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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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My name is Kim Nickel and you 
are at the New Manager Podcast 

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episode 180. 
I was looking back at the 

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episodes I've produced for you 
over the last year or so and I 

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realized there was a topic I 
haven't spoken on very much, but

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it's really important. 
And so today's episode, we are 

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going to focus on it. 
And the topic is money. 

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Money at work and specifically 
when you become a new manager, 

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you are now going to have 
responsibilities that involve 

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money in a way that is different
from when you were an individual

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contributor. 
For a lot of people, money is a 

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very uncomfortable topic. 
You might have been raised being

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taught that it's impolite to 
talk about money, or it might 

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just be uncomfortable for you. 
It is true for a lot of people. 

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And so it's important to 
understand that talking about 

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money is going to become a part 
of your job. 

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And there are three specific 
dimensions that I want you to be

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thinking about and that I want 
you to bring some curiosity to. 

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When you learn about how money 
works in your organization and 

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how it works in your role, 
you're going to be learning more

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about relationships, about power
and influence, and you are going

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to develop a more connective 
perspective both on what your 

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role is, your team's role, and 
how you work with other people 

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and other functions within your 
organization. 

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All of that perspective is 
really helpful because there 

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might be times when you need to 
advocate for your team or for 

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yourself, and understanding the 
bigger picture of how money 

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plays into some of the decisions
that others will be making 

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becomes important. 
So number one, budget. 

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When you become a new manager, 
you want to get curious about 

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what kinds of budgets are you 
responsible for, what kinds of 

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budgets will affect you and your
team. 

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So even if you don't have 
responsibility for them, you 

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want to know if they exist. 
So for example, you might ask, 

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hey, do we have a budget for 
team off site or for team 

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learning? 
Do we have any discretionary 

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money that we can use over the 
course of the year? 

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If I want to do something nice 
for my team, like what does that

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look like? 
How does that happen? 

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Sometimes there's budget 
available, but nobody will tell 

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you not because people don't 
want you to know you know it's 

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not. 
It's not always about 

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gatekeeping, but sometimes 
people won't tell you because 

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they are busy and it will just 
not occur to them to let you 

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know what budgets there are. 
So get curious. 

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You might ask your manager, hey,
now that I'm in this new role in

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managing these people, what are 
the different budgets that I 

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should be aware of or mindful 
of? 

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It might be around headcount. 
Do you have budget to hire 

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additional people? 
Or it might be around, do we 

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have budget to hire contractors 
or temporary help. 

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You want to ask those questions 
so that you know what you have 

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to work with when you're asking 
about budget. 

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You also want to ask about 
timelines. 

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So how much do we have and when 
do we have to allocate or spend 

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it by? 
When does that budget get 

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revisited or renewed? 
You want to understand when in 

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the course of the year, will 
those conversations be happening

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so that you can prepare for them
in advance. 

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You might not know exactly what 
questions to ask, and that's OK.

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You might not get a lot of 
clarity from, you know, whoever 

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is working around you. 
Also OK, I want you to come in 

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with the mindset of being 
curious. 

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Huh. 
I wonder what budgets will 

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affect my team. 
I wonder what budgets I have 

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available that maybe I don't 
even know about yet. 

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Start to ask some questions. 
If you have an HR business 

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partner or like the equivalent 
of some, you know, partner on 

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the finance team, then reach out
to that person and find out what

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they know. 
That might help you understand 

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how budgets work for you and for
your team. 

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So that's number one #2 this is 
a big one. 

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Raises and bonuses. 
You can think of it as 

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compensation when money comes 
into play for compensating your 

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team now and yourself as well, 
but especially your team. 

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Because the decisions that you 
are making about their 

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performance reviews and the way 
you are evaluating them. 

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The way that you are 
communicating whether someone is

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on track or if they've gone off 
course a bit and you need to 

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have maybe an uncomfortable 
conversation to get them back on

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track. 
You want to realize that all 

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those conversations can roll up 
into decisions about their 

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compensation, about their 
salary, their bonuses, about 

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whether or not they are ready 
for a raise or for advancement. 

