The People Side of Business | Team Management Strategies, How to Manage Employees, Leadership for Business Owners

Lindsay White | Fractional HR Expert, Team Leadership Strategist, Leadership Coach for Female Founders
  • 5.0 (17)
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Are you leading a team but quietly wondering if you’re actually doing it right?Are you dealing with employee issues, performance problems, or difficult conversations that feel heavier than they should?And are you starting to realize that growing your business through people is a completely different skill set than building it on your own?If that sounds like you, you’re not alone—and you’re in the right place.Because the truth is, leadership is something most founders are never properly taught. You build a business, you hire a team, and suddenly you’re expected to know how to manage people, make the right calls, and lead with confidence—without ever being shown how to do it well.That’s exactly what this podcast is here to change.Hi, I’m Lindsay White, a fractional HR expert and leadership coach who works with founders and business owners navigating the real challenges of leading a team. I’ve spent years inside growing businesses, helping founders work through everything from hiring and performance issues to team dynamics and difficult decisions—often at the exact moment things start to feel messy, unclear, or harder than they should.Like a lot of the people I work with, you may have built something successful, but no one handed you a clear playbook for what comes next when you’re responsible for a team. And what I’ve seen time and time again is that when leadership isn’t intentional, the same issues keep showing up—just at a larger scale. In this show, you’ll learn how to:✨ Handle employee performance issues and know what to do when someone on your team isn’t meeting expectations✨ Navigate difficult conversations at work with clarity instead of avoiding them or second-guessing yourself afterward✨ Hire the right people and avoid the hiring mistakes that create bigger problems down the line✨ Build a workplace culture that supports your business as it grows, instead of something you’re constantly trying to fix✨ Lead your team with more confidence so you can scale your business without everything falling back on youIf you’re ready to feel more confident in how you manage your team and make decisions as a leader, this is a good place to start.Next Steps:💻 Grab My Guides & Frameworks: https://go.highvoltageleadership.ca/resource-library🚀 Learn more about the LPC Accelerator: https://highvoltageleadership.ca/lpc-accelerator/🌐 Visit: https://highvoltageleadership.ca📩 Connect: lindsay@highvoltageleadership.ca

  1. 1d ago

    How to Deal With Difficult Employees Without Making the Problem Worse

    Send us Fan Mail When an employee who used to be reliable starts missing deadlines, pushing back on feedback or creating tension on your team, it's easy to assume they've become a difficult employee. But what if there's something happening that you haven't uncovered yet? Knowing how to deal with difficult employees starts with understanding what's actually going wrong, rather than reacting out of frustration. In this episode, I'm sharing a situation where a founder was struggling with a previously strong employee whose performance had started slipping. What initially looked like an attitude problem turned out to be something much more complicated. We'll explore how to prepare for difficult conversations with employees, why defensiveness doesn't automatically mean someone refuses to take responsibility, and how to balance empathy with holding employees accountable. I'll also walk you through the feedback framework I use with clients to address employee performance issues, clarify expectations and create a practical path forward. Because knowing how to deal with difficult employees doesn't mean avoiding uncomfortable conversations or lowering your standards. It means developing the leadership skills to listen, understand what's happening and make informed decisions about what comes next. And sometimes, even after you've provided support and a fair opportunity to improve, things still don't change. We'll talk about that reality too, and why effective team management strategies require both compassion and accountability. If you're wondering how to deal with difficult employees on your own team, I hope this conversation helps you approach the situation with more clarity and confidence. Keep listening: If difficult conversations are something you've been putting off, listen to my earlier episode, Avoiding Difficult Conversations With Employees? Here's What It's Costing You  You can also download my free Feedback Model from the High Voltage Resource Library to help prepare for your next conversation. And if you'd like help navigating a challenging employee situation, my two-hour Deep Dive sessions give us time to understand what's happening and develop a practical plan together. Book your Deep Dive: https://highvoltageleadership.ca/consulting/ Learning how to deal with difficult employees isn't about having all the answers. It's about approaching difficult situations with clarity, fairness and care. Support the show The People Side of Business is the podcast for female founders and business owners who are leading teams and growing businesses. Hosted by Lindsay White, Leadership Coach, Team Leadership Strategist, and Fractional HR Expert, this show delivers practical leadership strategies, real-world people solutions, and honest conversations about the challenges of leading a team. From employee performance issues and difficult conversations to hiring, accountability, workplace culture, and team growth, each episode is designed to help you lead, manage, and scale your team as a founder. If you're ready to become a more confident leader, make better people decisions, and build a stronger, higher-performing team, you're in the right place. Learn more at highvoltageleadership.ca, connect on Instagram @highvoltleadership, or find Lindsay White on LinkedIn. The people side of business isn't separate from growth. The people side of business is the business.

