Welcome to the New Manager Podcast.
I'm your host, Kim Nicoll. Hello and welcome.
I'm glad you're here and I hope you're doing well.
Today I want to talk with you about two things that are always
going to affect the way that you are managing people, but might
not always be obvious. And my intention is that if I
can help you to see that these things exist, then you actually
have more agency in deciding how you want to engage with and
within these two things. So the first one is systems, the
2nd is environment. And what's interesting is that
both systems and environment are things that can be rather
invisible. And there are formal kinds and
informal kinds. And I'll explain that a bit more
as we go, but I want to start by sharing a quick story to help
illustrate where we're going to go today.
So in my neighborhood there is an ice cream shop.
It is very, very popular. It smells so good.
It's the kind of place where it just walking by, you smell the
waffle cone scent and you slow down and it just, it smells so
good and there's all, you know, almost always a big line out the
door. And I once had gone in there
because I wanted to get some ice cream and there was a huge line
out the door. This was over the summer, so
lots of people feeling, you know, very excited and talking.
And you know you're in line for ice cream.
So you know, you're, you're not in too much stress.
You're just like, OK, I'm in line because I'm going to have
some ice cream today. And I saw this big line and I
thought, oh, I know what I can do.
And I walked past everyone in the line.
I walked directly into the shop and I went to kind of the
backside of this ice cream shop because that is where they have
a little freezer where they have pre packed pints of ice cream.
And so I went right to inside, right to the freezer, and I
opened it up and I found the flavor that I wanted.
And I, you know, close the freezer door.
And then I kind of cut through the line and went straight up to
the cashier. And I paid for the ice cream and
I left. And this whole process took, I
mean, just like a minute. And meanwhile, I'm seeing all of
these people standing in line and they're kind of looking at
me and I'm kind of looking at them.
And because I had been to this ice cream shop before I
understood the system, I understood that if you want a
scoop of ice cream, whether it's in a cup or in one of their
fresh, delicious waffle cones, if that's what you want, then
you have to wait in the line because you have to get to the
counter. And then you have to talk to the
person. And you might ask to taste some
different flavors before you make your final decision.
And then they will hand scoop it, put it in the cup or cone,
hand it to you and then you will go to the cash register with
your ice cream in hand. However, if what you want is to
buy a pre packed pint, then you do not need to stand in line at
all. You can go straight to the
freezer, grab what you want, jump right to the cash register
and you will pay and you can leave.
So because I understood how the system worked, I was able to
function in that space in a way that was highly effective for
me, where I didn't waste any unnecessary time.
And maybe some people were a little confused or thinking, you
know, like, who is this lady? Is she cutting the line?
That's not OK. But I just got in there, I got
my ice cream, I paid for it and I got out and it really made me
realize how important it is to understand what are the systems
that you are working in Now some of these will be unwritten.
Like I don't think there was a sign anywhere that said, hey, if
you just want a pint, just go buy a pint.
You know, I'm I'm sure I picked this up somewhere either, you
know, I when I had purchased it in the past or when I had seen
someone else do it. But it was just, it was a thing
that I knew about how that system worked.
So when you think about being a manager and you think about your
work, I want you to start getting really curious about
what are some of the systems that are in place that are
affecting what you do, how you do it, and also how it affects
the people that you work with and have a measure of
responsibility for. So you definitely want to know
what is our performance review system, How formal is that?
How informal is that? What are the important
timelines? Like, is it something that we
all do at a certain time of year?
Is it more related to, you know, when somebody starts, like if we
do performance reviews at the end of the year, but this person
started two months ago, what do we do?
Like how does the system work? You will want to know.
And it's the kind of thing that you know when you get promoted
or when you step into a company. You might need to ask.
People might not think to tell you.
So you want to find out how does our performance review system
work. Related to that, find out how do
promotion cycles work. Like the promotion cycle might
happen at a very specific time. You might need to understand
kind of like what does it take for someone to get promoted.
If someone on your team is saying, hey, I want to get a
promotion, you want to understand what that will take,
what it will mean for them. In order to do that, is it
something where you need to, you know, like get approvals from
other certain people? Like is there other information
or other decision makers that will affect that?
You want to understand what that is so that you can be most
effective in how you manage that person, helping them to either,
you know, do what they need to do to level up their skills to
position them into that into that place.
Or, and this is actually something I've seen before,
sometimes in an organization you'll have one open spot but
multiple internal candidates who are qualified for that
promotion. And in that situation, it might
come down to the manager being able to advocate for why their
team, you know, team member, should get that promotion
instead of someone else's team member.
So that's the kind of thing you you want to be able to
anticipate, not be caught off guard or surprised by.
You just want to understand, like, how does this system work,
What is the process? And then also understanding
about raises and bonuses. Is that something your
organization has, you know, a formal, structured policy
around? Maybe they do, you know, maybe
you do, maybe you don't. But you want to find out.
