The Manager Tools Podcast, founded in 2005, is a weekly audio podcast by Michael Auzenne and Mark Horstman, which focuses on career advice and helping managers become more effective. It was awarded People's Choice Podcast from Podcast Awards in 2008, and won the Best Business Podcast award in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2012.In 2016, was awarded as the Legacy show in Business
Hosts
What You’ve Been Taught About Management is Wrong - Mark Horstman, at USI - Information and subscription on http://www.usievents.com If you're a manager of others, you know how hard it is to manage people. Individual work is easy ...
The podcast hosts, Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne, are both graduates of West Point, the United States Military Academy, which is where they met.
Michael Auzenne spent nearly two decades in Corporate America as a manager and executive. His corporate career includes executive assignments in technology and Program Management for MCI Inc. and Bell Atlantic as well as several entrepreneurial pursuits in the restaurant and retail fitness industries.
Mark Horstman was a manager and executive in sales and marketing at Procter & Gamble. Mark has been coaching and training managers and executives since 1988.
History
Horstman and Auzenne learned about podcasting in 2005 and decided that this could be a way to disseminate their knowledge about effective management. Auzenne said he didn’t want to create a model where he would only give away half of a solution and then require the audience to pay for the rest of the solution. The co-founders have stated that they believe they can change the world by changing management, and that the way to change it is one manager at a time. After starting with the weekly free podcasts, both hosts completely dedicated their work time, and became co-founders of Manager Tools LLC, a management consulting firm. They regularly consult to and train managers in Fortune 1000 companies around the world. Their company also sells transcripts of the podcasts on-line through membership, and they organize public and in-company conferences to practice the Manager Tools. As of 2012, the company has five full-time employees.
The first Manager Tools podcast was published on June 26, 2005., with the first Career Tools podcast published on December 4, 2008. The first live podcast was recorded with an audience after a conference and was published on October 31, 2010. The 500th podcast of the company was published on January 1, 2012.
On January 25th, 2015 Manager Tools cast series delivered the 500th episode and reached 250+Million Downloads
The podcasts use no advertisement and most incoming links on the internet are from comments by passionate users. The tools they teach are now also being cited by education institutions. The hosts have done talks in prestigious schools such as Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and Kellogg School of Management Most of the podcast increase in the number of listeners comes from personal recommendations as well as the effect of the Podcast Awards
Manager Tools podcast: Every Manager Effective and Career Tools podcast: Every Professional Productive are trademarks of Manager Tools LLC since September 2012.
Podcasts
Most casts are about 30â€"40 minutes long, presented as a dialogue between the two hosts. They cover a specific topic related to management or career development. Casts start with an overview of the points to be discussed, followed by the discussion point by point, and end with a summary of the points discussed.
Manager Tools main podcasts are available on the webpage and also through iTunes and RSS feeds. The podcasts often refer to each other which in the past has created issues with new listeners. In order to help them, a collection of 'basics' casts has been created and is available on their website as well. Those cover mostly 'The Management Trinity' as well as additional basic notions.
Manager Tools casts help 90 percent of the people, 90 percent of the time. And the great majority of the casts are timeless instead of just timely.
Management is about doing the right things repeatedly. Successful managers do them over and over again; and is about Behaviors.
In the Podcast, you find many topics that helps on professional life. Such as: Behaviors (There are 5 Manager Tools behaviors), career, communication, development, network, performance, strategy, team and many more. One of the Manager Tools motto is : "There's a cast for that".
- Manager Tools podcast: Every Manager Effective.
- Career Tools podcast: Every Professional Productive.
The Manager Tools "Basics" â€" is a special collection of podcasts on the essentials of effective managerial behavior and the base of all the Manager Tools advanced material.
The podcasts are often articulated around the 'Manager Tools Philosophy'. Its main parts are 'The Management Trinity' and the 'Horstman's Laws'. The founders focus on specific action steps that managers can apply to their job as opposed to theoretical management models.
The hosts also provide for a fee access to special set of podcasts with more specific themes and with more detailed information on those topics, covering among other:
- Interviewing Series
- First Job Fundamentals
Notable Content and theories
Foundational Principles - The Management Trinity
The hosts often refers to the 'Management Trinity': One on Ones, Feedback, and Coaching, plus their silent fourth partner, Delegation. These are at the heart of everything Manager Tools recommends. All Of The Manager Tools Trinity Tools are Teachable Equivalents that the hosts have developed. Most casts are based on these tools.
