The 19 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 on communication and presence since long before podcasting existed, and his show reflects that depth. With 269 episodes, a 4.8 rating from over 1,150 reviews, and a bimonthly release cadence, The Look and Sound of Leadership takes a different angle from most shows in this space. Instead of interviewing famous CEOs, Henschel draws from his own executive coaching practice to address specific workplace challenges. Each episode is essentially a coaching session you get to sit in on. Topics include conquering presentation nervousness, leading when the person above you has an unchecked ego, how to grow your direct reports, and building humility as a leadership strength. The episodes run about 15 to 25 minutes and feel remarkably focused. There is no filler, no extended banter, no ad reads that eat up half the runtime. Henschel speaks with the calm authority of someone who has spent thousands of hours in one-on-one coaching conversations. His advice tends to be specific and behavioral rather than abstract -- he tells you what to say, how to say it, and why the phrasing matters. The show has been running since 2007, which makes it one of the longest-running leadership podcasts out there. That longevity speaks to consistent quality. If your leadership challenges are less about grand strategy and more about how you show up in a room, this is the podcast that meets you where you are.

David Dye is a bestselling author who built this podcast around a question most leadership shows ignore: how do you get results without becoming the kind of boss people dread working for? With 335 episodes, he has carved out a niche for leaders who want to be both effective and genuinely decent human beings.

The format mixes interview episodes with solo installments where Dye shares specific communication frameworks you can use immediately. One of his most popular series focuses on what he calls G.O.A.T. Powerful Phrases, exact words and sentences for handling tough conversations, pushing back on micromanagement, dealing with negativity on your team, and setting expectations that actually stick. It sounds prescriptive, but Dye delivers it with a calm, thoughtful style that makes the advice feel approachable rather than rigid.

Listeners often point out that his soft-spoken approach is a welcome contrast to the more aggressive leadership podcast personalities. He is not going to yell at you about crushing it or dominating your market. Instead, he will walk you through how to have a difficult conversation with a struggling employee in a way that preserves the relationship and still drives accountability. Episodes run 20 to 40 minutes and drop weekly. The show holds a perfect 5.0 rating, and while the review count is still modest at 38, the people who find it tend to become loyal listeners. If you manage people and sometimes feel like you are losing yourself in the process, Dye gets it, and he has practical tools to help.

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.

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.

Timothy Dean Smith brings more than 40 years of leader development experience to this tightly focused podcast, and you can tell he has zero patience for filler. Each episode of First-Time Leaders Accelerated runs just five to seven minutes — short enough to listen during your morning coffee, but packed with specific advice you can actually use that same day.

The show zeroes in on three problems that trip up almost every new manager: communication skills that mysteriously vanish once you get a title, the awkward shift from being a peer to being the boss, and the culture headaches nobody warned you about. Smith talks about these challenges with the bluntness of someone who has coached hundreds of leaders through them. His episode on the "peer to leader" transition is particularly good — he makes the point that it is not a promotion so much as a total identity shift, and he walks through what that means in practical terms.

Smith also spends time on what he calls the four leader prerequisites: caring, inspiration, training, and self-leadership. These are not abstract concepts the way he presents them. He ties each one to real workplace scenarios and gives you a framework for checking whether you are actually meeting each standard or just assuming you are.

The publishing schedule is a bit unusual — monthly episodes from January through July, then a break — but the back catalog of 29 episodes covers enough ground to keep a new manager busy well beyond that. If you want leadership guidance without the padding, this is a strong pick.

Desiree Petrich built this podcast around a question most new managers ask themselves at 2 AM: "I got the title, but what do I actually do now?" With 85 episodes and counting, You're the Boss, Now What? has become one of the more practical resources for managers who want stronger teams without the constant drama.

The format keeps things interesting. Full-length episodes run 18 to 34 minutes and tackle meaty topics like psychological safety, accountability conversations, and how to handle passive-aggressive coworkers. Sandwiched between those are shorter "Leadership Tips" segments of four to seven minutes that distill a single idea you can try right away. It is a smart structure — you get depth when you want it and quick wins when you are pressed for time.

