The Latest from Kristy-Lee

One of the key frustrations and pain points I hear about from business owners, leaders and managers is around an employee not performing. Either very directly simply failing to get their job done, or more covertly just not quite meeting the mark, or frustratingly just walking the line of getting things done – just – it’s constant frustration.

Quite often we feel frustrated because our Industrial Relations landscape is quite firmly focused on employees, and protecting their rights, leaving businesses with a whole lot of tricky red tape to deal with in managing underperformance, especially when termination may be on the cards. However, what might be really causing our frustration is the fact that we don’t really understand why on earth they can’t just do their job.

If you’ve ever found yourself wanting to bang your head against a wall wondering why they aren’t just doing what you need them to – you’ll know exactly...

• where we are headed
• what we want to convey to the world
• what our next step is

Ever heard the saying ‘you can’t pour from an empty cup’? If you have, how much attention have you paid to it? If you’re like me, and many other business owners and entrepreneurs I know, you’re pretty good at putting your head in the sand on this one, think it doesn’t apply to you, and, most likely, think it’s extraordinarily selfish to even consider the fact that perhaps looking after yourself needs to be a priority.

Here’s the thing, like many of you, I spent my career, and my life, looking after everyone else first. Squeezing in time to replenish my mind, look after my health or do anything for my mental wellness was at best just that – squeezing it in around everything else. And by the most part that was a pretty successful approach. I had a thriving, fast growing and successful business, everyone was well looked after and life was good. I was juggling all of the things, working all the hours and truly thought I was smashing...

• Remember the power of a pause;
• Communicate clearly, openly, transparently and regularly;
• Act swiftly and promptly in a considered and measured way;
• Keep your team connected;
• Be future focused.

There is this common misconception in leadership books, amongst leadership gurus and in the advice we hear – and that is that when you’re a leader, you aren’t allowed to have a bad day. You can’t be off your game, you can’t be feeling blah and you certainly can’t let anyone in on that.

I call BS on that.

We’re human, whether we run a business, or lead a team within a business, you have days when you’d to be honest, rather just not have to deal with people. Of course most of us don’t have that luxury – we have to show up for our team and get some work done. However, that doesn’t mean that you need to put on an act, pretend that you’re fine when you’re not or not acknowledge that you’re just not having the best day – for whatever reason.

In fact, doing this sets the wrong example for our team. If someone on your team is feeling a little off, or is otherwise distracted, for...

At the time of writing this here in Australia we are in the midst of the ongoing impact of COVID-19. It feels like a dance, the in and out of lockdown dance. Unlike the initial periods of impact this virus had on us, where we were ‘all in it together’ we are now quite often a country divided. Victoria has been in and out of lockdown more times than they care to count, Sydney are in the midst of a long drawn out period of restrictions and in fact right now more than half the population are currently under some form of restrictions.

With all of the uncertainty that the last 18 months has delivered, one thing that has proven certain is this: all businesses require great leaders to survive and flourish, and through a period of crisis in any organisation, economy or environment, it’s our business leaders who have the ability to really pull us through.

If you’re in a leadership role, whether it’s your business or someone else’s, that fact may feel like...

• Website: http://getleadingculture.com/
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• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahtwilliams/

At the time of writing this I myself am caught up in the Sydney 2021 ‘lockdown’ – despite the fact I live outside of Sydney, and like many it’s reminded me of how much the world of work has changed in the last 18 months.

I’ve spoken a lot about hybrid teams in recent months, because the big discussion has been around returning staff to physical offices and workplaces, whilst balancing their newfound sense of expectation around working from home becoming a new norm. In my view, the businesses who can balance their need to ‘see’ their staff in an office, with the teams work from home desires, will do best when it comes to retaining the best and brightest for their business. In fact, I heard just a couple of weeks ago about a big international corporate mandating no less than 3 days per week in office, which was causing much tension amongst their team who had all come to a common consensus that 2 days in office was sufficient and...