Welcome to the New Manager Podcast.
I'm your host, Kim Nickel. Hello and welcome.
I'm glad you're here, and I hope you're doing well.
You might have noticed that last week there was no new podcast
episode. And that is for two reasons.
One is that the episode that I released when in my conversation
with Maggie was so good. There was so much in it and it
was a bit longer than I usually do.
And so I thought, you know what, let's just let that one have a
little bit more space so that you have time to listen.
And the second reason why I didn't do it is what I call
strategic failure. And this is when you assess all
of the things that you have on your plate, all of the demands
and the requirements, and you make an intentional decision to
not do something for very specific reasons.
And last week, there were a number of things that ended up
needing my attention. And I decided, you know, I am
intentionally going to not release an episode.
And it's interesting because I know some of you listen every
single week. So you might have been
wondering. Some of you probably don't, and
you might not have noticed at all.
This might be news to you. And I'm sharing this in part
because this mindset of how do you make decisions when things
are changing? How do you intentionally choose
to not do things and not make it a big deal, not beat up on
yourself about it and not let that feed a story that
undermines your confidence and that gets in the way of the work
that you're here to do and the way that you want to do it.
A lot of the work I do in my group program and with my
one-on-one clients is around confidence, around trusting
yourself when you're doing something you've never done
before, around the feeling of a lot of responsibility on your
shoulders and then that internal pressure that can create.
And So what happens when you're trying to do all of the things
and it starts to feel too much. And it's so easy to get into a
place where we feel overwhelmed, feel like you're feeling, feel
like you don't know if you're doing things right, and it
starts to erode all of the qualities that you already have
that actually help you do your best in your work.
And we're often so much more scrutinizing of ourselves than
others are, especially especially if you have had the
experience in your life of having others criticize you or
tell you that you're not doing good enough, or that you have to
try harder. If you observe that others in
your field get the benefit of the doubt more than you do, if
you've ever felt like you have to work twice as hard to get the
recognition that you see others receiving for less effort or
less work, these are things that happen.
And one of the ways that we've tend to compensate is we try to
get ahead of it by putting extra pressure on ourself and by kind
of spinning the story that nothing we ever do is good
enough. We always have to try harder,
and that can lead us into overworking and creating more
stress and anxiety in the moment that we actually need.
And so I share this because the Next group program is about to
open. In fact, as this podcast episode
releases, today is the very first day that you can enroll
for the next round. The group starts in February,
starts on February 6th. If you're on the wait list, then
you already know cuz you've been getting the emails with the
information. If you are not on that list, go
to my website kimnickel.com the new managers page and you'll see
where to get on that wait list and get all of the information
about the program. But I share this in part because
for me as a coach and my goal and really my job, is to help
equip you to be more calm and confident and capable every day
in the work that you're doing. And one of my philosophies
around this is that a good foundation makes everything
easier and it's never too late to revisit your foundation and
make some improvements. So what I've noticed in IT that
is so interesting is when I first started teaching new
managers, I sometimes would get students who were first time
managers, meaning they just got promoted or they just got a new
job and for the first time they now had responsibility to
directly manage other people. But the other thing I noticed
was people would come to my sessions and they'd say I yeah,
I've managed people for over a decade, but I've never had
training on it. I always had to figure it out on
my own. And so I want to kind of revisit
some of these foundational tools and frameworks and concepts and
clarify them and improve them and understand more about them
so that I I can do things better.
I want like the fresh perspective.
And so I share that because you're welcome to this program
whether you are a very brand new manager or whether you really
want a new perspective. Because it's true always that a
good foundation makes everything easier, everything that you're
building upon. The more solid you feel in your
foundational tools, your ability to trust your decisions, your
your sense of confidence in all of the conversations that you
have, whether you are giving feedback to a, you know, direct
report and maybe it's a performance feedback kind of
issue or whether you're giving feedback up or having to
navigate managing up to your manager and to other people who
have positions of power above you.
We want you to feel equipped and to have a plan and a strategy.
