, conflict management, team building, time management, goal setting, and workplace culture. Episodes typically run 27 to 40 minutes, which is long enough to go deep but short enough for a commute. Stewart has a direct, organized delivery that reflects her management philosophy -- she clearly practices what she preaches about being structured and intentional. The show has a 4.7-star rating from 181 reviews, and listeners consistently praise how immediately applicable the advice is. Recent episodes on managing emotions at work and building win-win workplaces show she is focused on the human side of management without getting soft about results. This is one of those podcasts where you finish an episode and immediately want to try something different in your next team meeting. The practical focus and consistent quality are what keep listeners coming back week after week.

Radical Candor started as a management framework from Kim Scott's bestselling book, and the podcast extends that framework into real workplace scenarios week after week. Co-hosted by Scott alongside Jason Rosoff and Amy Sandler, episodes run 45 minutes to about an hour and often feature guest experts discussing feedback, team dynamics, and career transitions.

The core idea is deceptively simple: care personally about your colleagues while challenging them directly. The show takes that two-by-two matrix and applies it to situations you will actually recognize — the colleague who avoids giving honest feedback, the manager who confuses being nice with being helpful, the team meeting where everyone agrees but nobody means it. Over 200 episodes and a 4.7-star rating from nearly 700 reviews show that the concept has real staying power.

What makes this podcast worth your time, especially if you lead people, is how specific it gets. Scott and her co-hosts do not just talk about giving better feedback in the abstract. They role-play scenarios, break down listener-submitted situations, and point out the exact moment where a conversation went sideways. The show has shifted to a roughly biweekly cadence recently, which gives each episode more room to breathe. If you have ever left a difficult conversation at work feeling like you either said too much or not enough, this podcast will give you a vocabulary and a framework for next time.

Manager Tools is the granddaddy of management podcasts, running since the mid-2000s with 945 episodes and over 1,200 ratings at 4.6 stars on Apple Podcasts. The hosts take a systematic, no-nonsense approach to management that treats it as a set of learnable behaviors rather than an innate talent you either have or you do not. Their signature frameworks -- the Management Trinity of one-on-ones, feedback, coaching, and delegation -- have become standard vocabulary in many organizations around the world. Recent episodes tackle hiring mistakes, HR processes, and what makes management an organizational system rather than just a personal skill. Episodes run on a biweekly schedule, and the hosts present specific, step-by-step actions you can implement immediately. Fair warning: the pacing can feel slow at times. Some listeners love the thoroughness, while others find there is too much setup before the main content arrives. But the actual advice is solid and battle-tested across thousands of managers in every industry. The show is free with no ads, which is increasingly rare in the podcast world. If you can get past the deliberate delivery style, the content library is genuinely encyclopedic -- there is an episode for nearly every management situation you will encounter in your first few years leading a team. Think of it as a reference manual in podcast form that you can search when a specific problem lands on your desk.

HBR IdeaCast is the podcast arm of the Harvard Business Review, and it has been running for over 600 episodes — making it one of the longest-running business podcasts out there. Hosted by Alison Beard and Curt Nickisch (with Adi Ignatius recently joining as cohost), the show runs about 25 to 30 minutes per episode and drops new conversations every Tuesday.

The format is a focused interview with a single expert, usually someone who has written for HBR or conducted research at a major business school. Topics span leadership strategy, innovation, AI adoption, organizational change, and management practices. What sets it apart from the average business podcast is the density of insight packed into a short runtime. There is no filler, no extended banter, and no off-topic tangents — you get a clear thesis, supporting evidence, and actionable takeaways.

With a 4.3-star rating from about 1,700 reviews, IdeaCast does not quite have the universal enthusiasm of some flashier shows. A few listeners find the format a bit dry or academic. That is a fair critique — this is not a show built on personality or humor. But if you want to stay current on what serious management thinkers are saying about the modern workplace without committing to a two-hour episode, IdeaCast is one of the most efficient ways to do it. It is the kind of podcast you listen to on a Tuesday commute and end up referencing in a meeting by Thursday.

