The People Powered Business Podcast

Hosted by Kristy-Lee Billett

Business Entrepreneurship

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200

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Nov 2026

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About the show

Managing people shouldn't be the hardest part of running your business. But for most small business owners, it is. Each week, Australian small business HR expert Kristy-Lee Billett tackles the real challenges business owners face with their teams. From hiring the right people the first time, to handling difficult conversations, staying compliant, and mastering the mental game of being the boss. With 300+ episodes, this is one of Australia's longest-running small business HR podcasts. Practical, real worlds advice for business owners with teams of 3 to 40 people. If you're dealing with a people problem right now, or want to avoid the next one, this is the podcast for you.

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November 10, 202616 min

How Do I Stop My Team Checking Out Before Christmas?

Hello and welcome to Episode 349 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Have some of your team already started winding down for the year? They’re still turning up and getting the basics done, but the effort has dropped off, and “it’s nearly Christmas” has become the reason for everything that isn’t getting done. A business colleague once told me nothing happens after Melbourne Cup Day, and I get why it can feel that way. There’s a real change in pace and energy in Q4, and some of that is completely normal. But there are still six or seven weeks between now and your Christmas close-down. If you let them drift, you pay for it twice: in lost productivity now, and in the mess you come back to in January. This isn’t about a big hustle to the finish line. It’s about making sure your team finishes the year properly. In this episode, I explain why teams start checking out well before the break. Most of the time it isn’t tiredness or a motivation problem. It’s a lack of clarity, and that often starts with us as business owners switching off too. I walk through the two pieces of clarity your team needs from you right now. The first is your close-down arrangements, confirmed in writing and in line with your award. The second is a short, realistic list of goals with a clear deadline, so the last weeks feel like a finish line instead of a slow fade. I also challenge the “we’ll deal with it in February” rule so many business owners have for performance issues. Waiting doesn’t fix anything. It costs you months of productivity, and your best people spend their Christmas break deciding whether they want to keep working for you. That’s a big reason January is resignation season every year. I’d also argue that leaving someone to find out in the new year that something was wrong is the unkind option, not the kind one. Finally, I talk about your own energy as the leader, why your team takes their cue from you, and the simple things that keep people engaged as the year winds down. In this episode we cover: • The early signs someone on your team is checking out before Christmas, and why it’s usually a clarity problem, not a motivation one • How to set a clear finish line for the weeks before your close-down, without handing your team an unrealistic wish list • Why putting off difficult conversations until February puts your best performers at risk • What to document when you do have a performance conversation at this time of year • How your own energy and recognition of effort set the tone for how your team finishes the year, and how they start the next one Links & Resources: 💬 DM Kristy-Lee on Instagram @kristy.lee.billett Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyleebillett/ Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au Book a 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/kristyleebillett/chat An Invitation: If you’d like to connect with other business owners who are juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, The People Powered Community. Join Here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia

