The People Powered Business Podcast

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 buildin...

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. Toda...

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...

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...

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 wh...

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 sp...

Hello and welcome to Episode 182 of the People Powered Business Podcast. Today we’re talking ‘team meetings’. We all know we need to have them right? Yet so often they feel like a waste of time, or like many members of People Powered HR recently said, they are sick of hearing their own voice in team meetings and wished their teams would participate and engage. So how can we hold meetings that matt...

I get asked regularly about communicating challenges that seem to centre around different generations on our team. They aren't listening because they are a Gen Z, they don't understand because they are a 'boomer'. The truth is, as a leader in our business it's our role to understand our teams communication preferences, and tailor our message and style accordingly. In this power play I share some o...

Hello and welcome to Episode 181 of the People Powered Business Podcast. Today we’re talking about a Code of Conduct and why they are so valuable to have in your business. A code of conduct is a formal document that outlines the guiding principles, standards, and behavioural expectations for individuals within a business. It serves as a set of rules and guidelines that govern the conduct and inter...

Ok, I’m going to be honest here, I didn’t love being the boss in my own business for a long time. I had held leadership positions in other businesses and loved it, but when it came to my business, especially as my team grew, I really started to not love it. Some days I would want to (and probably did), just shut my office door!!! What I know now is that I’d hit a growing pains point, I was jugglin...

Hello and welcome to Episode 180 of the People Powered Business Podcast. In today’s episode I am sharing a previous conversation Juliet Robinson and I had on the Grow Your Influence Podcast. Recently I have had a lot of business owners ask about leading different generations at work, and how to understand and motivate each generation. This discussion is one Juliet and I had some time ago, probably...

Are you guilty of micromanagement sometimes? Or too often  As entrepreneurs and business owners it’s easy to fall into, why? Are you a control freak, do you lack trust in your people, are you a perfectionist, maybe you don't know how to delegate effectively.         So why is it bad for your people? o  Stifles creativity o  Teaches them n...

Hello and welcome to Episode 179 of the People Powered Business Podcast. Today I have an update on my intern experiment. Back in Episode 173 I shared that I have decided to experiment with having interns in my business, and promised to share my journey with you here on the podcast. Here’s the thing though, things haven’t exactly gone to plan, as I discuss today, these people are a little more ninj...

When you got into business I bet you didn’t put too much thought to the fact you’d need to hire and lead people one day soon. Most business owners I know certainly didn’t get into business for the love of learning about HR compliance, employment rules, payroll and all the technical stuff – but you figure it out right? Like everything else in business, you fumble your way through, do a course here...

Hello and welcome to Episode 178 of the People Powered Business Podcast. Today I have a quick compliance update for you on the recent changed to the Paid Parental Leave Scheme. This is the Government funded payment that employees can access when they are caring for a newborn or newly adopted child. From 1 July 2023 there have been a raft of changes to this scheme, including the merging of the old...

Does your team like you or respect you? What's your response when you hear that question? Aren't the two the same? Of course we want our team to like is. Human nature dictates that we want to be liked, so it makes sense that we want our team to like us -but do we put as much thought into ensuring they respect us? So what’s the difference between being like and respected? The difference lies in how...

Hello and welcome to Episode 177 of the People Powered Business Podcast. Recently I asked for some feedback on a question and I was really surprised by a common theme that kept popping up – that business owners feel trapped in a cycle of icromanaging their people, and aren’t sure how else to get their team to perform. We have chatted about The Curse of Micromanagement previously in Episode 162, wh...

Hello and welcome to Episode 176 of the People Powered Business Podcast. Today I’m bring you part 2 of my conversation with my 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 sev...

If I had a dollar for every time a business owner said they wanted to hire someone ‘just like them’ I’d be rich! It always reminds me of the line from the Gin Blossoms song, Hey Jealousy which says “if you don’t expect too much from me, you might not be let down". Expecting our team to be just like us is expecting too much. And when our expectations are inflated, we feel frustrated and resentful,...

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.&nbsp...

Welcome to this weeks Power Play Mini Episode of the People Powered Business Podcast. Today I'm sharing why nothing else you do matters - when an employee is unhappy in their job. Until you take steps to fix the cause of their issues, and really listen to what's important to them, nothing else you do matters - and in fact it can sometimes make the situation worse because the employee feels like yo...

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 mak...

As business owners and leaders we all stress out when someone leaves our business – we think we've failed, we ask what could we have done differently and how can we keep them? The reality is sometimes turnover is a good thing, a healthy thing and actually good for business. Perhaps the person has outgrown the role – and staying would hold them back and they’d become stale and resentful. Maybe it’s...

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...