Creating culture and commitment when managing remote creative teams, with Sandra Muller

What if being slower to adopt AI isn’t a problem, but a sign that you’re asking the right questions before using it? There is so much pressure on businesses, on leaders and individuals to stay ahead of AI. Or else. My conversation with Kate Minogue, who is an AI strategist and former Meta marketing scientist based in Ireland, introduced me to other – much more useful, in my opinion – ways to think about it.Tune in to hear us talk about:The pressure to adapt: what it means, what it does for usWhy women are adopting AI at a different pace: this was a massive perspective shift and a great example of looking at the exact same data from a different perspective and getting a completely different story. (I would listen to the episode for this insight alone)What is our value in the workplace in the AI era: how to look at itThe dangers of optimising and ‘maxxing’ everythingWhat intentional AI adoption can look like.Listen to this episode for a thoughtful conversation about AI adoption and making technology work for us, rather than the other way around.Kate Minogue is an AI strategist and consumer technology expert with more than 15 years experience across technology, business and human behaviour. Her career includes six years at Meta, where she worked with businesses to improve data-informed decision making. Today, she advises founders and business leaders on AI strategy, with a focus on building technology that solves meaningful problems for its users. You can learn more about Kate, here.And if you want to get in contact with Juliet, or have access to our free resources on all things leadership, please head to our website.

When you hear the word ‘visibility’, do you immediately hear social media, endless reels, putting yourself ‘out there’? And does the thought of it all, like me, make you a little bit sweaty?For many of us, women over 40 in business, visibility can bring up pure dread. Nevermind the decades of experience we bring, when it comes to ‘selling’ our work, it can all be a bit…too hard. On this episode of the Grow Your Influence podcast I talk to someone who can help make it much easier. Fi Mims is an award-winning photographer and coach and she is only too familiar with the dips in confidence women experience. We had a great conversation about it, and I think, just listening to this, we’ll shift how you see ‘showing up’.Tune in to hear us talk about:Why visibility (in business) can feel particularly challenging to women over 40The many expressions visibility can take (it can be so much more than social media, and often, other types work better for us)Why talking about being good at your work is about being accurate, not arrogantThe branding superpower women forget or avoid usingAnd ultimately, how to build visibility in ways that suit you, your capacity and your strengths.Fi also talks about her new four-week visibility program designed to help women over 40 in business own their expertise, show up more confidently and create new opportunities. Find out more about Fi Mimms and Amplify, here.And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this and contact Juliet at Big Goals.

My guest for this episode is Carly Marriner, a change manager who has been supporting change projects across government, higher education and corporate environments for over 20 years.In this episode, Carly shared three key elements that any change, in any area, needs to succeed. Miss one of them, and you’re bound to have a failed change. We also talk about:Where change goes wrong, and what happens when it does. Think eroded trust and change fatigue for a start. Carly’s completely free five-minute Snapshot Assessment can help teams identify gaps in their change process before it’s too late.Examples of change projects that went from a low score that was jeopardising the change to meeting an 89% score in four months.Once you hear Carly talking about the three key elements of change, I promise you it will transform how you approach – and how successful you are in bringing about – change in your team or organisation. Is your change set up for success? You can grab the Snapshot Change Assessment here and learn more about Carly’s work here.And if you would like to connect with us at Big Goals, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this at: www.biggoals.com.auIf you enjoy our podcast, we would love a review on whichever platform you access your episodes.

Remote teams and culture: is that even possible? Sandra Muller, owner and managing director of True North Content, joined me on the podcast to talk about building and leading a fully remote team of creative specialists. In 2024, Sandra bought the business she helped build as a contractor. We talk about how she creates culture when her team is not only remote, but staffed mostly with contractors:Sandra’s ‘secret’ to making sure new and returning contractors are supportedPrioritising the little moments when culture is created without making it feel forced or like ‘we’re here to create culture’And how this culture of trust amongst the team is impacting the client outputWhy an outcomes-over-hours culture works really well for this teamFlexibility and how that attracts really committed peopleSandra’s wish to continue to grow a profitable business, but also one that fits this culture she has built, and maintains the quality of the work and the culture.You can connect with Sandra Muller on LinkedIn, and learn more about her work, and her company, True North Content, here.

In the third of my construction industry conversations with electrical project manager Adam Evans, we move into one of the hardest parts of leading in construction: mental health. Adam is candid about why he thinks the industry carries such a high suicide rate.We also cover:The yelling-and-screaming culture. Escalation as a default management style, and Adam's observation that the best-run sites are precisely the ones without it.The implications of a very young workforce, who doesn’t quite have the self-awareness tools to deal with the pressures of the tough environment.The self-awareness problem. If the senior people won't engage with the "fluffy" leadership work, they can't extend a hand to anyone else.Does gender change the conversation? A third-year apprentice became the only person a struggling colleague would talk to - and got him back to work when nobody else could reach him.The business case for investing in team development, and its friction – the reality of a labour industry where every hour is billable and training costs both the course fee and the hours, and can feel hard to justify.Not everyone should lead: some people are better off staying technical specialists.It’s a fascinating conversation, no matter what industry you lead in, but particularly if you work in or with the construction industry.This episode discusses suicide and mental health. If it raises anything for you, please reach out to a local crisis line — in Australia, Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636; MATES in Construction on 1300 642 111 or TIACS for tradies and people working in rural industries.If you would like to connect with Adam or read more about his experience, you can find him on LinkedIn.If some of the challenges Adam and I talk about feel familiar, you’ll find more practical support for navigating them, and becoming the leader you want to be (even under pressure), here.

