Podcast Episode Show Notes

Ashlee Hadden, founder and director of The Girl Who Lifts Landscaping on the Mornington Peninsula, shares practical leadership for tradies from her journey through KFC and Aldi management, a mature-age apprenticeship at 32 and running her own majority-female landscaping crew. She talks about teaching new starters the why, backing your team when mistakes happen, running daily huddles, and letting go of tasks to avoid burnout.

Simon Flannery, senior mechanical engineer at Malabar Resources' Maxwell Underground Mine, on leading former mates and mentors, winning contractor buy-in, and the mindset-behaviour loop behind a safety culture that holds underground.

Leigh Ryan is a landscaper and supervisor from Gippsland, Victoria, known online as Tradie Dad, where he shares the relatable challenges of life as a tradie, new father and supervisor. Here, Leigh shares 5 leadership lessons for tradies: leadership starts with caring, how to check in without micromanaging, why delegating is the hardest part of leading, how fatherhood changes safety behaviour onsite, and why "are you okay" matters more than people realise.

Luke Canham has spent over 30 years leading people across high-risk industries, including construction and scaffolding, managing hundreds of staff across multiple sites. After a serious workplace accident changed his career, he sold his scaffolding business and founded Multiply Me. Here, Luke shares 5 leadership lessons for tradies: creating willingness over compliance, setting guidelines not rules, letting go of control, why safety culture needs team culture, and closing the

Kurt Checketts is a light-vehicle mechanic turned diesel fitter who spent 12 years in mining, the last five leading teams in one of the highest-stakes environments in the trades. Here, Kurt shares 5 leadership lessons: empowering people to be their best, leaning into your strengths, knowing people as individuals, why small standards slipping causes serious incidents, and why financial leadership is still leadership.

Jasmyn Smith is a Tasmanian sparky and co-founder of The GO Company, a business built around a problem that's sat quietly on worksites for years: access to basic hygiene for tradies. Here, Jasmyn shares 5 leadership lessons for tradies: being a role model early, recognising a problem, taking a leap when starting a business, overcoming resistance to change, and building a support network.

Matt Wyatt has spent over 30 years in the heavy vehicle industry, starting as an apprentice and working through operational and national leadership roles before spending the last 15 years developing people. Here, Matt shares 5 leadership lessons for tradies in manufacturing: setting standards, why a title doesn't earn respect, relationships over authority, fixing systems instead of firefighting, and empowering your team to bring solutions.