November 3, 202630 min

Sparking Wonder at Work with Brooke Hill

Hello and welcome to Episode 348 of The People Powered Business Podcast. When was the last time someone in your team brought you an idea you hadn’t already thought of yourself? If the honest answer is “not lately”, and most of the problem-solving still ends up on your desk, this conversation is for you. I’ve always believed curiosity is one of the most underrated skills a business owner can have. When a team member does something we don’t expect, or a project goes sideways, we’re quick to assume we know why. Most of the time we don’t. I talk about this with the business owners I work with all the time, and I’ve noticed that the bigger and busier the business gets, the less curious we become. So when I came across Brooke Hill and her work on wonder in the workplace, I knew I wanted her on the show. Brooke runs WonderThink, a fully remote content agency, and she’s the author of Spark Wonder at Work. She has built a highly productive team on a deliberate culture of wonder, which she describes as a mix of awe, curiosity and optimism about what’s possible. Before you write this off as something only a creative agency can pull off, stick with us. Brooke shares the research linking regular experiences of awe to lower stress and more openness to new ideas. She also walks through what her team actually does: a Wonder Fund that sits alongside their wellness budget, a Monday check-in where everyone shares a moment of wonder from their week (with no pressure to make one up), and planning days that open with a shared experience before anyone looks at an agenda. The part I’d love every business owner to take away is how Brooke runs her planning sessions. She keeps the “hat if” thinking completely separate from the weighing up of ideas, with firm rules for each, so good ideas don’t get shut down before anyone has a chance to voice them. We also talk about simple, low-cost ways to break your team out of autopilot, why the right team day for a group of tradies might look nothing like the right one for a team of writers, and where AI fits in. Brooke has a clear view on what to do with the time AI saves you, so your team’s thinking stays sharp rather than going soft. In this episode we cover: What wonder actually is, and why it belongs in high-performing teams, not just creative ones Low-cost ways to build awe and curiosity into your team’s week, from a Wonder Fund to a Monday check-in How to run a planning day that starts with connection and keeps idea generation separate from judgement Small changes to the room, the routine and the environment that help a team think differently How to use AI to save time without losing your team’s critical thinking Links & Resources: 💬 DM Kristy-Lee on Instagram @kristy.lee.billett Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyleebillett/ Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au Book a 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/kristyleebillett/chat Connect with Brooke on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-hill-wonder/ Get the book here: https://brookehill.com.au/spark-wonder-at-work-book

October 27, 202612 min

Why Don’t My Staff Care as Much as I Do?

Hello and welcome to Episode 347 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Why don’t my staff care as much as I do? If you’ve asked yourself that at 9pm, still chewing over a client problem while your team logged off hours ago, this episode is for you. The gap you’re feeling is real. The fix just might not be the one you’re expecting. It’s one of the most common frustrations I hear from business owners, and I understand it completely, because I’m that owner too. I recently came upstairs from my office so late that my husband thought I’d gone out. Running a business can be all-consuming, and in some seasons it needs to be. The trouble starts when we build a team and expect them to bring that same level of care. When they don’t, the frustration builds, and it can damage the working relationship on both sides. So I explain why your staff aren’t supposed to care as much as you do, and why expecting it sets everyone up to fail. You carry the risk of the business, and you also get the upside. Your employees exchange their time for a wage. That’s the deal, and a small profit share or bonus doesn’t change it. A 2% share is never going to feel like 100% ownership. I also talk about how you might be measuring care against your own habits, like late nights, weekend thinking and emails after dinner, and why that’s an unfair comparison. Care from a good employee looks different. There’s a legal side to this too. An employee who’s happy to go above and beyond is still covered by the Fair Work Act, their award, overtime rules and the right to disconnect. Then we get to the most useful part: what you can realistically expect. Your staff can and should own their role. That means knowing what good looks like, following through, taking pride in their work and hitting their goals. But they can’t do that without clarity from you. Plenty of owners hold back on spelling out expectations because it feels bossy. Your team actually want to know. If they don’t know what success looks like, you don’t have a caring problem. You have a performance problem caused by a lack of clarity, and that one is yours to fix. If you’ve been feeling let down by your team, this reframe will take pressure off you and them. In this episode we cover: Why owner-level care is an owner-level responsibility, and why expecting it from staff is an unfair standard How bonuses and profit share fit in, and why they don’t close the gap What care actually looks like from a good employee The Fair Work traps when a keen employee does extra: overtime, award obligations and the right to disconnect How to give your team the clarity they need to own their role, including defining what good looks like Links & Resources: 💬 DM Kristy-Lee on Instagram @kristy.lee.billett Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyleebillett/ Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au Book a 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/kristyleebillett/chat

