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Welcome to the new Manager 
podcast. 

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I'm your host, Kim Nichol. 
Hello and welcome. 

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I'm glad you're here and I hope 
you're doing well. 

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As you might be able to tell, I 
have a cold. 

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My voice is a little off because
my body is a little off. 

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I have been dealing with a cold 
for about a week now and it's 

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slowly getting better, but it's 
still has me feeling a little 

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bit deflated and a little bit 
congested. 

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I do have to give big, big hugs 
and so much appreciation to my 

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partner Warren, who made me 
chicken soup from scratch and 

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brought it to me. 
We don't live together. 

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And actually when I'm sick or 
when he's sick, it actually 

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works out great because you 
know, he's got a big talk coming

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up and I didn't want him to get 
sick for his talk. 

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So I haven't seen him other than
a very brief chicken soup 

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handoff that he was so sweet to 
bring me and to come over. 

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And, you know, one of the things
he said is he's like, it's very 

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hard to care for you because 
you're, you're very 

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self-sufficient and you're very 
independent. 

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And it's a true thing. 
And so, you know, if you are a 

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person who also tends to be very
self reliant, this is a reminder

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to let people care for you and 
to be open to receiving support 

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even when you think, you know, 
you can just do everything by 

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yourself. 
I think there's a lesson in 

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there too, for the workplace and
being a manager and how it can 

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be so easy to think that it's 
your job to do all of it, to do 

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all of everything and to forget 
that actually, you know, what 

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I've observed is as you go 
higher in your in your career 

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and in your advancement, like so
much of the job changes from you

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doing everything to actually you
delegating to you hiring, to you

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being able to communicate and 
kind of distribute the workload 

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effectively and realizing what 
are the different strengths and 

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qualities that you have on the 
team. 

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And as a team, what strengths 
and qualities might we be 

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missing? 
What might we want to develop 

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that we maybe don't have right 
now or didn't need and now we 

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need them. 
And so actually developing the 

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ability to be open to receiving 
support, to be open and willing 

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to asking or advocating for 
support becomes an important 

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skill that we often forget is a 
skill that you need to develop. 

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Because so early in our careers,
especially when we're coming in 

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as individual contributors, our 
job is to really focus on the 

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tasks that are assigned to us 
and to execute them well, to do 

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the thing and to do it at a high
level and to do it to 

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completion. 
And I remember when I was early 

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in my career and I reached out 
and asked for help for 

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something. 
What the guy, what the guy said,

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he's like, wow, you gave you 
gave up early. 

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And I was like, what? 
Like I thought I was doing 

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something right by saving time 
by asking someone for help, But 

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I feel like I'm being 
criticized. 

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Like, in his view, I somehow was
not demonstrating sufficient 

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determination or something like 
that. 

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It was a very weird moment, but 
it really kind of gave me pause.

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And I think as a result, I 
overcorrected. 

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And then for, you know, quite a 
long time, it was like asking 

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for help was my last resort. 
It was the thing I would do when

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I was really at my end. 
And one of the things I've 

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learned, you know, still 
learning in my own life, as 

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evidenced by my my partner and 
his comment, it can be a tricky 

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thing to learn how to receive 
support, to ask for or advocate 

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for support and to see that as a
positive quality, as a positive 

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trait and definitely in your 
leadership journey. 

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It's something that I want you 
to be aware of sooner than I was

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aware of it because there is a 
thing, you know, where the rules

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can kind of change when you're 
an individual contributor versus

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when you start being a manager. 
And if you're wearing both hats,

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you know, for a lot of folks, 
there are times when you're 

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sometimes wearing the manager 
hat, but you still have 

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individual contributor 
responsibilities. 

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And so it can be hard to know 
kind of how to, you know, work 

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with that dynamic. 
So that's just something I 

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wanted to put on your radar. 
And maybe a thing to think about

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is where in your work could you 
be asking for help? 

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Where in your work could you be 
engaging support or delegating 

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something to someone else? 
And so much of the mindset to 

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around delegation is, is 
shifting from the thought of, 

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oh, I'm just like dumping work 
on someone or I'm just 

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offloading because I have the 
power to do so. 

