While a promotion to manager is exciting, it’s also intimidating. A new title comes with more responsibilities and significant expectations. Your actions and leadership influence more than just the bottom line. It influences your company's most valuable asset: its employees.

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This pressure can overwhelm first-time managers, and knowing where to seek advice can prove cumbersome. Fortunately, the best resources for new managers are more plentiful than you might think. If you want to become a better manager right from the start, use these blogs, tools, podcasts, and books to propel you to success in a new management role.

The Best Resources for New Managers: The Top 5 Blogs To Subscribe To

Sometimes, you don't have time to scour the internet, library, or bookstore for the best advice on being a great manager. As such, subscribing to or following great blogs is a great way to save time finding information.

When you follow a high-quality blog, you know you're getting up-to-date information in a concise and easy-to-consume format. These top five blogs prove that management skills can come in bite-size pieces.

1. Seth’s Blog

Best-selling author, entrepreneur, and leader of change Seth Godin gives you personal insights into the world of leadership in his blog. A renowned speaker and writer who motivates thousands of people worldwide, Seth’s blog features inspiring reflections on leadership, management, and marketing.

His blog also helps with problem-solving, critical thinking, and soft skills, teaching you how to cut away the fat of a problem until only the solution is left.‍ If a crowded mind gets in the way of effective management, this is one of the best resources for new managers.

2. Lattice

Lattice is a great resource for new managers and one of the best places to stay up-to-date on the best practices of the HR world.‍ This site hosts numerous helpful articles geared toward new manager training, which may alleviate your concerns going into the position.

If you want to stay on track, sign up for their newsletter for a weekly dose of insightful management strategy.

3. Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review — also known by the acronym HBR — is one of the most reputable and best resources for all managers, both new and veteran. Sponsored directly by Harvard University, this blog shares daily posts from several contributors with years of management experience at Fortune 500 companies.

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It discusses many topics, including leadership, negotiation, strategy, operations, marketing, finance, management, and even niche topics related to specific businesses. You can either sign up for various subscription levels to view HBR articles or view them for free with a limit of three per month.

4. James Clear

Effective leadership comes from the ability to manage your team and yourself effectively.‍ And that’s just what makes James Clear’s blog one of the best resources for new managers.

Clear’s blog unpacks the science and psychology behind habits step-by-step, creating a positive routine for ridding yourself of poor habits that can hinder your leadership style and management progress.

Topics include a discussion of productivity, decision-making, performance, employee engagement, and motivation.

5. Unicorn Labs

You wouldn't be taking our advice if you didn't think we had anything good to say, right? The ultimate goal of Unicorn Labs’ must-read blog is to develop managers into Unicorn Leaders.

We post weekly articles focusing on various management topics, with a specific focus on delegating tasks, managing people, leadership development, becoming a good manager, and learning new skills. With easy-to-apply management tips, you can avoid common mistakes and learn the overarching ideas of leadership and management. If you’re eager to learn more, we don’t want to gloat, but it’s among the best resources for new managers in blog form.

The Top 5 Tools To Make Your Life Easier as a Manager

Technology makes our lives easier. Consequently, it’s one of the newfound resources for new managers. By having valuable technological tools behind you, the transition to your new management position becomes second nature. Whether you're a technophile or struggle with new software or tools, these easy-to-use manager resource tools can help you excel in your new position.

1. A DISC Assessment

Emotional Intelligence is an essential skill of any manager, and it starts with knowing yourself.‍ If you want to manage other people effectively, you need to understand your strengths and weaknesses and how you interact with people.‍

The DISC Assessment is a tried-and-true personality test that categorizes individuals' typical patterns of behaviors and emotions. It helps you understand your strengths and weaknesses, providing a roadmap to the professional development and management style that works best for you and your team.

2. Todoist

The classic stereotype of managers holding a never-ending to-do list couldn't be more accurate. As a new manager, a lengthy to-do list may seem intimidating, but Todoist can help you handle it.‍

As one of the best resources for new managers, Todoist is a list app used by millions of people worldwide. It allows you to keep track of everything in one place and easily prioritize your various tasks. If you're looking to improve your organizational skills and improve your productivity, this app is a necessity.

3. Miro

Miro is a meeting, workshop, and collaboration tool. Think of it as an online whiteboard. This tool makes it easy to flesh out ideas and brainstorm with your onsite or remote team in as little as one minute. The time savings of being able to do things right now cannot be understated in your new role.

Everyone on the team can easily create various sticky notes and webs and add pictures and comments all at once. This tool is highly recommended for teams working on creative projects and is one of the best resources for new managers.

