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As the boss of my own business, I know firsthand what itâs like to burn the candle at both ends â and still feel guilty that youâre not getting enough done.
The other night I was exhausted.
Iâve been working long days. Not many breaks. Balancing the fine art of family alongside the demands of my business. I kept finding myself at my desk thinking, âIf I just get this one thing doneâ, or âIâll just do this one more thing before I take a break.â
And I caught myself.
This way of thinking signals the slippery slope of boss guilt.
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The type of boss guilt Iâm talking about is that feeling that youâre lacking, that youâre not doing enough, or being enough.
This kind of boss guilt can show up in the following ways:
How frustrating is it when you have someone on your team who you know has so much potential, is actually really great at their job and everyone really likes them - but itâs like they are just going through the motions? They get the job done, but only just, they certainly donât show initiative and you just want to shake them because you know they are capable of so much more, of doing a much better job.
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You know they are smart, capable, skilled and youâre frustrated that youâre not seeing their best.
Here's what youâre dealing with when it comes to these people â itâs not that they are lazy â they simply lack motivation.
Why is that your problem you ask? Well, you know how hard it is to find great staff right? So, you donât want to exit them and have to go through the recruitment process again. Add to that the fact that by proactively working to improve motivation you are actually improving employee engagement â and that can result in a bottom like increase in profits of more than ...
As business owners and leaders, we often find ourselves spending our entire day dealing with people, managing their needs, and navigating the complexities of teamwork.
But what happens when we slip into the mindset of a non-boss boss?
When we started our journey into entrepreneurship or embarked on our careers, we may not have anticipated that managing people would consume so much of our time.
Yet, as business owners and leaders, we often find ourselves overwhelmed by the responsibility of dealing with our team members.
The desire to avoid conflict, lack of clear direction, and the tendency to please everyone can push us towards becoming a non-boss boss â and there are clear reasons why this is ineffective for you, your team and your business or organisation.
The non-boss boss is characterised by a hands-off approach to leadership. They avoid conflict, lack clear direction, say yes to everyone, and struggle to lead by ex...
Itâs all too common in the world of HR to hear stories of micromanagement and the detrimental effects micromanagers have on their teams, and ultimately their business or organisational output and reputation.
Micromanagement is a style characterised by excessive control and interference in the work of others, usually those reporting to you.
It can look like dictating every aspect of a project without allowing their team to get involved or insisting on being ccâd into every email about a project. It can also look like refusing to delegate tasks, undermining a team members ability, and ignoring their input.
Micromanaging can also look like failing to provide clear instruction or guidance and then criticising the team member for not meeting expectations. Micromanagement is an insidious element that the micro manager themselves sometimes donât even realise theyâre doing.Â
Whether you're a business owner, leader, or aspiring manager, understanding the pitfall...
You might think itâs a bit early to be talking about Christmas close-downs â but youâd be surprised how planning ahead will save you that feeling of dashing to the finish line.
If you're a business owner or leader who typically closes your business over the festive season, this blog post will cover the essentials you need to know.
As expert HR consultants for small to medium businesses across Australia, weâre identifying the changes that have been made and what you need to do differently this year.
Christmas close downs have become increasingly common over the years and, in Australia, are now considered the norm across many industries and awards.
The Christmas close-down period is also the time that many business owners will do all their planning. In fact, at People Powered Business weâr...
In the rapidly evolving landscape of business, finding innovative ways to optimise productivity and efficiency is crucial.Â
Enter artificial intelligence (AI), a technology that has gained significant attention recently, with the rise of software like ChatGPT, and offers immense potential across various domains.
While AI may seem unrelated to human resources (HR), it can be a powerful tool to enhance HR processes. In this blog post, we explore how AI can revolutionise your HR to-do list, focusing on three practical applications.    Â
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Writing effective job ads can be a time-consuming task that requires careful consideration of language, tone, and content.
With AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Bard, you can streamline this process and save yourself some valuable time.
By providing prompts and specific details about the role, AI can generate well-written job advertisements that capture the essence...
The term employee engagement sounds like one of those HR buzz words which fade in and out of popularity over time.
However, the concept behind it is not a new one, and the impact it can have on an organisations bottom line results in terms of profitably, efficiency and revenue generation should not be underestimated.
So, how do we define it? Employee Engagement ultimately is a level of an employee's commitment and connection to the organisation. Two keys words commitment and connection, both are critical to engagement. Commitment in not only showing up, but giving their absolute all, and connection not just to their job, but to a cause or calling bigger than them, their roles or perhaps even this organisation. Connection to the leaders, to their colleagues and to the important part their role plays in achieving something bigger.
To put it simply, engagement refers to the extent to which an employee is willing to go above and beyond, commit that extra bit and throw all of their energ...
We all know the feeling, weâre losing sleep, weâre avoiding the person at work, weâre angry, frustrated and tearing our hair out. We have an employee who is not performing, not showing up how we want them to at work or behaving in a negative way, a way that isnât sitting right with you.
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We canât always quite put our finger on the exact issue, itâs just not quite right, but itâs wrong enough to be consuming our time and attention. Or maybe it is more obvious, but we feel like weâre going over the top if we bring it up â we donât want them to feel like we are micromanaging them or pulling them up for something that feels petty and insignificant (yet the fact that itâs consuming our time and attention does in fact mean that at some level it is significant to us).
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So, we tolerate it, whether itâs behaviour, attendance, performance or something else, we tolerate it. We think maybe itâs not that much of a big deal, or maybe itâll be short term, or surely they will realise soon and fi...
As a business owner, leader or manager, the ability to successfully delegate tasks, responsibilities and authority is critical to your ability to grow and develop your business.
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However, itâs a skill that often we struggle with.
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Even those who can delegate, often donât do it as effectively as they could, and for those who own their own businesses this can be a really tough art to master, because it involves letting go, and releasing control.
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Put simply, delegation is the action of assigning responsibility for the completion of a task to another person.
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Typically, you as the delegator maintain the responsibility for the task being completed, although you may, depending on the circumstances, delegate the authority up to a certain level as well. So, you delegate the âdoingâ but still need to ensure the doing gets done.
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As your business grows, delegation becomes critical, you will ultimately become a bottle neck in your own business, and the reality is you canât do ever...
Do you ever get the feeling you are trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole when it comes to your team?
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Itâs not that people are doing a bad job, or underperforming, but simply that the skills they have no longer suit the business, or that the business has changed and needs new skills.
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All businesses face these challenges as they grow and evolve. The skills that were once critical to your service delivery perhaps are now obsolete, technology has absorbed tasks or customers have changed how they do business with you.
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When we need to grow what we tend to do, often out of uncertainty and desperation is just to âtack onâ a new role, where we think the gap is, without any strategic thought or forward planning.
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The problem with this approach is you end up creating a team structure thatâs clunky, anything but streamlined and usually isnât the most efficient and productive structure for your business.
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This is why I really believe in the value of a clean slate, and ...
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