  2. Oct 22

    Hiring Tips for Small Businesses: Are You Hiring the Right Person for the Wrong Role?

    Send us Fan Mail One of the most important hiring tips for small businesses is understanding that you can hire a fantastic person and still make the wrong hiring decision. Maybe they came highly recommended. They have an impressive resume, years of experience, and everyone on your team likes them. But a few weeks into the role, things aren't going quite the way you expected. That's exactly what happened to a founder I worked with named Angela. Her business was growing quickly, and she needed someone who could take ownership of an important project and lead a small team. She thought she'd found the perfect person. But instead of creating more capacity, the new hire was creating more work for her. In this episode, I'm sharing what happened, the hiring mistakes we uncovered, and why finding the right person isn't always the same as hiring for what your business actually needs. We'll talk about the difference between experience and capability, why a great referral isn't a recruitment strategy, and how your people strategy needs to evolve as your business grows. Because when you're figuring out how to scale a team, it's tempting to hire someone who can take work off your plate. But what if the real gap isn't another pair of hands? What if you need someone who can think strategically, make decisions and lead? That's where hiring tips for small businesses need to go beyond resumes and interviews. Angela's story also takes us through one of the harder parts of hiring and firing employees: what happens when you've given someone clear feedback and a genuine opportunity to improve, but the role still isn't the right fit? If you're considering an important hire, I want you to think about what your business actually needs this person to accomplish, not just what you're hoping they'll take off your plate. And if you'd like help working through that decision, my two-hour Deep Dive sessions are designed to give you clarity and a practical plan for moving forward. Learn more and book a session here: highvoltageleadership.ca/consulting Because the best hiring tips for small businesses start long before you post the job. And getting clear about what your business needs today can help you make a much better decision about who you hire tomorrow. Support the show The People Side of Business is the podcast for female founders and business owners who are leading teams and growing businesses. Hosted by Lindsay White, Leadership Coach, Team Leadership Strategist, and Fractional HR Expert, this show delivers practical leadership strategies, real-world people solutions, and honest conversations about the challenges of leading a team. From employee performance issues and difficult conversations to hiring, accountability, workplace culture, and team growth, each episode is designed to help you lead, manage, and scale your team as a founder. If you're ready to become a more confident leader, make better people decisions, and build a stronger, higher-performing team, you're in the right place. Learn more at highvoltageleadership.ca, connect on Instagram @highvoltleadership, or find Lindsay White on LinkedIn. The people side of business isn't separate from growth. The people side of business is the business.

  3. Oct 15

    Employee Issues: Why the Same Problems Keep Showing Up on Your Team

    Send us Fan Mail Employee issues can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you feel like you're having the same conversations over and over again. Someone misses a deadline. Another person isn't communicating. Someone else isn't taking ownership of their work. And you're left wondering why your team can't seem to get on the same page. But what if those employee issues aren't actually separate problems? In this episode, I'm sharing the story of Judy, a founder I worked with who was experiencing exactly this. She had a talented team and a growing business, but it seemed like every week brought another frustration. And here's where things got interesting. When we started looking back at those conversations, we realized the names were changing, but the problems weren't. What looked like individual employee performance issues was actually something much bigger. As Judy's business grew, the way her team worked together hadn't kept up. Responsibilities were overlapping, priorities weren't always clear, and people were doing their best without fully understanding what was expected. We started looking at her team management strategies, how information was being shared, and whether people had the clarity they needed to do their jobs well. Because holding employees accountable is important, but people need to understand what they're responsible for before you can reasonably expect them to deliver. This is where having a people strategy becomes so valuable. And it's also where some of the most common leadership struggles in teams begin. If you're dealing with recurring employee issues, I want you to listen to Judy's story before deciding you have a problem with your people. Sometimes the real opportunity is to change how the team works together. And if you'd like some help figuring out what's really happening in your business, I'd love to work through it with you in a two-hour Deep Dive session. You can learn more and book a session here: highvoltageleadership.ca/consulting/ Because when the same employee issues keep showing up, it's worth looking at the pattern, not just the people. Support the show The People Side of Business is the podcast for female founders and business owners who are leading teams and growing businesses. Hosted by Lindsay White, Leadership Coach, Team Leadership Strategist, and Fractional HR Expert, this show delivers practical leadership strategies, real-world people solutions, and honest conversations about the challenges of leading a team. From employee performance issues and difficult conversations to hiring, accountability, workplace culture, and team growth, each episode is designed to help you lead, manage, and scale your team as a founder. If you're ready to become a more confident leader, make better people decisions, and build a stronger, higher-performing team, you're in the right place. Learn more at highvoltageleadership.ca, connect on Instagram @highvoltleadership, or find Lindsay White on LinkedIn. The people side of business isn't separate from growth. The people side of business is the business.

