Looking to Level Up Your Leadership Skills? Listen to These Three Podcasts.
By Angela Roberts, CEO of U.S. Money Reserve
Here are a few of my favorite podcasts that help me keep my leadership skills sharp in 2020.
Podcasts are all the rage these days. Whether you’re faced with a long commute or working from home and trying to find new things to keep your skills and mind sharp, you’ll find that many podcasts offer a wealth of resources, practices, and thought-provoking discussions that can level up your leadership game.
Podcasts are a great vehicle to take learning and entertainment on the road with you, whether you are headed out for a run or about to hit the grocery store. Many are short at just 30 minutes and can be consumed in bite-sized pieces. You can start and stop them as you like, then spend some time absorbing all they have to offer. Podcasts are truly a personalized way to access the kind of information you want, but they don’t require all your attention.
Podcasts are also great for gaining the inside scoop on how businesses and thought leaders work, and they are one of my favorite ways to expand and enhance my own personal leadership training. Here are the three best podcasts to improve your leadership skills today.
All About Podcasts
Podcasts began in 2004 when former MTV video jockey Adam Curry created an app that allowed him to download internet radio broadcasts and take them with him on his iPod. He worked with a coder to create the app, and eventually, other developers jumped on the bandwagon. As the popularity of Apple’s iPod and iPhone spread, podcasts took off. According to April 2020 data from Podcast Insights, today there are more than 1 million podcast options on the market, offering more than 30 million episodes that range from sexually explicit content to creative and innovative business content.
Podcasts are a great way to get really deep into a topic that interests you, and they can vary widely. While the FCC regulates things like radio broadcasts, they do not regulate podcasts, though the FTC does require podcasters to note when they are being paid by a promoter or sponsorship to push specific items, goods, or services. Even the FCC itself runs a podcast.
You can find podcasts everywhere from Apple Podcasts to Last.fm, Stitcher, and SoundCloud. You can stream podcasts from your smart home device, your phone (whether you have an Android phone or an iPhone), or online. The best part about podcasts is that you can take them with you wherever you go, and if you download them before you hit the road, you don’t need an internet connection to listen.
Podcasts are not run only by amateurs, either. In fact, they are often created by successful businesses and business leaders that you might not usually have access to in your daily life. Companies like GE, McDonald’s, and McKinsey all have produced podcasts you can tune in to, even if some of them are short-lived or farcical.
You can also uplevel your education if you so desire by getting in on a training podcast that can teach you everything from the basics of coding to how to market yourself and your company better. Podcasts also offer the opportunity for you to connect with other like-minded fans and listeners as many podcasts build community through social media and their listening platforms. Podcasts are a fantastic way to connect with other people who have insights and innovative ideas to offer. You never know — your next great idea could arise from listening to a simple leadership podcast.
The trick to finding the right podcast for you is to narrow the vast number of choices down to those that interest you most. As a company leader and manager, you know your time is valuable and precious, and you don’t want to spin your wheels listening to content that isn’t helpful or useful for your work. If you find a podcast you enjoy, you’ll discover that most platforms make recommendations for similar podcasts that fall under the same theme. They offer a wealth of suggestions that might fit your needs and interests and can lead to diamonds in the rough that you didn’t know existed before. You can also find podcasts by talking to friends and family or mentors and coworkers who you trust and like. Podcasts are one of those things people talk about the same way they talk about shows on streaming networks or movies — word of mouth is a great way to find podcasts that really appeal to you.
The other great thing about podcasts is that they don’t clutter up your library — and they are utterly portable. No more leadership books that get read once and stored on a shelf!
Read on for three podcasts that I regularly listen to and enjoy when I’m looking to level up my leadership skills.
Three Podcasts That Will Improve Your Leadership Skills
Leadership and Loyalty
Advice from someone who really gets leadership: Dov Baron
Last year in my column on Business.com, I mentioned that Kara Swisher’s RECODE podcast was on my top three list, and it still is in my top five as a great way to stay on top of what leaders in technology are talking about. This year, I have gravitated more toward podcasts that get into the nitty-gritty of leadership and strike at the heart of what I believe makes leaders great — deep authenticity and commitment. That’s why Dov Baron’s podcast Leadership and Loyalty pops to the top of my list this year.
Baron is a speaker and author who drives home the idea that great leadership is based on a keen understanding of emotional intelligence and utter honesty. Both those aspects of leadership are core to being a great leader, as I have written before, and I feel they are crucial to developing a successful C-level career. The thing I enjoy the most about Baron is that he doesn’t just espouse his own perspective but interviews top leaders, authors, and consultants on what works for them in their businesses. You can learn a lot by tuning into his podcast.
Coaching for Leaders
Leaders aren’t born; they’re made.
Dave Stachowiak is an executive leadership coach, and he’s been running his Coaching for Leaders podcast since 2014. He has episodes that range widely on things like how to recover from a bad first impression to how to cope in the current environment of shelter-at-home orders and managing and motivating a remote workforce. Stachowiak’s podcasts are free, but he does upsell other content, like access to his MemberCasts and other tools.
He has been podcasting a lot more recently with shows once a week tailored explicitly toward answering questions about leadership from a worldwide audience. He’s also expanded his offerings to include interviews as well as stand-alone episodes in which he gives advice. I highly recommend this podcast for people who want to learn what other thought leaders in the space are doing to pivot in the current environment.
Lead to Win
Personal and professional advice on how to be a great leader and find balance in your life
The Lead to Win podcast was formerly known as This Is Your Life, and it focuses on how leaders can work to balance their high-achieving mindset with personal advancement and professional success. Lead to Win has been around since 2017 and is hosted by New York Times bestseller Michael Hyatt (and friends), who says in his bio that he realized being successful means more than just working hard and building a successful business — it means balancing work and life in a more complete way.
Hyatt was the chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers and has had experience on both sides of the CEO’s desk, which really tends to inform his podcasts in a realistic way. His focus is on overwhelmed leaders who need a check-in to keep performing at their personal and professional maximum. The podcast comes out twice a week, and it is short enough (around 30 minutes) to listen to while you exercise or walk the dog around the block.
The Bottom Line on Podcasts for Leaders
When it comes to podcasts for leaders, there are so many to choose from, it can seem overwhelming to find one that meets all your criteria. Use the list above as a good jumping-off point and see what else might come up for you.
These are podcasts I regularly listen to as a way to continue to stay on top of trends in both my business and the wider economy, but also as a way to keep up with other thought leaders outside of my industry. It’s vital to keep your skills sharp as a leader, both in the office and at home. Podcast offerings are continually changing (and in some cases disappearing completely!), so keeping up with the latest leadership podcasts can be a bit daunting. The best way to find the right podcast for you is to talk to colleagues and friends about what they listen to and what they are doing to keep their skills sharp. You’d be surprised by what you can find out when you ask about what people listen to in their downtime. These three leadership podcasts should get you pointed in the right direction and help you launch your leadership learning career.
Happy listening!
