Managing Made Simple
by Lia Garvin
First time manager? What to say in your first team meeting
About this podcast
Managing Made Simple is a weekly leadership and management podcast for people managers, business owners, and founders who want to lead high-performing teams without falling back into the work themselves.
Each week, host Lia Garvin- 3x bestselling author and former team operations leader at Google, Apple, and Microsoft- breaks down the real, everyday challenges of leading teams, giving feedback, delegating, creating team accountability, high performing culture, retention, and more with performance with practical strategies you can implement immediately. Lia’s work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, and Fortune.
With Lia, you get real talk and actionable leadership insights that make it easier to manage your team and get better results from your people.
If you’re asking leadership questions like:
• How do I get my team to take ownership and accountability for their work?
• Why do I have to repeat myself constantly as a manager?
• How do I know if I hired the wrong employee?
• How do I delegate effectively without things falling apart or micromanaging?
• How can managers tell if team members are overusing AI at work?
• What actually motivates employees today?
• How do I give feedback that actually moves the needle?
• How do I communicate vision, expectations, and strategy clearly?
• What are best practices for performance reviews, compensation, and growth conversations?
How do you lead a team through change, uncertainty, and rapid growth with confidence?
You’ll find the tools, frameworks, and leadership strategies you need to lead your team better, starting today.
Managing Made Simple:
✔ Corporate managers navigating continual change
✔ Founders & Business Owners scaling teams without burning people out
✔ Entrepreneurs balancing business strategy and people leadership
✔ Experienced leaders ready to modernize how they manage teams
New episodes drop every Tuesday, delivering leadership lessons, people management tools, and team-building strategies you can apply immediately.
Learn more at liagarvin.com
Episodes
The newest 20 of 100 episodes
- First time manager? What to say in your first team meeting · 15 min · Episode 258As a first time manager, it's tempting to open with "I'm just here to help" or "I'll learn more from you than you'll learn from me." It comes from a good place, and it costs you…
- How to hold your team accountable: drop these two words. · 14 min · Episode 257Learning how to hold your team accountable can start with something as small as two words: "I need." When you make an ask about what you need, your team member's job turns into a…
- Second in command not stepping up? Wrong fit or wrong expectations · 16 min · Episode 256When your second in command isn't stepping up, it's tempting to decide you hired the wrong person. But most new number twos think the job is to do everything themselves, so they…
- 3 things great leaders do, no matter the team size or industry · 15 min · Episode 255Being a leader people want to work for looks the same on every team, even when the challenge on yours feels like nobody else has ever dealt with it. A team at an insurance…
- How to give a performance review your team won't dread · 19 min · Episode 254How to run performance reviews your team doesn't dread: a simple performance review conversation, a one-page self-assessment, and feedback with zero surprises. Performance…
- How to create a sense of urgency without micromanaging · 19 min · Episode 253Creating a sense of urgency on your team starts with the ask. When employees don’t follow through, the handoff was usually missing something. You ask for the client email, the…
- The tool that pours rocket fuel on employee motivation · 14 min · Episode 252What to say instead of good job: "great work" and "nice job" are comments anybody could get, and specific employee recognition is a completely different tool. This episode breaks…
- The 3-step conversation that retains your best employees · 21 min · Season 1 Episode 251How to keep employees from quitting rarely comes down to money. Gallup found 42% of voluntary employee turnover is preventable, and most of it traces back to one conversation…
- The Sit-Down: the conversation that makes feedback and recognition easier · 17 min · Season 1 Episode 250The hard conversation with an employee you keep putting off has a structure. Giving feedback to an employee does not have to become a whole thing. In this episode, Lia breaks…
- How to make 1:1s the most impactful meetings of your week · 15 min · Episode 249One on one meetings are the first thing leaders cancel and the one that costs the most. The fix isn't discipline, it's your one on one meeting agenda. In research run across…
- How to be a great Player-Coach manager · 18 min · Season 1 Episode 248Player coach management breaks down the same way every time: the player work wins and the coaching slides. If you lead a team and carry your own deliverables, you already know…
- Revenue goals don’t motivate your employees. Here’s what does. · 14 min · Season 1 Episode 247Revenue goals don’t motivate employees. The fix is one metric per role that each person can control, a number their own daily work moves. In this episode, Lia Garvin explains why…
- The reason your team didn’t follow your plan - and what to do · 19 min · Season 1 Episode 246You gave your team the full picture: the research, the roadmap, the direction. They said they were on board. Then nothing moved. In this episode, Lia Garvin breaks down the gap…
- The person you just hired didn’t bring the ROI? Here’s what to do. · 17 min · Episode 245You took a real risk and made that hire. 90 days later, you're wondering if it was the wrong call. Before you assume it's the wrong person: nine times out of ten, it isn't. In…
- Why your team can’t be your friends (and where the line actually is) · 18 min · Season 1 Episode 244You thought she was a friend. Then the reorg came out and she found out with everyone else. What felt like a betrayal was a clarity problem. In this episode, Lia Garvin breaks…
- Where AI fits on your team today · 18 min · Season 1 Episode 243The headlines said AI would be cheaper than your team. The receipts say otherwise. If you jumped in fast and are feeling the cost, or you've been holding back wondering if you're…
- How to make managing former peers easier (The Sit-Down in action) · 15 min · Season 1 Episode 242You got promoted. Your closest work friend is now your direct report. And what felt like it would be easy is now the most uncomfortable relationship in your professional life…
- How to fix it when delegating fails - 5 min feedback script · 18 min · Season 1 Episode 241Host Lia Garvin breaks down exactly what to do in the first five minutes after delegated work comes back wrong. Learn why taking work back stalls team growth, a practical…
- 3 Non-negotiables to hand-off work without lowering your standards · 19 min · Season 1 Episode 240Part 2 of a 3-part delegation series. You handed something off, it came back wrong, and you took it back — the problem wasn’t your team. Lia breaks down the three non‑negotiables…
- A 10-min exercise to figure out what to delegate · 17 min · Season 1 Episode 239Use a simple 10-minute monthly exercise to discover exactly what to delegate. Lia Garvin shows how to audit your calendar and task list to identify repetitive, low-impact, or…