They usually include:
- One on Ones (Weekly meetings in order to reinforce relationships) - recognised as "the best business practice of all time" by profitguide.com -
- Feedback (reinforcing or correcting behaviours)
- Coaching (Fostering Continuous Development)
- Delegation (Managerial Economics of who should do a task)
Other foundational principles as described in the 'basics' podcasts include:
- Running Effective Meetings
- Methods for rolling out the Manager Tools Trinity
- 'Solution to a Stalled Technical Career'
DISC - Management adapted to the personality of the direct report
Manager Tools podcasts often refer to the DISC assessment when adapting management and communication styles to individuals.
The DiSC model provides nonjudgmental language for exploring behavioral issues across four personality traits (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientious.) These four traits can be grouped in a grid with "D" and "I" sharing the top row and representing extroverted aspects of the personality, and "C" and "S" below representing introverted aspects. "D" and "C" then share the left column and represent task-focused aspects, and "I" and "S" share the right column and represent social aspects. In this matrix, the vertical dimension represents a factor of "Assertive" or "Passive", while the horizontal dimension represents "Open" vs. "Guarded".
Other principles
There are also some recurring references to other 'rules' or 'laws'. These are mostly referred to verbally in the podcasts:
- Horstman Curve (difficulty of growth at the beginning of a career)
- McGuire's Hump (regarding how hard it is to change)
- Horstman's Laws of Interviewing
- Horstman's Rule of Christmas
- The Wendii Curve (regarding Cultural Diversity)
- Walt's Rule (regarding how and where spend time)
- Horstman’s Law of Managerial Friction: It’s always harder to start change than it is to sustain it.
- Horstman's Corollary to Parkinson's Law ("Work contracts to fit the time you give it")
- Horstman's definition of conflict: more than one person in the same county.
Activities
Manager Tools is incorporated under "Manager Tools LLC" and provides multiple services such as :
- Free Podcasts (Manager Tools, Career Tools)
- Licensed Content
- Forums for user discussions
- Training Conferences
- Corporate Engagements
- Publications and other.
Licensing
Some casts are only accessible with a free registration. The site offers Individual Licenses. This is in order to fund the project and keep the podcasts advertisement-free. Both co-founders have had multiple offers for sponsorships, but they’ve turned them all away because the advertising model doesn’t currently fit into their model and brand of building trust.
Forums
The Manager Tools Forums are built for public discussions between listeners of the podcasts. Here you can read questions asked by other managers and professionals about workplace situations.
Forums are a part of Community in which managers and professionals interact
Manager Tools employees (including the hosts) regularly intervene to help the members as well.
Conferences
Manager Tools regularly hosts training conferences around the world. There always is a maximum number of attendees in order to maintain the quality of the delivery. They deliver four types of conferences:
- Effective Manager Conference.
- Effective Communications Conference.
- Corporate Effective Manager Conference.
- Effective Interviewer Conference.
Publications and Other Products
Other products and tools available for free, sold or re-sold by Manager Tools include:
- Blogs: The Effective Manager. and The Productive Professional
- Resume: Workbook.
- DiSC® Profile.
- Interview Creation Tool
- iOS and Android Apps
- Road Map Launched on 2017: Interactive Application_software that brings solution to effective manager behaviors
- Weekly Email Publications: Things I Think I Think. and Newsletter
- Licensee Conference Call.
- Effective Relationships Series.
- The Daily Manager. a partnership with HP ePrintCenter.
Since 2011, Manager tools also provides a mobile version of their website and for podcast navigation.
Internationalisation
Manager Tools, although slightly biased by US background, aims at creating timeless and universal content. They have listeners all over the world; since 2009, some of the podcasts and knowledge have been adapted in French and, since 2010, was also in German for some time. Those adaptations have been started by enthusiastic listeners of the cast that are willing to invest their time to make the content available to a larger audience (Cedric Watine and his associate Lorry in the French version. Gernot Glawe was in the German version).
On 12 March 2012, Gernot Glawe, who had been hosting and maintaining the German version of the site, announced its closing by the end of March 2012 and thanked his listeners for the 116.000 downloads of his 68 podcasts.
As part of internationalization, Manager Tools conferences have been, besides United States, in Europe, Australia and in China (Shanghai).
