Whether you're a first-time manager, owner of a business, or a seasoned founder or executive, the only way you can run your business or team effectively is by first understanding its performance through numbers. In today's episode, we dive into how to numerically measure the performance of a business or team, how to track and communicate those numbers, and how to set effective goals based on them.

The only constant in the corporate world is change. How a leader implements change in their company, though, is the difference between success and failure of that company over time. Do it well and the company continues to innovate or be relevant while retaining and engaging its employees. Do it poorly and any one of those things doesn't happen. In today's episode of Management 101, I discuss what good and bad change management look like, and how to do more of the former and less of the latter.

Founders and business owners come in all shapes and sizes, but there are some clear common themes amongst those who find success and those who struggle to manage their business. In today's episode, I explore what makes a good and what makes a bad founder or business owner with Chrissy Donnelly, the founder of Cultivo, a consultancy and coaching service for startups.

Every manager makes mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes are easy to identify. Sometimes they're not. The most impactful mistakes managers make are often the ones that are hardest for them to recognize. In today's episode, I discuss a few of the most frustrating mistakes that managers make, how to recognize that they've occurred, and what to do about them.

Filling your team with great talent is essential to being a successful manager. But hiring is hard, particularly for first-time leaders, as it requires a number of skill sets, including effective planning, coordination, and self-awareness of one's own blind spots. In today's episode, I'm joined by a hiring and recruiting expert, Dane Zink of Product Hiring House, who discusses with me the most important components to a good interview process, the best sources of talent, and how to identify candidates who will fit your company's culture.

The most successful teams and companies use data to make better decisions. But how should a manager or company leader think about getting data into their teams and decision-making processes? In today's episode I'm joined by a data and product expert, David Shapir, who helps me break down the best ways to think about gathering data, using it, and enabling teams to improve their decision-making abilities.

In this episode of Management 101, I am joined by Executive and Leadership Coach Spencer Fertig, and today we're trying something different. Instead of diving deep into one topic, we covered seven. The result is something like Pardon The Interruption, but about 83% less contentious and 20% more comical. Today's topics:Hourly workers vs salariedManaging upwardManaging Gen ZConflict resolutionThe career mountain vs the career ladderHandling layoffsCrisis management

How do you hold employees accountable? Every leader struggles to do so, particularly in a startup environment where they tend to be spread very thin. In today’s episode of Management 101, I talk through: Setting expectationsDocument those expectationsChecking in on progress towards meetings those expectationsCelebrating wins and productively handling failureI also go through some key mistakes that I see managers make most often in the area of accountability.

Every growing company has daily and existential challenges that its leaders are constantly dealing with. In today's episode I dive into the most common ones: lack of focus, slowness to pivot, moving too fast, forgetting to scale, and hiring doers instead of thinkers.

Every manager makes mistakes. The best ones turn them into learning experiences. And not to toot my own horn or anything, but I've had a lot of learning experiences. In today's episode of Management 101, I talk through five of the key mistakes I've made as a manager, and what I think can be learned from them.

Leaders who want their companies to succeed need to figure out how to delegate the things they are not best suited to do, and then they need to empower individuals to take on those new responsibilities. Delegating and empowering done the right way can lead to companies getting more efficient as they scale. Doing either of them wrong can lead to slowdown and runaway projects. In today's episode, I talk through why delegation is important, how to do it effectively, and some of my own learning experiences with doing it poorly so you can skip to doing it right the first time.

Company culture isn't built through a set of core values pasted on a wall. Today's episode focuses on how company culture gets created, what good company culture looks like, and what you may be doing as a leader that is causing problems in your company's culture.

Good leadership today requires taking an analytical approach to your organization. In today's episode, I chat with Bill Zhang, a senior operations leader at Galileo, about what it really means to be a good leader, what it really means to be "analytical," and how anyone can become those things.

Managers and employees alike struggle with prioritization and time management. Today's episode focuses on the main traps that cause employees to manage time poorly, the indicators that you may need to step in as a manager, and some great ways to improve your own time management.

