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.
As you can tell, I'm slowly feeling better.
Still not at 100%, but definitely so much healthier
than last week. Still a little congested, but
I'm very happy to say that I am well on my way to getting back
to 100%. I want to give a big shout out a
big hello to to you who listened and left a review.
Someone with the most delightful username.
It's about Donuts left a really great review and rating for this
podcast on Apple Podcast and the things that especially really
stood out to me. One, they said they've been
listening for two years now, which is fantastic.
I'm so glad you've been hanging out with me for the last couple
of years. They also said there are so many
practical tips for new and seasoned managers.
Yes, good. That is the goal.
So I'm glad that that's landing and, and this really touched me.
They said her delivery is so calming and encouraging.
I recommended too many. That makes me feel really good
because I honestly think that there's just not enough calmness
and not enough encouragement, especially when you start
managing people. I think a lot of times managers
get kind of thrown under the bus.
Like, it's very easy to complain about management and managers,
and yet, you know, there's just not a lot of support available.
Oftentimes people are stepping into roles without having
received any guidance or training or support or coaching.
And so much is asked of managers without often providing the
support that will allow them to really thrive and flourish in
the role. And so that's why it matters to
me to be here for you and why I'm so glad that that has been
helpful. I love that this podcast is
often recommended to others. I don't do any outside
promotion. If you follow me on LinkedIn,
you know, I don't even talk about the podcast that much.
So I think of the this show almost as like, you know, a cozy
little cottage in the forest. And as you're walking through
the woods in your own career journey, your own life journey,
you might stumble upon this place where hopefully, you know,
it's like you see a warm light. You're able to come in, have a
seat, have a warm cup of tea and feel a little bit nourished and
feel a little bit restored and come away with some very
practical ideas, tools and frameworks that will help make
your journey a little bit easier.
If you watch any of the Miyazaki movies, like, you know, Howells
movie kept moving Castle, Spirited Away, any of those, you
know, that sense of stepping into a parallel but alternate
world. I kind of think about podcast
land as like that. And so, you know, I welcome you
if you have stumbled your way through the woods and come upon
this little cottage where you can receive a little bit of
care, a little encouragement and some practical ideas and tools
that will help you with whatever you're facing when you head back
into the world of work and career.
And you know, all of the loud, noisy, you know, world that's
around you. So if you listen, thank you so
much. And if you would be open to
leaving a review, a rating on Apple or Spotify, if you listen
there too, that would mean so much to me.
So having said that, today I wanted to share with you
something that I learned that really, really hit me, and it
was a story that I heard about Lana Del Rey.
If you don't know Lana Del Rey, she is a very popular and very
famous singer and songwriter, an incredibly talented woman.
She's been creating music for many, many years.
And I learned recently that she shared that, like a year ago,
she didn't know how the process worked for being nominated for
Grammys. And, you know, she she said, I
just thought that if your song was good, people just put it on
the ballot. She didn't know what the process
was to be nominated. And it wasn't until, I guess she
was talking with Jack Antonoff, who is also a famous musician
and music producer. And apparently, he explained to
her, oh, like, this is how the process works.
If you want to be nominated for a Grammy for this big award in
the industry, these are the things you have to do in order
to make that happen. And it really struck me because
I think it really illustrates how you can be really good at
the thing you do and not know how the bigger process works.
And once you're stepping into higher levels of leadership and
managing, you will get more visibility, but it will be
incomplete, right? Like the visibility that you
have into how things work is always incomplete.
You'll only be seeing a part of it.
Kind of like the story. They're like 5 blind people and
they're describing an elephant. And one person says, oh, it's,
you know, got this long curvy, strong thin part.
And someone else says, no, no, it's, you know, really round and
sturdy, kind of like a tree trunk.
And someone else says no, it's kind of leathery and, and broad
like, you know, like a wall, you know.
And someone else says, no, it's kind of like thin and rope like.
And it, you know, sways back and forth.
And because each person is only able to perceive 1 aspect of it,
they don't realize that there's so much more to it than what
they are able to perceive. And this is true for you in the
workplace, that there's only so much that you're going to be
able to have visibility to. And it's important to become
curious to understand how do things work?
How does it work here? So, for example, what's the
process for getting a promotion or what's the process for
getting a raise? How does that work?
Is there a bonus structure? How does that work?
How does that affect you, your team?
What's the process for perhaps making a lateral move in your
organization, moving to another team?