  4. Oct 8

    How to Scale a Team Without Becoming the Person Holding It All Together

    Send us Fan Mail If you’re trying to figure out how to scale a team, you might assume hiring more people will finally give you more capacity. So why are you somehow busier than you were before? That’s exactly what happened to one founder I worked with. Her business was growing quickly and, over six months, she added ten people to her team. She thought the additional support would finally give her some breathing room. Instead, she got more questions, more decisions, more conflict and more things coming back to her. In this episode, we’re looking at why learning how to scale a team takes more than simply adding people. As your team grows, the informal ways of working that were fine when there were only a few of you can start to break down. Roles become less clear. Decision making gets messy. People aren’t sure what they own or when they need you. And suddenly, you’re the person holding everything together. I’ll walk you through the team management strategies we used to change that, including getting clearer about ownership, creating a people strategy that could actually support the growth of the business, and building leadership throughout the team. Because figuring out how to lead a team as it grows doesn’t mean removing yourself from the business you love. It means creating enough clarity and capability around you that you can stay connected without needing to be involved in everything. That’s one of the most important leadership skills for business owners as their companies grow. If you’re wondering how to scale a team when everything still seems to come back to you, I want you to ask yourself a different question: Is your team actually creating more capacity, or have you simply created more people who depend on you? Because how to scale a team isn’t really about having more people working for you. It’s about building a team that can do more without requiring more of you. And if you’re ready to work on this inside your own business, this is exactly what we do inside the Accelerator for Female Founders. Learn more and book a call with me here. Support the show The People Side of Business is the podcast for female founders and business owners who are leading teams and growing businesses. Hosted by Lindsay White, Leadership Coach, Team Leadership Strategist, and Fractional HR Expert, this show delivers practical leadership strategies, real-world people solutions, and honest conversations about the challenges of leading a team. From employee performance issues and difficult conversations to hiring, accountability, workplace culture, and team growth, each episode is designed to help you lead, manage, and scale your team as a founder. If you're ready to become a more confident leader, make better people decisions, and build a stronger, higher-performing team, you're in the right place. Learn more at highvoltageleadership.ca, connect on Instagram @highvoltleadership, or find Lindsay White on LinkedIn. The people side of business isn't separate from growth. The people side of business is the business.

  5. Oct 1

    Avoiding Difficult Conversations With Employees? Here's What It's Costing You

    Send us Fan Mail Avoiding difficult conversations with employees can feel like the kind thing to do, especially when you genuinely care about the people on your team. You tell yourself you’ll address it next week. You drop a few hints. Maybe they have a really good day and you start wondering if the problem is fixing itself. But while you’re waiting, the cost of that conversation doesn’t disappear. It just moves somewhere else. In this episode, I’m sharing the story of a founder who was dealing with employee performance issues involving someone she genuinely valued. She thought she’d been giving feedback, but nothing was changing. Meanwhile, she was carrying the frustration, other team members were picking up the slack, and resentment was starting to build.  That’s one of the hidden costs of avoiding difficult conversations. What starts as a problem with one person can begin affecting your time, your clients, your strongest employees and the culture you’re trying to build. We’ll talk about the difference between dropping hints and creating real clarity, why fear of conflict can make holding employees accountable feel so uncomfortable, and a simple way to approach difficult conversations with employees without becoming cold or confrontational. Because leadership skills aren’t about never finding these conversations difficult. They’re about developing the confidence to have them anyway. If avoiding difficult conversations is keeping you stuck in unresolved people problems, this is exactly the kind of leadership work we do inside the Accelerator for Female Founders. We work on your people strategy and the leadership skills you need to support the next stage of your business. Learn more about the Accelerator and book a call with me here. Support the show The People Side of Business is the podcast for female founders and business owners who are leading teams and growing businesses. Hosted by Lindsay White, Leadership Coach, Team Leadership Strategist, and Fractional HR Expert, this show delivers practical leadership strategies, real-world people solutions, and honest conversations about the challenges of leading a team. From employee performance issues and difficult conversations to hiring, accountability, workplace culture, and team growth, each episode is designed to help you lead, manage, and scale your team as a founder. If you're ready to become a more confident leader, make better people decisions, and build a stronger, higher-performing team, you're in the right place. Learn more at highvoltageleadership.ca, connect on Instagram @highvoltleadership, or find Lindsay White on LinkedIn. The people side of business isn't separate from growth. The people side of business is the business.

