Episode 173

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Published on:

27th Jan 2026

3 Qualities That Make A Great Leader with Andrea Lynn

This episode is sponsored by 'Deel.

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


Leadership isn’t built through authority, strategy, or performance alone. It’s built from the inside out.

In this episode of the HR L&D Podcast, Nick Day is joined by Andrea Lynn, intuitive mindset coach and host of Wake Up Your Soul, for a deep conversation on what truly makes great leaders.

Drawing from Andrea’s life-altering health experiences and years of coaching leaders, the discussion explores how mindset, intuition, and self-awareness shape resilient, human-centered leadership. They unpack why emotional ownership matters more than control, how silence and reflection improve decision-making, and why values-led leadership creates stronger connection, trust, and fulfillment at work.

This episode is for HR and L&D leaders who want to lead with clarity, empathy, and conviction, without burning out or losing themselves in the process.



Connect with Andrea

Website: andrealynnintuitive.com

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/andrealynnintuitive/?hl=en

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 and Intro

(02:24) What Human Resources Should Really Stand For

(03:17) Near-Death Experiences That Changed Everything

(08:29) Self-Leadership Before Leading Others

(13:14) Turning Pain Into Power

(17:39) Emotional Ownership and Reframing Events

(20:01) Identifying Values to Create Fulfillment

(22:37) Intuition as a Leadership Skill

(26:39) The Power of Silence and Mental Space

(29:28) Stories of Extreme Resilience and Meaning

(35:22) The Bigger Mission Behind Wake Up Your Soul

(38:46) Daily Practices to Build Intuition and Self-Awareness

(42:19) Advice for HR and L&D Leaders






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About the Podcast

The HR L&D Podcast
Leadership, recruitment, culture. Conversations with HR's best
HR gets handed the problems nobody else wants to own. The restructure, the grievance, the engagement survey that came back badly. And then gets asked why people are leaving.

I'm Nick Day. I run an HR recruitment agency, which means I spend most of my week on the phone to HR directors and people leaders talking about what the job is actually like rather than what's written on the job spec. This show came out of those calls. I kept hearing things worth repeating, and nobody was repeating them.

Every week I sit down with HR leaders, chief people officers, L&D specialists and the occasional academic who has changed how I think about work. We get into leadership, and what happens when someone brilliant at the technical side gets promoted into managing humans.

Employee engagement past the survey score. Diversity, equity and inclusion in a climate where saying those words out loud has become a decision in itself. Pay transparency, talent management, reducing bias in hiring, HR digital transformation and the HCM systems everyone is being sold. And of course we cannot forget HR AI tools and platforms that are flooding the landscape as AI in HR becomes a hot topic every people leader is keen to understand and leverage.

Wellbeing comes up constantly, and it usually turns into the same question. Who looks after the HR team.

I'm not an HR practitioner and I don't pretend to be. I'm the person who hires them, which puts me in a useful position. I get to ask the obvious question that everyone in the room already knows the answer to and nobody says.

No script and no polite version. Mostly it's the conversation you'd have with someone doing your job at a different company, if you ever got the chance to sit down with them.

If you work in HR, people management or L&D, or you're building a career in it, start by subscribing to The HR L&D Podcast. We have had guests including Stephen Covey, Alan Stein Jnr, Andrea Wareham and Dr. Thom Mayer among other HR Leaders who are shaping the future of work and leadership.

Need HR staff? I run JGA Recruitment, an HR and payroll recruitment agency. www.jgarecruitment.com or info@jgarecruitment.com

Want to be on the show? Nick@jgadigital.com

If payroll is closer to your world, I also host The Payroll Podcast, the most listened to payroll show in the world.

Topics include HR leadership, people management, employee engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI strategy, AI, talent management, HR digital transformation, HCM, staff wellbeing, pay transparency, reducing bias, L&D and HR recruitment.

About your host

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Nick Day