Manager’s Tea Break

Nikki Parsons
Manager’s Tea Break

Enjoy a cuppa while listening to popular articles from my blog. Topics include: Leadership + marketing + project management. New episodes each month. Extra content available on my Medium blog. nikkiparsons.substack.com

  1. OCT 2

    What Customers Really Want

    This summer, I flew back to the US to attend a family wedding. As a frequent traveller, I had prepared accordingly: iPad? ✔️ Charged and ready Netflix? ✔️ TV shows downloaded Spotify? ✔️ Playlists available offline Yet, I made a mistake I’ve done already one too many times before: connecting the iPad to the airport Wi-Fi during my layover. After my connecting flight took off, when settling myself down with my iPad ready to watch a little TV, I realized my error. Most of the shows I had previously prepared had now disappeared. Those that remained displayed the error, “Download not available in this country.” I started mentally kicking myself. Fool — you should have kept it on airplane mode until arriving. Groaning and resigning myself to the airline's offering, I looked up at the seat console TV to browse the in-flight options. Then I noticed a little sticker on the back of the seat, reading “free high-speed in-flight Wi-Fi available”. Instantly my brain oscillated from “Hallelujah!” to complete skepticism. I bet it’s expensive and slow as hell. I tried connecting to the network and, as expected, I was met with…not much. After waiting a little while, an orange error message under the Wi-Fi network appeared that read “No internet connection.” I tried forgetting and reconnecting to the network a few times and eventually, I did manage to get a connection — and, incredibly, it seemed like it was indeed for free! (I had assumed there would be tiered plans.) But, I couldn’t get a single webpage to load, it was just continuously buffering. Now, the frustration I had with myself for connecting to the internet prematurely was displaced onto the airline. I felt it was a classic case of over-promise, under-deliver, and it left me feeling even more irritated than before. Full blog available on Medium. Credits: Read aloud by the author. Image credits: Photo by Aerojet on Unsplash Music credits: True Feelings: Relaxing Lofi by The Turquoise Moon Relaxing Lo Fi Chill by Sondé Sofa Sleeping by Jon Presstone This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nikkiparsons.substack.com

    10 min
  2. Cultivating Skip-Level Relationships for Career Growth

    SEP 11

    Cultivating Skip-Level Relationships for Career Growth

    “I don’t know what you do.” Not the best way to kick off a feedback meeting. But there I sat, opposite the manager of my manager (my “skip-level manager”) who informed me bluntly. I’d set this meeting after collecting my first round of feedback for my 360-degree review. As part of the second round, I was openly sharing the results with everyone who had been asked to complete the survey, and using it to have a discussion for further insights. I thought it was going to be a great chance to finally have a one-on-one discussion with my skip-level manager and learn what he thought of the work I was doing. Alas, it rapidly dawned on me that he had no idea. “How can he be this ill-informed?” “What the heck is my manager sharing with him?” These thoughts and more were running through my head. Hastily abandoning the original meeting topic, I gave him the elevator pitch for the topics I was responsible for and the projects the team was working on. Several of the team’s recent launches had enjoyed great internal visibility, but it appeared the information hadn’t made it to him (or at very least he had forgotten). So, I asked what I could be doing to better support him.  He immediately rattled off a couple of tasks — neither of which were within my domain and therefore something I could help with.  It was frustrating not being able to say “yes” to help him with any of the tasks — but the responsibility was clearly within other teams, and in fact some of the things he wanted were already underway. He seemed not to be aware of this either. I felt at a loss. I resolved to try to better educate him on the work we were doing. If he didn’t know what we were doing, then obviously in his eyes the work was neither valuable nor making an impact. As he was C-level and without much availability, I offered a short (20-minute) monthly alignment meeting where I could go a bit more in-depth on a different project area each time to increase his awareness. He readily accepted.  Although I left the meeting without actionable feedback for my 360-degree review, I still felt I had learned a valuable lesson. I made a commitment to focus on improving the relationship with my skip-level manager. Full blog Medium Credits: Read aloud by the author. Image credits: Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash Music credits: True Feelings: Relaxing Lofi by The Turquoise Moon Relaxing Lo Fi Chill by Sondé Sofa Sleeping by Jon Presstone This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nikkiparsons.substack.com

    8 min
  3. Receiving feedback gracefully

    AUG 7

    Receiving feedback gracefully

    Back in 2018, I launched my first online course. I was full of excitement, nerves, and anticipation. How would my course be received? Would people like it? I had spent months and countless hours preparing the topic, scripting, filming, editing, and preparing everything to market after launch. Post-launch, I spent the first weeks maniacally refreshing the Udemy Instructor page to see if I had any new students or reviews. Much to my delight, the reviews were overwhelmingly positive. As a result of this social proof, the number of students in the course continued to grow and I gleefully started considering what my next course topic should be. Until I came across a 1-star review with the comment: “Not a great match. A little too basic…” A pretty vanilla comment. Not personal and clearly explaining the reason for the poor review. Seems pretty fair right? Yet, I felt it. I had spent so long working on this course — and someone didn’t like it! I was crushed. I immediately went into mental defense mode: Too basic? I said it was a beginner course. They should have read the course landing page better. I bet they didn’t even look through the course content outline. By this point, the course already had over a hundred reviews, typically 4 or 5 stars. Yet, this 1-star review is the one I remember. I don’t remember a quote from a positive review. Though I know there were many lovely ones because I can remember how I felt reading them. But, I can’t remember the comments themselves off the top of my head. Full blog available on Medium. Credits: Read aloud by the author. Image credits: Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash Music credits: True Feelings: Relaxing Lofi by The Turquoise Moon Relaxing Lo Fi Chill by Sondé Sofa Sleeping by Jon Presstone This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nikkiparsons.substack.com

    14 min
  4. Mastering the STAR Interview Method

    JUL 3

    Mastering the STAR Interview Method

    It’s both exciting and stressful to hire new team members. On the one hand, you have excitement, thinking you can get some fresh energy into the team, and the hope that you can hire the perfect candidate who can deliver what you need. On the other, in the back of your mind, you might have a little anxiety thinking that if this person doesn’t work out, you risk wasting your time and having your judgment questioned — as you’re the one who hired them, right? HR teams are well aware of the cost of a bad hire, which can include lost productivity, lost time and costs associated with recruiting and training, damage to employee morale, and possible damage to a company’s reputation or client relationships. According to research by CareerBuilder, those costs add up to $17,000 on average for each bad hire. That’s why many companies implemented and now use the STAR method — to lower their risk of a bad hire. The method has been around for decades. Consulting firm DDI is credited with creating the STAR method back in the 1970s. Yet it continues to gain steam because having a structured interview process can increase a hiring manager’s objectivity and improve comparability between candidates. Full blog available on Medium. Credits: Read aloud by the author. Image credits: Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash Music credits: True Feelings: Relaxing Lofi by The Turquoise Moon Relaxing Lo Fi Chill by Sondé Sofa Sleeping by Jon Presstone This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nikkiparsons.substack.com

    10 min

About

Enjoy a cuppa while listening to popular articles from my blog. Topics include: Leadership + marketing + project management. New episodes each month. Extra content available on my Medium blog. nikkiparsons.substack.com

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.

Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada