How can listening to a podcast help you to be a more effective manager?

Pia Rathje-Burton, host of the Skills for Care podcast ‘The care exchange’, discusses how listening to a podcast can help managers working in adult social care to become more effective at their job.

I’m the host of the Skills for Care podcast ‘The care exchange’, alongside my colleague Ali Rusbridge.

In the monthly podcast Ali and I talk to a range of managers who work in social care, providing a platform where they have a chance to share their experiences. Our aim is for the podcast to be a place that managers can listen to other managers, feel less isolated and pick up some good ideas.

I’ve enjoyed listening to podcasts myself for a number of years. I really like that I’m able to listen and learn something while doing another task. I’ll often listen while cooking the family dinner or tidying up the house. Ali often talks about how she listens while she’s out walking.

I listen to podcasts via the Podbean app that I’ve added to my phone, making it very simple. I follow the podcasts I like, and I get notifications when a new episode is published. Then I just plug in my headphones, and press play. You can easily search for podcasts too – search for ‘The care exchange’ to find ours.

Our guests

So far, we’ve spoken to Marlene Kelly who’s the manager of a care home for older people who talked about how she had looked after her own wellbeing during the pandemic.

We also spoke to Carly Rochester who manages a large home care service who discussed how she had learnt to delegate more during the pandemic.

Ronnie Lillywhite who manages a supported living service shared some brilliant time saving tips when we spoke with her.

Karyn Ross, Registered Manager of the Shared Lives scheme in Coventry that was rated outstanding in their last Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection, shared how she used her mantra ‘plan, invest and record’ to prepare for the inspection.

Our latest guest Joseph Hughes manages two outstanding rated services that support people with learning disabilities. He talked about the importance of managers not thinking they have to be the best at everything and not being afraid to ask for help.

Common ground

All of our guests have so much in common. They’re all passionate about what they do, they’re very open and honest about how difficult the role can be, and they all share some great tips that they feel would be helpful to other managers.

We hope that a manager will feel that they can connect with one of our guests as perhaps they manage the same type of service or have faced a similar issue. We really want the managers that listen to our podcast to take away at least one good idea after each episode.

‘The care exchange’ is a very informal format, we’re having a conversation with the managers about the things that they’re experiencing, their wisdom and advice. We want listeners to feel like they’re in the room with us, with a cup of tea, joining in the conversation.

I was a registered manager myself for 15 years before joining Skills for Care so I always think about what I would’ve found helpful to listen to. When we’re talking to our guests I try and ask questions that I would’ve found interesting; I hope that comes across.

I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to talk to such dedicated managers and to be able to ask them more about why they’ve acted as they have, or the reasons behind the decisions they make. I really enjoy the conversations and hope that people find them helpful and enjoyable.

While listening to a podcast is not going to make the job as a manager in social care any less tough, it does provide managers with a chance to listen to others in similar positions, know they’re not alone, and take away some tips to help.

Catch up on all episodes of ‘The care exchange’ on our website or listen to the episodes so far.

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