Real Talk: Leading Small Teams

You know you should delegate, but every time you try to start, you freeze and end up keeping all of it. This episode solves that. In a 10-minute exercise you can run every month, I show you how to figure out exactly what to delegate using your calendar and your task list, without handing off your whole job or dumping busywork on your team. In this episode you'll learn: Why delegating is not all or nothing, and the myth that keeps you stuckThe calendar pass that surfaces meetings you c...

Nobody becomes a micromanager on purpose. But if your team is double-checking everything with you, you're in every meeting, and your high performers keep asking for more work you're not handing over, you might be doing it anyway. In this episode, Lia draws on her own experience being micromanaged at Google to break down the three specific tells, and what to do when you recognize yourself in any of them. In this episode you will learn: Why being in every meeting is a trust problem, not a time ...

You made the big hire. They have the experience, the track record, the resume. A few weeks in, something feels off and you're starting to wonder if you made the right call. This isn't usually a people problem. It's almost always a process problem: two specific gaps that most leaders skip, and both happen before the new hire ever has a real chance to hit their stride. In this episode you will learn: Why the interview needs to go beyond skills questions, and what happens when expectations go un...

You've done the work. You've hired people, set expectations, had the conversations. And you're still the final sign off on everything. Still in too many meetings. Still making decisions you shouldn't have to be making. This episode is about what's actually blocking you, and it's almost never delegation itself. There are three things that have to be in place before delegation can work, and this episode breaks down all three. In this episode you will learn: Why being stuck as the point person f...

You handed it off. So why does it keep coming back to you? In this episode I'm getting into one of the most common places leaders get stuck: delegation. Not whether to delegate, most of us know we should. But how to do it in a way that actually gets you out of the bottleneck instead of just adding more steps. The shift from dispatching to true delegating is where everything changes, and that's what we're breaking down today. In this episode you will learn: The difference between delegating an...

Yesterday in a client session, something came up that I had to bring straight to the show. A business owner with multiple thriving locations told me her approach to underperformance: she has the conversation right away. No waiting, no managing around it, no hoping it fixes itself. That conversation led me straight to the question at the center of this episode: what are you willing to tolerate? Because whatever you're allowing to keep happening, you're also communicating is acceptable. And the...

After a pretty rough experience at Lenscrafters, Lia gets into one of the most common challenges small business owners face: how do you get your team to actually show up for customers when you can't force anyone to care? This episode is for anyone with customer-facing team members — or honestly any team member whose attitude and engagement reflects on your brand. In this episode you will learn: Why getting this right starts in the hiring and onboarding process, not after things go wrongWhat f...

You hired talented people, asked them to lead, and yet they're still coming to you for final approval on *everything*. It feels like you're micromanaging, even though you desperately want to be hands-off. You don't want to reject their need for support, but this constant stream of decisions, big and small, is keeping you buried in the day-to-day. This isn't just annoying; it's a critical bottleneck that prevents you from scaling and keeps your team from truly stepping into ownership. When yo...

You find the perfect senior hire. They have the résumé. The experience. The track record. But the salary makes your stomach drop. Do you stretch and hope it pays off? Or walk away and risk staying stuck? In this episode, we unpack the real tension leaders face when hiring senior talent in a small business and how to think about compensation without blowing up your risk tolerance. We talk about: Why overextending on a big hire can create pressure that sabotages onboarding How to thi...

You built a reputation for being the best. So why does it feel like your success is the very thing keeping you stuck? If clients keep asking for you by name and you cannot seem to step out of the weeds without everything pulling you back in, this episode will show you how to scale without losing trust, quality, or revenue. In this episode of Real Talk: Leading Small Teams, you’ll learn: Why believing your “magic” cannot be taught is keeping you smallHow to translate your secret sauce into rea...

Hiring is exhausting, and nothing messes with your confidence faster than wondering, “Did I just make a really expensive mistake?” In this episode, we take a clear-eyed, practical look at how to assess a new hire without panic, resentment, or dragging things out way too long. Plus we’ll talk about what to do when the answer isn’t obvious. In this episode of Real Talk: Leading Small Teams, you’ll learn: Why deciding someone “isn’t a fit” too fast or too late creates bigger problemsThe role onb...

You know that thing on your team you keep meaning to deal with… but haven’t? The underperformer. The role you should hire for. The expectations conversation you keep postponing. Avoidance feels easier in the moment — but it quietly turns leaders into bottlenecks. In this episode, we break down how avoiding hard moves is slowing your team down and what to do instead. You’ll learn: How to spot what you’re avoiding as a leaderWhy delaying a hire often costs more than making oneWhat t...

Your team is asking for more. More flexibility. More pay. More exceptions. More say in decisions. And you’re sitting there thinking, when did this turn into entitlement? In this episode, we unpack what’s really happening when requests feel unreasonable — and why the root cause is usually a leadership clarity issue, not an attitude problem. You’ll learn: Why “entitlement” is often a signal, not the problemHow leaders accidentally create resentment without realizing itWhat to ...