Construction sites are some of the hardest environments to work in. And that’s before we even get to the psychological pressure. It’s no wonder that it can lead to aggressive behaviour, frustration and pent-up energy. Talking to Adam Evans, who leads electrical teams on major construction projects, reminded me just how different leadership in construction can look when there is no room for ‘good enough’He talks us through an example of what a workday can look like for him (it involves being called out of bed at 4am, and that’s the easiest part about it).One of the threads running through my conversations with Adam is how much changed when he became more aware of his own preferences, and started recognising that other people don’t necessarily think, communicate or work the way he does. (It’s also something we explore through the Team Management Profile (TMP), if you suspect that might be a roadblock for your team too).We also talked about the challenges of motivating a team beyond money, retaining good people, building a culture, and becoming the guy whose projects people always want to be on. (By the way, if that’s something you’re thinking about too, my Guide to Motivating Your Team is still a useful place to start). Really, about what leadership looks like in construction, an industry so much more complex than the public perception of it.If you work in construction, whether you’re a project manager, team leader, tradie or work alongside the industry, I think this is a conversation worth hearing.Towards the end of the episode, we briefly touch on suicide and the troublingly high suicide rate in the construction industry. If you or anyone you know is struggling or the topic brings anything up for you, there is free, confidential support available through TIACS (This Is A Conversation Starter), the mental health counselling service founded by TradeMutt.If you would like to connect with Adam or read more about his experience, you can find him on LinkedIn.If some of the challenges Adam and I talk about feel familiar (even if the industry is not), you’ll find more practical support for navigating them, and becoming the leader you want to be under pressure, here.

We often talk about people who are great at what they do, so they are put in a leadership role and given a team of people, without being given any leadership training.Adam Evans’ career was on this path and over the next few episodes, Juliet is talking with Adam about how his career as an apprentice-chef-turned-electrician changed when he was sent on a leadership course. From a self-described “angry young man” to someone who found a language to talk about how he works, and understand the strengths in difference across his team, Adam has some fascinating insights into the importance of leadership in the construction industry. And there’s the challenge of his mum’s expectations…In this first episode Adam shares his career path and how building his self-awareness is enabling him to lead a team of young tradies and collaborate with teams across the industry to deliver high profile construction projects. If you have worked in the construction industry or have shared any of Adam’s experiences in a different industry, we would love to hear from you. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this and contact Juliet at Big Goals.If you would like to connect with Adam or read more about his experience, you can find him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamevans1988/.

In our last episode we talked about how we make our values real. In this episode Juliet is talking to Meredith Staib, the CEO of RFDS Queensland, where values are one of the key elements that attract new joiners. If you’ve ever lived in a regional or remote part of Australia, the RFDS will have touched your life or the lives of people around you.We took Meredith back to the start of her extensive career and some of the challenges of leading. How do you innovate in an organisation with such a strong and established role? How do you keep a large and widely distributed team connected, and how do you stay in touch with what is happening in remote regions for teams delivering a variety of health services? In our conversation, Meredith shares her experiences and insights into leading an organisation that touches so many people’s lives.Do you have a link with the RFDS? We would love to hear from you about your experiences. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this and contact Juliet at Big Goals.If you would like to learn more about the Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland) you can find information at https://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/qld/ and you can read more about Meredith’s experience online and on Linkedin.

Most organisations have values, but in so many of these, the staff are probably unable to tell you what they are and there is no tangible expression of them within their workdays. Values tell you how an organisation wants to work but they only come to life if they are translated into behaviours. In this episode, Juliet is talking with Hope Collins from Hope Collins Advisory about a structured approach to operationalising your values. Hope is a leadership, sales and culture consultant based in Melbourne, and the creator of The Commitments, a behavioural framework designed to be the missing fourth pillar alongside mission, vision and values. It is designed to help leaders and organisations close the gap between the culture they say they have and the one they actually have.She's deeply committed to the idea that clear expectations aren't a nice-to-have; they're the whole game.The Commitments framework enables any organisation to involve their people in translating their values into behaviours. As Hope says, this gives potential new joiners a chance to decide whether they are prepared to demonstrate the behaviours before they join. It also gives existing team members a chance to discuss and agree on how they want to work together.How do you translate your values into behaviours? We would love to hear from you about what has worked and what is still a work in progress with your team. You can share your experiences and ask questions here.And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this and contact Juliet at Big Goals.If you would like to learn more about Hope Collins and The Commitments, you can email her at [email protected] or you can message her on Linkedin www.linkedin.com/in/hopercollins

"The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their entire life purely by changing their perspective." Ben CroweIn this fourth and final episode of our Book Club Edition, we wrap up our discussion of Ben Crowe's Where the Light Gets In by looking at how we shift our perspectives on success and happiness and how a focus on helping and serving others almost always helps and serves us too.When we shift our perspective from a focus on “I” to a focus on “we”, we are leading. Focusing on how we show up, on happiness, and on helping others succeed creates intrinsic motivators that we can control and helps us rely less on things like status and titles that are often out of our control. Choosing the meaning we give to our past and staying anchored in the present also helps.If you haven’t read the book, don’t worry you don’t need it. But can we recommend you put it on your reading or listening list, as we think it really does have the power to change how you see yourself, how you deal with the world and how you lead.We would love to hear what you thought of this series. What has been most useful or challenging? Have you read the book? If so, what are your key takeaways? We would love to hear about your experiences.You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this and contact Juliet at Big Goals.If you would like to learn more about what Antoanela does and work with her, you can find her here.