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. My name is Kim Nicholl. If we have not met before, I'm glad that you are here because it means that you care about being a great manager and it means that you're thinking about leadership and it means that you probably also, you know, care about people. And I think all those things are really important in every single industry in the world.
And I have been thinking a lot about career journeys, how they're often non linear. Mine certainly had a lot of pivots. And on Thursday this week I'm having a conversation with one of my favorite career coaches. Her name is Wendy. You might have heard me mention her here before. We are hosting a free webinar on
career pivots and side hustles. Or I think of them also as side quests because sometimes we have kind of the main nine to five career, and then there might be something we explore on the side that then turns into something big and beautiful that we didn't expect. Or that simply reveals a skill or a talent OR an aptitude that we didn't get to access in our regular job. But then once you realize you have that skill, you can then use that in your regular job.
And specifically, as an example, I wanted to tell you a little bit about when I was a fitness instructor. So many years ago, I had become a lawyer. I was working in publishing, not as a lawyer, but we were publishing like all the books that you see in TV shows. And when there's a lawyer or there's a judges chambers like the wall of books, the company I worked for published those books and I was promoted to become an editorial director.
And I was the director of this portfolio of content and I had many people on my team and we had been peers. And then I got promoted and now I was their manager. So there was a lot that was happening that I was trying to figure out on the fly. There was not training, there was not a lot of guidance. It was just congratulations, you got the promotion, you're the manager now. Go. It was a little bit of a surprise. They didn't expect it to feel so weird to actually be in that role.
And one of the things that was happening concurrent with that is I had become a fitness instructor specifically because there was this one class that I just loved. I went to that class every week. I was like the front row girl I want. I just love this fitness class. It felt so good. And the teacher of that fitness class was going to offer a teacher training. She wanted to have more teachers in my city who could teach this format. And I didn't think of myself as
a fitness person. I didn't really even identify as an athlete, even though I literally had been an athlete in college. But in my mind, I wasn't, you know, I thought, oh, athletes, you know, there's they're, they're like this. And I don't know, like I, I love to row and I'm on, I'm on the crew and I, you know, but yeah, I didn't necessarily take on that identity of being athletic or being really into fitness or the gym. I just, you know, I liked this class and it felt really good.
And so I went to this class and I, you know, I took her class like every week. And so when she offered a teacher training and it was over a weekend and I thought, Oh my gosh, even though I'm not a fit pro, I wonder if I can take that class just so I can learn this format even better. I just loved the class and I wanted to learn it better. And I thought, you know, if I learn how to teach it, maybe I'll be able to guide myself through this class on my own.
I won't have to just wait till she teaches. I can just take that class anytime I want because I'll know how it works. And so I signed up. I took this class. I came in feeling not like an impostor because I wasn't trying to be a fitness instructor, but I came in as an enthusiast. I said I love this class. I just want to learn everything about it.
So even though I felt like I didn't quite belong because I was in this program now with other fitness instructors like professional fitness people, I still thought, well, I'm an enthusiast. I'll invite myself into the room. I can be here, I'll learn, you know, but I'm not going to encroach or like present myself
as a fitness instructor. Well, an interesting thing happened, which was as we were going through the training, this instructor who I really looked up to comes to me and she says, so when are you going to start teaching? And I said, what? Oh, no, I'm just here because I love this class and I want to learn it really well. I, I don't plan to teach it. And she's like, what?
She's like, she's like, why not? And I said, well, I'm not a fitness instructor, you know, I have, I have like a desk job. And she looks at me and she's like, Kim, this isn't rocket science. And by the way, you know this class better than anyone else in here because you come every week and these are professional instructors and they lot, they know lots of different kinds of classes. They teach lots of different things. They're learning this for the first time.
She's like, you actually know this movement better than anybody else here. Like you can do this. And because she said that, I thought, oh, well, you know, maybe I, maybe I could teach, OK, maybe I, maybe I could do that. And then what ended up happening was she gave my name to the group exercise manager at a gym in my town. This gym had wanted a teacher to teach this format. So they had reached out to her. They said, hey, we know you did a training.
Is there anyone locally that you would recommend that we could talk to? And so she said, yes, talk to Kim. They I went in for an audition. I had to teach a class in front of a bunch of people I didn't know. And they gave me the job. And so I then was teaching one Class A week, Saturday mornings at the 24 Hour Fitness in San Francisco on Church at Market.
If you know the neighborhood, you know exactly what that corner is. And I taught this class there for years and I loved it. And one of the things, you know, especially as I look back, one of the things is that I didn't plan. Like the goal wasn't to quit my day job and become a fitness instructor. It was more like, there's this thing that I love to do and I want to do it in a way that kind of works with the rest of my life. Like Saturday mornings was perfect. And then I had my, you know,
like my job. But the thing that happened was that I learned so much about leadership and about, you know, managing a group of people. I learned so much through that experience that I was then able to use not just in my day job, but that helped me understand something that I am good at,
something that I care about. And it really was one of the very first steps into this new career path of coaching, of professional learning and development, of personal growth that has become something that is so rewarding to me both personally, professionally, financially, like in every way, because I had allowed myself that curiosity to take on that side quest, to take on that side hustle. You know, the job didn't pay very much at all.
It was the kind of thing where I definitely was not doing it for the money, but what I gained from what I learned was invaluable. I mean, one of the things was that every day you'd walk, you know, I'd walk into that room to teach. I never knew who would be there. Would I have three students or 30 students, right? I didn't know who would be there. I didn't know, not just like who would be there, but I also didn't know how my students were arriving.
