Hello and welcome to Episode 198 of the People Powered Business Podcast! Today it felt like a good time to talk about rest! We’re at the time of year where many people are trying to catchup on a little rest after a busy and even overwhelming few years for many business owners. In today’s episode we unpack The 7 types of rest identified by Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith, a Physician, work-life integration researcher and author based in Alabama who was seeing first had in her own experience and via...

Hello and welcome to Episode 197 of the People Powered Business Podcast! Quick question - did you get into business for the love of HR compliance or to spend your December carefully watching the Government every move to see if they were about to throw some curve balls, or even bomb shells on businesses? No? Guess what – neither did I! The reality is we are in an environment of change right now – which isn’t always a bad thing, but really Industrial Relations legislation changes in...

Hello and welcome to Episode 196 of the People Powered Business Podcast! Today I am sharing with you what should be on your December 2024 Team To Do List. As we’ve spoken about on some recent episodes of the podcast, December is a key time to focus on engagement with your team, and despite feeling like we’d love to crawl under the desk, this is not the time to do that. But it’s about more than just engagement at this time of year, there are number of other things we should be doing before the...

Hello and welcome to Episode 195 of the People Powered Business Podcast! Today we are chatting about the critical pre Christmas period, and some of the biggest mistakes business owners make at this time of year when it comes to your team. We know, this is a tough time of year, we’re all exhausted, we’re stressed, we’re both overwhelmed and excited, and paying attention to our teams engagement level is often not top of our priority list. But that’s a mistake and in today’s episode I share...

Hello and welcome to Episode 194 of the People Powered Business Podcast! Today I am joined by the fabulous Juliet Robinson from Big Goals to discuss tackling fear as a leader in our business. This is a topic we certainly don’t talk enough about. Whether you are fearful of stepping into your first leadership role, or having a moment of feeling fear of tackling a tricky conversation, dealing with conflict or some other challenging situation, this discussion is for you. Juliet and Kristy-Lee...

As we hurtle towards the end of 2023, how is your year-end going?It’s feeling tough for a lot of people, and engagement, motivation and interest is generally low right now. This is part of the reason this is such an important time to be looking at your 2024 people plan, how is your plan looking? If you haven’t yet started, I’m here to help, and today I am sharing 3 key elements every greatpeople plan should include. This is not an exhaustive or complete list, but these 3 elements are...

Hello and welcome to Episode 193 of the People Powered Business Podcast! Today were unpacking a new study released by Gartner HR research which has some disturbing stats regarding engagement. At their Reimagined HR conference in the US in October they released the report which found  that only 31% of employees reported that they were engaged, enthusiastic and energized by their work!!  Keyia Burton, senior principal, advisory in the Gartner HR Practice said that “despite organizations making...

As you’re planning for 2024, one thing to ensure you include in your planning is some space for individual career planning with your team. This doesn’t necessarily have to be done pre-Christmas, but at least once every year you should be having really great discussions with your people about their future with you. This doesn’t have to be the performance review discussion, in fact, it may not be best for it (and I do love a quarterly review cycle anyway), but creating space for these...

Hello and welcome to Episode 192 of the People Powered Business Podcast! First up - as mentioned in this episode, if you want to join me for the 2024 Team Planning Workshop just click here to register now In today’s episode I share with you that I am sensing a season of change with our teams. Some change we won’t love, but will be unavoidable. Some change will be change we choose to make, or need to make for the next stage of our business journey. And that’s what we focus on in today’s...

This is a question that I get asked this question all…..the….time! You’ve done your planning, you know what’s ahead, but how much should you share with your people? Some business owners share everything and then get disappointed when the team don’t seem to care as much as expected, they start to question things or worse still it prompts them to ask for a pay rise. Other business owners protect their own personal plans, energy, effort, investment and Intellectual Property and share nothing...

Hello and welcome to Episode 191 of the People Powered Business Podcast! In today’s episode we are discussing the 5 biggest staffing challenges (or you may want to view them as opportunities) that every small to medium sized business needs to be ready, and have a plan for in 2024. The reality is the staffing landscape is changing, both in Australia and abroad, and we are very much returning to a global workplace again. If we are not ready for these changes and challenges, we will be left...

Are you a planner? Or do you hate planning? I admit, I was never a lover of planning. There was certainly no business plan, the thought of writing one bored me to tears. I was more keen on action taking than planning. I know other business owners who love a plan! In fact they love planning, but they get so caught up in planning that they never take action, and it holds them back. So I guess whether you love or hate planning – you need to find the middle ground. You absolutely need to do it,...

