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. I can't believe that September is just around the corner. It always gives me those back to school vibes of getting ready to start a new year, getting ready to meet new people, learn new things, get a new notebook, get a new pen. There's a very kind of embedded feeling of what September means in terms of refocusing, resetting, and also feeling a
little bit of a fresh start. So if that's true for you, then we are on the same page. If it's true for kids in your family, you might be feeling that right now as you're getting ready or you have even started already that school year. It starts in August now for so many schools and for so many kids. And so anyways, I'm excited that it's coming into September. I definitely am a person who likes getting a clean new notebook, a brand new pen. So that's going to be happening in my world.
And also today I have some news for you. My next group program is now open for enrollment and it's a little bit different this time. I have been learning so much as I have been teaching this material and coaching individuals and also watching what you are listening for. I've now published over 100. I think I'm at like 180 something episodes of this show. And can you guess what is the
most listened to topic? Not the most listened to episode, but of all the different things that I talk about and share here, can you guess which is the most popular, the most requested and most listened to topic?
It's all about communication, whether it's how to have a tough conversation, how to give feedback, what to say when you find yourself in a situation and you're not really sure what to do, how to be direct conversation and communication skills when you are an introvert, or how to communicate with people who have different styles of communication or
different priorities. Even the teachings that I share with you on advocacy, how to speak up on behalf of yourself or of others, or how to establish boundaries, all of that are all parts of communication. And when you think about it, so much of how work is done is through the way that you communicate with others. This includes your verbal communication, so either giving a presentation or contributing in a meeting or, you know, setting the agenda and leading a meeting yourself.
It also includes the written communication. That's your emails, that's your direct messages or chat messages. That's the way that you respond in the chat when someone writes something and you think, what the heck are they doing? Like, why would they say that? The way that you choose to respond in your written communication is part of how things get done and not just the specific act of speaking or the specific act of writing.
But importantly, you know, when I talk about the strategy of communication, what we're looking at is what are the ideas, thoughts and intentions behind the actions that you're taking? So one thing I, you know, you might know if you've listened to this show for a while is when I talk about feedback, I talk about it from a very strategic perspective. So one of the first questions is what is it that you want this feedback to do? What is the change you want to see as a result of giving this
feedback? And very often, and this was true for me when I first became a manager and I thought, oh, my job is to give feedback. I want to be good at this. So I'll just be really thorough and some, sometimes we think, oh, I want to be good at this. I don't know how to think about what that means. So I know I'll just be thorough, I'll be comprehensive. I'll give them everything. And then it ends up not having the effect we want.
And people might feel picked on, or they might feel unappreciated, or they might feel just overwhelmed, like they don't know where to start with the feedback you've given because there wasn't a clear, grounded strategy behind why you
were doing that. And this I think is important because, you know, every organization is different in terms of their formal and informal communication styles and also in their formal and informal processes for how you get work done, for how you do feedback, for how you do meetings. And so there's so much value that I see when we take the time to step back for a moment and ask these bigger and foundational questions around how am I communicating? How would I like to communicate?
What is the effect I want this communication to have? And when we start to have a little more of that space and we start to cultivate the perspective that brings like a strategic lens to what your choices are and what your desired outcomes are, it then equips you to become more adaptive in dynamic environments that includes with dynamic personalities. So a variety of different personalities, preferences and styles, but also in an organization that might be going through change.
And honestly, you know, whether you are in a small startup, a global nonprofit, a government agency, you know, an institution of higher learning or of, you know, or of healthcare, like every organization is going through change. This is something that I think we have all seen over the last four years, whether you know, whether you are a, you know, a startup or a legacy organization.
And so, you know, rather than trying to solve for each little challenge separately, when we start to take a more systems level look, and that's what we're doing when we're thinking about strategy, we're asking about like, how does the system work? And how do all these different, you know, people and forces and constraints and opportunities, How do they connect? What's the relationship here? And then what will I choose in order to facilitate the outcome
that I want to see happen? It's really hard to, you know, get that level of thinking when we're, you know, sort of keeping our head above water and just trying to get everything done. And this is one of the reasons why I love coaching and why I love group learning is sometimes it's nice to have a community of people who are all wanting to get better, who all care about doing a good job and, you know, being very human centered.