October 20, 202633 min

Waiting to Feel Ready? Why Confidence Comes After You Act, with Yasmin London

Hello and welcome to Episode 346 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Is there a decision sitting on your desk right now that you keep putting off until you feel more sure about it? Maybe it's the underperformer you've been tolerating, the conversation you've rewritten in your head a dozen times, or the change you know the team needs but haven't started. If you're waiting to feel confident before you move, you're far from alone. I see this all the time with established business owners. You've built something successful through hard work and good judgment, yet the people decisions are the ones that stall. Most of the time it isn't a lack of knowledge holding you back. It's the belief that you need to feel confident first. That's why I wanted to bring Yasmin London onto the show. Yasmin spent 13 years in the NSW Police Force, much of it as a youth liaison officer, before co-founding the cyber safety education organisation YSAFE. She's now the founder and CEO of First Movers Co and the author of the new book First Movers. Yasmin's message is one a lot of bosses will be relieved to hear: confidence comes from taking courageous action, so you don't need to have it before you start. She walks us through her FIRST framework, a practical way to work through that hesitation before a big call. We also talk about the tension between control and connection when you're leading a team, including how to let someone go in a way that is respectful and human while still protecting the outcome the business needs (and staying mindful of unfair dismissal risk). Yasmin explains why she sees curiosity as one of the most important skills a leader can build, and why bringing AI into your business should start with your people rather than the tools. She finishes by sharing how to find the smallest possible first step, so you can get moving on that decision without needing to have it all figured out. In this episode we cover: • Why confidence comes after you act, and what that means for the people decisions you've been putting off • Yasmin's FIRST framework for working through hesitation before a big decision • How to balance control and connection as the boss, including when you need to let someone go • Why curiosity matters for leaders, especially when it comes to challenging your own assumptions and disagreeing respectfully • Keeping people at the centre as AI comes into your business, plus a small first step you can take this week You can connect with Yasmin at https://yasminlondon.com/ or get your copy of the book here: https://yasminlondon.com/first-movers-book 💬 DM Kristy-Lee on Instagram @kristy.lee.billett Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyleebillett/ Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au Book a 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/kristyleebillett/chat

October 13, 202645 min

From Bottleneck to Boss: The Playbook Nobody Handed You

Hello and welcome to Episode 345 of The People Powered Business Podcast. You've hired good people. You've handed things over. You've set up the systems. And somehow everything still lands back on your desk. If that sounds familiar, you're not doing delegation wrong, and doing more of it isn't going to fix the problem. This week's episode is a little different. It's the recording of a live webinar I ran called Delegation Won't Save You. Over the last few weeks on the podcast, we've been talking about why so many established business owners stay the bottleneck, even after they've tried everything they've been told to do. This is where it all comes together. In more than 25 years of working with business owners, I've seen the same pattern every time a team grows past a handful of people: the business gets bigger, but the way it's led, structured and staffed doesn't grow with it. That isn't a delegation problem. It's a design problem, and the good news is that design problems can be fixed. In this episode, I walk through the three foundations that either keep you stuck or set you free: you, your structure and your team. We start with you and your boss style, including the two patterns I see most often, the reluctant leader and the control freak (and yes, I'm the control freak), plus why trying to become a different person to be a "better boss" usually makes things worse. Then we look at structure, the most underrated reason owners stay stuck. I explain the Frankenstein effect, where teams get pieced together out of necessity, and why clear roles and a clear owner for every decision matter far more than most small business owners realise. Finally, we get to your team, and why the people who got you here aren't always the people who'll get you where you want to go. I also share the story of the holiday where I ended up throwing my phone into the water at Four Mile Beach, and what that moment taught me about getting all three foundations right. As you listen, think about which of the three is the first fire to put out in your business. Most people know straight away. In this episode we cover: Why delegation only does half the job, and what it can't solve on its own The signs your business has a design problem, from decisions waiting on you to holidays that cost more than they're worth How your boss style shapes what you hold on to and what you hand over The Frankenstein effect, and how to build a structure where decisions don't all land on you Why good people aren't always the right people, and why it's okay for your team to change as your business grows Links & Resources: 💬 DM Kristy-Lee on Instagram @kristy.lee.billett Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyleebillett/ Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au Book a 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/kristyleebillett/chat

October 3, 202616 min

Could You Disappear for a Month?