Petrich draws heavily from frameworks like Working Genius, DISC assessments, and Patrick Lencioni's 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, but she translates them into plain language instead of hiding behind jargon. Her episode on building psychological safety stands out because she gives you a step-by-step process rather than just explaining why it matters. The same goes for her accountability episodes — she actually walks through what to say and when.

Guest appearances from coaches like Tessa Kampen and Greg Kettner add fresh angles, especially around workplace happiness and culture repair. The show carries a perfect 5.0 rating from 71 reviews, which is unusual for a management podcast and probably reflects how specific and usable the advice tends to be. If you manage people and regularly feel like you are making it up as you go, this one is worth your time.

Jan and Michelle Terkelsen have been putting out The People Leaders Podcast since 2017, and with 163 episodes in the catalog, they have covered just about every angle of people management you can think of. The show comes from Australia, which gives it a slightly different flavor than the usual US-centric leadership content — the cultural references are broader, and the advice tends to be less corporate and more human.

What sets this podcast apart is its heavy use of personality frameworks, particularly the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The Terkelsens use MBTI not as a party trick but as a genuine tool for understanding why your team members react differently to feedback, conflict, and change. Their episode on signs your team needs an MBTI workshop is a good example — it connects personality dynamics to actual performance problems rather than treating assessment tools as an end in themselves.

Episodes range from quick eight-minute solo reflections to longer 45-minute interviews with guests like executive recruiter Richard Triggs and workplace psychologist Anna Eliatamby. The mix works well because you can grab a short episode on managing difficult conversations during lunch or settle into a longer discussion about leadership resilience on a commute.

The Terkelsens are particularly strong on topics like virtual team management, building support networks, and stress reduction — areas where new managers often struggle most. Their style is warm but not soft; they will tell you when a common management approach is actually making things worse. The back catalog alone makes this worth subscribing to if you are building your management skills from the ground up.

Melody Wilding is a therapist, executive coach, and best-selling author, and Psychology at Work is where all of those roles come together. The podcast sits at the intersection of career strategy and behavioral science, which makes it especially useful for new managers trying to figure out the soft side of leadership — the part nobody teaches you in onboarding.

The show covers ground that most management podcasts skip entirely: office politics (and how to navigate them without losing your integrity), managing up when your own boss is difficult, building executive presence when you still feel like you are faking it, and the emotional intelligence skills that separate managers people tolerate from managers people actually want to work for. Wilding's episode on holding people accountable without making them hate you is a standout — she breaks down the psychology behind why accountability conversations go wrong and gives you a script that actually works.

Guest interviews bring in experts like Mo Bunnell on relationship building, Guy Winch on work-life boundaries, and Ashley Herd on workplace accountability. The conversations typically run 35 to 45 minutes, though some solo episodes are shorter at around 17 minutes. Wilding asks good follow-up questions and does not let guests coast on platitudes.

With 96 episodes, a weekly release schedule, and a 4.8-star rating from 43 reviews, the show has built a solid following among driven professionals. It is especially valuable if you are the kind of new manager who overthinks things — Wilding's background in therapy means she understands the anxiety side of leadership, not just the strategy side.

Kent Kniebel spent more than 20 years in leadership development at organizations like Korn Ferry, Cargill, and General Mills before launching The Step UP, and that corporate background shows in the best possible way. This is not a podcast that deals in vague motivational quotes. Every episode follows a deliberate two-part structure: the first half explores a guest's background and leadership philosophy, and the second half delivers exactly three practical tools or strategies you can put to work immediately.

That structure is the show's secret weapon. Guests like Kari Loken (who runs Fierce Conversations workshops) and Elena Agaragimova (a human performance specialist) bring real expertise, and Kniebel is skilled at pulling specific, usable advice out of them instead of letting the conversation drift into generalities. His episode on the delegation trap is particularly relevant for new managers — he addresses the specific mental blocks that keep you doing everything yourself and gives you a framework for letting go without losing control.

Episodes run about 45 minutes each, which is longer than some management podcasts, but the consistent structure means you always know what you are getting. The show releases weekly, and with 39 episodes so far, it is building a strong catalog of leadership topics including performance management, coaching techniques, career transitions, and the ongoing debate between hard skills and soft skills.

The Step UP holds a perfect 5.0 rating from 10 reviews. It is a newer show that deserves more attention, especially from managers who want concrete takeaways rather than abstract leadership theory.