The Non-Boss Mindset

As business owners and leaders, we often find ourselves spending our entire day dealing with people, managing their needs, and navigating the complexities of teamwork.

But what happens when we slip into the mindset of a non-boss boss?

When we started our journey into entrepreneurship or embarked on our careers, we may not have anticipated that managing people would consume so much of our time.

Yet, as business owners and leaders, we often find ourselves overwhelmed by the responsibility of dealing with our team members.

The desire to avoid conflict, lack of clear direction, and the tendency to please everyone can push us towards becoming a non-boss boss – and there are clear reasons why this is ineffective for you, your team and your business or organisation.

Understanding the Non-Boss Boss Mindset

The non-boss boss is characterised by a hands-off approach to leadership. They avoid conflict, lack clear direction, say yes to everyone, and struggle to lead...

The Curse of Micromanaging

It’s all too common in the world of HR to hear stories of micromanagement and the detrimental effects micromanagers have on their teams, and ultimately their business or organisational output and reputation.

Micromanagement is a style characterised by excessive control and interference in the work of others, usually those reporting to you.

It can look like dictating every aspect of a project without allowing their team to get involved or insisting on being cc’d into every email about a project. It can also look like refusing to delegate tasks, undermining a team members ability, and ignoring their input.

Micromanaging can also look like failing to provide clear instruction or guidance and then criticising the team member for not meeting expectations. Micromanagement is an insidious element that the micro manager themselves sometimes don’t even realise they’re doing. 

Whether you're a business owner, leader, or aspiring...

Hello and welcome to Episode 175 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today I’m excited to be joined by a special guest, who is here to chat to us about avoiding hiring disasters!

Deb Houston of Phlox Consulting is a Hiring Strategist and Mentor, she has been helping job-seekers and hiring managers nail their interviews and land their dream jobs and employees for more than seventeen years. 

She takes a supportive and consultative approach to recruitment, personalising the process for each and every client, whilst always making sure it’s fun along the way. For Deb, finding the right job or candidate is a lot like dating – you just have to find a match you want to commit to!

Today is Part 1 of a 2 part discussion Deb and I had on this topic, and today we’re sharing the 3 (or more) biggest hiring mistakes we see businesses make and why you should avoid them.

Join me again next week for part 2, where we share proactive hiring strategies everyone should be...

Planning for the 2023 Christmas Close Down: What Employers Need to Know

Unveiling the Changes to Christmas Close Downs: Prepare Your Business Now

You might think it’s a bit early to be talking about Christmas close-downs – but you’d be surprised how planning ahead will save you that feeling of dashing to the finish line.

If you're a business owner or leader who typically closes your business over the festive season, this blog post will cover the essentials you need to know.

As expert HR consultants for small to medium businesses across Australia, we’re identifying the changes that have been made and what you need to do differently this year.

What We Already Know about Christmas Close Downs

Christmas close downs have become increasingly common over the years and, in Australia, are now considered the norm across many industries and awards.

The Christmas close-down period is also the time that many business owners will do all their planning. In fact, at People...

Hello and welcome to Episode 174 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today I’m sharing how I’m really feeling right now – guilty! Guilty for the long to do list I can’t seem to get on top of, guilty for feeling exhausted after a 10 hour day and needing a break, and guilty because there is always more to do.

I’ve also been reminded, via a client this week, that our team have a knack of also making us feel incredibly guilty from time to time.

So today we’re talking ‘boss guilt’. I’m unpacking what it is, the two types I’ve seen play out recently, how to identify if you’re heading down a boss guilt spiral and some strategies for breaking free from boss guilt.

I’d love to hear about whether you have suffered from boss guilt before, and what strategies you use to navigate it when you feel it popping up, so I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, HR Support for Australian Businesses, so I can...

Hello and welcome to Episode 173 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today we’re talking about Interns, it’s actually a topic we really haven’t spoken about here on the podcast before.

However, I have decided to experiment with having interns in my business, so I thought I’d share that journey with you over the next 6 months by recording a couple of episodes on the process, and share the pro’s con’s and my learnings. 

In this episode we’re looking at when an intern might be the right addition to your team.

I unpack the different types of interns, address the question of pay, chat about why I’ve decided to experiment with this for my team, and share the opportunities that exist with interns.

I’d love to hear about whether you have engaged interns before, or are considering it in the future, so I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, HR Support for Australian Businesses, so I can learn more about...

How AI Can Help with Your HR To-Do List

In the rapidly evolving landscape of business, finding innovative ways to optimise productivity and efficiency is crucial. 

Enter artificial intelligence (AI), a technology that has gained significant attention recently, with the rise of software like ChatGPT, and offers immense potential across various domains.

While AI may seem unrelated to human resources (HR), it can be a powerful tool to enhance HR processes. In this blog post, we explore how AI can revolutionise your HR to-do list, focusing on three practical applications.     

1. Crafting Job Advertisements with Ease:

Writing effective job ads can be a time-consuming task that requires careful consideration of language, tone, and content.

With AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Bard, you can streamline this process and save yourself some valuable time.

By providing prompts and specific details about the role, AI can generate well-written job...

Hello and welcome to Episode 172 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today we’re talking trust, and why it’s so important to your teams success. Specifically in today’s episode we’re looking at why:

• Your team need to trust you;
• You need to trust your team;
• your team need to trust each other.

When your team don’t trust you as the leader the results will be increased turnover, under-performance, gossip and toxicity, morale and motivation will be low, they don’t work together and essentially nothing is good.

Getting your people to trust you isn’t that difficult, it’s doing the simple things consistently. Follow through on your promises, take action when you should, being honest, communicating and treat people fairly.

Secondly, you need to trust your team. If you don’t trust your team, you’ll be constantly deciding to do things yourself and / or micromanage, which will hold your business back. If you’re feeling like...

Hello and welcome to Episode 171 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today I’m excited to bring you a conversation I had with Nick Mills.

Nick is an expert facilitator, trainer, coach with a strong focus on leadership, management, and inclusion in the workplace.

To list all of his qualifications would take a long time but safe to say he has a variety of qualifications in leadership, management, adult educations at masters level.

Currently, Nick is also completed his PHD at the University of Tasmania focusing in inclusion for LGBTQI + leaders in the finance and professional services sectors.

His paper which will be released late this year called “How Australian companies can be truly inclusive and welcoming spaces.” Was in part motivated by Nicks’ passion to help leaders have more meaningful interactions and effective and sensitive conversations with all team members across their organisations.

In our conversation we discuss what led him to his current...

Hello and welcome to Episode 170 of the People Powered Business Podcast. 

Well we have hit the time of year where motivation tends to be low – so today we’re talking about giving your team a mid year motivation boost!

Firstly we’ll unpack why motivation wanes at this time of year. From the high energy and enthusiastic start to the year, post Easter we always see a decline in motivation. Coupled with that it’s cold and miserable, we’re tired and on any given day every second person is sick!

And that’s why it’s so important to give your team a motivation boost right now. You can rest assured if you’re feeling blah – your team are too! Focusing on motivating the team right now will certainly set you up for a better second half of the year and let’s face it, we all need something to focus on and look forward to.

We wrap up this episode with my sharing some of my favourite mid year motivation boosting strategies and...