Welcome to the new Manager podcast.
I'm your host, Kim Nichol. Hello and welcome.
I'm glad you're here and I hope you're doing well.
I can't believe that September is just around the corner.
It always gives me those back to school vibes of getting ready to
start a new year, getting ready to meet new people, learn new
things, get a new notebook, get a new pen.
There's a very kind of embedded feeling of what September means
in terms of refocusing, resetting, and also feeling a
little bit of a fresh start. So if that's true for you, then
we are on the same page. If it's true for kids in your
family, you might be feeling that right now as you're getting
ready or you have even started already that school year.
It starts in August now for so many schools and for so many
kids. And so anyways, I'm excited that
it's coming into September. I definitely am a person who
likes getting a clean new notebook, a brand new pen.
So that's going to be happening in my world.
And also today I have some news for you.
My next group program is now open for enrollment and it's a
little bit different this time. I have been learning so much as
I have been teaching this material and coaching
individuals and also watching what you are listening for.
I've now published over 100. I think I'm at like 180
something episodes of this show. And can you guess what is the
most listened to topic? Not the most listened to
episode, but of all the different things that I talk
about and share here, can you guess which is the most popular,
the most requested and most listened to topic?
It's all about communication, whether it's how to have a tough
conversation, how to give feedback, what to say when you
find yourself in a situation and you're not really sure what to
do, how to be direct conversation and communication
skills when you are an introvert, or how to communicate
with people who have different styles of communication or
different priorities. Even the teachings that I share
with you on advocacy, how to speak up on behalf of yourself
or of others, or how to establish boundaries, all of
that are all parts of communication.
And when you think about it, so much of how work is done is
through the way that you communicate with others.
This includes your verbal communication, so either giving
a presentation or contributing in a meeting or, you know,
setting the agenda and leading a meeting yourself.
It also includes the written communication.
That's your emails, that's your direct messages or chat
messages. That's the way that you respond
in the chat when someone writes something and you think, what
the heck are they doing? Like, why would they say that?
The way that you choose to respond in your written
communication is part of how things get done and not just the
specific act of speaking or the specific act of writing.
But importantly, you know, when I talk about the strategy of
communication, what we're looking at is what are the
ideas, thoughts and intentions behind the actions that you're
taking? So one thing I, you know, you
might know if you've listened to this show for a while is when I
talk about feedback, I talk about it from a very strategic
perspective. So one of the first questions is
what is it that you want this feedback to do?
What is the change you want to see as a result of giving this
feedback? And very often, and this was
true for me when I first became a manager and I thought, oh, my
job is to give feedback. I want to be good at this.
So I'll just be really thorough and some, sometimes we think,
oh, I want to be good at this. I don't know how to think about
what that means. So I know I'll just be thorough,
I'll be comprehensive. I'll give them everything.
And then it ends up not having the effect we want.
And people might feel picked on, or they might feel
unappreciated, or they might feel just overwhelmed, like they
don't know where to start with the feedback you've given
because there wasn't a clear, grounded strategy behind why you
were doing that. And this I think is important
because, you know, every organization is different in
terms of their formal and informal communication styles
and also in their formal and informal processes for how you
get work done, for how you do feedback, for how you do
meetings. And so there's so much value
that I see when we take the time to step back for a moment and
ask these bigger and foundational questions around
how am I communicating? How would I like to communicate?
What is the effect I want this communication to have?
And when we start to have a little more of that space and we
start to cultivate the perspective that brings like a
strategic lens to what your choices are and what your
desired outcomes are, it then equips you to become more
adaptive in dynamic environments that includes with dynamic
personalities. So a variety of different
personalities, preferences and styles, but also in an
organization that might be going through change.
And honestly, you know, whether you are in a small startup, a
global nonprofit, a government agency, you know, an institution
of higher learning or of, you know, or of healthcare, like
every organization is going through change.
This is something that I think we have all seen over the last
four years, whether you know, whether you are a, you know, a
startup or a legacy organization.
And so, you know, rather than trying to solve for each little
challenge separately, when we start to take a more systems
level look, and that's what we're doing when we're thinking
about strategy, we're asking about like, how does the system
work? And how do all these different,
you know, people and forces and constraints and opportunities,
How do they connect? What's the relationship here?
And then what will I choose in order to facilitate the outcome
that I want to see happen? It's really hard to, you know,
get that level of thinking when we're, you know, sort of keeping
our head above water and just trying to get everything done.
And this is one of the reasons why I love coaching and why I
love group learning is sometimes it's nice to have a community of
people who are all wanting to get better, who all care about
doing a good job and, you know, being very human centered.