  6. Sep 24

    Stepping Into Leadership: What Changed When One Founder Stopped Being Her Team's Go-To Person

    Send us Fan Mail Stepping into leadership can feel uncomfortable when you’ve built a capable team but somehow still find yourself in the middle of every question, decision, problem and approval. That’s exactly where one founder found herself. Her business was growing, she trusted her team and she genuinely wanted them to succeed. But as the pace and complexity increased, so did her involvement. She became the person everyone came to for answers. In this episode, I’m sharing what changed when she realized that stepping into leadership didn’t mean becoming more available to her team. It meant changing the way she led them. We worked on replacing assumptions with clarity, getting curious about what her team was actually hearing and creating real ownership instead of simply delegating more work. She became clearer about decision making, gave better feedback and created space for other people to lead. And something really interesting happened: as her team became more confident, so did she. I see this transition with so many female business owners. Even experienced female founders can reach a stage where the leadership skills that got them here aren’t quite what the next stage of the business needs. Building confidence as a leader isn’t about having every answer. Sometimes it comes from seeing what your team is capable of when you stop being their go-to person for everything. That’s the real work of stepping into leadership as your business grows. Your role has to evolve alongside the team you’re building. If you recognize yourself in this story, the Accelerator for Female Founders was created for this stage of growth. We’ll work together on your leadership, your people strategy and the team your business needs for what comes next. Learn more about the Accelerator here. Because stepping into leadership isn’t about becoming less important to your business. It’s about building a team that has become more capable because of the way you lead.  Support the show The People Side of Business is the podcast for female founders and business owners who are leading teams and growing businesses. Hosted by Lindsay White, Leadership Coach, Team Leadership Strategist, and Fractional HR Expert, this show delivers practical leadership strategies, real-world people solutions, and honest conversations about the challenges of leading a team. From employee performance issues and difficult conversations to hiring, accountability, workplace culture, and team growth, each episode is designed to help you lead, manage, and scale your team as a founder. If you're ready to become a more confident leader, make better people decisions, and build a stronger, higher-performing team, you're in the right place. Learn more at highvoltageleadership.ca, connect on Instagram @highvoltleadership, or find Lindsay White on LinkedIn. The people side of business isn't separate from growth. The people side of business is the business.

  7. Sep 17

    Leadership Skills for Business Owners: 5 Ways You're Training Your Team to Depend on You

    Send us Fan Mail Leadership skills for business owners become especially important when you’ve built a smart, capable team—but somehow every decision still seems to come back to you. You’ve hired good people. You trust them. You want them to take ownership. So why are you still answering the questions, clarifying the priorities, approving the work and solving the problems? Here’s where it gets interesting: you can genuinely believe you’re empowering your team while behaving in ways that teach them not to move without you. And it doesn’t necessarily look like micromanagement. In this episode, we’re looking at five very normal leadership behaviours that can unintentionally create dependency—from stepping back into strategic ownership and creating confusion about decision making, to communicating urgency without enough context and giving feedback that makes people more cautious instead of more capable. These leadership struggles in teams often aren’t about a lack of talent or commitment. Sometimes your people simply aren’t clear about what they own, what matters most or when they have the authority to move without you. That’s why leadership skills for business owners have to go beyond delegation. If you want to know how to lead a team that can think independently, your people need context, clear priorities and enough authority to use their own judgement. We’ll also look at why some common team management strategies don’t solve the problem if your everyday leadership keeps pulling decisions back to you. Because developing leadership skills for business owners isn’t about disappearing from your business. It’s about understanding what your team actually needs from you so they can think, decide and deliver without everything coming back to you. If this episode feels a little too familiar, join me for Beyond the Bottleneck on September 30 at 1 p.m. Mountain / 3 p.m. Eastern. We’ll dig deeper into where your business has become dependent on you and what needs to shift across your leadership, people strategy and culture. Register here: go.highvoltageleadership.ca/beyond-the-bottleneck Because the goal of stronger leadership skills for business owners isn’t to become less involved. It’s to become much more intentional about where your involvement actually matters. Support the show The People Side of Business is the podcast for female founders and business owners who are leading teams and growing businesses. Hosted by Lindsay White, Leadership Coach, Team Leadership Strategist, and Fractional HR Expert, this show delivers practical leadership strategies, real-world people solutions, and honest conversations about the challenges of leading a team. From employee performance issues and difficult conversations to hiring, accountability, workplace culture, and team growth, each episode is designed to help you lead, manage, and scale your team as a founder. If you're ready to become a more confident leader, make better people decisions, and build a stronger, higher-performing team, you're in the right place. Learn more at highvoltageleadership.ca, connect on Instagram @highvoltleadership, or find Lindsay White on LinkedIn. The people side of business isn't separate from growth. The people side of business is the business.