And when you become a manager, it becomes important that you
understand this for two reasons. One is of course for yourself as
you're thinking about what's next for you, what you want to
do, where you want to go, what career experience you want to
have. Of course, you want to know that
for yourself, but also you want to understand more about how the
process works because of your team.
Expect that your team will be asking you some of those
questions. How do I get a promotion?
How do I get a raise? How do I move to work maybe on
this other team in the organization that maybe I'm more
interested in? You want to start to understand
how those processes work. You also want to understand
what's the process for requesting a sabbatical.
Are sabbaticals a thing that happened in your organization?
And if you haven't seen anyone take one, do not assume it's not
available unless you get curious about asking for it.
You might not ever find out that it's something that maybe you
could actually do. What's the process for
requesting outside professional development and even internal
professional development? Find out.
Is there an existing budget, an existing resource?
Is there some kind of regular scheduled training that will
happen later in the year that you can know about and plan for,
either for yourself or for your team?
Start to get curious and especially you must take an
active role in asking and finding out.
You want to find out what is the official process and you want to
be listening for the unofficial factors that can influence how
that process actually works. There is so much discretion
within every process. Individual people have
discretion about what they approve, what they put forward,
whether they allocate budget to this request or that request.
So there might be some unofficial factors in play that
you want to be aware of. You just want to know, like how
does this work? Do not assume that somebody will
tell you. Do not assume your manager will
tell you, do not assume your HR organization will tell you.
And do not expect your colleagues to clarify this for
you either, unless you ask. Now, please don't feel bad or
weird. If you don't know how this stuff
works, you're not expected to know.
I mean, how could you? I mean, even, you know, think
about like Lana Del Rey, a famous, very successful artist,
did not know how the process worked for getting nominated for
Grammys. She just assumed, if your song
is good, you'll be recognized and nominated.
I see this a lot also in the workplace.
People assume, hey, if I'm doing good work, somebody will see and
it will be recognized. But that's not always true.
People are distracted. People don't always have
visibility on what you're doing, or they don't have an
appreciation for the effect or the result of what you're doing.
Sometimes what's required is that you not just make visible
here's what I'm doing, but also because I did this, this is the
effect, this was the result. This was how the work of me and
my team. This is how it affected these
other things. It may be about connecting the
dots to make it obvious to someone who is not you.
So as you are thinking about the end of this year and the
beginning of next year, one of the kind of gentle little
frameworks I wanted to offer to think about is number one, ask
yourself, what do you want? Make a list of all the things,
whether it's a promotion, a raise, sponsorship for outside
professional development, a sabbatical, whatever.
Like what is it that you want? Make a list of all those things
#2 ask yourself, how do you I think it works?
This is a really important step. You want to get clear by writing
down the story of how you think those things happen.
So if your goal is a promotion, how do you currently think that
happens in your mind? What do you think the process
is? And then Step 3, verify.
This is where you get curious. You start talking to other
people, ask them what they know about the process.
You want to test your assumptions by getting other
perspectives and other information.
And this is also really important because sometimes you
might have an accurate understanding, but then over
time the process changes and what used to be accurate and
current is no longer accurate and current.
And nobody told you. Things just happened to change.
And maybe it was not communicated clearly.
You don't know what you don't know.
So again, that three-step process, what do you want?
Make a list of all the things #2 how do you think it works?
Write down the story of how you think those things would happen.
And then #3 verify. Talk to other people, test your
assumptions, get other perspectives, update your
information. It's an iterative process.
So I think it's a good idea to do this on a regular schedule.
And the beginning of the year is a really great time because it's
such a moment of reflection and then making decisions and
setting some intentions for what you want to experience in your
work in the coming year. So think about that as you are
getting ready to go into the year ahead.
And you know, sometimes, sometimes you're Lana Del Rey
and you're asking yourself, like, how does this actually
work? Sometimes you're Jack Antonoff
and you're going to be explaining process and kind of
demystifying things for others. But just continue to be curious,
find out how things work because sometimes you don't know what
you don't know until you start asking around and then you find
out. Thank you so much for listening.
That's all I wanted to share with you today.
I hope you have a really great rest of your week.
If you want to learn more with me, sign up for my course on
communication strategies for Managers.
The link is in the show notes. The new cohort is currently
enrolling and we start start in January.
So if you want to start the year with some support and just
organizing your thinking about communication strategies, then
sign up for that course. If you want to work with me
one-on-one, you can find more information about that too in
the show notes or just go to my website, kimnickel.com.
All right, have a wonderful rest of your week 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.