You want to know. And again, sometimes that's the
kind of detail that you know. Your manager or HR might not
think to tell you in advance and it might not be on your radar if
you're the first time in this role, but you want to be
thinking, OK, the people on my team will probably want to raise
at some point and may you know, there might be curious about
bonuses. I should find out, like what is
the system around that? How does that work?
Is there anything I need to be tracking or planning for now?
And if anyone is off track or if I'm sensing that maybe they
think they're performing at a really high level, but I'm
measuring them you know, against something else.
And like my assessment is, you know, might not line up with how
they're a self assessing. Then I need to be able to have a
conversation with them early so that we're not so far down the
process or into the system that suddenly you know, they're
feeling like wait, like I didn't know this was happening.
I thought we were doing this. Not that like we just want to be
mindful of what are the systems in which we are operating.
And again, those can sometimes be invisible.
So we want to ask questions and find out what they are.
Sometimes it will be very formal.
There will be a structure and maybe even specific tools and
other people might be very well aware of it.
But sometimes it will be a little bit more informal and we
want to be mindful and aware of that too.
That's kind of like when there's not a policy written down
anywhere, but there's a way that business is done or there's a
way that things are done. And it's somewhat tacit, meaning
it's just, oh, this is, you know, just how we do things.
It's, you know, this person needs to approve the thing and
they need to do it by this time. And we need to be aware that
these other people are looped in.
Like we just want to understand what it is so that you have
agency and can be intentional and strategic in how you operate
within those systems. So the other piece that's kind
of related to this is the idea of environment.
And your environment, again, can be, you know, have invisible
components, but it can also have visible components, right?
Like the environment might actually be the physical
description of where you work and how that physical
environment affects the way that people are able to work
together. Like if you're all close to each
other in proximity. And that might make you know,
conversations really easy. But on the other hand, if it's
all very Openoffice plan and there's no place to have private
conversations, then maybe there's a bit of a downside
around that sense of privacy or the ability to have a, you know,
a private conversation or meeting with people in a way
that feels sort of casual, right, without it feeling super,
super serious. So environment also often I see
it as something that has a strong emotional quality to it.
And you know, a few years ago when I was working on site in
lots of different companies and coming in to do trainings and
coaching, it was so interesting because with some organizations
it's like when you walk in the door, you can feel the energy of
the room. And there's a difference between
kind of a a low level tension where everyone is really excited
and there's a, you know, a sense of aliveness.
Like, I'm thinking specifically of some work I did with a
company in the entertainment industry.
And there was a sense of aliveness, like people were just
alert and engaged and really highly creative and the the
energy was up. But it was a very creative and
kind of curious, interested energy compared to another
organization where it was very tense.
Like you could sense, oh, people are under pressure, people are
anxious here, people are very worried about how they are
appearing in front of their colleagues.
There's a a strong sense of guardedness or there's a strong,
you know, a strong sense of, you know, I really need people to
see me in this way. And I really, you know, need to
make sure that I, I preserve my image in front of my colleagues.
Like you could sense the tension in the room.
And even though there was still that, you know, high energy,
there was a lot less joy in it, a lot more fear.
And I mentioned this because this quality of what is the
environment in which we're working, especially the
emotional tone of, you know, sort of how you're working and
where you're working, that can change over time depending on
what's going on. So for example, if you're in an
organization and you've gone through layoffs, the environment
in which you're working may have a combination of kind of fear, a
little bit of grief for having lost some of, you know, work
colleagues. There might even be a little bit
of resentment because now it's like I still have my job, but
now I have to do even more work because of the people that we've
let go. That environment is going to
have an effect on how folks work together, how much trust there
is, how people are feeling where their focus is.
And that might be really different than how it was, you
know, two years ago when business was going great or
when, you know you were on a growth spurt.
So you were hiring and there was lots of resources for all of the
things that can change. And it's interesting too, that
quality of environment and kind of the emotional feel can also
change depending on where in an organization you are.
And this is where I like to, you know, remind you that you create
a little microclimate with the team that you have based on how
you show up, how you work with your team, the way that you
communicate, the energy that you bring into the work that can
create a little microclimate. And it's kind of like, you know,
if you've ever heard the saying how people leave managers, not
jobs, the reverse is also true. People stay because of their
managers, even if the the bigger organization is struggling.
People will stay when they really feel like my manager has
my back, my manager supports me. Yeah, maybe the other, you know,
the organization as a whole is really struggling but aren't my
manager and my team is so good and I feel so connected to them
and I really want to stay in order to help us get through
this hard time. Like you can be the one who's
creating this little microclimate.
It's also really good to bear that in mind because if you are
a new manager coming into an intact team, meaning they've
worked together for a while and now you are the new person in
this team, you also want to be mindful and just aware of kind
of what is the emotional tone of this team that I'm coming into.
You know, how are people feeling?
What's, what's kind of going on? What's the unspoken kind of
invisible thing that I can sense with how people are here?
Like, is this a very guarded place?
Is it kind of command and control?
Is it a place where there's already a lot of trust and a lot
of great, you know, open communication?
