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.