You just stepped into a leadership role and nobody handed you a manual. Suddenly you are responsible for a team, and the skills that got you promoted are not the skills that will make you a great manager. You are guessing, over-explaining, second-guessing every decision. That is not a you problem. That is a missing-system problem. The New Manager Playbook exists to close that gap. This page collects every podcast episode Lia recorded as a companion to the book so you can go deeper on the chapters that matter most to you right now.
Why first-time managers struggle (and it is not what you think)
Most new managers assume the hard part is handling difficult people. It is not. The hard part is that nobody ever taught you the actual operating system of management: how to run a one-on-one, how to give feedback that lands, how to set expectations so clearly that you never have to chase follow-through. Without that system, even the most talented leader defaults to winging it. The New Manager Playbook was written to give you that operating system from day one.
What the book actually covers
The New Manager Playbook is Lia Garvin’s step-by-step guide to leading a team for the first time. It covers the foundational moves every new manager needs: establishing trust quickly, communicating expectations, running meetings that are worth people’s time, giving feedback without dread, and building a team culture that does not require you to micromanage every outcome. The book is practical and direct. No theory for theory’s sake. Just the frameworks that work in real teams under real pressure.
How the podcast series goes deeper
Each episode tagged as part of the Inside The New Manager Playbook series is a direct companion to a section of the book. Lia walks through the reasoning behind each framework, shares examples from real managers she has coached, and answers the questions readers send in after finishing a chapter. If you read a section and thought “okay, but how do I actually do this on Monday,” these episodes are your answer. Think of them as the extended director’s commentary that makes the whole thing click.
The frameworks you will hear about most
Across the series you will hear Lia return to a handful of core tools. The Sit Down is her structured approach to resetting expectations with a team member without it feeling like a performance review. The New Manager Playbook itself is named as a framework inside the book, referring to the complete set of plays a new manager keeps ready so they are never improvising in a high-stakes moment. These are not abstract concepts. They are repeatable moves you can use the week you start a new role or the week you decide to lead differently in the role you have had for years.
Who this series is for
You do not have to be brand new to benefit from this. Many of the managers and founders who get the most out of the book and podcast series are people who have been leading for a year or two but never got formal training. They built habits that mostly work but keep running into the same friction: team members who do not follow through, feedback conversations that go sideways, or a general sense that the team depends too much on them for every decision. If any of that sounds familiar, start here. The episodes in this series will help you identify the exact system that is missing and give you a clear path to install it.
All episodes on this topic
- Ep 163: The New Manager Playbook is here: what’s inside and who it’s for. The New Manager Playbook gives overwhelmed managers a practical, action-oriented guide to leading with confidence and ease. Lia built it around the real struggles she heard repeatedly in workshops and coaching: managing former peers, never having enough time, and not knowing where to start. It is useful for first-time managers and experienced leaders alike, especially anyone stepping into a genuinely new situation.
- Ep 160: How to stop feeling squeezed from all sides as a middle manager. Middle managers feel pressure from every direction because they are caught between their team’s needs and leadership’s demands, with no playbook to guide them. The key move is setting a clear intention for how you want to show up as a leader, then building trust skill by skill so your team sees stability even while you are still learning. This episode is most useful for new and mid-career managers in corporate environments who feel like they are winging it.
- Ep 156: How people pleasing costs you respect as a manager (and what to do instead). Wanting your team to like you is human, but leaning on it too hard makes hard conversations impossible and quietly erodes your credibility. In The New Manager Playbook, Lia Garvin unpacks the people-pleasing trap and shows how building trust through honest, expectations-driven relationships earns you more genuine respect than being everyone’s friend ever could. This episode is especially useful for new managers who default to being fun and casual and then feel stuck when things need to get serious.
- Ep 154: The secret to building trust with your team as a new manager. Trust is the root cause of most managing problems, from micromanaging to accountability gaps, and building it comes down to consistency and relationship building rather than waiting for people to prove themselves. Lia walks through how trust flows in both directions, why assuming competence is the starting point, and the specific behaviors that make trust grow faster. This episode is essential for new managers stepping into a team for the first time.
- Ep 152: How to motivate your team when they just are not feeling it. When a team member says they are not motivated, that is your problem to solve, not theirs alone. Lia walks through how to identify intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, move beyond pay, and reconnect your team (and yourself) with a sense of purpose. This episode is especially useful for new managers and small business owners who feel stuck when motivation drops.
- Ep 150: Why Lia wrote The New Manager Playbook (and why you need it). Most people become managers because of tenure or past job success, not because they wanted the role or had the skills for it. The New Manager Playbook is Lia’s answer to that gap: a tangible, exercise-filled guide that brings down the barriers making management so hard. It is built for first-time managers, business owners figuring out the people side, and seasoned leaders who want a reliable reference to keep growing.
Also relevant
- Ep 158: How to delegate smarter and finally get your time back. The fastest way to get your time back is to audit how many meetings you attend that your team members are also in, then train them to represent you and lead those rooms. Lia’s move is to coach team members on exactly what to say and what not to agree to, so they can step up while you step back. This episode is especially useful for new managers stuck in the player-coach trap.
Want to go deeper?
The New Manager Playbook. Lia’s bestselling guide to leading a team for the first time.