7 Tools That Make Managing a Team Way Easier
March 19, 2026
Here’s something nobody tells you when you become a manager: your calendar is about to become your most important (and most stressful) workspace. Meetings multiply. Messages flood in. You’re tracking goals for six people, running 1:1s, and trying to remember who said what in which meeting.
You need better tools. Not more tools — better ones. Here are the 7 that have genuinely made my life easier as a manager.
1. Fellow — For 1:1s and Meeting Notes
What it does: Collaborative meeting agendas, 1:1 templates, and action item tracking.
Why it matters: Your 1:1s are the single most important meeting on your calendar. Fellow lets you and your direct report build a shared agenda before the meeting, take notes together during it, and track action items after. No more “what did we talk about last week?” moments.
The templates are solid out of the box — career growth conversations, feedback sessions, project check-ins. But the real value is the running record. After six months, you have a searchable history of every conversation, every commitment, every development goal. That’s gold during performance review season.
Pricing: Free for up to 10 meeting notes/month. Pro starts at $7/user/month.
2. 15Five — For Performance and Engagement
What it does: Weekly check-ins, OKR tracking, engagement surveys, and performance reviews.
Why it matters: 15Five solves the “I have no idea how my team is actually doing” problem. The weekly check-in takes employees about 15 minutes to fill out and gives you a pulse on morale, blockers, and wins — without scheduling another meeting.
The best feature is the “High Five” system, which sounds cheesy but actually works. Public recognition is a surprisingly powerful motivator, and most managers don’t do it enough. 15Five makes it effortless.
Where it really shines is connecting weekly check-ins to quarterly goals and annual reviews. Everything flows together, so performance reviews write themselves.
Pricing: Starts at $4/user/month for the Engage plan.
3. Notion — For Team Knowledge and Documentation
What it does: All-in-one workspace for docs, wikis, databases, and project tracking.
Why it matters: Every team generates tribal knowledge — processes, decisions, context — that lives in people’s heads or scattered across Google Docs. Notion gives you one place for all of it. Team wiki, project trackers, onboarding guides, meeting notes, decision logs.
For managers specifically, I use Notion for:
- A team operating manual (how we work, norms, rituals)
- A decision log (what we decided and why — invaluable when people ask “why do we do it this way?”)
- Project dashboards that give me a single-glance view of everything in flight
The learning curve is real — Notion can do too much, and the blank page is intimidating. Start with their manager templates and customize from there.
Pricing: Free for personal use. Team plan starts at $10/user/month.
4. Slack — For Team Communication (Used Right)
What it does: You already know what Slack does.
Why it matters for managers: The tool itself isn’t the insight — how you configure it is. Here’s what separates managers who love Slack from managers who drown in it:
- Create a #team-wins channel and post in it weekly. Public recognition scales.
- Set “office hours” in your status. Your team needs to know when you’re available for quick questions vs. deep work.
- Use threads religiously. A team channel without threads is just a noisy group chat.
- Mute channels aggressively. You don’t need notifications for every channel. Check non-essential channels twice a day.
The Slack + Fellow integration is particularly useful — you can create action items from Slack messages that flow directly into your 1:1 agendas.
Pricing: Free plan works for small teams. Pro is $7.25/user/month.
5. Loom — For Async Communication
What it does: Record and share short videos — screen recordings with your face in a bubble.
Why it matters: Loom is the most underrated management tool on this list. Half the meetings on your calendar could be a Loom. Status updates, project walkthroughs, feedback on work, announcements — all of it works better as a 3-minute video than a 30-minute meeting.
For new managers specifically, Loom is amazing for:
- Giving feedback on written work. Record yourself reading through a document and reacting in real time. Way more nuanced than written comments.
- Explaining decisions. When you make a call that affects the team, a 2-minute Loom explaining your reasoning builds more trust than a Slack message.
- Onboarding. Record yourself explaining processes once. Never repeat it again.
Your team can watch at 2x speed, on their own schedule. Meetings demand synchronous time from everyone. Loom respects people’s calendars.
Pricing: Free for up to 25 videos. Business starts at $12.50/user/month.
6. Todoist — For Your Own Task Management
What it does: Simple, fast task management with projects, priorities, and due dates.
Why it matters: As a manager, your to-do list explodes. Action items from 1:1s, follow-ups from meetings, things you promised your boss, things your team needs from you. If you’re tracking all of this in your head, you’re going to drop balls.
I’ve tried Asana, Monday, ClickUp — they’re all designed for team project management. For your personal task list as a manager, Todoist hits the sweet spot. Fast to add tasks, easy to prioritize, not over-engineered.
The “quick add” feature is the killer app. In any meeting, hit the shortcut, type the task, set a due date, and get back to listening. Takes two seconds.
Pricing: Free for up to 5 projects. Pro is $5/month.
7. Google Calendar — The Unsexy Essential
What it does: Calendar. That’s it.
Why it matters: I’m including this because most new managers don’t use their calendar strategically. They let it happen to them. Here’s how to make it work for you:
- Block 2-3 hours of “manager focus time” per week. Protect it like a meeting with your CEO. This is when you prep for 1:1s, write feedback, and think about your team’s development.
- Color-code by meeting type. 1:1s in blue, team meetings in green, cross-functional in yellow. One glance tells you if your week is balanced.
- Add 5-minute buffers between meetings. Back-to-back meetings destroy your ability to process and prepare. Your calendar app won’t do this automatically — you have to enforce it.
- Review your calendar every Sunday evening for 10 minutes. Know what’s coming before Monday hits.
Pricing: Free with a Google account. Google Workspace starts at $7/user/month.
How to Adopt These Without Overwhelm
Don’t try to set up all 7 this week. Here’s the order I’d recommend:
- Week 1: Set up Fellow (or whatever 1:1 tool you choose) and fix your Google Calendar.
- Week 2: Start using Todoist for personal task management.
- Month 2: Add Loom for async updates and Notion for team documentation.
- Month 3: Evaluate whether you need 15Five for engagement tracking.
For more on building your management skillset, check out our recommended courses for new managers and best management books.
Bottom Line
Fellow and your calendar are the two non-negotiables. Everything else is gravy. The biggest mistake new managers make with tools is adopting too many at once. Pick the two that solve your most urgent pain point, get good at them, then add more. The best tool is the one you’ll actually use consistently — not the one with the most features.