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4. Pocket

As a new manager, you'll have a lot of reading material to get through each day. That’s what makes Pocket an excellent tool for managers. It allows you to save articles, videos, webinars and stories to create your content library. With your content library in tow, you have everything you need at your fingertips at a moment’s notice — drastically improving your time management and organization.

5. Calendly

Meetings require management in their own right. Scheduling is downright difficult, from performance reviews to committee meetings to one-on-ones with employees.

That’s why you’ll need Calendly. This tool allows you to easily schedule all of your meetings while also allowing other participants to schedule events on their own calendars.

Top 4 Podcasts To Listen To

Although the morning commute from your bed to your office is much shorter than what you're used to, we’re sure you still have time to fit in a morning podcast while you eat breakfast. Check out these five podcasts to help you think about how to improve your leadership, project management, performance management, and overall management skills.

1. Masters of Scale

This business and finance podcast is hosted by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn.‍ Each week, Hoffman interviews a different business leader and chats about the ideas and actions that make their company successful.

The guest list on Masters of Scale features a variety of business owners and celebrities, including Bill Gates and Gwyneth Paltrow. With advice from these high-performing entrepreneurs, you have everything you need to influence people and create a stellar work environment.

2. The Gallup Podcast

The Gallup Podcast is hosted by Gallup's editor-in-chief, Mohamed Younis. In its episodes, Younis discusses what society thinks about the most pressing issues in the workplace—one of the best resources for new managers.

He also demonstrates how leaders and managers can use their unique perspectives to make informed decisions, adding a helpful set of ideas for the new manager toolkit.

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3. Beyond the To-Do List

If you're overwhelmed by your exponentially growing to-do list as a new manager, Beyond the To-Do List host Erik Fisher can help. Fisher talks with experienced people who implement useful and practical productivity strategies to balance their professional and personal lives and open the door to success.

This podcast explores all productivity factors, including getting work done right the first time and completing tasks that accelerate goal achievement.

4. Supermanagers

Supermanagers is a podcast hosted by the team at Fellow.app., which hosts insightful episodes on various management topics for people of all experience levels.

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More specifically, the podcast aims to improve managers' leadership skills and positively impact their teams and organizations. Arguably one of the best resources for new managers, Supermanagers offers thoughtful episodes that give you first-hand insight into the world of management.

The Top 5 Books To Read

If you're a bookworm — or even if you aren’t — you have to check out these top five management books. Each one provides a distinctive and one-of-a-kind perspective on improving your leadership, embracing human resources, and fine-tuning the interactions you have with your team members.

1. “Good to Great” by Jim Collins

“Good to Great” explains how and why companies rarely transition from good to great and end up failing. In the book, Collins defines greatness and describes seven characteristics of companies that successfully make the transition.

2. “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by John Maxwell

John Maxwell is one of the world’s top authorities on leadership. In his book, Maxwell breaks down the concept of leadership into bite-size, digestible pieces. Each of the 21 laws he lists has its own chapter sharing personal stories and connections to historically great leaders.
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This quick yet inspiring read is one of the best resources for new managers. It will jump-start your journey toward better leadership and is a top resource for new managers, regardless of your personality or industry experience.

3. “The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni

Lencioni offers keen intellect and insight through his fascinating retelling of Kathryn Petersen's story. As Decision Tech's CEO, Petersen faces the critical leadership crisis of uniting a dysfunctional team that could destroy an entire company.
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Throughout the story, Lencioni reveals five dysfunctions that even the best teams struggle through and outlines actionable models to help managers improve team cohesion. This book will serve you for years to come as you continue to move forward in your management career.

4. “Creativity, INC.” by Ed Catmull

If there was ever a bible for creativity and innovation in management, this is the one. “Creativity INC.” gives you an all-access trip into the heart of Pixar Animation, learning the company’s processes along the way, including meetings, postmortems, and “braintrust” sessions.

Catmull walks you through building a creative culture and shows you what to do on your team to protect the creative process and reach new heights of innovation. Whether or not you’re in a creative management field, this is certainly one of the best resources for new managers.

5. “Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle

As a manager, you must create the ideal environment for your team to perform to the best of their ability, starting with corporate culture. In “Culture Code,” Coyle goes inside the world's most successful organization in this book and describes what makes them tick.

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He details the skills needed to generate team cohesion and cooperation, drawing on examples from various successful companies. This book offers strategies for building trust, learning, and positive change within your team.

The Final Chapter of the Best Resources for New Managers

Even the best resources can point you in the right direction as a manager, but the ability to put these practices into play isn’t always easy. If you’re serious about a career as a successful manager, leadership training might be the best resource for a new manager.

With the in-person guidance of someone who has been there before, you can learn introspective processes, leadership practices, and other tips to turn you from a manager into a leader. It’s just one more step you can take that will put you in the pantheon of legendary managers.