So I taught Saturday morning because that meant some of them had been out late the night before and they were coming in a little, little bleary eyed. And it's like, OK, we're we're going to take it easy. We're not going to push hard today. I had students come in who were recovering from injuries. I had students come in who were really, really strong in one particular way, but their body
was a bit imbalanced. And so they would be really good at some of the movements and then other ones would feel more challenging because their balance or their range of motion was not at at matching kind of what their other strength was. And so the ability to both understand, OK, we're going to start here, we're going to end up there. I'm going to guide you and facilitate this physical experience while being mindful that every single person's individual body and mindset are different.
I'm going to have to make sure that I can connect with each individual while still gathering their group and guiding us through this movement experience. Right. Like that meant not taking for granted that people had abilities or ranges of motion from one time to the next. You know, like a lot can happen in a week. And so I might have a student come in and one day they're feeling totally, you know, on fire and they're just really all in and they've got great energy
and their bodies feel great. And then they come back the next week and they say, Oh my gosh, you know, I had a bike accident or oh, I've, I've, I've got a cold. I've had a cold this week. So I'm feeling really under the weather or even coming in emotionally fatigued or challenged because of something that was happening in their personal life. I had this one student who came in and she always looked like really sad and kind of
withdrawn. And at first I thought, oh, my gosh, she doesn't like me. This is a classic mistake I think a lot of us make as leaders as we take things so personally. And I think, oh, you know, she's kind of cold. She's she's not really engaged. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to reach out to her? Like what? What's going on? And for a while I took it personally. And then I thought, you know what, there's probably more
going on here. And I just, I need to make this not about me. I just need to be here for her. And it's OK for her to be here in any kind of mood she's in. And what I learned much later, what she came up and told me like a year later after coming to class all this time, she said, you know, things have just been really, really hard this year. And I always look forward to coming to class because it's the one place where I know I can just be me. And I wanted you to know how
much this class has meant. And I was so moved. You never know the effect that you're having. And just because someone on your team or someone in your group is not responding the way you think they should be responding, number one, it doesn't mean that you're doing a bad job as a leader. It also doesn't mean that they're doing a bad job as a person. You know, we can have some space and a little bit of grace for understanding. There's probably more going on
here. We can be gentle in our inquiry without needing to dig deep and say, hey, like, tell me everything about what's going on. Sometimes it's private. People don't need to speak about it. For me, it was as long as they're safe, as long as they're moving in a way that is safe for their body, that's good. Like, that's success. You don't have to look at me and be smiling the biggest smile. It's OK. You're also welcome here exactly
as you are. And so after all of those years of learning about leadership and managing the room and walking into the room, and sometimes, you know, the music wouldn't work, the equipment would be broken, or, you know, things go wrong all the time. Things happen that we don't plan for. And yet there's always this intention. What is my role here? My role is to greet everyone, help them feel welcome, guide them through an experience that leaves them feeling more alive
and at home in their bodies. And ultimately that was one of the big insights I had in the course of doing that work, which was understanding that anytime someone goes to the gym, it's because there's something about themselves that they would like to change something. They want to be different about their body and how they move, either bigger or smaller or faster or a greater range of motion or more balance, or
there's something. And my job was to be mindful of the conversation they're having in their head when they're looking at themselves in the mirror. And what became so rewarding to me was realizing that I could invite them into a better relationship with themselves and their bodies and however they were feeling that day.
So that when they looked in the mirror, it wasn't with criticism or feeling disappointed or comparing their body today to how it used to be, you know, a year ago or 10 years ago. But instead look to themselves in the mirror, find themselves in the present and with so much appreciation for what their body is offering and able to do right now. To meet that reflection with appreciation and compassion and
love and listening, right? There's such this fine line between is this the right time to push more or is it more valuable to back off? And I think in our society so much, we get this message of it's always better to push more. And I know that is not true. Sometimes the most wise thing you can choose and sometimes what being a leader means and being a manager means is understanding. You know what in this moment, Pushing is not what will help here. This is a time to back off.
Sometimes taking a step back is what will help us to move forward. Taking a moment to rest is what will help us to focus, to move forward. And all of these insights and ways of thinking and learning how to hold space and learning how to command attention, but in a way that is inviting and in a way that is supportive. All of that, all of these really valuable leadership skills and executive presence skills and management skills.
I learned that not from my nine to five job working downtown on the 26th floor of a high rise in San Francisco. All of that I learned in the studio, guiding the most wonderful humans through an hour of sweaty, stretchy, inspired
fitness class. And from what I've gained from that, not just the insights, but honestly, there are people that I know now that I met in that class that have become friends, that have seen my career journey and for whom I have been able to witness their growth and transformation and change over these years as well. The friends that I met in the teacher training classes and all of the experiences that I had through that part of my career have been so rewarding and
continue to ripple out. And so I wanted to share that story with you today just as an example of how you will learn things through the course of your pivots, your side quests, your side hustles, through the things you do that are not your job, that will help you to show up to be the most effective and authentic manager and leader that you can be. You will learn this through how you are in relationship to your family, both your family of origin and your chosen family.
You will learn this through the way that you experience and participate in your community, in your friendships, in your most intimate partnerships, the way that you learn how to be present and to think about connection. And what is it that we're trying to do here? All of that you can gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge from. Bring that into the workplace. That's what I get excited about. So that's what I wanted to share with you today. Thank you so much for listening.
And if you want to work with me one-on-one, if you want to explore what that can look like, then book a consultation. There's a link in the show notes. Or just go to my website, kimnickel.com. Join me on Thursday if you're able to. We are going to talk about pivots, career side hustles and side quests. And that's it. All right, I hope you have a really great day 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.