Morning Brew - 📒 The manager manual

Time-saving tools and products we’re really into rn.

Covid, flu, and cold season is back, but if you stay ready you don’t need to get ready. Pick up this easy-to-clean, baby-safe, whisper quiet mist humidifier to fight off those sniffles, soothe dry skin, and get a good night’s sleep.

Got a lot to say? Set up that podcast mic and take advantage of all the audio and other production tools on Zencastr to make your content top-notch. The best part? It has a *free* tier, so you can chat to your heart’s content.

Stop trying to achieve perfection and settle for excellenism instead. Live up to your personal best—not anyone else’s.

A path to better leadership.

Every now and again, it’s good to pause and reflect on the new skills you’ve learned. Like reviewing for a final exam. And while we don’t have midterms out in the workforce, the idea still rings true. Today we are taking a look back at recent accelerate topics to help you review some of the practices you’ve adopted to become a better team leader. (We’re proud of your progress!)

Building a crystal ball at work: Use small tests, small bets, and the right metrics to conjure a picture of what’s coming, how it might affect you, and how to stay ahead of it.

Avoiding the blame game: If team members are consistently pointing fingers at one another, there’s a good chance it’s because they’re lacking a critical element of success. And that element is psychological safety, an aspect of workplace culture that encourages smart risks, doesn’t unfairly punish mistakes, and produces stronger outcomes from professional dissent. When psychological safety exists, teams are able to innovate, accept stretch goals, and own their mistakes as learning opportunities.

Bragging the right way: Be genuine and authentic in your work endeavors. Whatever skills you have combined with an approachable and respectful attitude will take you far. You don’t have to be a cringe egomaniac to build your brand. (Fun fact: Egomaniacs almost always sabotage their own brands.) By sharing your talents and orienting your skills for maximum impact, you will become known for your strengths and build a reputation that will serve you well in the long run.

Embracing conflict in the office: If everyone does their job well, there’s bound to be conflict in the office—but this isn’t a bad thing! Disagreements will and should happen at work. In fact, good managers allow and even (gasp!) encourage differences of opinion because having professional clashes can produce more innovative solutions than having a team that just rolls along for the sake of harmony.

First time managers, listen up! Listening is the most important skill you’ll need in your toolbox once you have a team to lead. Being a manager doesn’t mean you need to do more talking; it means you need to do more listening.—Karen Hebert-Maccaro, Morning Brew’s Queen of the Eduverse

PS: For more of this kind of wisdom, check out what the Learning at Morning Brew team has on deck!

Tech tips and tricks.

So you’ve decided there’s no time like the present to start that podcast you’ve been formulating for months. Good news, Apple stans! The GarageBand app comes preinstalled on your desktop and mobile devices. To take full advantage of what it has to offer, you gotta start with the basics:

Open the app, create a new project, and select the Microphone option for your audio track. Choose the input for your external microphone, and you’ll see a new track pop up. Press the red record button to capture your audio and click that same button again to stop recording. When you’re done, clean up all those ums and ahs with the Cut tool (the scissor symbol in the top left-hand corner). Click that and you’re ready to splice. On the bottom of your screen, place the playhead (the line that shows what part of the track you’re at) wherever you want to cut the track. Press Command + T to cut or right click and press Split at Playhead. Delete the part of the audio you want to remove using the Delete key.

If you want the audio in separate tracks, use the split feature to isolate the clip, then click + and “Create a new audio track.” Drag the isolated section down to the new track, and violà! You’re on your way to becoming an audio engineer.—SS

Your punch list for when you punch out.

Read: In March, three New Yorkers from different walks of life ordered cocaine from the same delivery service. All three died of fentanyl overdoses. This WSJ article gives readers a look into the lives of the victims and lays bare the extent of the latest chapter in America’s opioid epidemic.

Watch: Natasha Bedingfield’s hit single “Unwritten” was the theme song of reality TV show The Hills and the soundtrack for dorm room pregaming across the nation in the early 2000s. Learn everything you never needed to know on the latest episode of Vice’s The Story Of series.

Plan: November has arrived, so go get that Halloween candy half off, and then get crackin’ on those plans for Thanksgiving. It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned host or a total noob: Ina Garten is here to help you. Check out the advice she shared with Bon Appétit on pulling together a seamless holiday gathering.

Learn: Want to learn from some of the best in the biz? Us, too. We asked industry professionals to tell us all about leadership, and now we’re here to spread the wealth! Gain some expert knowledge and sign up today!

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