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Those are like, that's a really 
significant responsibility. 

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And so you want to understand 
how does it work in our 

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organization? 
How do raises happen? 

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What is the bonus structure? 
Do we even do bonuses? 

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Just what's the timeline here? 
What's the process? 

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What do you need to be thinking 
about now in case your team 

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member brings this up at the 
next performance review or at 

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the end of the year? 
So ask around, find out how does

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that work? 
And every organization is 

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different. 
Some are very structured and 

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there's not a lot of discretion 
about how those things will 

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happen. 
Other companies, it's like we're

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making it up as we go along. 
You know, it's different 

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department to department. 
There might be a lot of variety 

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about how that happens. 
So get curious because you know,

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the conversations that we have 
around money at work, around 

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raises, bonuses, all of those 
can be fraught with tension and 

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stress, both for the person 
who's perhaps asking you for the

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raise, but also for you if you 
are trying to decide, gosh, 

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maybe you really like this 
person, but you're not sure if 

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it's in the budget or if you 
have the authority to grant them

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what it is that they're asking 
for. 

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Or if there's discomfort and 
tension. 

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Because maybe you like them as a
person, but the quality of their

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work product is not yet at the 
level where you feel that they 

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merit a raise or an increase or 
a salary adjustment. 

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So you want to understand just, 
you know, how like how, how does

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it work so that you're not 
surprised if and when someone 

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asks you, you know, because they
will, right? 

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It's at some point in your 
career, somebody will ask you, 

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hey, you know, I'm ready for a 
raise. 

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I feel like I earned this bonus.
So find out how does that part 

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of our organization work? 
When you know the answers to 

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some of those questions, you'll 
be able to start planning and 

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preparing for those 
conversations much earlier. 

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You won't be, you know, caught 
off guard and feeling uncertain 

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about how to respond or what 
what your decision will be. 

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And then third, think about how 
does money come into your 

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organization? 
This is the question of trying 

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to understand how does your 
organization function in that 

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way, Like how does money come 
in? 

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And this is a really interesting
one because it can be very, very

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different depending on what kind
of organization you work in. 

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So for example, if you work in a
government agency, the way that 

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money comes in to your specific 
Bureau or department, like 

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that's really different than if 
you are a nonprofit, right? 

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Or if you are a startup that's 
perhaps just raised their first 

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round of funding. 
So get curious, how does money 

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come in? 
Are you a government agency? 

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Are you a nonprofit? 
Nonprofits are interesting 

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because I think sometimes 
there's assumptions that they 

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all generate income the same and
they don't. 

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So it's not all by donations, 
it's not all by grants. 

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There are some really innovative
ways that organizations that are

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organized as nonprofits generate
revenue. 

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So for example, there was an 
energy company that I did some 

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work with a few years ago and 
they had this really cool model 

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where they essentially had 
developed this proprietary 

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service and they would partner 
with different local governments

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to help them with both like 
green transportation and green 

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buildings and helping to 
facilitate like make like making

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policies real on the ground. 
They would partner with 

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organizations and they would 
receive payment for their 

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service. 
So they were generating as a 

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nonprofit all of their operating
income and all of the the income

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to do their work. 
They were operating kind of like

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a for profit business, but they 
were organized as a nonprofit. 

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But they didn't do, you know, 
fundraising drives. 

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They didn't apply for grants. 
They didn't, you know, take 

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donations. 
That's not how they were 

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organized around the money part 
of their organization. 

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So we get curious about how that
works. 

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Are you an NGO, right? 
Like how how does the money work

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in your NGO? 
Again, if you're a startup, if 

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you're Series A versus series D 
versus, you know, this being 

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still held privately, how does 
the money come in? 

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And what is the relationship to 
the work and the organization 

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and you know where the money is 
coming from if you are working 

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in a Family Foundation or in a 
philanthropic organization, if 

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you're working for an enterprise
level organization where you 

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sell products or services to a 
global market. 

