Most organizations think they have an AI tool problem. They do not. They have an AI behavioral problem. The licenses get bought, the workshops happen, and by Monday morning, people are back to working exactly as they did before.

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 Jamie Bykov-Brett, an AI transformation strategist, TEDx speaker, and co-founder of the Executive AI Institute. Jamie's path into AI started in youth work, supporting young people from marginalized backgrounds into STEM careers. It was there, back in 2014, that he began forecasting how automation would reshape the workforce, discovering along the way that technology adoption rarely fails because of the tools themselves; it fails because people were never taken through the change. That change management lens is exactly what he brings to AI training and organizational transformation today.

Nick and Jamie explore why one-off AI workshops rarely create lasting behavior change, and why real transformation starts with human-centric skill development, not the tools. They unpack the "eliminate, automate, delegate" framework for deciding where AI actually belongs in a workflow, why psychological safety is the missing ingredient in most AI rollouts, and how legacy failed change projects can quietly sabotage adoption before training even begins. They also dig into why your most resistant employees might be your best future change agents, why highly technical people sometimes struggle most with AI adoption, why organizations should expect a temporary dip in performance during rollout rather than instant ROI, and what it actually looks like to design an AI learning intervention that turns AI into a daily working habit rather than a novelty.

In a world where organizations are under pressure to prove AI adoption is working immediately, this episode makes the case that the real barriers were never technical. They are emotional, cultural, and behavioral, and the organizations that address that will be the ones that actually get results.

A must-listen for HR leaders, L&D professionals, and anyone responsible for making AI adoption actually stick inside their organization.

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

Guest and Host:

Jamie Bykov-Brett's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiebykovbrett/

Jamie Bykov-Brett's Website: bykovbrett.net

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

Stay tuned for the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast, brought to you by Nick Day, CEO at JGA Recruitment, landing soon!

Timestamps:

(00:01) Why AI Training Fails: The Behavior Problem, Not a Tool Problem

(03:27) Jamie's Journey: From Youth Work to AI Transformation Strategist

(09:05) The AI Adoption Gap: Rising HR Burnout Despite AI Investment

(10:47) AI as a Mirror: Why Technology Reflects Your Organization's Culture

(14:30) Human-Centric Skills First: Curiosity, Creativity and Critical Thinking

(20:31) The Eliminate, Automate, Delegate Framework

(23:09) Designing AI Interventions That Actually Fit Your Organization

(27:43) Turning Resistant Employees Into Change Agents

(33:11) The Hidden Fears Driving AI Resistance

(37:03) Case Study: How Insights Achieved a 9.7 NPS on AI Training

(39:59) Why L&D Should Expect a Performance Dip Before AI Pays Off

(45:43) Rapid Fire: Career Advice, Leadership, and HR's Future

Most HR leaders think a resignation starts the day someone hands in their notice. It doesn't. It starts months earlier, the moment someone decides it's no longer worth speaking up. And almost nobody in HR is measuring it.

This episode is sponsored by Deel.

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

In this episode of @thehrldpodcast, Nick Day, CEO at JGA Recruitment Group, breaks from his usual format for the first time in more than 200 episodes. There is no guest this time, just Nick, a microphone, and one idea he cannot stop thinking about. After 24 years of exit interviews and placing over 10,000 professionals across 40+ countries, he has built his own coaching framework around fear. This episode is where he unpacks it in full.

Nick introduces the idea of the fear tax, the invisible cost every organisation pays when people stop raising problems, ideas, and concerns out loud, and breaks down why silence looks like a wellbeing problem but spends like a balance sheet one. He contrasts a manager who unknowingly built a culture of fear with a leader whose team openly flagged a critical mistake before it went public, walks through his own fear equation of anxiety plus uncertainty multiplied by imagination, and explains why fear in capable people rarely looks like fear at all, instead disguising itself as caution, busy bravery, perfectionism, or imposter syndrome. He also shares the BOLD protocol, a four step method for catching fear in the three second window before it wins, backed by research from Stanford and UCLA, and gets personal about a lesson he learned the hard way with his own father.

