One of my favorite ways to get new ideas and learn new things is through podcasts. I’m always amazed at the number of people who are not listening to them. Back in 2005, when I was new to my position, I was looking for information to help me be a better manager. At that time, podcasting was fairly new. I discovered a podcast called manager-tools and I was hooked. There is so much great information out there and it is all Free! I thought I’d share what is currently on my playlist:
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminars This is a podcast from Stanford University. They bring in a speaker each week to talk about starting, funding or running a business. The content here is amazing. I’ve gleaned so many great ideas from these podcasts. I always recommend this one for a start: What I wish I knew when I was 20 from Tina Seelig. I really find it inspiring and I find myself going back to it all the time.
Manager Tools and Career Tools This is one of the first podcasts I found. Every podcast is actionable. It really gets to the heart of how to become a great manager. There is so much content it can be a little overwhelming so it might be good to start at the Basics page. This is where I learned the power of having weekly one-on-one’s with my team. Great resources on interviewing, managing and how to be a great employee. Can’t recommend it enough. They do tend to talk a lot, but if you can get past that, it’s great.
HBR Idea Cast These are from the Harvard Business Review. They pick one of the articles from the magazine and do an interview based on it. Lots of interesting content.
The American Innovator The podcast is from Paul Akers at Fastcap. As you know, he was one of the inspirations for our lean journey and he has some great information on his podcast. Sometimes he interviews people and sometimes he takes you on one of his trips. Lots of great stuff here too.
Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast I found this when I was searching for leadership information. Andy Stanley is the pastor of Northpoint Church. He has a great way of distilling concepts down to simple phrases. I really like his approach to leadership. His idea of one sentence job descriptions is excellent!
The Entreleadership Podcast This podcast is from the Dave Ramsey group. He mixes interviews with authors with ideas from his seminars. Again, good information for leaders and managers.
Mark Graban’s Lean Blog Podcast Mark applies lean to healthcare but he interviews people from all industries. This is where I first heard Paul Akers ideas on 2 Second Lean. It is a good podcast and will help you learn more about the lean movement.
Read to Lead Podcast I just discovered this one at the end of last year. Interviews with people who have recently released books. I get a lot of ideas on what to read from here.
A few others that I subscribe to are: Beyond the To Do List, The Leadership Dojo, Managing the Grey, This is your Life, The Accidental Creative, Chris LoCurto, LSS Academy Podcast, Prolific Living Media – The Daily Interaction and North Point Church podcast.
As you can see, there are lots of interesting things out there. Most podcasts run 20 minutes to an hour. The things I listen to have changed over time. Some podcasts have ceased and lots of new ones have started. Some have just too much talking and some don’t grab me. But for the most part, the ones you see above are in a steady rotation for me.
I suggest using the Downcast app on your phone. You subscribe through the app and then it will automatically download the episodes so you can listen to them when you are in your car or out exercising. I’ve tried other apps but this one works great and does everything I need. You can also get all these through the iTunes store if you like that method better.
I’d love to hear what podcasts you listen to for ideas and inspiration!
