Manager’s Tea Break

Nikki Parsons

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Enjoy a cuppa while listening to bite-size lessons in management, delivered audiobook-style. Topics include: Leadership + marketing + project management. New season coming 2026. For marketing support visit: https://nikkiparsons.com/ nikkiparsons.substack.com

06/11/2024

How To Capitalize On Your Team Members' Strengths

“This event is going to be a disaster!” That’s what my project lead said to me with a key conference just months away. It wasn’t just stress — tension had been brewing in the group for a number of weeks now. Despite having a skilled (and resourced) team, along with a solid plan, progress was slow and communication was breaking down. Early in my leadership career, I thought success was all about getting the right people with the right skills into the right roles. That formula — matching tasks to the people with the technical expertise —had served me well. But, this time it wasn’t working. The project lead was a very organized person and he had created a detailed project plan for the event. But, he was struggling with the fact that the project was not going according to that plan, and he felt that he was the only one seriously worrying about it being behind schedule. A couple of other project members were currently focusing on a conference that was coming up earlier, and struggling to keep to the agreed timelines. While, on the other hand, a different team member felt the project was doing just fine, and that there was plenty of time ahead of the event to make things successful. He was just irritated that the project lead wanted to move (what he saw as) unnecessarily fast. I noticed that a few times after their project meeting, one or the other team members would go for a coffee with a team member who wasn’t on the project. I’d often see her sitting with different project members and could overhear her listening to their challenges and trying to smooth over some misunderstandings. When doing a check-in with the project lead, it was obvious he needed more support. Clearly, the group needed to talk through the issues brewing before they boiled over. He was already overwhelmed and as things were behind schedule, it wasn’t fair to expect him to become an expert in conflict management overnight. Rather than offering to jump in myself, which would not only undermine him, but take away a valuable learning opportunity, I suggested he could try bringing the other team member into the project. I’d seen from the informal coffee meetings that she had a natural gift for getting people to open up, and that seemed to be exactly what this team needed. That way, he could capitalize on her natural strengths — effective listening and facilitating discussion — to get the group to open up and start working together more effectively. Almost overnight, the group transformed. Her presence helped to create more discussion within the meetings, which meant the different team members could understand a bit better where everyone else was coming from. Communication started to flow more naturally and soon afterwards the team started to hit their stride. That experience taught me that it’s not just about the technical skills team members bring to the table, it’s also about how to best capitalize on their individual strengths. Full blog available on Medium. Credits: Read aloud by the author. Image credits: Photo by Mapbox 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

8min
02/10/2024

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

10min
11/09/2024

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

8min
07/08/2024

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

14min
03/07/2024

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

10min
05/06/2024

How to Retarget Effectively - Beyond Display Ads

When most marketers (or non-marketers) mention retargeting, they tend to be thinking of one particular combination: using website visits together with display ads. But, retargeting is so much more than just these two mediums. Any combination of the channels and mediums you have at your disposal can be used together. Not to forget often overlooked mediums like direct mail. I’m always interested in reading about ways others are using retargeting. It inspires me and helps me think about how I can be more creative when using retargeting in my own work. I’ve curated two of my favorite examples with an example from my own life to help provide you with food for thought about how to retarget using two mediums that aren’t just websites & online display ads. Full blog available on Medium. Credits: Read aloud by the author. Image credits: Image created by author. Music credits: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Music promoted by Copyright Free Music - Background Music For Videos. 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

12min
06/05/2024

The Power of a Coffee Check-in

Although I’m a leader, I’m naturally more of an introvert. It’s true — I’m happy to get some quiet time to work in peace and think things through. Small talk and having to be “always on” in the office drains my energy. Unfortunately for me, it’s extroverts who are typically considered to be the most effective leaders. According to Harvard Business Review, 65% of senior corporate executives viewing introversion as a barrier to leadership. Yet, introverted leaders have unique strengths, such as their ability to listen, think deeply, and build strong relationships with their team members. For me, building relationships at work has always been more of an active effort. I know developing bonds with my team is important, and I go out of my way to make opportunities where we can connect. Full blog available on Medium. Credits: Read aloud by the author. Image credits: Photo by Omar BENSALAH on Unsplash Music credits: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Music promoted by Copyright Free Music - Background Music For Videos. 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

4min
03/04/2024

Casting A Memorable Leadership Shadow

What comes to mind when someone mentions personal branding? Do you immediately think about your LinkedIn feed, consultants and other annoying people pitching you their services? For many, the term “personal branding” is starting to morph into more of a negative connotation. As if conscientiously working to build your brand puts too much emphasis on the sales aspect. An insight from a recent leadership peer group discussion I was in last month, really started to change my mindset on this topic with the question: How would it be if instead of calling it personal branding, we called it your leadership shadow? Full blog available on Medium. Credits: Read aloud by the author. Image credits: Photo by Martino Pietropoli on Unsplash Music credits: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Music promoted by Copyright Free Music - Background Music For Videos. 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

4min

Enjoy a cuppa while listening to bite-size lessons in management, delivered audiobook-style. Topics include: Leadership + marketing + project management. New season coming 2026. For marketing support visit: https://nikkiparsons.com/ nikkiparsons.substack.com

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Nikki Parsons
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Manager’s Tea Break