Send us a text

If you’ve ever wondered whether psychological safety is a soft sentiment or a hard performance driver, this conversation brings the receipts. With Professor Adrian Furnham and Dr Amanda Potter, we unpack what psychological safety really means, how to measure it well, and why trust—not cleverness—predicts whether people speak up, challenge ideas, and share hard truths when it counts.

We go beyond the generic “I feel safe” survey item and show how short, validated psychometrics turn a fuzzy concept into a practical dashboard leaders can use. You’ll hear how factor models, convergent and divergent validity, and predictive links tie safety to outcomes like performance, commitment, burnout, and turnover. We explore the human layer too: why secure attachment supports voice, how avoidant and anxious patterns reduce candour, and where personality nudges behaviour without defining destiny. Expect clear answers to tricky questions about anonymity, 360 pitfalls, and how a single leadership change can swing team safety in a week.

We also dive into the traps of groupthink and the quiet tax of imposter moments, drawing lines between silence, poor decisions, and missed ideas from people closest to the work. Then we get practical: why a 20‑item pulse beats two vague questions, how to spot meaningful variance within teams, and what to do when trust is thin. From resilience training to structured dissent (pre‑mortems, red teams, rotating devil’s advocate), we lay out habits that make candour safe and useful.

If you want a culture where people tell you what you need to hear, not what they think you want to hear, this is your playbook. Subscribe, share with a manager who needs it, and leave a review telling us one behaviour that makes you feel safe to speak up.

Episodes are available here https://www.thecpo.co.uk/

To follow Zircon on LinkedIn and to be first to hear about podcasts, publications and news, please like and follow us: https://www.linkedin.com/company/betalent-by-zircon/

To access the research white papers mentioned in this and other podcasts, please go to: https://www.betalent.com/research

For more information about the BeTalent suite of tools and platform please contact: Hello@BeTalent.com

Send us a text

A million more people are now economically inactive for health reasons than just a few years ago, and once an employee has been on sick leave for a year or more, the chance of returning drops to around 3%. That is not a wellness statistic. It is a warning light for businesses, communities and the economy and it is the spark for this conversation with Poppie Foakes, Director of Product and Innovation at the Retail Trust, and our Chief Psychology Officer, Dr Amanda Potter.

We unpack how prevention beats crisis by design. Poppie explains how the Retail Trust supports a dispersed, shift‑based workforce with tools that actually fit real lives: de‑escalation and resilience training for frontline abuse, virtual GPs that work around rotas, online CBT, and financial coaching that targets the number one anxiety driver in retail. We dig into the evidence, linking preventive investment to lower absenteeism, reduced presenteeism, and fewer leavers critical in a sector where replacing a colleague can cost around £5,000. We also explore why health inequalities persist between head office and store teams, and how simple changes in access and language can close that gap.

The conversation gets practical. We share the three culture levers that keep people, fair pay, a strong line manager relationship, and clear purpose and show how they map to psychological safety. Poppie takes us inside their data engine: happiness assessments that generate personal action plans, platform analytics that surface early risk, and emerging agentic AI that recommends targeted campaigns by role, region or demographic. We talk about the Keep Britain Working Review and a future where employers are incentivised or mandated to handle prevention, potentially shrinking a £15 billion annual burden on benefits and healthcare that could rise to £25 billion by 2030.

If you lead people, manage a store, or shape HR strategy, you will come away with actionable ideas: train line managers to signpost not shoulder, normalise de‑escalation skills for every frontline worker, make financial education part of culture, and put colleague sentiment on the agenda next to sales. And if you are personally feeling the strain, you will hear small, realistic habits to set boundaries, protect energy, and find one daily moment of joy that keeps you steady.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow and subscribe, share this episode with a colleague who needs it, and leave a quick review so more leaders can build healthier, happier, high‑performing teams.

Episodes are available here https://www.thecpo.co.uk/

To follow Zircon on LinkedIn and to be first to hear about podcasts, publications and news, please like and follow us: https://www.linkedin.com/company/betalent-by-zircon/

To access the research white papers mentioned in this and other podcasts, please go to: https://www.betalent.com/research

For more information about the BeTalent suite of tools and platform please contact: Hello@BeTalent.com

Send us a text

Complexity is rising, expectations are colliding, and the old playbook is running out of pages. We sit down with author and applied researcher Amy Walters Cohen to unpack the core idea behind her book Ruthlessly Caring to understand how leaders can deliver more value when they replace either-or choices with both-and mindsets that match today’s messy reality.

We start by mapping the megatrends shaping work for example, ageing populations, climate pressure, AI, regulatory shifts, and why they demand a step change in how we decide, communicate, and execute. From there, we break down five paradox mindsets that help leaders hold tension without freezing: ruthlessly caring (making hard calls with real compassion), confidently humble (projecting credible direction while admitting what you don’t know), politically virtuous (coupling ethics with savvy influence), ambitiously appreciative (sustaining high standards with renewal and gratitude), and responsibly daring (protecting the enterprise while innovating with smart guardrails).

Amy shares practical ways to find the sweet spot for each paradox, not a bland compromise, but just enough of both poles to work under pressure. We talk psychological safety, radical candour, and how senior behaviour sets unwritten rules faster than any policy. You’ll hear how to diagnose overplayed and underplayed tendencies, why team diversity helps but doesn’t replace personal growth, and how to start with small, targeted habits that compound into culture change. Whether you lead a regulated function, a fast-scaling team, or a complex portfolio, you’ll come away with a sharper language for trade-offs and a toolkit for better decisions.

Enjoy the conversation? Subscribe, leave a quick review, and share this episode with a leader who’s balancing tough choices this week. Your feedback helps more people find thoughtful, evidence-based leadership content.

Episodes are available here https://www.thecpo.co.uk/

To follow Zircon on LinkedIn and to be first to hear about podcasts, publications and news, please like and follow us: https://www.linkedin.com/company/betalent-by-zircon/

To access the research white papers mentioned in this and other podcasts, please go to: https://www.betalent.com/research

For more information about the BeTalent suite of tools and platform please contact: Hello@BeTalent.com