And I'll share, you know, the the reason why I see so many
folks feeling anxious and stressed and kind of what brings
all of that up is very often this feeling of I care so much
about people, I want to do right by them, and I just can't tell
if I'm doing a good job. There's this thing that happens
where it's almost like you stop. Like it's like you haven't
recalibrated your internal success meter, meaning you're
you're not sure what kinds of things count or qualify or
signify that you're on the right track and you're doing a good
job. Because sometimes being a
manager and being a leader means that you will have to have
conversations that are are uncomfortable.
You'll have to share information that maybe people don't want to
hear and people might feel bad, but that doesn't mean that
you're doing a bad job or something might happen where you
know you have to choose a strategic failure.
You have to choose. OK, we're going to choose to let
this part go for now because our time and efforts are better
spent on this other priority over here.
And then you'll need to communicate the change.
And you'll have to help people not feel like everything is
falling apart. Like helping keep people stay
focused and connected to their own abilities and capacity to do
great work together, even under challenging circumstances.
Like all of that. Those are skills and mindsets
that you acquire and develop when you are in a managerial
role, when you are in a leadership role.
And a lot of this will happen organically and it happens
better and faster, I've found, when we're very intentional
about it. So I want to invite you to do
some of this intentional foundational work for yourself,
for your own internal Peace of Mind and your own internal
feeling of calm and being connected to your natural,
authentic confidence. And also realizing how very
capable you are, even when you're facing circumstances or
personalities at work that might feel very challenging.
Humans. Very.
And sometimes the shocker is, gosh, I have to manage all of
these people and they are so not like me.
Like, if only they were like me, it'd be so easy.
But they're not. They have different priorities.
They have different things that motivate them.
They have different things that they care about in their life
and in their career. And so we we sometimes forget
that what motivates you, what you care about, might be
different than the people that you work with.
And that's OK, you know, especially once you understand
that, it's not a problem. It just becomes part of the the
circumstances and the situation that you have in hand and you're
absolutely capable of addressing it.
Especially when you have some perspective, when you have that
good foundation, when you have some frameworks and some simple
tools that you can use day-to-day.
And the benefit of this too is that when you start to feel more
calm, more confident, and more capable, you feel better.
But also everyone around you also feels better.
If you've ever had a manager who is freaking out all the time, or
they seem to like they were just kind of boiling beneath the
surface and you felt really hesitant about approaching them
with things you you weren't sure if they could take it.
Or if you ever had a manager who was just highly reactive and
their stress stressed everybody else out, like, you know, it's
really challenging. We want to have leaders and
managers and colleagues who can bring a feeling of calm and
confidence and really trust in their capabilities.
It just feels so good and it makes things better for
everyone. But beyond the workplace,
everyone that you live with, everyone who is close to you,
they also benefit when you are feeling more calm and confident
and capable in your work life. Because when you are, then
you'll probably be more present for all of the important non
work things that you do. You'll be able to really enjoy
spending time with your family and friends.
You will be able to sleep better.
You won't be distracted. Like, there are so many things
that happen in our personal lives when we're feeling like,
OK, I've, you know, work might be a little intense, it might be
a little unpredictable, but I feel like I've got a very solid
foundation. I know what to focus on.
And I, you know, I just have a sense of what I'm here to do and
how I want to do it that makes such a positive effect.
So I wanted to share that idea with you, the idea that a good
foundation makes everything easier.
It's never too late to revisit your foundation and make some
improvements. And my intention for you is to
help you to be calm and to feel more calm and confident and
capable in your work life every day.
It's good for you, it's good for your organization and it's good
for your family and your community.
And that's what I get kind of excited about.
So I want to invite you to come and join this program.
You will get more information about it in the coming days.
When you're on my list, go to chemical.com, the new managers
page, join the list or just apply directly.
As I'm recording this, the application is not released yet.
It will be released to the list first on Monday, January 22nd.
All right. I think that this year is going
to be such a different year than the last couple of years we've
had, and we can make it really good and we can make it good
together. You don't have to do this all on
your own. I want to help.
Come and join if that is something that is also important
to you this year. Thank you so much for listening.
I'll talk to you next time. When you're more effective at
work, you're happier in your life.
And when you're happier in your life, you're more effective at
work. I can help.
Go to my website, kimnickel.com and sign up for a coaching
consult. It can get better.