In a world where HR is expected to protect culture, retain top talent, and prove ROI on every initiative, this episode makes the case that the biggest lever HR has never measured is right in front of them. It is whether people feel safe enough to speak.

A must-listen for HR leaders, people managers, and anyone who has ever sat in a meeting, known exactly the right thing to say, and said nothing.

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

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

Stay tuned for the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast, brought to you by Nick Day, CEO at JGA Recruitment, landing soon!

Timestamps:

(00:01) Rachel's Story: The Resignation That Started Eight Months Early

(02:16) Why Nick Broke Format for His First-Ever Solo Episode

(04:38) James: The Manager Who Built a Fear Culture Without Raising His Voice

(07:03) Naming the Fear Tax

(09:07) The Real Cost of Losing Good People

(11:31) Why Your Speak-Up Culture Is Your Talent Strategy

(13:55) Amy Edmondson's Research: Why Quiet Teams Aren't Healthy Teams

(18:32) The Fear Equation: Anxiety Plus Uncertainty, Multiplied by Imagination

(22:01) From Fear Culture to Courage Culture: James's Turnaround and Fear's Disguises

(28:41) The Courage Window and the BOLD Protocol

(35:15) HR's Blind Spot: Practicing Psychological Safety and Convincing Skeptical Leaders

(43:14) The Monday Morning Move and Closing Thoughts

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 Nelly Salinas, a global HR operations leader and Director of Global HR Operations at Accertify Inc. Nelly's path into HR started nowhere near HR. She began her career in industrial engineering and IT project management before discovering that projects rarely fail because of technology, they fail because people were never aligned in the first place. That engineering lens is exactly what she brings to global HR operations today.

Nick and Nelly explore why the future of HR will not belong to the most human leader alone, but to the hybrid leader who can connect people, process, systems, data, and strategy in one conversation. They unpack where AI is genuinely creating value in HR right now versus where organizations are mistaking experimentation for transformation, why AI can make recruiters lazy if it replaces human connection instead of freeing up time for it, and how homogenized AI written CVs are making it harder than ever to spot real talent. They also dig into the near impossible balancing act of standardizing HR processes across global regions without losing local nuance, why data literacy and change management are becoming non-negotiable skills, the ongoing debate over whether payroll should sit inside HR or finance, and what a realistic first step into agentic AI actually looks like for HR leaders who have not started yet.

In a world where HR is being asked to improve employee experience, scale global operations, adopt AI responsibly, and still deliver measurable outcomes, this episode makes the case that technology and humanity were never competing priorities. The job has always been to bring both together.

A must-listen for HR leaders, global operations professionals, and anyone trying to figure out what skills will actually matter in the next phase of HR.

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

Nelly Salinas's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nellysalinascabala/

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

Stay tuned for the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast, brought to you by Nick Day, CEO at JGA Recruitment, landing soon!

Timestamps:

(00:01) Why HR Is Asking the Wrong Question About AI

(02:46) From Industrial Engineering to Global HR Operations

(05:04) HR's Collaboration Gap With IT

(07:13) What It Means to Be a Hybrid HR Leader

(08:52) Where AI Is Actually Showing Up in HR

(10:31) Is AI Making Recruiters Lazy?

(15:28) Experimentation vs Real Transformation

(17:56) Standardizing Global HR Without Losing Local Nuance

(21:51) The Skills HR Leaders Need to Future-Proof Their Careers

(26:06) HR as Strategic Partner, Not Back Office

(29:59) Using AI and Data Analytics to Drive Real HR Insights

(31:56) Getting Started With AI and the Future of Agentic HR

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 Dr. Thom Mayer, emergency physician, crisis leader, NFL Players Association Medical Director, and bestselling author of Leadership Is Worthless But Leading Is Priceless. Having led through 9/11 at the Pentagon, the national anthrax response, and medical training on the ground in Ukraine, Dr. Mayer brings a career forged under the highest pressure imaginable to challenge everything we think we know about what it means to lead.