Let's find out. Like, be curious and see what
you can perceive when you think about it in those terms.
I share this too, because I one time had a client.
She was a new manager and she was stepping in to work with a
team who had very unexpectedly lost their previous manager, who
had sadly died unexpectedly. And so she came in as this new
manager for this team that was really going through a lot of
grief, a lot of sadness, like a lot of, you know, difficulty
emotionally. And so she had to be mindful of,
OK, this is the environment of my team right now, and how can I
be mindful of that as I work to help us accomplish what we're
here to accomplish together? So you want to have awareness of
what is that environment because that also can affect you, you
know, like how you're feeling, how effective you're feeling.
You might find why would I'm so effective in a startup
environment where everything is really loose and open and
there's a lot of freedom because things are not that structured.
Maybe that's the kind of work environment you really thrive
in. And if you go into an
organization that's a bit more structured and a bit more, you
know, kind of clear about who does what, maybe you realize
like, oh, like, why is, why am I having such a hard time?
Oh, it's because I'm not used to working in this environment.
The reverse can also be true. You might feel really confident
about your skills and abilities when you're working in like a
huge global, you know, legacy organization that's got a lot of
very clear processes and systems established.
And then you go into another organization that perhaps is a
bit newer, it's a bit younger in IT in terms of its growth.
And so, you know, it's like, oh, they don't actually have an HR
department or oh, they actually don't have clear policies about
XY and Z. And now you are having to
navigate a lot more ambiguity while also kind of like helping
to create create it as you go. So being mindful, what is the
environment that you're working within both emotionally and you
know kind of structurally like how how is this organization?
And then as I mentioned before, become aware of the systems that
you're also working with and working within so that you can
be intentional about how you do that.
And for both of these, the thing that will help you the most is
to just be really curious. You know, like imagine that you
just kind of walked into this new like a new place and you
don't know how everything works and you're just curious and
interested to learn, see what you observe.
This is also why it can be important to be intentional in
building relationships with others in your organization.
Because you want not just other people that can give you
information who have may have been there longer, been in their
role longer, but they can also provide you with perspective,
with context to understand kind of what are we doing and why,
like where is this coming from? What's really going on?
Is there something else happening, you know somewhere in
this organization that is creating what is happening in
front of me that I cannot see? I'll just give you know one
example of this. So let's say that the the
highest level of leadership goes through a couple of big changes,
right? And this could this happens
right? Like someone at a high level
leaves, someone new comes in and the new person has a really
different idea about how we're going to work here and they
start wanting to make changes. And then the folks who are on
the receiving side of that, they might really struggle.
Maybe that's not what they feel on board for.
Maybe your boss doesn't want to be there anymore.
You know, sometimes we assume the people that we work with
also want to be there, but that's not always true.
And so, you know, I I remember once I was working with someone
really nice, nice person, but really struggled and I didn't
really understand why. I'm like, I don't, I feel like
something is happening here, but I don't really understand what
it was. And it was by having a
conversation with someone else who had a different perspective
of the organization and of the team and had a bit more context
of kind of what was happening on the higher level with the
organization. And they said, yeah, you know,
like you're a manager. I don't think he wants to be
here anymore. I think he wanted to be there,
you know, during this stage of the company.
But now that the company is changing, I think he's, you
know, kind of looking out the door.
And when I heard that, I thought, Oh my gosh, that makes
so much sense. You know, like that kind of
unspoken tension where, you know, this person is such a kind
person and it seems like they're struggling, but I don't really
know why. And it's like, oh, because the
organization is changing and their manager has changed and
they're actually maybe not happy here anymore.
Makes so much sense. So I share that because a lot of
these are relational and the more that you can be intentional
about the way you build relationships, so you have other
sources of information, other perspectives, so that you're
able to get more context also so that you have additional allies
in different places in the organization.
These are all good things and it will also help you to do your
job better when you have that perspective and context.
So be curious, you know, what are the systems in play that
you're going to be working within, especially around
performance reviews, promotion cycles, how raises and bonuses
happen or don't like. You want to understand how that
works And then being mindful of the environment that you're
working in, how that's going to affect you specifically as a
human and the team that you're working with.
Be curious about those, kind of put on like the lens to look for
them so you can understand what they are and then work more
intentionally with that understanding.
So that's what I wanted to share with you today if you want to
work with me one-on-one good news, I've got room for some new
clients. So go into the show notes, book
a consult or go to my website kimnickel.com and you'll see
where you can book some time to talk with me about one-on-one
coaching and what how that works.
And you know, we work together for six months so that you've
got lots of support, you've got lots of, you know, support to
grow, to learn and to reach those goals that are going to be
important for you in the next six months and into the next
year. I also have my next group
program is going to get ready to go pretty soon.
I mean, I'm nowhere in December, but the new year will be here
before we know it. So to find out more about that,
get on the mailing list, go to kimnickel.com, go to the new
managers page and you'll see a link to get on the mailing list
so that you know when I open up the next group program for
enrollment. All right.
Thanks so much for listening. I will see 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.