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And so I want to, you know, get 
this off my plate and give it to

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somebody else to do. 
It's not like that. 

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But you can think of it more in 
terms of, OK, what is our 

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overall goal and what are the 
different, you know, skills and 

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qualities that we have on the 
team? 

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Who else on the team is equipped
or positioned to do this? 

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And why might it be a good idea 
for them to do that? 

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Or who on the team needs to 
develop the skills and ability 

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to do this? 
And so even though it would be 

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faster if I did it, it actually 
is a really good learning 

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moment. 
This is the best way for them to

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learn how to do this is to 
assign it to them and let them 

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work with it and then bring it 
to me. 

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And then we can work together 
on, you know, either how to 

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improve it or change it like it 
will. 

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It will help me learn where 
they're at if I delegate it to 

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them and see how they work with 
it. 

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So you can really start to think
in a more holistic and more 

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strategic way about who is doing
what. 

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And as a manager, definitely 
part of your job is making 

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decisions about who is doing 
what. 

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How is work distributed? 
What are the priorities if the 

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people on your team are getting 
mixed messages about what they 

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should be working on? 
Because you know, sometimes 

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there's another director or 
another person in a position of 

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power who is asking of your team
their time and their effort and 

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work. 
Then they will look to you to 

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either clarify or kind of stand 
up for them and say, Oh no, like

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the priority is this. 
And this is what we're working 

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on. 
For these reasons, here's what 

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we can do. 
Here's and, and here's why and 

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here's what we can't do. 
And here's some perhaps other 

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alternatives or let's talk about
or negotiate how how we want to 

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address this. 
So thinking of of it in those 

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terms is I think a a learned 
perspective, a learned skill. 

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And you know, you can feel so 
much pressure to get it right. 

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And I want to offer you this 
thought of, you know, it's not 

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necessarily about like getting 
it right, like it it being it's 

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right or it's not right, but 
it's more like a very dynamic 

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living thing, like things might 
change. 

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So part of your role is to be 
mindful of, OK, like what if 

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anything is changing right now? 
What might we need to adjust? 

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Like how can I respond to the 
moment? 

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How might I be able to 
anticipate changes that might 

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come like as we come into the 
holiday season and I can 

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anticipate some folks being away
on vacation or some folks 

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getting sick and not being 
available. 

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There are all of these different
kinds of questions that you're 

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going to be asking when you're 
in that manager role, when 

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you're thinking about the work 
and your team and who's doing 

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what. 
So that's what I would like to 

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leave you with today. 
If you are also interested in my

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course on communication 
strategies for managers, the 

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next cohort starts in January. 
We're going to start right in 

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the first full week of January, 
so you can enroll now. 

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For some of you that will 
actually be great because you 

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can use 2024 budget legit to, 
you know, apply to 2025 

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learning. 
So hopefully that works out like

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end of year can be a such a 
great time to ask your work to 

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sponsor you to see if your work 
will cover the cost of this 

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professional development so that
you can be more effective in 

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your job and you know better at 
what you're doing and help your 

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team even more. 
And your work might be delighted

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because as we come into the end 
of the year, there might be 

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extra budget available and they 
might say, oh, what a great 

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idea. 
Thank you for raising it. 

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Thank you for finding this 
learning opportunity for 

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yourself. 
That's so great that you're 

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taking the initiative to do 
that. 

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So I'm going to put a link to my
course in the show notes. 

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You can also find it on my 
website, kimnickel.com. 

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And if you want to work 
privately with me on coaching, 

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you can also find information in
the show notes about that too. 

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All right, I'm out. 
I'm going to go blow my nose, 

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going to take a little sip of 
water and maybe take a nap. 

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I hope you have a great and 
very, very healthy rest of your 

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week and I'll talk to you next 
time. 

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When you're more effective at 
work, you're happier in your 

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life, and when you're happier in
your life, you're more effective

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at work. 
I can help. 

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Go to my website, kimnicolcom 
and sign up for a coaching 

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consult. 
It can get better.