Nick and Dr. Mayer explore why the concept of leadership has become dangerously hollow, why every person on your team is already a leader whether you treat them that way or not, and why innovation never moves at the speed of genius but always at the speed of trust. They unpack the critical difference between bravery, courage, and tenacity, why making failure your fuel is the foundation of elite performance, how victim mentality disappears the moment people own their agency, and why calling someone a future leader is one of the most toxic things you can say. They also examine how AI is being dangerously misused as a substitute for leadership wisdom and why luck is really just a discipline meeting opportunity.

In a world where trust is eroding, burnout is rising, and pressure is relentless, this episode makes the case that the leader you have been looking for has been there all along and it is you.

A must-listen for HR leaders, L&D professionals, and anyone ready to stop talking about leadership and start actually leading.

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

Dr. Thom Mayer's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thom-mayer-md-40342024/

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

Stay tuned for the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast, brought to you by Nick Day, CEO at JGA Recruitment, landing soon!

Timestamps:

(00:01) Why Leadership Is Worthless But Leading Is Priceless

(02:09) Everyone Is Already a Leader, Not a Future One

(05:15) The We Suite vs The C Suite, Empowerment Over Hierarchy

(08:10) Vulnerability, Authenticity and Making Failure Your Fuel

(15:23) Leadership as Identity vs Leadership as Behavior

(18:12) Leading Through 9/11, the NFL and Ukraine

(22:36) Bravery, Courage and Tenacity, Three Very Different Things

(28:44) Can AI Close the Leadership Gap or Is It Widening It

(39:00) The Book and Why It Is Not Just Another Leadership Book

(43:06) Luck, Discipline and Saying Yes to the Invitation

(46:11) Limiting Beliefs and How They Hold Leaders Back

(50:24) How to Sustain Leadership Performance and Connect with Dr. Thom Mayer

In this special Enter The Vault episode of ‪@thehrldpodcast, we unlock the HR L&D vault, a curated collection of the most powerful insights, lessons, and truths shared by the brightest minds shaping the future of work.

You'll hear game-changing perspectives on trust-based leadership, skills-based hiring, imposter syndrome, fear in the workplace, building high-trust cultures, HR as a strategic function, and what it truly takes to move from command and control to trust and inspire.

From practical advice on rebuilding lost trust and professionalising HR, to deeply human lessons on vulnerability, failure, calmness under pressure, and original thinking, this episode captures the mindset shifts that separate reactive HR from truly transformational people leadership.

If you're an HR professional, CHRO, L&D leader, talent strategist, people manager, or founder navigating culture change, leadership development, and the evolving world of work, this episode is packed with timeless insights you can apply immediately.

Subscribe for more conversations redefining HR, leadership, and the future of work.

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!

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction: Welcome to the HR L&D Vault

(00:48) Everyone Is Making It Up: Imposter Syndrome at Every Level

(03:53) The One Quality Every Great Leader Has: Calm Is Strength

(07:08)Take More Risks: The Career Advice You Needed Earlier

(08:28) Skills-Based Hiring and Walking Away from CVs

(10:11) Why You Should Hire an HR Leader Sooner Than You Think

(14:36) Trust Can Be Lost But It Can Be Rebuilt Through Behaviour

(17:19) Trust and Inspire: The Leadership Model for the Modern World

(21:50) Inspiration Is the New Engagement Frontier

(31:06) How Fear Is Silently Sabotaging Your Leadership

(34:06) Failure Is Not the Opposite of Success, It Is Part of It

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 Jackie Dube, Chief People Officer at The Predictive Index, with over two decades of experience helping organizations unlock performance through behavioral science and talent optimization. Grounding her work in a simple but powerful belief, that happy, aligned people do better work and live better lives, Jackie brings both the science and the human heart to one of the most pressing challenges facing workplaces today.

Jackie brings a rare blend of behavioral expertise and people leadership into the world of HR and organizational performance. Together, Nick and Jackie explore why so many employees, despite better tools, more flexibility, and greater leadership investment than ever before, still feel a deep sense of emptiness at work, and what leaders can actually do about it.

