Episode 135

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Published on:

13th Aug 2024

The Importance of Leadership & Crisis Management in High-Stakes Environments with Dr. Thom Mayer

This episode of the HR L&D Podcast is sponsored by Deel, the all-in-one Global People Platform that simplifies how you manage the entire global team lifecycle. Hire and onboard talent in over 150 countries in minutes. Run payroll in over 100 countries with one click. Offer competitive benefits, equipment, and equity from a single dashboard. From contractors, direct employees, EOR, and more, you can manage them all in one place with Deel.

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On today’s episode of the HR L&D podcast, your host Nick Day from JGA Recruitment sits down with Dr. Thom Mayer, a crisis management expert known for his significant roles such as the Medical Director for the NFL Players Association and a Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University. Notable for his leadership during the 9/11 Pentagon Rescue Operations and his innovative approach to sports medicine in the NFL, particularly around concussion management.


In this episode, we cover:

  • Crisis Leadership: The critical role of leadership in times of crisis, with insights from Dr. Thom Mayer's experience during the 9-11 Pentagon rescue operation and his work with the NFL Players Association.
  • Innovation and Trust: How innovation must occur at the speed of trust and why fostering a trusting environment is essential for effective innovation.
  • Leadership vs. Leading: The distinction between leadership as a title and the act of leading, highlighting that everyone in an organisation has the potential to lead.
  • Team Re-Recruitment: The importance of re-recruiting and coaching team members to maintain a positive, motivated, and high-performing workforce.
  • Cultural Integrity: The gap between organisational slogans and actual practices, stressing the importance of aligning values with actions.
  • Coaching in Leadership: The role of coaching in leadership, with practical strategies for guiding teams through challenges.



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Connect with Dr. Thom Mayer:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thom-mayer-md-40342024/


Connect with Nick Day:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickday/



Of course, if you are an HR or L&D professional listening to this podcast and you have an HR, HRIS or L&D related vacancy that you would love some specialist HR recruitment support with – please also get in touch with me! I would love to help show you what a great HR recruitment experience feels like! You can reach out to me directly at nick@jgarecruitment.com or give me a call – 01727800377.


Thanks for listening folks – I look forward to bringing you the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast real soon!



(00:00) Preview and Introduction 

(02:57) Dr. Thom Mayer's Background and Career Highlights

(04:54) What Human Resources Means to Dr. Thom Mayer

(07:05) What is Crisis Leadership?

(11:51) Trust and Innovation: Leading with Confidence

(14:52) Preparation vs. Instinct in Crisis Leadership

(16:18) Practical Strategies for Leading During Crises

(19:09) Building Relationships vs. Building Resumes

(21:15) The Role of Kindness in Leadership

(24:20) Slogans vs. Actions: Creating Authentic Culture

(28:07) Finding Your Deep Joy in Work

(31:01) How to Cultivate a Positive Mindset

(33:50) Using Failure as Fuel for Success

(37:08) How to Build Expert Teams

(42:58) Addressing Misunderstood Roles

(44:51) Coaching as the New Leadership

(48:06) How to Apply Leadership Principles

(50:56) Are You Crazy Enough to Lead?

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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, HR leaders and people leaders talking about what the job is actually like rather than what's written on the job spec. This HR Podcast 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 and people engagement. 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, workplace culture, retention, people management, employee engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI strategy, AI for HR, AI recruitment tools, 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