Hello and welcome to Episode 344 of The People Powered Business Podcast. If you walked away from your business tomorrow for a whole month, with no phone, no email and no checking in, what would you come back to? For a lot of business owners with a solid team, the honest answer is "a mess", or "I'd never even try". You've hired good people, you've got roles and an org chart, and yet the business still leans on you for almost everything. Here's the thing: hiring a team doesn't automatically give you freedom from your business. Freedom is one of my own values, and it's what I want for every business owner I work with. But so often we build teams and structures that still depend on us completely. Most of us have had the week-long break where we work flat out beforehand to get ready, the team hangs on until we're back, and we return to a pile of questions, decisions and unfinished work. The business didn't run without us that week. It just waited. That's why a month is the real test. It's long enough that client problems, resignations and big proposals can't sit there until you get back. In this episode I walk you through a simple test you can run today, without booking anything. Picture your first week away and write down who would contact you, what about, and why you'd need to be involved. Then add everything that would sit in the "wait till you're back" pile. I guarantee the list will be longer than you expect, and that's okay. This isn't about judging yourself. Then I show you how to read that list. Look for patterns rather than individual tasks, and you'll usually find three: things only you can decide, because the structure doesn't let anyone else decide them things your team could do but don't, because they know you'll swoop in things you can't put anyone's name next to, because there's a genuine skills gap on your team Only some of that is a delegation issue. Handing over more tasks won't fix a structure problem, a leadership habit or a team gap, and that's where the real work starts. I'd love to hear what comes up for you when you run this. Is it the length of the list, a gap you hadn't noticed, or how many decisions still land on your desk? Email me and let me know, and tell me where you'll go for that first proper break. In this episode we cover: Why a week off doesn't tell you whether your business can run without you, and why a month does A simple test to map who would contact you, what about, and what would be waiting when you got back How to spot the three patterns behind being the bottleneck: structure, leadership habits and team skills gaps Why delegating more tasks won't fix most of what's on your list What to fix first, before you run the test again over a month and book the break Links & Resources: 💬 DM Kristy-Lee on Instagram @kristy.lee.billett Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyleebillett/ Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au Book a 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/kristyleebillett/chat What this episode covers Many small business owners with a team of 10 to 20 people still can't take a proper break without calls, emails and a backlog waiting for them. This episode gives business owners a practical test to find out how far they are from being able to step away for a month, and how to work out what's really keeping the business dependent on them. Key insight from this episode A business that gets through a week without its owner hasn't proven it can run without them. It has usually just waited. Most of what keeps an owner tied to the business isn't a delegation problem. It comes from unclear decision-making structure, leadership habits like stepping in when things go wrong, and genuine skills gaps on the team. What you'll take away A simple test to see which people and decisions would still come to you during a break How to separate the tasks you can fully delegate from the issues delegation won't fix How to find structural gaps where no one else has the authority to make a decision How to recognise the leadership habits that teach your team to wait for you How to spot skills gaps by checking which responsibilities you can't put anyone's name next to

