Episode 235

235. People Strategy Is Business Strategy: The Essentials You Need

People Strategy Is Business Strategy: The Essentials You Need

Think HR should handle all the “people stuff”? Think again.

In this episode, I’m calling out one of the most common mistakes founders make when trying to scale—treating people strategy like an admin function or annoyance instead of core business strategy. I break down exactly what people systems you need and why this is all a part of your overall business operations strategy, not something else you need to do.

We’ll talk through the key systems every small business needs to grow a high-performing team, how to divide ownership between HR, managers, and leadership, and what happens when you avoid the hard conversations and hope someone else will handle them for you.

If you’ve ever said, “I just need to hire a strong HR person to manage the team,” this episode is for you.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

  • [1:45] Why outsourcing leadership doesn’t work
  • [4:00] The parts of people strategy founders must own
  • [7:20] HR’s real role—and where their responsibility ends
  • [9:40] The essential systems every growing team needs
  • [13:10] The “Owner Map” for hiring, management, and culture
  • [16:25] What happens when you pass off uncomfortable conversations
  • [18:00] Practical steps to lead your team (with HR as a co-pilot)
  • [20:15] Wrap-up: Scaling people is the job

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About the Podcast

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World's Greatest Boss

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About your host

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Jackie Koch

Hey, I’m Jackie Koch. I have over 15 years of experience prospecting talent and building teams for Fortune 500 companies, startups and small businesses in all types of industries.  Technically, I have an MBA from Concordia University, although I’d argue I learned more about growing and scaling a modern business over the last 5 years in the LA tech start up scene. There I built out recruiting and People Operations teams for high growth tech start ups. I love entrepreneurs and being one at heart, I started my own business during the pandemic. I’m the founder and CEO of People Principles where I help founders scale through fractional recruiting and people operations services.