This conversation unpacks what it truly means to align people with their work from the inside out. Nick and Jackie discuss why engagement and meaning are not the same thing, how the four behavioral drives of dominance, extraversion, patience, and formality determine what energizes or drains each employee, and why the same task can be deeply motivating for one person and completely demotivating for another. They explore how hiring for speed quietly erodes culture, why interpersonal conflicts at work are almost always behavioral mismatches rather than personality clashes, and how leaders can use the three whys technique to reconnect people to organizational purpose.

They also cover the four forces of engagement, the role of pulse surveys in detecting disengagement early, and how AI adoption is creating a new wave of workforce fear that behavioral science is uniquely equipped to address. The discussion highlights PI's J-curve framework for navigating change, why transparency around AI matters more than most leaders realize, and how understanding what drives each individual is the foundation of a truly high-performing team.

In a world shaped by remote work, rapid AI adoption, and growing disconnection, this episode examines why behavioral science may be the most practical and powerful tool HR and L&D professionals have in 2026 to restore meaning, motivation, and performance across their organizations.

A must-listen for HR leaders, L&D professionals, and anyone ready to stop guessing what their people need and start building workplaces where people are genuinely wired to thrive.

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

Connect with Jackie Dube & The Predictive Index:

Predictive Index: https://www.predictiveindex.com

Predictive Index behavioural science insights: https://www.predictiveindex.com/blog/

Jackie Dube's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-dube/

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

Stay tuned for the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast, brought to you by Nick Day, CEO at JGA Recruitment, landing soon!

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction: Why Work Feels Empty in the Modern Workplace

(01:40) Meet Jackie Dube, Chief People Officer at The Predictive Index

(02:28) Jackie's Origin Story, From Family Therapy to HR

(05:30) How Behavioral Science First Clicked for Jackie

(08:33) What Is Driving the Emptiness at Work Today

(12:44) How Organizations Unintentionally Drain Meaning from Work

(14:39) Early Warning Signs of Disengagement and How to Spot Them

(16:22) The Four Behavioral Drives and How They Shape the Way We Work

(20:13) How Behavioral Differences Create Motivation or Demotivation

(22:52) Why Engagement and Meaning Are Not the Same Thing

(27:31) AI Adoption, Workforce Fear and the J-Curve Framework

(36:01) How The Predictive Index Helps Organizations Build Meaning and Performance

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 John Peebles, CEO of Administrate, one of the leading voices in enterprise learning operations with over 15 years of experience helping large organizations fix the hidden chaos inside their training functions. Administrate is the number one Training Management System for instructor-led and virtual instructor-led training, trusted by enterprise teams around the world to plan, schedule, and scale complex training programs.

Together, Nick and John explore why L&D teams are more overwhelmed than ever despite having more tools than ever, and why the solution almost nobody is talking about has nothing to do with buying something new. The real problem, as John makes clear, is not technology. It is operations.

This conversation unpacks what training chaos actually looks like behind the scenes, why the more technology L&D teams add the worse things tend to get, how the absence of a true system of record is quietly killing training effectiveness, and why 70 to 80 percent of high-value corporate training still happens in a classroom regardless of what the e-learning industry has been promising for decades.

They also dig into the truth about training ROI, why up to 80 percent of the training budget is consumed by manual admin work nobody signed up for, and how fixing that frees teams to double or even triple their training throughput within a year, with downstream gains in retention and performance that most HR leaders never connect back to training operations.

On AI, John delivers one of the most grounded perspectives you will hear from any operator right now, covering where LLMs genuinely add value, where they fall short, and why operational clarity remains the real competitive advantage that winning L&D teams will be built on in 2026 and beyond.

A must-listen for HR leaders, L&D professionals, and anyone ready to stop letting fear make their decisions for them and start building the kind of courage that moves teams, careers, and organisations forward.

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

Connect with John Peebles LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnjpeebles/

John Peebles Website: https://bit.ly/4dkz7mm

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

Stay tuned for the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast, brought to you by Nick Day, CEO at JGA Recruitment, landing soon!

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction: Is Your Training Problem Really a Technology Problem?