September 29, 202634 min

The Power of Switching Our Thinking with Dr Ken Hudson

Hello and welcome to Episode 343 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Have you ever sat in a team meeting, watched everyone go round in circles on the same problem, and thought, why can't they just see it the way I do? You can jump from the numbers to the client to the team to the tech in the space of an hour without blinking. Your team often can't, and that's one more reason so much ends up back on your desk. I see this all the time with the business owners I work with. Most of you are wired to switch between different ways of thinking. It's second nature. But we can't expect our team to think like us, because they're not wired the same way. So that's why I've invited Dr Ken Hudson on to chat about his new book, Switch Thinking. Ken spent around 15 years in marketing with large companies, including as head of marketing at American Express in Australia, completed his doctorate in organisational creativity, and has spent the last 20 years helping business owners and leaders solve problems and think differently. Ken shares where the idea came from (watching a colleague move effortlessly between Mandarin and English at a conference in Singapore) and why he believes switching your thinking is a skill you can learn and teach, not a personality trait. We talk about why the word "switch" gets a much better reaction from a team than the word "change", and why a switch doesn't have to be permanent. Ken explains his box mode and ball mode approach. Box mode is structure, goals and decisions. Ball mode is play and experimenting with ideas. Neither one is better than the other, and the real value comes from moving between the two. We also get into AI, including how Ken has trained ChatGPT to respond in both modes so it adds to his thinking rather than replacing it. Here's the part that surprised me most: giving people less time often gets you better ideas. When there are only two minutes on the clock, there's no room for the voice asking "what if I'm wrong?" or "what if I look silly?", so people stop filtering and start creating. If you're the one in your business who always seems to find a way through, this conversation gives you simple language and tools to help your team do more of that thinking for themselves. In this episode we cover: • Why switching between ways of thinking is a skill your team can learn, and how one word can get it started • Why "switch" lands better than "change" with a team, and why two minutes is the sweet spot for thinking differently • Box mode and ball mode, and how Ken moved a team from 30 ideas to three they could test in 30 days • How to use AI to extend your own thinking instead of handing it over • A simple pause, switch and play approach for when a situation or conversation isn't going the way you expected You can connect with Ken via: https://drkenhudson.com Or grab your copy of the book: https://drkenhudson.com/books-videos/switch-thinking-the-book/ Links & Resources: 💬 DM Kristy-Lee on Instagram @kristy.lee.billett Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyleebillett/ Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au Book a 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/kristyleebillett/chat What this episode covers Business owners tend to move between different ways of thinking without noticing, but their teams often don't, which leaves problems and decisions sitting with the owner. Dr Ken Hudson, author of Switch Thinking, explains why switching your thinking is a learnable skill and shares practical tools leaders can use themselves and teach to their teams. Listeners will come away understanding the difference between box mode and ball mode, why two-minute thinking bursts work, and how to use AI to add to human thinking rather than replace it. Key insight from this episode The biggest barrier to fresh thinking is usually a person's own internal filter: the worry about being wrong, making a mistake or looking silly. Short two-minute bursts leave no time for that filter to kick in, which is why tight time limits often produce better ideas than hour-long brainstorming sessions. Switching back to structured "box mode" then turns those ideas into clear priorities and decisions. What you'll take away • Use the word "switch" with your team to invite a different perspective without the resistance the word "change" tends to bring • Run a two-minute thinking burst in a meeting to get past overthinking and generate new ideas quickly • Recognise whether a situation calls for box mode (structure and decisions) or ball mode (play and ideas), and move between them deliberately • Take a long list of ideas and narrow it to a few worth testing in the next 30 days • Prompt AI tools to respond in both modes while keeping control of the thinking and the final call

September 22, 202614 min

You've Tried Delegating. So Why Are You Still the Bottleneck?