And they want to be kind, but they also want to get things
done to have that place where you can share what you're
dealing with and what you're working on and learn how to get
better with others. So number one, you realize, OK,
I'm not alone. This is not some kind of, you
know, deficit that I have. I'm just, I'm learning and this
is the thing I'm learning right now.
That alone can create so much relief.
And just let the pressure that we often put on ourselves when
we're high achievers, it can let that pressure ease up a little
bit when you realize, no, this is just part of the learning
journey and the leadership journey.
And I'm in really good company here.
It's also wonderful to learn with people who don't know you,
who don't work with you, who maybe work in different
industries or in different kinds of organizations.
I think of it as cross pollination.
Like there's so much that you learn about how to work with
humans when you're talking with humans who have some different
circumstances but some similar themes.
So there's a lot of shared learning and a lot of like aha
moments when you start to talk to other folks about some of the
challenges that you're facing. And especially noting that it's
a private space, it's a confidential space.
And so, you know, unless you sign up with your manager, like
your manager's not going to be overseeing how you're doing
there, you really have the safety to learn.
And that's a thing I've learned too in my years as a teacher and
a coach and a facilitator. It's that when we feel more
safe, we learn faster. When we're feeling worried or
when we're perceiving high risk or threat, we tend to learn
slower because our brain is worried about keeping us safe.
So I really want to, you know, like name that to you and also
invite you in because that's also part of what is happening
in this in the group cohort and why I love teaching in Group
settings. And then finally, the other
great thing about learning in a group with people that work in
other companies, other industries, other kinds of
organizations is it also begins to cultivate and expand your
professional ecosystem. I mean, that is one of the best
things ever is you never know who you will meet, whether that
becomes the next person that you end up hiring for something else
or maybe they know somebody that when you're looking for another
job or you're looking to hire someone onto your team.
By having a diverse professional network, by basically knowing
other people and letting other people know you who are in
different organizations, different industries, you now
enrich your professional ecosystem as well as your
personal relationships. And you know what?
By you being a part of that community, you're doing the same
for them. There's so much value in who you
are as a person, in your specific perspective and
background as you've, you know, lived your years on the planet
and have had different kinds of experiences working with
different kinds of people and different kinds of
organizations. So I am very excited about all
of this and I'm glad that you are here because you are invited
to join as well. A couple things that are going
to be new this round. If you've been following me for
a while, this round we're focusing on communication
strategies as I mentioned, and I'm also using a new platform to
deliver this course. And I'm excited about it because
it's going to provide us with so much support.
It's going to create a very streamlined experience for you
and it's, you'll see it. I will, I will put the link to
the enrollment page into the chat because I, I want you to
see this for yourself. And when you go to the
enrollment page, you're going to also see the syllabus, You're
going to see the projects that are part of this.
I want this to be bite sized, but engaging so that you're
actually taking the learning and applying it.
And as a result, like you're going to come away with more
clarity about what it means for you to be a good manager and a
great leader. You're going to get more time
for that strategic thinking because we're going to take the
time together. And I'll walk you through that.
You'll be more prepared for the tough conversations that
inevitably show up in the course of one's career, and you're
going to feel more confident in speaking up.
One of the things I love coaching my clients on is
identifying the source of their own authentic confidence and
also identifying the blocks so that we can then eliminate and
reduce them. You'll also learn about managing
up such an important topic at every stage of your career.
Even if you're the CEO or the executive director, you're
probably still managing up to the board.
So managing up, that's a great skill.
We want to talk about that and communication strategies for
that as well. So I want to invite you to come.
We are going to start our first class on September 17th.
You will be able to sign up now because that registration page
is open. Go into the show notes and click
on the link and you will see everything that's included in
the course and you'll be able to sign up right away.
If you have any questions, just send me a message and I'll put a
note for how to do that too into the chat.
But I really am excited about this.
You know, I think that by improving communication skills
and by having that space to think strategically, it allows
us to use our time better. It allows us to show up with
greater confidence, ease and calm, and to be that leader
that, you know you want to be, right?
The person who can help to bring calm and groundedness into your
organization and can inspire people to work well together,
even if those people are all kind of different.
You know, I have sometimes said in the in when I'm teaching my
classes, you know, we always think like, if only everyone was
like me, it'd be so easy because we don't realize just the
variety of how people are motivated, how people
communicate differently, how people have different desires
and sometimes competing priorities and interests.
So when you learn and feel better about the way you're
communicating and the strategies behind it, you'll be able to
have a little more ease and a little more just like a little
more joy in the way that you work.
And then you'll have a little more ease and a little more joy
outside of work because you won't be feeling as stressed
about it. So anyway, that's what I wanted
to share with you today. I do hope you join us.
It's going to be amazing and I will 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.