Awards and Popularity
In 2016 Mark Horstman and Manager Tools launched "The Effective Manager" book
In 2016 Mark and Mike were interviewed by WSJ "How to Be a Better Manager in 30 Minutes a Week"
Manager Tools won the People's Choice Podcast Awards in the business category in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2012. In 2008 it also won the overall People's Choice category. Career Tools won the best Business Podcast at the 2010 edition of these awards.
Manager Tools was nominated again in 2013 in both categories Peoples Choice and Business.
In 2014, named one of Fortune's 9 great business podcasts
In 2014 Mark Horstman was interviewed by MEN'S FITNESS in two occasions.
In 2014, Career Tools named one of the 10 Must â€" Watch Podcasts in Letsintern.
In 2014, Manager Tools podcasts are downloaded 2.5 million times per month.
"The Manager Tools podcast was recognized at the 2007 Podcast and New Media Expo as the Podcast Winner for the category of Business Podcasts. This is an impressive win, considering that over 3280 sites were nominated."
The Manager Tools podcast is downloaded over 80,000 times weekly; in 140+ countries worldwide
The podcast is often recommended for non-native speakers wanting to improve their business English. This is also how Cédric Watine from the French Manager-tools "Outil du Manager" discovered the podcasts initially.
"Although it is US based and intended for managers in the corporate world it's full of practical techniques for managing staff and organisations. It is widely applicable to managers of all kinds, and anyone who has working relationships with other people."
Manager Tools has an unofficial fan club: "Created by satisfied listeners." Dedicated to promove the resources of the podcasts as well as to provide some color commentary and background about the show and its hosts.
In 2008, the podcast was reviewed by Small Business Trends Radio. The podcast is often recommended in professional circles as a "must listen for any new manager".
"One of TechNewsRadio.com's favorite podcasts - Manager Tools"
December 21, 2010: "Career Tools, the podcast focused on actions listeners can take to grow and enhance their careers, has won the Business Category of the People's Choice Podcast Awards. This award recognizes Career Tools commitment to providing actionable guidance to individual professionals."
On December 12, 2011 Chriss Simmons wrote: "A podcast that, in the short time I’ve been listening to it, has already paid dividends with respect to career growth and professionalism".
On February 4, 2011 Geschrieben von S. Hagen wrote: "For several years I hear when driving regular podcasts. One of my favorite shows is "Manager Tools" by Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne. The two speak in refreshing simplicity and clarity about principles, principles and practices in management. Especially I would like to put your heart into the special " Horstman's Law of Project Management". On April 17, 2012 he wrote back and recommended the podcast again.
On May, 2012 Pulse Magazine interviewed Mark Hosrtman about delegation and how to do it in the Manager Tools way.
On May 9, 2012 Rick Broida (PCWorld) named Manager Tools podcast as one of his favorite business-minded podcasts: "If you're a manager, you need this podcast".
On October 17, 2012 Joshua Malin (business2community), published:"Manager Tools probably the richest source of solid information and advice on this listm Manager Tools covers specific topics like soliciting feedback, giving unfavorable performance reviews and shutting down that guy who keeps derailing your meetings."
On November 7, 2012 John Dillard, an EO Charlotte member and president and partner of Big Sky Associates, Inc. published: "I found two sources of information that I can’t resist sharing because they are concise, persuasive and actionable. I’m hoping that if you’re a leader and you’re reading this post, you can put these two sources to work right away, as I am convinced that OOOs are a very important part of developing and deploying a strategy or significant change effort. The first source is Manager Tools...".
Podcast has an average of 4.5 stars in Customer Ratings on itunes with 474 ratings (2012).
"If you're tired of a lot of management theory and would rather learn SPECIFIC actions you can take TODAY to improve your management performance, you'll enjoy the manager tools podcast."
"What sets this podcast apart from the others in the genre of Business Management is that they deliver tools, techniques, processes and steps, as well as the concepts and background needed to successfully implement the practices for excellent and effective management by Business Executives and Managers"
Erik Bernskiold (web designer, consultant and software educator) named Career Tools "a golden podcast". "They do an excellent job of sharing dos and don’ts in order to sharpen your career skills."
Julie Taylor (styleandtechformen) named the podcasts in her list "Top 11 Podcasts to Catch While You Can."
Jeremy Triplett article "Manager Tools: The Best Management Advice I Ever Received", published in the American Society of Crime Lab Directors (ACSLD) Executive Education Digest
David Lowe:(Chinese Translation from Manager Tools’ article “Is It You Or Is It Me?â€)
References
External links
- Manager Tools website