Hello and welcome to Episode 342 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Someone on your team hands you a piece of work. It's about 80% right. You know it'll take you ten minutes to fix and thirty to explain, so you fix it yourself and move on. If that's happened to you more than once, you're not alone, and it's exactly why delegation hasn't fixed the bottleneck. I've taught delegation for years, and I've run a business for twenty years, so I've had to get good at it myself. I'm not here to tell you delegation doesn't matter. But if delegating better was the whole answer, you wouldn't still be the bottleneck. So this week I want to look at why smart, capable business owners keep ending up back in that spot, even after they've genuinely tried to hand things off. I get into why it actually is faster to do it yourself, at least the first few times, and why that instinct isn't wrong. I talk about what your team learns every time you swoop in and finish the last 20% for them, and why "leave it with me" quietly trains people to bring you every problem instead of a solution. The most useful shift I share is a single question that starts turning that around. And I explain why doing more delegating, on its own, doesn't fix the bottleneck at all. In this episode we cover: Why it's genuinely faster to do it yourself right now, and what that's costing you later What your team actually learns when you finish off unfinished work Why "leave it with me" builds the exact bottleneck you're trying to escape A simple reframe to start training your team to bring solutions, not problems Why SOPs and handover notes stop working and what's really going on underneath Links & Resources: 💬 DM Kristy-Lee on Instagram @kristy.lee.billett Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyleebillett/ Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au Book a 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/kristyleebillett/chat What this episode covers This episode breaks down why business owners who have already tried to delegate still end up as the bottleneck in their own business. It looks at the moment work comes back unfinished, the habits that quietly retrain a team to do less rather than more, and why adding more delegation tools doesn't fix the underlying problem. Key insight from this episode The bottleneck isn't created by a lack of delegation. It's created by what happens when delegated work comes back incomplete or a problem lands back on the business owner's desk. Fixing it quietly, without addressing why it came back, teaches the team that the current standard is good enough. What you'll take away Understand why doing tasks yourself feels faster and what it's actually costing your business over time Recognise the signal you send your team every time you finish off unfinished work Replace "leave it with me" with a question that shifts problem-solving back to your team Identify why SOPs and handover processes lose their effectiveness over time Start noticing the specific moments that are creating your bottleneck, not just the tasks you haven't delegated

September 15, 202618 min

Health Professionals Award Changes: How to Prepare Before 1 October

Hello and welcome to Episode 341 of The People Powered Business Podcast. If you employ health professionals under the Health Professionals and Support Services Award, whether that's physios, OTs, psychologists or anyone else on that award's long list, you are only weeks away from the biggest change this award has seen in over twenty years. If you have been putting off looking at it, hoping it might quietly sort itself out, this episode is your sign to stop. I'm recording this the same week the Fair Work Commission handed down its final confirmation of the new rates, so this has genuinely been years in the making and it is now locked in for the 1st of October 2026. This is part of the Commission's gender undervaluation review, which looked at a handful of modern awards covering historically female dominated professions and found this one had been undervalued for years compared with equivalent male dominated industries. The fix is a complete overhaul of how health professionals get classified, moving away from the old system, which leaned heavily on time served and some pretty vague guidance, to a structure built on actual qualifications under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) and years of experience in the profession itself. This is not a pay rate tweak. Every single health professional you employ, even if you already pay above award and even if you only have three staff members, needs to be mapped against this new structure before the deadline. I walk you through the five steps to do that properly in this episode: build your staff list, confirm everyone's qualification and AQF level, calculate their actual years of experience in the profession (not years with your business), map each person to their correct new classification, and have the conversation with your team before the change lands, not after. I'll also flag the one thing that catches almost everyone out. Plenty of people currently sitting at level two are about to become a level one under the new structure, through no fault or change of their own, and there are protections in place so nobody's pay can go backwards. If you would rather have this handled properly rather than figuring it out alone, there are three ways I can help. 1) I'm running a live implementation workshop on the 24th of September to walk you through all five steps hands on. Register here: www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/hpssworkshop 2) You can join our People Powered HR community for ongoing access to the reclassification tool and support, all of the details are here: www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/pphr 3) Or you can email me directly for one on one help if you want someone to just take it off your plate. Just email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au In this episode we cover: Why the Fair Work Commission has completely rewritten the health professionals classification structure, and why now The five steps to reclassify every health professional in your business before 1 October Why years of experience in the profession, not years with your business, now drives classification What happens to someone's pay if their new classification would otherwise mean a step down Where to get support, from a hands-on implementation workshop to one on one help Links & Resources: 💬 DM Kristy-Lee on Instagram @kristy.lee.billett Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyleebillett/ Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au Book a 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/kristyleebillett/chat What this episode covers This episode breaks down the new classification structure for health professionals under the Health Professionals and Support Services Award, effective 1 October 2026. It explains why the Fair Work Commission made the change, what it means for employers of physios, occupational therapists, psychologists and other allied health professionals, and the practical steps required to reclassify a team correctly before the deadline. Key insight from this episode Under the new classification structure, many employees currently sitting at level two will move to level one, not because their role, performance or pay has changed, but because the qualification and experience based system, built on the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), replaces years of service as the primary classification factor. Existing pay cannot be reduced as a result of reclassification, which makes clear communication with affected team members essential. What you'll take away How to confirm each health professional's AQF qualification level under the updated award Why years of experience in the profession, not years of service with the business, now determines classification The five step process for mapping a team to the new classification structure before 1 October 2026 What protections apply if a reclassification would otherwise reduce an employee's pay Where to access further support, including a hands on implementation workshop and ongoing membership resources