  8. Sep 10

    How to Manage Employees Without Being the One With All the Answers

    Send us Fan Mail If you’re trying to figure out how to manage employees who are smart, capable and experienced—but somehow every decision still comes back to you—the problem may not be your team. You may have accidentally taught them that asking you is easier than making the decision themselves. It happens for all the right reasons. You know the answer. You want to help. And sometimes it feels much faster to make the call and move on. But every time you do, you may be solving today’s problem while reinforcing tomorrow’s dependency. One of the most important leadership skills you can develop is knowing when not to provide the answer. If you want to know how to lead a team that can think independently, start by returning the thinking to them. Ask: What do you think we should do? What have you considered? What would you recommend? That shift creates space for stronger decision making—but questions alone aren’t enough. How to manage employees with greater ownership also means being clear about decision-making authority. What can your people decide independently? When should they involve you? What financial, policy or other guardrails need to be in place? This matters when holding employees accountable, too. You can’t give someone responsibility for an outcome while requiring your approval for every meaningful decision that affects it. Many leadership struggles in teams start when we hand over the responsibility without enough authority to go with it. So this week, choose one category of decisions your team is capable of making that you’re still making for them. Give them ownership. Define the guardrails. Then pay attention to what you do when that decision comes back to you. Because learning how to manage employees isn’t about becoming the person with all the answers. It’s about building the capability around you so you don’t have to be. If you’re ready to take this further, join me for the Beyond the Bottleneck Masterclass on September 30 at 1 p.m. Mountain / 3 p.m. Eastern. We’ll look at why everything keeps finding its way back to you and what needs to shift so your team can think, decide, and deliver with greater ownership. Support the show The People Side of Business is the podcast for female founders and business owners who are leading teams and growing businesses. Hosted by Lindsay White, Leadership Coach, Team Leadership Strategist, and Fractional HR Expert, this show delivers practical leadership strategies, real-world people solutions, and honest conversations about the challenges of leading a team. From employee performance issues and difficult conversations to hiring, accountability, workplace culture, and team growth, each episode is designed to help you lead, manage, and scale your team as a founder. If you're ready to become a more confident leader, make better people decisions, and build a stronger, higher-performing team, you're in the right place. Learn more at highvoltageleadership.ca, connect on Instagram @highvoltleadership, or find Lindsay White on LinkedIn. The people side of business isn't separate from growth. The people side of business is the business.

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Are you leading a team but quietly wondering if you’re actually doing it right?Are you dealing with employee issues, performance problems, or difficult conversations that feel heavier than they should?And are you starting to realize that growing your business through people is a completely different skill set than building it on your own?If that sounds like you, you’re not alone—and you’re in the right place.Because the truth is, leadership is something most founders are never properly taught. You build a business, you hire a team, and suddenly you’re expected to know how to manage people, make the right calls, and lead with confidence—without ever being shown how to do it well.That’s exactly what this podcast is here to change.Hi, I’m Lindsay White, a fractional HR expert and leadership coach who works with founders and business owners navigating the real challenges of leading a team. I’ve spent years inside growing businesses, helping founders work through everything from hiring and performance issues to team dynamics and difficult decisions—often at the exact moment things start to feel messy, unclear, or harder than they should.Like a lot of the people I work with, you may have built something successful, but no one handed you a clear playbook for what comes next when you’re responsible for a team. And what I’ve seen time and time again is that when leadership isn’t intentional, the same issues keep showing up—just at a larger scale. In this show, you’ll learn how to:✨ Handle employee performance issues and know what to do when someone on your team isn’t meeting expectations✨ Navigate difficult conversations at work with clarity instead of avoiding them or second-guessing yourself afterward✨ Hire the right people and avoid the hiring mistakes that create bigger problems down the line✨ Build a workplace culture that supports your business as it grows, instead of something you’re constantly trying to fix✨ Lead your team with more confidence so you can scale your business without everything falling back on youIf you’re ready to feel more confident in how you manage your team and make decisions as a leader, this is a good place to start.Next Steps:💻 Grab My Guides & Frameworks: https://go.highvoltageleadership.ca/resource-library🚀 Learn more about the LPC Accelerator: https://highvoltageleadership.ca/lpc-accelerator/🌐 Visit: https://highvoltageleadership.ca📩 Connect: lindsay@highvoltageleadership.ca

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