Trust and Inspire is the leadership model redefining how great leaders unlock the best in their people — so why are so many organisations still stuck in command and control?

This episode is sponsored by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere: https://www.deel.com/nickdayhr/

In this episode of @thehrldpodcast Nick Day is joined by Stephen M.R. Covey, bestselling author of The Speed of Trust and Trust and Inspire, and former President and CEO of the Covey Leadership Center, to explore why the old model of leadership has reached its expiration date and what it takes to build the kind of high trust culture that attracts, retains and inspires the best people.

Drawing on decades of research and work with organisations across 55 countries, Stephen breaks down why trust is a learnable skill and not a personality trait, what it actually looks like to extend trust in remote and hybrid teams without losing control, and how leaders can move from merely motivating people to truly inspiring them.

This conversation explores how inspired employees outperform engaged ones by 56%, why the shift from command and control to trust and inspire is the most important leadership move of our time, and what Warren Buffett, Satya Nadella and Eric Yuan all have in common as leaders.

A must listen for HR leaders, people managers, L&D professionals, and anyone responsible for building culture and developing leadership capability inside their organisation.

Enjoyed this? Check out our sister podcast @thepayrollpodcast for more great content!

Connect with Stephen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-m-r-covey-6400191a5

Nick Day's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickday/ Find your ideal candidate with our job vacancy system: https://jgarecruitment.ck.page/919cf6b9ea Sign up to the HR L&D Newsletter: https://jgarecruitment.ck.page/23e7b153e7

Timestamps:

(00:00) Preview

(01:02) Introduction and Guest Welcome

(03:43) What Human Resources Really Means

(05:21) Is Trust a Learnable Skill

(08:54) Why Leadership Styles Have Not Kept Up With the World

(12:51) The Two Epic Imperatives of Modern Leadership

(15:18) How to Extend Trust in Remote and Hybrid Teams

(19:07) The Stewardship Agreement and Clarifying Expectations

(22:04) What Being Trusted Does to Human Performance

(26:33) The 3M Post It Note and the Reciprocity of Trust

(29:12) Inspiration vs Motivation and the Highest Form of Human Drive (36:40) See Communicate Develop Unleash

(43:15) How to Restore Trust After You Have Lost It

(48:20) What Trust and Inspire Is Not

(54:10) Where Leadership Is Going Next

This episode is sponsored by 'Deel.

Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere: https://www.deel.com/nickdayhr/

In this episode of the HR L&D Podcast, Nick Day is joined by Alex Rashkovan, Chairman of Filuet and CEO & Co-Founder of Atalef, to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing HR leaders today: hiring engineers when you are not a tech company.

Drawing on more than two decades of building and scaling operational and technology-enabled businesses across the globe, Alex breaks down why CV-first hiring fails for technical roles, what evidence-early screening actually looks like in practice, and how companies can move from guesswork to skills-based hiring that identifies real capability and team fit.

This conversation explores how to turn vague requests like "we need a senior developer" into clear role profiles with measurable success criteria, why a 30-minute real-work assessment gives a cleaner signal than three interviews, how AI is reshaping both the work engineers do and the way companies evaluate talent, and what it really means to hire for your company's DNA.

A must-listen for HR leaders, talent professionals, L&D teams, and anyone responsible for hiring technical talent in non-tech organisations.

Connect with Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-rashkovan/

Atalef: https://atalef.ai/

Nick Day's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickday/

Find your ideal candidate with our job vacancy system: https://jgarecruitment.ck.page/919cf6b9ea

Sign up to the HR L&D Newsletter - https://jgarecruitment.ck.page/23e7b153e7

(00:00) Preview

(01:16) Introduction and Guest Welcome

(03:14) What Human Resources Really Means

(05:51) Defining the Right Engineer vs the Best Engineer

(08:50) Why CVs Are the New Fax Machine

(11:18) The COVID Hiring Failure That Changed Everything

(15:11) Evidence-Based Screening and the Role Definition Gold Mine

(17:58) Why Companies Struggle to Find Engineers

(22:04) Turning Vague Requests Into Real Success Criteria

(26:33) Why Synthetic Coding Tests Are Losing Integrity

(29:12) The Birth of Atalef and Solving the First Mile of Tech Hiring

(39:10) Hiring for Your Company's DNA and Work Style Match

(42:26) The HR L&D Vault

(48:12) The Future of Hiring and Walking Away From CVs

This episode is sponsored by Deel – hire, manage, and pay anyone, anywhere: https://www.deel.com/nickdayhr/

AI is transforming the workplace faster than most organizations can adapt. But according to Annabelle Vultee, CEO of GoodHabitz, the real competitive advantage in the AI era isn’t technology.

It’s human skills.

In this conversation with Nick Day on the HR L&D Podcast, Annabelle explains why the global workforce is facing a growing skills crisis and why traditional training programs are no longer enough. As AI lowers the barrier to entry for technical work, capabilities like curiosity, adaptability, critical thinking, and communication are becoming the skills that truly set people apart.

Annabelle shares why learning must move beyond one-off training sessions and become a continuous habit inside organizations. She also explores how AI is democratizing access to technology, why leaders should approach it with opportunity rather than fear, and what companies must do now to build future-ready teams in a world where skills are evolving faster than ever.

Nick Day’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickday/

Find your ideal candidate with our job vacancy system: https://jgarecruitment.ck.page/919cf6b9ea

Sign up to the HR L&D Newsletter - https://jgarecruitment.ck.page/23e7b153e7

Enjoyed this? Check out our sister podcast @thepayrollpodcast for more great content!

Annabelle’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annabellevultee/

GoodHabitz Website: https://www.goodhabitz.com/

(00:00) Setting The AI Context

(01:20) The Case For Continuous Upskilling

(01:24) Welcome And Guest Introduction

(03:00) Defining Modern HR’s Strategic Role

(04:05) Leading Globally And Culturally

(08:10) The Global Skills Crisis Explained

(12:05) Human Skills As Competitive Advantage

(16:20) Habit-Building That Makes Learning Stick

(20:35) Designing Joyful Micro-Learning Journeys

(25:20) From Swiss Army Knives To Skills Maps

(28:40) Five Timeless Human Skills

(33:45) Democratising Learning: Role Of Leaders

(39:10) Diversity As A Performance Engine

(44:00) A CEO’s Own Learning Path

(49:00) Embracing GenAI: From Fear To Utility