The Latest from Kristy-Lee

What does your team need to help your business succeed?

I bet if I ask you what your 2023 vision is for your business, you’ll likely have a good idea. Maybe you’ve reflected, formally or informally, reviewed and planned and strategised what your business is going to look like in 2023.

One vision I notice many small to medium businesses miss clarifying is their vision for their team. If I ask you what your 2023 team vision is – do you have an answer?

There are a few key ingredients to identifying your 2023 team vision. You need to know the what. You need to know the why. You need to then share it with your team. And then you need to plan your team’s capacity – what do they need, maybe even who do they need, to deliver your business vision?

Is it more tools? Or is it more people? Is it clearer roles and responsibilities? Is it a new position? Is it professional development? Is it transitioning team members across roles that are a better fit?

Whatever it is, it’s your...

Hello and welcome to Episode 149 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

Today is part 2 of a 2 part discussion with Anne Maree Wilshire from Vibrant Voices. Anne Maree kindly joined me live in November 2022 as part of NSW Small Business Month to participate in a Connection Conversation around using our voice to connect with our people to drive business success.

In todays conversation we’re focusing on the scenarios where we would want to use our voice to really have impact and influence on our team, and how we can go about doing that.

A bit about our guest:

Anne Maree helps leaders and speakers whose voice is an integral part of their branding to become more impactful.  To transform their voice style and message and speak with confidence and authority so they are a voice people want to hear.

She does this through her Vibrant Voices Framework in individual and group coaching programmes and her Vibrant Voices Studio membership community.

Her clients transform their ...

What do you need to know as a business owner about pay secrecy clauses in your employment contract?

If you’re a small business owner or you work for an organisation that includes sole traders, partnerships and trust structure in Australia you are likely covered by the Fair Work Act.
 

The Fair Work Act covers a range of rights in the workplace including a host of industrial relations legislation and compliance updates that organisations and business need to keep up with. For a more in-depth dive on this act, passed in 2009 by the Rudd Government, read more at the Fair Work Ombudsman.

With the recent changes in government there have been a raft of industrial relations reforms underway in Australia across the end of 2022 into 2023.

The update we’re focusing on today is the banning of Pay Secrecy Clauses in employment contracts and agreements which came into effect on 7 December 2022.

From this date onwards, if you introduce a Pay Secrecy Clause in any of your employment contracts or...

Hello and welcome to Episode 148 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

Today is part 1 of a 2 part discussion with Anne Maree Wilshire from Vibrant Voices. Anne Maree kindly joined me live in November 2022 as part of NSW Small Business Month to participate in a Connection Conversation around using our voice to connect with our people to drive business success.

In todays conversation we’re focusing on the science of the voice how people hear tone before words and why how we say things matters most.

In next weeks episode we will be talking about the different scenarios we want to use our voice to have influence and impact on our teams.

 A bit about our guest:

Anne Maree helps leaders and speakers whose voice is an integral part of their branding to become more impactful.  To transform their voice style and message and speak with confidence and authority so they are a voice people want to hear.

She does this through her Vibrant Voices Framework in individual and group coa...

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 Australian Businesses, so I can learn more about what’s working for you...

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 about letting go, we’re talking about ...

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 Invitation:

If you’d like to c...

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.

 Join Here.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustrali...

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 structures and we’ll di...

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 ‘magic’ number is 7 - + or minus 2.

Effectively the...