The Latest from Kristy-Lee

Hello and welcome to Episode 146 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

Today I want to chat to you about the power of pausing. It’s not something that comes naturally to many of us entrepreneurial types, but after the year that 2022 has been – I feel like it’s more important this year than ever.

Let’s be honest – 2022 has been A LOT! And on the back of 2020 and 2021, and all the things that got thrown at us, for many this year has felt like a roller coaster that never ended.

Even in the weeks leading up to Christmas there has been no signs of slowing down, it has for many felt relentless.

So todays’ episode is a reminder on why pausing, stopping and resetting is important, on so many levels, to ourselves, our businesses and of course our teams.

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other business owners and leaders, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, HR Support for...

The key to success in business is letting go

Elsa sings in the earworm Disney hit, Frozen, “Let It Go” which is a nice sentiment but not a reality for many business owners who often carry too much on their plates and wear too many hats.

At some stage in a successfully growing small to medium business, the owner and founder is going to have to start letting some of their daily tasks and responsibilities go. This is usually to other people in the business as they start to hire and expand, or outsourcing when there’s a little more cash flowing through the business (sometimes before).

The reality is, in order for our businesses to grow and thrive, and for us to have time to live the life we want, we are going to have to learn how to start letting things go.

Letting go isn’t an easy task as a business owner, though – especially in fledgling or rapidly growing businesses.

Why are we so bad at letting go in our businesses?

When we talk...

Hello and welcome to Episode 145 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

Today on the podcast I am sharing a compliance update – which will be one of many over the coming months.

The ‘Secure Jobs Better Pay Bill’ which is the first of a raft of industrial relations changes anticipated, has passed through parliament and become law. The objectives of the changes are to drive up wages, reduce pay inequity, make work more secure for employees, and essentially get everyone involved in enterprise bargaining.

One of the changes that has come into effect immediately is the abolition of pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts and enterprise agreements. From 7th December 2022 these are banned, and employees gained a workplace right to share (or not share) their remuneration details with anyone they like, including their peers.

In today’s episode we discuss what these changes actually mean, and what action you need to take to ensure you’re compliant.

An...

Hello and welcome to Episode 144 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

Today is a bit of a follow up episode on our discussion last week, when we looked at how many direct reports any one position can handle. 

Knowing that you have too many people reporting to you is one thing, knowing how to let go, for some people, is quite another.

In today’s episode we’re unpacking why letting go of things is important for our business growth, our teams development and our sanity, we’re looking at why so many of us are so bad at it, and I’m sharing some success strategies to help you start to let go of things on your plate.

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also navigating growing organisational teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, HR Support for Australian Businesses, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

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There’s a fine balance between the number of people that report into any one position and how effectively a business or organisation continues to run. It’s quite often an aspect of organisational structure that is overlooked, neglected, or spirals quickly out of control as businesses scale and grow without a clearly identified structure or resourcing plan for growth.

But there is a magic number of direct reports that hits the sweet spot, ensuring that you have just the right number of staff reporting into a single position while still ensuring that position itself is effective depending on the nature of the role.

Structure is one of the fundamental aspects of ensuring that you don’t overwhelm, or even underwhelm, your management team and help set them, and their teams, up for success – in the long run, this feeds into your business success and is well worth investing in.

There are actually five key factors or variables that impact the success of direct report...

Hello and welcome to Episode 143 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

Today is we are talking about something that can have such a huge impact on your sanity and your teams success. That is – how many direct reports can any one position handle?

I know in small business creating an organisational structure or org chart can feel like ‘overkill’ but without this structure things get messy, and when things are messy – they are ultimately hard!

That’s why I today’s episode I recommended everyone go back and listen to Episode 22 – The Value of a Clean Slate, and work through the clean slate exercise for their business.

Here is a link to Episode 22:

https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/blog/clean-state

The reality is, the more people any one role needs to manage, the more positions reporting into any manager – the more time the management of those people takes and the less operational work they can do.

The most widely accepted...

As we dive head first into another December we have well and truly shifted into ‘festive’ season with the Christmas and New Year celebrations starting to kick into full gear.

Catch ups are booked in advance, parties organised, shutdowns scheduled, and Kris Kringle plans are definitely being made by someone (we hope?).

Yet, this time of year as a business owner can be fraught with stress! How to host a Christmas party without running the risk of a legal nightmare. How to get everything done and all the orders delivered before close down, and how on earth to keep people focused when all they are thinking about is holidays?

So how can you as a leader manage this period, especially when you yourself might not be feeling the excitement to celebrate and feeling less willing to tolerate the slide in focus and increase in frivolity during the coming weeks?

Here are my top 8 tips for staff management during the ‘silly season’:

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No less than once a week I’ll get a call, or question online, that goes a little like “I have a problem with a staff member, they are getting their job done but they aren’t being a great team member, I can’t quite put my finger on it but every time I raise an issue with them they have an excuse, there is always some reason things haven’t gone to plan”. Does this sound familiar to you? Have you had someone like this on your team before?

Sure enough, after a few questions my typical conclusion is – you have someone who is below the line. What line? Great question!

I first became aware of this framework probably about 15 years ago, I’d heard about it conceptually but when I really noticed this as a powerful framework for teams when I worked with a business who really embraced the concept so much that their team used the language in their day to day operations – this is when I really started to pay attention to this...

Hello and welcome to Episode 142 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

Today is part 2 of a 2 part discussion with Diversity and Inclusion Consultant Nicci Richman from Audir. Nicci kindly joined me live in November 2022 as part of NSW Small Business Month to participate in a Connection Conversation around connecting with our own and our teams neurodiversity to drive business success.

Last week, in Episode 141, we looked at defining neurodiversity and understanding what it means, as well as how to identify and leverage our own neurodiversity as leaders.

Today we’re talking about identifying and managing neurodiversity within our team.

A bit about our guest:

Nicci is a Diversity and Inclusion Consultant with a passion for supporting Neurodivergent individuals in the workplace.

Her career had its foundations in social research, working on employee engagement surveys for multi-national organisations. This insight into organisations led to her love of working with businesses to...

What is the Labor Party’s Industrial Relations Reform agenda?

The Australian Labor Government has recently announced updates to the Industrial Relations Reforms alongside reforms currently before Parliament.

With each new government businesses can expect a host of changes including to Industrial Relations which is a key campaign area for all parties and often closely aligned with the party’s core values. A new government is akin to a new CEO coming into a company who takes stock, reviews and refines according to their agenda and what’s important to the company in their perspective.

We are seeing the Labor Party, traditionally representing workers' rights, coming into power after a long period as the Opposition. As part of the 2022 Industrial Relations Reform, after the unprecedented global pandemic, we are seeing a key focus on job security, protecting employees’ rights, eliminating the gender pay gap and maintaining wage increases to better meet the rising...