The Latest from Kristy-Lee

Hello and welcome to Episode 322 of The People Powered Business Podcast.

Are you using AI to help you manage your team… but secretly wondering if you’re getting it wrong? Maybe you’ve asked it how to handle a tricky staff issue, calculate pay, or even draft a warning, and just hoped the answer was right. The reality is, AI can feel like a lifesaver when you’re already flat out, but it can also lead you straight into a mess if you don’t know where the line is.

I keep seeing more and more business owners leaning on AI for HR support, and I get it. I use it too. But recently I found myself arguing with it over legislation it got completely wrong. It sounded confident. It looked credible. And if I didn’t know better, I might have believed it. That’s exactly why I wanted to talk about this. AI isn’t the problem, but knowing when not to trust it is critical, especially when you’re making decisions that affect your people and your business.

In this episode, I break down where AI is genuine...

Hello and welcome to Episode 321 of The People Powered Business Podcast.

Are you stuck doing everything in your business because it just feels quicker and easier than explaining it to someone else? Like you’re constantly putting out fires, jumping back into tasks, and wondering why your team isn’t stepping up? You’re not alone and this is exactly where so many business owners get stuck.

I keep seeing this pattern with growing businesses. You start out because you’re great at what you do, but as your team grows, your role has to shift. The problem is, no one teaches you how to make that shift. It’s uncomfortable, it’s unfamiliar, and it can feel easier to just stay in the doing. But staying there holds your business back and, more importantly, it holds your team back too.

In this episode, I unpack what it really takes to step out of the day-to-day and into leadership. I talk about why letting go feels so hard, how your expectations might be setting your team up to fail, and the subtl...

Hello and welcome to Episode 320 of The People Powered Business Podcast.

You've hired someone. Finally. After the job ads, the interviews, the back and forth, they said yes and they're starting Monday. The hard part is over, right?

Wrong. Almost half of every person you hire won't make it through their first twelve months. Not because they were the wrong person. Because nobody set them up to succeed.

I can't quite believe I've barely touched this topic in 320 episodes, because the first 90 days is the most important period of time in determining whether a hire works out, and most small business owners have no plan for it beyond "here's your login and good luck."

We treat onboarding like a box to tick when it's actually the foundation of the entire working relationship.

In this episode I'm pulling back the curtain on what actually happens in most small businesses during those first 90 days, why it quietly sets new hires up to fail, and what a proper 90-day plan looks like when you'...

Hello and welcome to Episode 319 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Got someone on your team who just is not cutting it, but every time you think about dealing with it, you put it off for another day? Maybe you are hoping they will sort themselves out, maybe you are gathering more “evidence”, or maybe you are trying not to rock the boat. Either way, the issue rarely fixes itself, and the longer it drags on, the messier it gets.

I keep seeing this with small business owners, and I get why. Managing underperformance is one of the hardest parts of leading a team, especially when your team is small, the person plays a big role, or there is a personal relationship involved. It is easy to avoid the conversation, overthink it, or soften things so much that nothing actually changes. But when we handle employee underperformance badly, we usually make it worse for everyone involved, including the rest of the team.

In this episode, I unpack why so many business owners struggle to manage a...

Hello and welcome to Episode 318 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Do you have someone on your team right now where something just feels... off? Maybe you knew when you hired them, maybe it crept up on you slowly — but either way, you're still holding on. And if that's you, this episode is going to hit close to home.

This is one of my most listened-to episodes and I'm bringing it back because I keep seeing this play out in businesses every single week. The hiring market has shifted since I first recorded this, but the problem hasn't changed one bit. Business owners are still holding onto the wrong people for too long — and it's the rest of the team that quietly pays the price.

In this episode I walk you through exactly what a wrong hire looks like in the early stages (because when you're in the weeds it can be surprisingly hard to see), the real reasons we keep people around even when we know we shouldn't, and the three ways holding onto the wrong person erodes your team's mor...

Hello and welcome to Episode 317 of The People Powered Business Podcast.

In this episode, we are tackling one of the most confusing and high-risk areas for business owners right now, the difference between employees and contractors.

I’m joined by Jeanette Jifkins from Onyx Legal, and together we unpack why this isn’t as simple as choosing what you want to call someone. We explore how recent Fair Work changes, alongside ATO requirements, have made this space more complex than ever, and why getting it wrong can have serious financial and legal consequences for your business.

We dive into the legal perspective on what truly separates an employee from a contractor, including the critical role of control, the “whole of relationship” test, and what courts actually look for when making a determination.

Throughout the conversation, we share practical examples, common mistakes business owners make, and how contractor relationships can easily drift into employment without you even realising....

Hello and welcome to Episode 316 of The People Powered Business Podcast.

In this episode, we are diving into how to write a script for any tricky team conversation, whether it’s performance-related, awkward, or just something that’s been sitting on your to-do list for far too long. I walk through why these conversations are often avoided and how that avoidance is actually costing your business more than you might realise, from disengaged employees through to missed performance opportunities. I also unpack why this isn’t a “them” problem, it’s an “us” problem, and how our hesitation as leaders is often the very thing holding our teams back.

I also take you through a practical, step-by-step framework to help you confidently prepare for and navigate these conversations. From getting crystal clear on the real issue, to preparing for objections, to structuring your conversation in a way that leads to clarity and action, this episode gives you a repeatable approach you can use anytime. If ...

Hello and welcome to Episode 315 of The People Powered Business Podcast.

In this episode I’m tackling a leadership trap I see all the time in small and growing businesses: confusing being a nice boss with being a good boss. With recent research showing that four in five Australian employees are disengaged at work, and a significant percentage actively looking for a new role, it’s worth asking an uncomfortable question.

How much of that comes down to leadership? The reality is that managers influence the majority of employee engagement outcomes, which means the way we show up as leaders has a direct impact on retention, performance and ultimately profitability.

I explore the difference between leading with kindness and prioritising being liked. When we focus too heavily on being nice, we often avoid the conversations that actually help our teams grow. We soften feedback, let issues slide and delay addressing underperformance because we don’t want to upset anyone. But strong leadershi...

Hello and welcome to Episode 314 of The People Powered Business Podcast.

In this episode I’m talking about something most business owners know they need to do but often avoid: difficult conversations. We’ve been exploring why these conversations feel so uncomfortable and how to approach them, but today I’m focusing on something different – the real cost of not having them.

Whether it’s the high performer who knows they’re indispensable, the team members who simply can’t work together, or the employee whose attitude has quietly shifted, avoiding the conversation might feel easier in the moment but it comes with a price.

I unpack the three hidden costs that show up when we delay these conversations: the time and mental bandwidth it takes up, the opportunity cost of what your team and business could achieve if the issue was resolved, and the very real material costs that can appear through mistakes, disengagement, lost customers or team turnover. When you start adding those up, many bu...

Hello and welcome to Episode 313 of The People Powered Business Podcast.

In this episode, I’m diving into the real reason you’re avoiding that conversation you know you need to have. You’ve thought about it, rehearsed it and told yourself you’ll deal with it next week. But avoidance isn’t laziness. It’s protection. I unpack why so many business owners put off difficult conversations around performance management, behaviour issues and team accountability, and why it’s not about being a bad boss or not knowing what to say. It runs deeper than that.

We explore the four big reasons these conversations get delayed, including fear of escalation, worrying about back chat or Fair Work claims, not wanting to be the bad guy in a close-knit team, not trusting the structure of the conversation and letting issues go on for too long. I talk about how avoidance quietly shapes workplace culture, how behaviour becomes pattern and pattern becomes precedent, and why what you tolerate never stays neutra...