(01:29) Meet John Peebles: CEO of Administrate

(02:00) What Human Resources Really Means

(03:36) How John Discovered Training Operations Were Broken

(06:12) What Training Chaos Actually Looks Like Behind the Scenes

(08:18) Why More Tools Are Making Things Worse

(12:26) The Right Tool for the Right Job: A Framework for L&D Leaders

(16:24) The Case for Instructor-Led Training (The Data Might Surprise You)

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 Bill Flynn, business growth coach, ten-time startup veteran, and best-selling author of Further, Faster and the upcoming Hero Trap. With over 30 years of experience advising hundreds of companies and leaders, Bill brings a bold and provocative perspective to one of the most overlooked problems in leadership development today: leadership centrality.

Bill challenges the assumption that better leaders automatically means better organizations. Together, Nick and Bill explore why decades of leadership development investment have failed to move the needle on employee engagement, why the behaviors that make individuals successful so often become the very things that hold their organizations back, and why the real measure of great leadership is how well the organization runs without you.

This conversation unpacks what the Hero Trap really is and why so many leaders fall into it without ever realizing it. Nick and Bill discuss why organizations need to move from creating followers to building members, how mission sustains what inspiration starts, and why the most dangerous single point of failure in any business is often the leader at the top. They also explore the three-stage journey from Controller to Builder to Architect, the neuroscience behind why leaders love being the hero, and why HR professionals should stop asking for a seat at the table because they are the table.

In a world shaped by fragility, burnout, and over-dependence on heroic leadership, this episode delivers the mindset shifts and practical frameworks every HR and L&D professional needs in 2026, including how to design organizations that scale beyond any single leader, how to build a culture of membership over followership, and how to make yourself unnecessary in the best possible way.

A must-listen for HR leaders, L&D professionals, and anyone ready to move from being the hero to becoming the architect of something that lasts.

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

Connect with Bill Flynn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billflynnpublic/

Bill Flynn's website: www.catalystgrowthadvisors.com

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

Stay tuned for the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast, brought to you by Nick Day, CEO at JGA Recruitment, landing soon!

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction: Why Leadership Centrality Is Breaking Organizations

(01:27) What "Human Resources" Really Means

(03:40) The Problem with 50 Years of Leadership Development

(07:41) What Every Great Leader Actually Has in Common

(14:42) The Hero Trap: The Paradox of Success

(18:55) Why Promoting Your Best People Often Backfires

(24:04) From Followers to Members: Why Mission Gets It Done

(27:04) The Controller, Builder, Architect Model

(34:35) Why Purpose Is What Sustains a Business

(42:20) The Neuroscience Behind the Hero Trap

(49:29) The Reframe Every HR Leader Needs to Hear

(52:33) Bill Flynn's Work, Books, and What's Coming Next

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 Britain Stelly, founder of Creature Courage and one of the UK's leading experts in phobia therapy and fear transformation, featured on Good Morning Britain, Sky News, BBC Radio 2, and ITV. With over a decade of experience helping thousands of people break free from deep-rooted fears, Britain is now bringing that proven science directly into the workplace.

Britain brings a rare combination of exotic animal husbandry, clinical anxiety coaching, and over a decade of live exposure therapy into the world of leadership and organisational development. Together, Nick and Britain explore why fear is the most underrated and underdiagnosed cost inside organisations today, and why the gap between a good team and a high-performing one almost always comes down to the fears nobody is talking about.

This conversation unpacks what it truly means to overcome fear from the inside out. Nick and Britain discuss why avoidance never makes fear smaller, only louder, how the caveman brain is quietly sabotaging your team's decisions and conversations every single day, and why exposure therapy creates lasting transformation that no lecture, workshop, or wellbeing initiative ever could. They explore why psychological safety cannot be built on comfort alone, why the most effective leaders are the ones willing to face fear openly, and how a single shared experience of courage can transform the culture of an entire team.

They also explore the neuroscience behind why you cannot think your way out of fear, why the amygdala and prefrontal cortex must be shown rather than told, and how Britain's Reject, Reframe, Replace technique gives individuals a practical tool to interrupt anxiety at the thought level. The discussion highlights why imposter syndrome is just fear wearing a professional disguise, why failure is a primitive survival instinct that modern leaders must learn to override, and how vulnerability in leadership is not a weakness but the most respected quality a leader can possess.