As your company grows, a strong marketing function becomes increasingly essential. But for many leaders, setting one up can be daunting. In the latest episode of Management 101, we sit down with startup marketing expert Austin Gunter to discuss the ins and outs of creating and managing an effective marketing org. From identifying the right time to build a marketing function, to hiring the right people and maintaining a successful strategy, we discuss insights that any business leader can benefit from. Don't miss out on this invaluable knowledge - listen to Management 101 today!

Running meetings is a part of any leader's job. Run them well and you get alignment, clarity, and buy-in. Run them poorly or let them go off the rails, and you get disengagement and wasted time. The last episode about meetings continues to be by far the most popular one, so I'm back with more tips and tricks to make you an amazing meeting host!

Setting the right expectations for your employees is a key to their success as well as your company's. So is checking in on how they're performing against those expectations in a productive manner and on an appropriate cadence. And what do you do when you and your employee are not aligned on how they're performing? On today's episode of Management 101, I discuss these topics alongside a former colleague and current Head of People at Nuvocargo, Lauren Burdick.

Your employees are not just going to be amazing performers by default. You as a manager play a huge role is making them great. In today's episode I am joined by special guest and fantastic manager: Spencer Fertig, CEO of Bar None Games. Spencer and I discuss what you can do as a manager to make your employees top performers, and also what you should avoid doing.

Today's episode is going to be about one of the harder topics in management and leadership: firing employees. We'll talk through why to fire an employee, when to do so, and how to go about doing it.

Startups naturally hire more people as they grow because there's more work to do. But as they hire more people, they become less efficient. When leaders see less output, they try to hire even more people to solve the problem. But what if the problem isn't with the number of people? What if it's actually with how they work? In today's episode I talk about why companies get less efficient over time, and what you as a leader can do to stop that (without hiring more people).

Managing remote employees is a different breed of management than in-person. But doing so effectively can yield tremendous benefits to a company, including access to a much larger talent pool. In today's episode, I talk about the pros and cons of having remote employees, and how to manage them to maximize their impact.

When you’re a company of 6 people, it is really easy to make sure everyone knows what’s going on. I work with a client that’s about this size, and they’re able to have a daily standup to discuss what everyone is doing. It just takes 15 minutes for everyone to get caught up. But as your team or company grows, that detail is lost. When a company is 60 people instead of 6, now everyone has a little bit less context of what is going on around them. People will start bumping into each other in their work. Not everyone will be rowing in exactly the same direction anymore. All of these problems are solved by good communication, particularly from you as a leader.

Hiring is a crucial part of every leader's job. What makes it go so poorly sometimes? How can you make it go well? In this episode we answer those questions and provide some basic guidance on how to be a good hiring manager if you've never done it before

Low performers sap energy from you, your team, and oftentimes your entire company. Managing them towards improvement or out of the organization is really hard and can be time-consuming. In today's episode, I talk through some best practices and some mistakes to avoid when it comes to dealing with low performers as a leader.

Spencer Fertig is the CEO and co-founder of Bar None Games (https://barnonegames.com). He is also a former manager of mine, and one of the best I've ever reported to. Today on Management 101, Spencer and I discuss his approach to delivering honest while empathetic feedback, and building an amazing team culture.

Mateo Jaramillo is the CEO and co-founder of Heru, and one of the best managers I've ever worked with. In this episode Mateo and I discuss our approaches to people development, build trust, and team culture.

Managing imposter syndrome and managing people older than you are two fraught tasks for managers and leaders. In today's podcast, we talk about what problems these two situations can cause, and how to handle them most effectively.

Delivering feedback is one of the hardest things to do as a manager, and doing it wrong can have disastrous consequences for your team's productivity and cohesiveness. In this episode we talk through the basics of delivering feedback effectively and some pitfalls it's important to avoid in doing so.

Some leaders are great managers and executors but struggle to run meetings effectively. In today's episode I talk through some best practices for making your team meetings more impactful and enjoyable.

What's a 1-on-1? Why is it necessary? On this episode I discuss the do's and don'ts of having these critically important interactions with your team members.

On the introductory episode I talk about some of the very basics of management theory and some very tactical tips to being a great manager, even your first time around.