And they want to be kind, but they also want to get things done to have that place where you can share what you're dealing with and what you're working on and learn how to get better with others. So number one, you realize, OK, I'm not alone. This is not some kind of, you know, deficit that I have. I'm just, I'm learning and this is the thing I'm learning right now. That alone can create so much relief.
And just let the pressure that we often put on ourselves when we're high achievers, it can let that pressure ease up a little bit when you realize, no, this is just part of the learning journey and the leadership journey. And I'm in really good company here. It's also wonderful to learn with people who don't know you, who don't work with you, who maybe work in different industries or in different kinds of organizations. I think of it as cross pollination.
Like there's so much that you learn about how to work with humans when you're talking with humans who have some different circumstances but some similar themes. So there's a lot of shared learning and a lot of like aha moments when you start to talk to other folks about some of the challenges that you're facing. And especially noting that it's a private space, it's a confidential space.
And so, you know, unless you sign up with your manager, like your manager's not going to be overseeing how you're doing there, you really have the safety to learn. And that's a thing I've learned too in my years as a teacher and a coach and a facilitator. It's that when we feel more safe, we learn faster. When we're feeling worried or when we're perceiving high risk or threat, we tend to learn slower because our brain is worried about keeping us safe.
So I really want to, you know, like name that to you and also invite you in because that's also part of what is happening in this in the group cohort and why I love teaching in Group settings. And then finally, the other great thing about learning in a group with people that work in other companies, other industries, other kinds of organizations is it also begins to cultivate and expand your
professional ecosystem. I mean, that is one of the best things ever is you never know who you will meet, whether that becomes the next person that you end up hiring for something else or maybe they know somebody that when you're looking for another job or you're looking to hire someone onto your team.
By having a diverse professional network, by basically knowing other people and letting other people know you who are in different organizations, different industries, you now enrich your professional ecosystem as well as your personal relationships. And you know what? By you being a part of that community, you're doing the same
for them. There's so much value in who you are as a person, in your specific perspective and background as you've, you know, lived your years on the planet and have had different kinds of experiences working with different kinds of people and different kinds of organizations. So I am very excited about all of this and I'm glad that you are here because you are invited to join as well. A couple things that are going
to be new this round. If you've been following me for a while, this round we're focusing on communication strategies as I mentioned, and I'm also using a new platform to deliver this course. And I'm excited about it because it's going to provide us with so much support. It's going to create a very streamlined experience for you and it's, you'll see it. I will, I will put the link to the enrollment page into the chat because I, I want you to
see this for yourself. And when you go to the enrollment page, you're going to also see the syllabus, You're going to see the projects that are part of this. I want this to be bite sized, but engaging so that you're actually taking the learning and applying it. And as a result, like you're going to come away with more clarity about what it means for you to be a good manager and a great leader. You're going to get more time for that strategic thinking because we're going to take the
time together. And I'll walk you through that. You'll be more prepared for the tough conversations that inevitably show up in the course of one's career, and you're going to feel more confident in speaking up. One of the things I love coaching my clients on is identifying the source of their own authentic confidence and also identifying the blocks so that we can then eliminate and reduce them. You'll also learn about managing up such an important topic at every stage of your career.
Even if you're the CEO or the executive director, you're probably still managing up to the board. So managing up, that's a great skill. We want to talk about that and communication strategies for that as well. So I want to invite you to come. We are going to start our first class on September 17th. You will be able to sign up now because that registration page
is open. Go into the show notes and click on the link and you will see everything that's included in the course and you'll be able to sign up right away. If you have any questions, just send me a message and I'll put a note for how to do that too into the chat. But I really am excited about this. You know, I think that by improving communication skills and by having that space to think strategically, it allows
us to use our time better. It allows us to show up with greater confidence, ease and calm, and to be that leader that, you know you want to be, right? The person who can help to bring calm and groundedness into your organization and can inspire people to work well together, even if those people are all kind of different.
You know, I have sometimes said in the in when I'm teaching my classes, you know, we always think like, if only everyone was like me, it'd be so easy because we don't realize just the variety of how people are motivated, how people communicate differently, how people have different desires and sometimes competing priorities and interests.
So when you learn and feel better about the way you're communicating and the strategies behind it, you'll be able to have a little more ease and a little more just like a little more joy in the way that you work. And then you'll have a little more ease and a little more joy outside of work because you won't be feeling as stressed about it. So anyway, that's what I wanted to share with you today. I do hope you join us. It's going to be amazing 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.