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I mean all of the different ways
that organizations are 

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organized. 
You can be curious and ask this 

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question, how does money come 
in? 

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What are the relationships that 
make that happen? 

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And understanding how that works
can help you to understand how 

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the leaders in your organization
will be making decisions about 

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budget. 
It will help you to just 

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understand how do we operate and
function, who's getting nervous 

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and why? 
What are the relationships that 

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affect the budgets and the money
that we have available for 

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compensation, for growth, for, 
you know, hiring new people and 

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even for learning and 
development or things like team 

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off sites or learning 
opportunities that help the team

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to work Better Together. 
So by getting curious about that

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and understanding sort of how 
does the business part of the 

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organization work and how money 
comes in and where it goes and 

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what are some of the different 
factors, it'll help you to have 

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a perspective that sees how your
specific team, wherever you 

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happen to sit, is connected to 
that money flow within your org.

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So these are three things that I
think are really valuable for 

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any manager to get curious 
about, but especially when 

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you're a new manager because 
very often you know, when we're 

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individual contributors, we're 
often not concerned about that, 

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you know, unless we work in a 
part of the organization that 

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has a customer facing or money 
facing side. 

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So if you work in sales or 
finance or a customer support or

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anything like that. 
But for so many of us, when 

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we're doing the work, we're just
focused in on our narrow part. 

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When you start to rise up into 
higher levels of leadership and 

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responsibility, it becomes 
important to understand how does

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the money work here? 
What do I have available for 

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budgets? 
What do I have available for 

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compensation? 
How does you know the money 

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coming into the organization? 
You know, where does it then go?

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It's interesting too. 
You can get curious about what 

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does this organization seem to 
have an easy time spending money

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on. 
Just go through your regular, 

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you know, work day and ask like,
hold that question in mind. 

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What does this organization seem
to have an easy time spending 

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money on? 
Because that will give you clues

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about the mindset of leadership.
It'll also give you clues about 

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the values of the organization, 
whether they are explicitly 

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stated or not. 
It'll also help you to 

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understand if there's something 
that you want to advocate for. 

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It might give you a sense of 
where there might be leverage or

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where you might need to really, 
you know, present your ask in a 

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very compelling way so that it's
aligned with the values you're 

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seeing expressed through the 
decisions about where money goes

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and how it is used. 
The other final point I'll share

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is that it's so interesting when
you start getting curious about 

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what budgets are available. 
You know, as a manager, you may 

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have discretion to redirect 
funds from one budget to 

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another. 
And this is something I see a 

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lot because not every 
organization has a professional 

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development budget. 
Like not every organization has 

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money that's specifically set 
aside to help the team learn and

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row. 
And yet what I see a lot is that

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when someone goes to their work 
and says, hey, I'm a new manager

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and I want to get better at this
role, and I found, you know, a 

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coach or I found a program that 
I want to take, here's what it 

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costs. 
Do we have budget for that? 

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I have seen so many times where 
the work will look for budget 

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00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:57,200
for that purpose and that often 
sounds like, Oh my gosh, what a 

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great idea. 
We would love for you to have 

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that. 
You know what, I think we have 

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some budget over here that 
didn't get used for this thing. 

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And it would make sense for us 
to reroute that money to cover 

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00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:11,360
the cost of your coach or your, 
you know, learning program or 

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00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:13,600
you know, whatever it is that 
you're asking for. 

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Sometimes there are resources 
available, but you don't know 

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00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:20,320
it. 
So being curious and opening 

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00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:24,560
those conversations and starting
to build those relationships can

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00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:32,480
be a very good use of your time 
and a very valuable way to to 

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develop yourself. 
So that is what I wanted to 

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share with you today. 
Think about that in the coming 

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week and I will 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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00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:56,120
at work. 
I can help. 

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00:16:56,320 --> 00:17:00,680
Go to my website, kimnickel.com 
and sign up for a coaching 

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00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:03,120
consult. 
It can get better.