Best Engineering Management and Leadership Podcasts for 2020
Published on Jul 9, 2020
5 min read
“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
As an engineering manager, there is a lot to learn and master from people management to planning and execution. Podcasts are a great resource for learning. You can listen to them on the go, on the commute, etc. Have you discovered the power of podcasts yet? Are you addicted to podcasts like me?
I’ve curated 18 great podcasts for engineering managers and leaders and updated them for 2020. Some are even specific to engineering management. Most of the descriptions are taken or adapted from the podcasts.
This post is an update to my previous list Best Podcasts for Engineering Managers and Leaders from 2018. Several are new. I also removed some podcasts that don’t seem to be publishing new episodes in the last year to keep this list fresh.
Table of Contents
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1. Authority Issues
Authority Issues is a podcast about leadership, management, and competitive prescription writing.
2. Coaching for Leaders
Leaders are not born, they are made. This show gives you access to practical wisdom that will empower you to become a better leader. Dave Stachowiak brings you a perspective from coaching a global leadership academy and more than a decade of leadership at Dale Carnegie. Also included is one Saturday episode a month, featuring a listener success story.
Dave is a tremendous authority on management and leadership. The archives contain over 440+ episodes on a large range of leadership and management topics.
Bonus: Read Dave Stachowiak’s interview on managersclub.com.
3. Decisive Moments
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decisive-moments/id1489429177
Decisive Moments is an engineering leadership & management podcast by Plato, a mentorship platform that connects managers to a community of experienced engineering leaders.
4. Dose of Leadership
“The Dose of Leadership Podcast is the ultimate leadership resource of inspiring and educational interviews with relevant and motivating leaders; real-life leadership & influence experts who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of the truth, common sense, and courageous leadership. The podcast interviews leaders from all aspects of life; business leaders, entrepreneurs, authors, speakers, military heroes, faith based leaders—all are highlighted on the Dose of Leadership Podcast.”
5. Engaging Leader
https://engagingleader.com/podcast/
Engaging Leader is a podcast to help you communicate, engage, and lead with greater impact.
8. Jocko Podcast
Retired Navy SEAL, Jocko Willink and Director, Echo Charles discuss discipline and leadership in business, war, relationships, and everyday life.
While a lot of the items discussed are not exactly relevant to day to day engineering management, I listed this because it has tremendous leadership lessons mostly drawn from the military and military history. I find this podcast most inspiring.
9. Lead to Win
https://michaelhyatt.com/leadtowin/
Short-term wins are easy. Sustained achievement is another story. On Lead to Win join New York Times bestselling author Michael Hyatt and discover how current research combines with timeless wisdom for lasting success. From personal productivity to personal development, self-leadership to team leadership, and intentionality to influence, get the insights and tools you need to win at work and succeed at life.
10. The Learning Leader Show
https://learningleader.com/podcast/
Leaders are learners. The best leaders never stop working to make themselves better. The Learning Leader Show Is series of conversations with the world’s most thoughtful leaders. Entrepreneurs, CEO’s, World-Class Athletes, Coaches, Best-Selling Authors, and much more.
11. Level-up Engineering
https://codingsans.com/engineering-management-podcast
Level-up Engineering reveals actionable management secrets from some of the most successful tech leaders. This podcast brings you key insights from fellow engineering managers and tech leaders to level-up your management skills and to take your developer team to the next level.
The podcast covers the biggest challenges engineering managers face, showing exactly how others overcame these challenges. Learn the best practices on engineering management to understand people and organizations as much as you understand code.
12. The Look & Sound of Leadership
https://essentialcomm.com/podcast/
An ongoing series of Executive Coaching Tips by Tom Henschel designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you want to be perceived. Each episode gives specific examples from coaching clients dealing with very relatable real world issues.
This podcast is phenomenal.
13. Manager Tools
https://www.manager-tools.com/all-podcasts
Manager Tools is a free weekly podcast designed to give managers actionable recommendations to further their careers. The hosts Michael Auzenne and Mark Horstman are both United States Military Academy graduates (West Point) and former Army officers. These episodes go back many years and are full of amazing, specific guidance. There are conferences also that expand on this content.
Finally, there is book based on what is discussed on the podcast The Effective Manager. Highly recommended.
14. Managers Club
The podcast for this website ManagersClub. Subscribe at iTunes.
Engineering management can be a lonely place. Welcome to Managers Club where you will find interviews with top engineering leaders and managers to help and inspire you. Listen to the real-life stories of successful and ambitious engineering leaders who are focused to lead their teams to bigger and better outcomes.
15. No Bullsh!t Leadership
http://www.yourceomentor.com/podcast
No Bullsh!t Leadership is a podcast for experienced leaders who want to become truly exceptional leaders. Each week, your host Martin Moore shares the secrets of high performance leadership; the career accelerators that you can’t learn in business school, and your boss is unlikely to share with you. Step away from the theoretical view on leadership, and learn from a successful CEO who’s already walked the path.
16. The People Stack Podcast
http://podcast.thepeoplestack.com/
Interviews with authors, coaches and leaders of tech companies from around the world as we explore the intersection of People, Work and Technology.
17. Simple Leadership
http://simpleleadership.io/category/podcast
“SimpleLeadership specifically focuses on improving the craft of software engineering leadership. As a VP of Engineering & CTO I am acutely aware of the lack of good resources available for new and existing software engineering managers. SimpleLeadership is designed for both new and experienced software & technology managers who want to build high-performing teams, better motivate & mentor their employees, reduce attrition and advance their career…..”
18. Story Time with Managers
https://www.wecohere.com/podcast-storytime-with-managers/
“In “Storytime With Managers”, Jennifer Tu asks the questions you might ask an expert over a cup of coffee – including the ones you feel scared to ask – packaged up neatly into 20min podcast episodes.”
19. Supermanagers
https://fellow.app/supermanagers/
“Supermanagers, brought to you by the team at Fellow.app, is the podcast for managers and leaders who want to become better at leading teams and organizations.”
Missing Any?
I’m sure there are lots of other outstanding podcasts. What did I miss? Let me know in the comments below! Happy listening!
Photo by Jonathan Velasquez on Unsplash