September 8, 202626 min

The Framework for Difficult Conversations, Built by an Employment Lawyer

Hello and welcome to Episode 340 of The People Powered Business Podcast. You know the conversation. It's been sitting on your list for weeks, maybe longer. You've rehearsed it in the shower, in the car, at 3am when you should be asleep, and every day you don't have it, you tell yourself tomorrow. If that's you right now, this episode was made for you. I keep coming back to this topic because it's the one thing I see stopping business owners more than anything else. Not a lack of skill, not a lack of care, just the simple fact that nobody ever taught us how to have a hard conversation with someone on our team. We learn how to run the business, sell the thing, manage the money, and then we're expected to just know how to tell someone their work isn't good enough, without any training at all. Today I'm talking with Jennifer Bicknell, an employment lawyer who's spent over a decade running her own firm and now spends most of her time teaching people how to have exactly this kind of conversation before it turns into something that needs a lawyer. She's identified the three real reasons people avoid these conversations, and she walks through a simple framework she calls the six Ws, something you can genuinely run through in about five minutes before you pick up the phone or walk into the room. My favourite part of this chat is her point about what you're actually teaching your team every time you let something slide. It changed how I think about the small stuff I let go. In this episode we cover: The three real reasons people avoid difficult conversations, and how to work out which one is driving you A simple five-minute framework for planning a conversation so you walk in with confidence instead of dread Why naming the outcome you want before you open your mouth changes the entire conversation What you're silently teaching your team every time you let something go unaddressed How to reframe a hard conversation as an opportunity instead of something to survive Links & Resources: To connect with Jennifer: Website: https://jenniferbicknell.com.au/about/ Newsletter: https://jenniferbicknell.com.au/jens-workplace-news-2-0/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-bicknell-lawyer-coach-speaker/ 💬 DM Kristy-Lee on Instagram @kristy.lee.billett Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyleebillett/ Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au Book a 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/kristyleebillett/chat What this episode covers This episode breaks down why business owners avoid difficult conversations with their team, and gives a practical, repeatable framework for having them well. Employment lawyer Jennifer Bicknell shares the three underlying reasons people stay silent on issues that need addressing, and a simple planning tool for approaching any hard conversation with clarity instead of anxiety. It's built for business owners who lead a team and want to deal with issues early, before they escalate into something more serious. Key insight from this episode Every time a leader lets a problem go unaddressed, they are teaching their team that the behaviour is acceptable. Silence is not neutral. It's a message, and the longer an issue goes unaddressed, the more disproportionate the eventual reaction tends to be, which damages trust more than raising the issue early ever would. What you'll take away Identify which of the three core reasons (not knowing what to say, wanting to be liked, or fear) is driving your own avoidance of a specific conversation Use a simple framework to plan a difficult conversation in under five minutes Name the outcome you want before starting a conversation, so the discussion stays focused Recognise the cost of letting small issues slide, and why early conversations are easier than delayed ones Approach team conversations as a tool for building trust and performance, rather than something to be feared