Tom Henschel has been coaching executives for years, and The Look & Sound of Leadership is basically a window into those coaching sessions. Each episode runs 20 to 28 minutes and follows a distinctive format -- Henschel creates scripted scenarios based on real coaching conversations, walking through how leaders can handle specific workplace challenges. With 268 episodes and a 4.8-star rating from over 1,100 reviews, this show has clearly struck a chord. Recent topics include humility as a leadership strength, growing your people, motivating teams, and dealing with unchecked egos above you. The coaching dialogue format is what makes this show unique among management podcasts. Instead of abstract advice, you hear actual conversations about how to phrase things, how to read a room, and how to adjust your communication style. Henschel focuses heavily on executive presence -- how you come across in meetings, how your tone affects your message, and why perception matters as much as competence. For new managers who know what they want to say but struggle with how to say it, this is incredibly useful. The bimonthly schedule means episodes come out less frequently, but each one feels polished and purposeful. Henschel is warm without being soft, and he has a talent for naming the communication patterns that most people sense but cannot articulate.

David Dye is a bestselling author who runs this show with a clear mission: helping managers lead effectively without burning out or becoming someone they are not. Episodes typically run 10 to 20 minutes, making this one of the most digestible management podcasts available for busy professionals juggling a full calendar. With 331 episodes, a perfect 5.0-star rating from 37 reviews, and a weekly release, the show covers communication skills, team conflict, decision-making, and managing up. Recent episodes include practical topics like 12 powerful communication phrases for leaders, how to say no without losing credibility, and converting workplace conflict into collaboration opportunities. Dye has a direct, energetic style that gets to the point quickly without wasting your time on extended intros. He favors concrete tools -- specific phrases you can use, frameworks for common situations, and scripts for difficult conversations that would otherwise keep you up at night. The show title captures its philosophy well: you can be a strong, results-oriented leader without sacrificing your authenticity or your wellbeing in the process. That message resonates particularly with new managers who feel pressure to adopt a corporate persona that does not fit who they actually are. The shorter episode format means you can listen to two or three episodes in the time other podcasts take for one, which is great for focused learning when you face a new challenge at work.

Ben Brearley is a leadership coach based in Australia who runs mostly solo episodes, usually between 12 and 16 minutes long. The Thoughtful Leader Podcast targets what Brearley calls reflective, people-focused leaders -- managers who want to lead with confidence without pretending to be someone they are not. With 315 episodes releasing weekly and a 4.8-star rating, the show covers limiting beliefs, performance management, feedback delivery, and team support in a refreshingly jargon-free way. Recent episodes tackle modern workplace issues like ghostworking (the new presenteeism), whether you can change your personal values for leadership, and how long to wait before enforcing consequences on underperformers. Brearley keeps things tight and practical. There is no filler, no extended intros, no guest plugging their latest book for twenty minutes. He picks one idea, explains it clearly, and gives you something to think about or try. The shorter format works well because each episode feels like a focused coaching session rather than an extended interview. His Australian directness cuts through the corporate speak that plagues many leadership shows. For introverted or thoughtful new managers who feel like most leadership advice is designed for extroverts, this show feels like it was made specifically for you.

Kevin Kruse built LEADx as a leadership development platform, and his podcast is where he interviews top executives, bestselling authors, and researchers about what actually makes leaders effective in real-world situations. With 369 episodes, a 4.9-star rating from 474 reviews, and a weekly release schedule, this is one of the highest-rated leadership podcasts on Apple Podcasts. Episodes run 23 to 59 minutes, with most landing around the 30-to-40-minute mark. Kruse has interviewed Twilio CEOs about building innovative products, Zen monks about resilience and mindfulness practices, and military leaders about managing teams under extreme pressure. He has a knack for pulling actionable takeaways from guests who might otherwise stay at the theoretical level and never get to the specifics that matter. What makes this particularly useful for new managers is the breadth of topics -- Kruse covers emotional intelligence, productivity systems, difficult conversations, hiring strategies, and culture-building across his deep catalog. His interviewing style is conversational and curious without being softball or fawning. He asks follow-up questions that most interviewers skip, and he is not afraid to push back when answers get vague or sound too rehearsed. The show attracts both new managers looking for fundamentals and experienced leaders wanting fresh perspectives on old problems. If you like learning from the experiences of people who have led large organizations through real challenges, this podcast delivers consistently.

