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Managing Made Simple
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
243 episodes
How to fix it when delegating fails - 5 min feedback script
Host 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 5‑minute feedback script to correct the task without micromanaging, and c...
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3 Non-negotiables to hand-off work without lowering your standards
Part 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 every leader must set before delegating: clear outcomes, decision...
A 10-min exercise to figure out what to delegate
Use 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 handoff-ready work — without handing off your whole job or dumping bu...
4 actions to break the micromanagement cycle
Follow-up to last week’s 'The Accidental Micromanager' — Lia Garvin explains four concrete actions to stop micromanaging and get your team owning the work again. Learn practical steps to exit micromanagement without chaos, plus how to rebuild c...
3 signs you're accidentally a micromanager - and how to stop
Lia Garvin explains how capable managers slip into micromanaging and the three concrete tells to watch for: teams double-checking work, you attending every meeting, and high performers asking for more. Drawing on her experience being micromanag...
How to respond when an employee says they're thinking of leaving
When a top performer tells you they may leave in 6–12 months, don’t stop investing—use advance notice as a strategic opportunity. Lia Garvin explains why notice can be a gift, what to say in the moment, and practical steps to protect team perfo...
New hire not working out? 2 gaps leaders miss
Most new-hire problems are process problems, not people problems. Host Lia Garvin pinpoints the two hiring-process gaps leaders commonly skip — both happen before a new hire can hit their stride — and offers practical fixes managers can use in ...
Change management - getting your team onboard
Struggling with team adoption of new processes or tools? In this episode Lia Garvin explains a framing framework for change management that shifts focus from individual benefits to organizational needs to increase process and tool adoption. Lea...
Delegation blockers - 3 reasons you're still the point person
Why are you still the final sign-off, stuck in too many meetings, and making decisions you shouldn't? Host Lia Garvin explains why delegation itself is rarely the blocker and outlines the three conditions leaders must create to stop being the p...
Talking to your team about AI - what to say and NOT to say
Managers: your team is hearing the headlines about AI. In this episode Lia Garvin breaks down how to have the AI conversation your team needs — what triggers fear, how to build trust, and how to lead through uncertainty without pretending you h...
How to delegate, remove bottlenecks, and stop micromanaging
Host Lia Garvin explains why delegation stalls and gives a simple, actionable 3-step framework to shift from ‘dispatching’ to true delegation. Learn how to set clear outcomes, assign ownership, check minimal milestones, and stop re-doing work s...
Team systems - how they drive results and accountability
Many owners say “I don’t want to feel corporate,” yet they make every decision and lack visibility into day-to-day work. In this episode Lia Garvin breaks down why the right team systems remove bottlenecks, create accountability, and free found...
229: What are you willing to tolerate... and what is that actually costing you?
Yesterday in a client session, something came up that I had to bring straight to the show. A business owner with multiple thriving locations told me her approach to underperformance: she has the conversation right away. No waiting, no managing ...
228: The tough realities of being a leader... that make you so much better at it
When is the last time you looked at a situation on your team and thought "I shouldn't have to deal with this"? Earlier today? Then this episode is for you.On the show I break down why this phrase is so common, especially for business own...
227: Getting your team to care about customer service
After a pretty rough experience at Lenscrafters, Lia gets into one of the most common challenges small business owners face: how do you get your team to actually show up for customers when you can't force anyone to care?This episode is f...
226: Giving feedback without it being a laundry list
You've got feedback to give. A lot of it. But every time you try, it either comes out as a running list of corrections or it never comes out at all because you don't know where to start.In this episode, Lia answers a real listener questi...
225: How to stop being the bottleneck on decisions
You hired talented people, asked them to lead, and yet they're still coming to you for final approval on *everything*. It feels like you're micromanaging, even though you desperately want to be hands-off. You don't want to reject their need for...
224: Dealing with team members that bug us
You know the feeling.Their name pops up on your calendar and your stomach drops just a little.They are not low performers. They are actually delivering.But something about the dynamic makes leading them harder than it needs to be...
223: What should I be paying people to attract top talent?
You find the perfect senior hire. They have the résumé. The experience. The track record. But the salary makes your stomach drop.Do you stretch and hope it pays off? Or walk away and risk staying stuck?In this episode, we...
222: What investing in your team could cost you OR earn you
What’s the cost of waiting too long to address a problem on your team?In this episode, we’re breaking down the key actions that separate leadership disasters from record-breaking success.You'll learn:How waiting too lo...
221: I want to hand off work to my team, but the clients want ME, what do I do?
You built a reputation for being the best. So why does it feel like your success is the very thing keeping you stuck?If clients keep asking for you by name and you cannot seem to step out of the weeds without everything pulling you back ...
220: I hired managers- why am I still in the details?
You finally hired managers… so why are you still stuck in every decision, every issue, every fire?If you feel like promoting managers was supposed to free you up and somehow did the opposite, this episode breaks down exactly why that hap...
219: Did I make a bad hire? How do I know? What do I do?
Hiring is exhausting, and nothing messes with your confidence faster than wondering, “Did I just make a really expensive mistake?”In this episode, we take a clear-eyed, practical look at how to assess a new hire without panic, r...
218: How to get out of the friend-zone with your team members?
You didn’t mean to become the “cool boss.”But now feedback feels awkward, boundaries are blurry and accountability keeps slipping.In this episode of Real Talk: Leading Small Teams, we break down what to do when you’ve been f...