In a world where anxiety is at an all-time high and teams are growing more disengaged, this episode examines why fear transformation may be the most important investment HR and L&D leaders can make in 2026, and how organizations that build cultures of courage will outperform those that simply manage comfort.

A must-listen for HR leaders, L&D professionals, and anyone ready to stop letting fear make their decisions for them and start building the kind of courage that moves teams, careers, and organizations forward.

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

Connect with Britain Stelly & Creature Courage: 🌐 Website: creaturecourage.co

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

Stay tuned for the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast, brought to you by Nick Day, CEO at JGA Recruitment, landing soon!

Timestamps:

(00:00) Most Teams Aren't Held Back by Skill, They're Held Back by Fear

(01:47) Meet Britain Stelly: The UK's Leading Fear Transformation Expert

(06:04) The Caveman Brain: Why Your Mind Is Wired to Keep You Stuck

(09:44) How Avoidance Makes Fear Worse (And What to Do Instead)

(11:46) Bringing Fear Science Into the Workplace

(15:06) Why Exposure Therapy Works When Nothing Else Does

(19:12) Inside a Creature Courage Corporate Session

(26:39) The Neuroscience of Fear: Amygdala vs. Prefrontal Cortex

(31:40) You Are Not Your Fear: How to Separate Yourself from Your Caveman

(36:44) Reject, Reframe, Replace: A Practical Tool You Can Use Today

(43:48) Britain's Services: 1-to-1, Corporate Workshops & Events

(47:22) Career Lessons, Leadership Fears & One Piece of Advice for 2026

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 Michael Campion, executive coach, corporate trainer, motivational speaker, and host of the Playing the Inner Game podcast, with over two decades of experience helping leaders, executives, and high performers communicate with clarity, confidence, and impact.

Michael brings a rare combination of professional sport, investment banking, and 15 years on the global speaking circuit into the world of leadership communication. Together, Nick and Michael explore why communication is the single most overlooked skill in HR and leadership development, and why the gap between a good leader and a great one almost always comes down to how well they can communicate, influence, and connect.

This conversation unpacks what it truly means to master the art of communication from the inside out. Nick and Michael discuss why talent is nothing more than practice in disguise, how preparation is the real source of confidence on stage, and why the spotlight effect is quietly destroying the impact of otherwise brilliant leaders. They explore why most professionals have never received a single hour of public speaking or presentation training, and why that gap is costing organizations more than they realize.

They also explore how elite communicators listen just as powerfully as they speak, why reading the room is a skill that separates good presenters from exceptional ones, and how the deepest wounds in our personal story often sit right next to our greatest strengths. The discussion highlights why most presentations fail not because of poor content but because of poor emotional design, and how shifting the question from what do I want to say to how do I want them to feel changes everything.

In a world where AI is rapidly commoditizing information and content, this episode examines why human communication has never been more valuable, why effort and personalization are the ultimate costly signals in business, and how HR and L&D professionals can invest in the one skill that touches every part of their role.

A must-listen for HR leaders, L&D professionals, and anyone ready to stop leaving their communication potential on the table and start showing up with the presence, preparation, and emotional intelligence their message deserves.

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

Connect with Michael Campion: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelxcampion/

Michael Campion's website: www.michaelxcampion.com

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

Stay tuned for the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast, brought to you by Nick Day, CEO at JGA Recruitment, landing soon!

Timestamp:

(00:00) Introduction and Welcome to the HR L&D Podcast

(02:10) What Human Resources Means to Michael Campion

(03:59) From Banking to Football to Executive Coach

(08:46) Purpose, Curiosity, and Why "Follow Your Passion" Is Bad Advice

(16:52) How to Nail Your Next Presentation: Strategies for HR Leaders

(24:03) The Art of Listening in Public Speaking

(29:11) Energy, Effort, and the Two-Way Street of Communication

(36:48) What Michael's Corporate Workshops Actually Cover

(41:46) AI, Human Connection, and the Costly Signal

(47:09) Designing Emotion, Not Slides

(51:47) HR Vault: Michael's Rapid Fire Advice

(55:12) Michael's Greatest Skill and Its Dark Side