Hello and welcome to Episode 190 of the People Powered Business Podcast! In today’s episode I’m sharing a little behind the scenes of how I plan for a successful year ahead with my team. I like to plan for a calendar year ahead, and for me timing is key – and November is the time I plan. Today I share the importance of timing and what may work for your business, the value of stepping away from the day to day work environment to plan more effectively, and when and what of your plan you should...

So often when I am thinking about what to chat to you about in our Power Play episodes I’m inspired by patterns or themes I am seeing in the work I do. Sometimes there are things that keep showing up and almost slapping me in the face – this power play topic is no different. Lately, there seems to be a lot of drama around in the teams I am working with which could have been avoided by simply having a conversation. Seriously that simple. Then last night, after a crazy couple of weeks, not...

Hello and welcome to Episode 189 of the People Powered Business Podcast! In today’s episode of the podcast we are talking about employee wellbeing, specifically wellbeing programs, Employee Assistance Programs and whether they are relevant for small to medium sized businesses. Whilst wellbeing as a concept is about the entirety of someone’s life, and as such can’t be entirely our responsibility as an employer, we certainly have some responsibility for our employees wellbeing whilst at work,...

Hello and welcome to Episode 188 of the People Powered Business Podcast! In today’s episode of the podcast we are chatting about becoming the boss, and the journey I have noticed every business owner goes through in building their business and their team to become a business that is truly people powered. You see this is a journey I notice our People Powered HR members take, it’s one I have taken and it’s one every small business owner makes. It’s not always a straight line, sometimes we...

This month inside PPHR we’re looking at EAP’s and Employee wellbeing initiatives and it got me thinking – is our employees wellbeing really our responsibility as business owners? I mean of course we want to create a great place for people to work, but can we really hold the load for being responsible for their wellbeing? I’m not sure, I think we need to create a place that supports wellbeing, but I think that’s very different to being responsible for it…. In saying that, I don’t think we can...

Hello and welcome to Episode 187 of the People Powered Business Podcast. In today’s episode of the podcast we are retuning to a more technical discussion about one of the more recent legislative updates – the introduction of positive duty laws to prevent sexual harassment and sex based discrimination in the workplace. These laws were passed in late 2022, but given the gravity of the changes being implemented, employers had a grace period to get their house in order. From December 2023 though,...

Hello and welcome to Episode 186 of the People Powered Business Podcast. In today's episode of the podcast we are taking a deeper dive into a topic we covered in a recent Power Play Mini Episode - do your people like or respect you? So often as business owners and leaders we are playing a popularity game, because we want our people to like us. But when we are doing that at the detriment to building respect from our team, it can be bad for them, the business and us. What's your experience...

Hello and welcome to Episode 185 of the People Powered Business Podcast. Today I am chatting about coaches and mentors for small business owners and why we should all have some! Coaches and mentors are incredibly powerful in supporting us as small business owners, yet I know many of us are reluctant to invest in ourselves by getting a coach or mentor for something we might be struggling with. Today we talk about the reasons for that, and why investing in ourselves is the best investment for...

In this weeks Power Play mini episode we're chatting about the fact that your team are always watching what you do as a leader, and that includes what we don't do. Last weeks I hosted a workshop on mastering difficult conversations, and one of the downsides of avoiding difficult conversations is that your team see that, and it erodes their respect in you as a leader.

Hello and welcome to Episode 184 of the People Powered Business Podcast. Today I am sharing with you, warts and all, the details of a conversations I had with a staff member, more than 13 years ago, that to this day still makes me cringe. It was one of the most difficult conversations I have ever had to have with a team member, and I learnt a lot from it. Today I share with you the mistakes I made, and the lessons I learned so that you never have to go through this sort of experience with one...

Are you a difficult conversations avoider? No one loves having them, but some of us actively avoid them, and I want to encourage you to stop doing that – it’s bad for your team, your business and you. Whilst these conversations can be tough, they are an essential part of our leadership toolkit – in fact, the ability to have these conversations effectively is the #1 skill every business owner needs to develop in order to lead their team effectively. So I have 3 questions to ask yourself today...

Hello and welcome to Episode 183 of the People Powered Business Podcast. Today we’re talking about difficult conversations, and the 10 types every business owner will need to have with one of their team, at some stage. Despite our misconception, difficult conversations aren’t just about performance dramas. They can be about anything from salary negotiations to delegating a task, so what happens when we don’t give the other types of conversations the same time and attention? In today’s episode...

Silence can be bliss can’t it? But when in a meeting with a staff member, especially one that involves a difficult conversation, silence can feel like torture. It’s uncomfortable for us as the leader, and we worry (probably more than we should), that’s it’s also uncomfortable for the team member. The truth is, silence is essential to facilitating an effective discussion, and when we don’t allow space for it, we are almost certainly sabotaging the success of the conversation. When we become...