Kristen Harcourt is an emotional intelligence expert who brings that specialty front and center in everything she does on this podcast. She mixes solo episodes with interviews featuring progressive CEOs, HR leaders, and workplace psychologists, and the conversations regularly go places most management podcasts avoid entirely. Topics include burnout recovery, self-regulation under pressure, empathy gaps in leadership, and creating workplaces where people genuinely thrive rather than just survive until Friday. With 134 episodes, a perfect 5.0 rating from 20 reviews, and a biweekly release schedule, the show maintains high quality throughout its growing catalog. Episodes range from 17 to 61 minutes depending on format and guest. Harcourt recently covered coaching skills for leaders, intentional leadership practices, and human-centered HR approaches that actually work. What distinguishes this show is the emphasis on the emotional and relational dimensions of management that other shows tend to gloss over. Most new manager advice focuses on processes, meetings, and deliverables. Harcourt tackles what happens when you are managing someone through a personal crisis, or when your own frustration is visibly affecting your team, or when the gap between your company values and your lived experience at work becomes too wide to ignore. Her guests tend to be thoughtful practitioners rather than celebrity authors, which keeps the conversations grounded in real experience. If emotional intelligence is your growing edge as a new manager, start here.

Kimberly J Benoit is a workplace toxicity expert and bestselling author who brings a refreshingly honest perspective to leadership development. Her show mixes interviews with successful leaders across industries and solo reflection episodes, running 14 to 41 minutes per episode on a biweekly schedule. With 81 episodes and a 5.0-star rating from 8 reviews, the catalog is still growing but already covers substantial ground. Recent topics include crisis management, boundary setting, productivity addiction, HR demystification, and listening practices. Benoit frames the show around a judgment-free idea: every leader has made mistakes, and the path forward is acknowledging them honestly rather than pretending you had it figured out from day one. That philosophy makes the show particularly approachable for new managers who feel like imposters. She tackles workplace toxicity not from an accusatory angle but from a practical one -- how to recognize it, how to avoid creating it, and how to recover when you realize you have been contributing to it. The humor helps too. Benoit describes her approach as fresh and funny, and the tone is noticeably lighter than most leadership podcasts without sacrificing substance. If you want leadership advice that feels more like a real conversation with a smart friend than a corporate training module, this fits the bill.

Mathew Hamilton holds an MBA from the Australian Institute of Business and brings a practical, solo-format approach to leadership advice aimed squarely at first-time and emerging managers. With 59 episodes releasing weekly, the show runs 12 to 29 minutes per episode and covers topics that new managers actually wrestle with -- balancing authority with approachability, letting team members fail as a development strategy, and using appreciation languages in the workplace. Hamilton recently explored how elite performers like Michael Jordan handle failure and applied David Goggins mental toughness concepts to everyday management situations. The sports and performance psychology angle gives the show a different flavor from typical management podcasts. Hamilton is direct and structured in his delivery, which fits the show title -- he clearly believes leadership can be taught through specific principles rather than vague inspiration. The show is still building its audience (no ratings yet on Apple Podcasts), but the content quality is solid. Episodes on the 5 Languages of Appreciation and the authority-approachability balance are particularly strong for new managers trying to figure out their leadership identity. If you are looking for a focused, no-frills show that speaks directly to the challenges of stepping into your first management role, Hamilton delivers practical frameworks you can apply immediately.

This is a curated spinoff from the massive Manager Tools catalog, pulling together 21 episodes specifically designed for people stepping into management for the first time. The content comes from Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne, the same hosts behind the main Manager Tools show, but packaged into a focused curriculum. It covers the Management Trinity -- one-on-ones, feedback, coaching, and delegation -- along with 90-day onboarding plans and how to handle your first meetings with new direct reports. Think of it as the greatest hits collection for new managers rather than a continuously running show. The episodes follow the same systematic, step-by-step approach that made Manager Tools famous: identify the specific behavior, explain why it matters, and tell you exactly how to do it. With a 4.2-star rating from 44 reviews, the reception is generally positive, though some listeners note the same criticism that follows the main show -- there can be a lot of preamble before the core content. But the advice itself is genuinely timeless. The First Rule for New Managers episode alone is worth the listen. If the 945-episode main feed feels overwhelming and you want a structured starting point, this is the on-ramp. Free, no ads, and designed to be consumed in order.