The SME Stream

How do you become the kind of leader people genuinely want to follow?
In this episode of HR Unlocked, Lisa Oakley sits down with Laurent Sylvestre to explore leadership, trust, human dynamics, executive development, and what it really takes to lead well.
Laurent challenges the traditional view of HR and People & Culture, emphasising that leaders ultimately own people and culture, while People & Culture professionals help create the conditions for people to thrive.
The conversation explores the importance of knowing your people, having meaningful conversations about skills and aspirations, and aligning individual potential with business outcomes.
A key theme is congruence — understanding who you are, the leader you want to become, and whether the organisation you work for aligns with your values and ambitions.
Laurent also shares his three levels of leadership: leading self, leading others, and leading the enterprise, alongside insights on high-performing teams, trust, executive wellbeing, CEO pressures, and navigating change with greater agency.
What You’ll Learn
Why Laurent once declared “HR is dead” and what he meant
Why People & Culture is about impact, not labels
What it means for HR to act as a curator * Why leaders need to truly know their people
How talent reviews can become dynamic and commercially useful
Why employee aspirations should connect to business outcomes
How Laurent’s experiences shaped his interest in human dynamics
The difference between HR process and what happens “under the waterline”
Why authenticity and congruence matter in leadership * Why difficult experiences can strengthen leadership capability
How to assess whether a role or organisation is right for you
Why diversity matters in high-performing leadership teams
The importance of leading self before leading others
How leading self, others, and the enterprise connect
Key Takeaways
The future of HR is not about changing the label. It is about increasing its impact on people, leadership, culture, and business outcomes.
Leaders own people and culture. People & Culture professionals help curate the environment in which both can thrive.
Knowing your people means understanding aspirations, capabilities, potential, and what matters to them — not just performance.
Talent conversations should be ongoing and linked to organisational outcomes rather than happening once a year.
Sustainable leadership requires alignment between who you are, how you lead, and the organisation you work within.
Career success on paper does not automatically equal fulfilment. Before pursuing a bigger role, leaders should ask what they are actually trying to achieve. You cannot lead others well without first understanding yourself. Leading the enterprise requires self-leadership and genuine followership.
High-performing teams need clear definitions of performance, strong individual contribution, disciplined behaviours, and trust.
Professional intimacy helps maintain trust when performance dips because people will not always be perfectly credible or reliable.
Many executive team problems are not individual capability issues, but problems with how people work together. CEOs are increasingly focused on boards, executive team effectiveness, staying connected to the organisation, and their own wellbeing.
About Laurent Sylvestre
Laurent Sylvestre is a leadership and human dynamics specialist, CEO, and founder who works with executives, senior leaders, and leadership teams.
His career spans Human Resources, People & Culture, executive leadership, and organisational development across Europe and Asia Pacific.
His work focuses on self-leadership, team dynamics, trust, organisational culture, and high performance.
After a long corporate career, Laurent moved into entrepreneurship to align his work more closely with his purpose and strengths. He works particularly with CEOs, managing directors, executive teams, and senior leaders.
Why This Episode Matters
Leadership expectations continue to grow as leaders navigate changing markets, board pressure, complex teams, technology, employee expectations, and uncertainty.
This episode brings leadership back to the individual, exploring identity, purpose, trust, relationships, and the kind of leader we want to become. Laurent also challenges HR and People & Culture professionals to look beyond processes and understand the human dynamics behind performance, conflict, trust, and change.
Whether you’re an HR professional, executive, business owner, senior leader, or considering your next career move, this conversation offers practical insights for leading yourself, strengthening relationships, and helping people and organisations perform at their best.
Resources & Links
Laurent Sylvestre: https://laurentsylvestre.com
Connect with Laurent Sylvestre on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurentsylvestre/
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Diving deeper on one of episode 8's topic. Mike and Scott dig into the real mechanics of funding a business - when you actually need outside money, and what trading time, margin or control really means. Over Garage Project's Mon P'tit Chou and a steak and mushroom pie from Gladstone Butchery, they map out loans, VC and everything in between.

You'll learn:
-The three ways to fund growth - revenue, borrowing, or equity - and what you trade away with each;
-Why hitting a growth cliff is usually a sign your supply or delivery is the real constraint, not a lack of demand;
-How loan terms actually work - term, security and interest rate - and why a mortgage and a payday loan sit at opposite ends of the same spectrum;
-What VCs actually want to know before they write a cheque, and why your due diligence on them matters just as much as theirs on you;
-and why showing what you've already built with $5K-$50K of your own money is often more persuasive than a perfect pitch deck.

Beer: Garage Project Mon P'tit Chou - French Farmhouse Ale (5.0%)
Pie: Gladstone Butchery - Steak and Mushroom

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In business, and in the innovation game, experience is valuable. But sometimes, not knowing how exactly things are supposed to be done can be a superpower.
This week’s episode of The Business of Tech celebrates three young New Zealand designers tackling problems that established businesses have overlooked, with fresh eyes, tight budgets and a willingness to ask basic questions.
Sophie West, the national winner of the 2026 James Dyson Award, (with around $10,000 in accompanying prize money), and runners-up Jos Williams and Aysha Jay are engineers and designers with big ideas – and small budgets. Their inventions address sustainable menstrual care, indoor air quality, and movement therapy for children with cerebral palsy.
Better period products
Massey University graduate West won with Arla Gen II, a compact device designed to clean and sterilise reusable menstrual cups and discs. It tackles an awkward barrier to adoption: boiling period products in a shared kitchen.
West surveyed 105 users and repeatedly tested how the device would feel, fit together and fit into daily routines. Her approach puts privacy and practicality alongside engineering, rather than treating them as afterthoughts.
Williams, a Victoria University of Wellington graduate, found inspiration while cycling beside a motorway, breathing traffic fumes.
His Windfilter harnesses something Wellington has in abundance. An outdoor turbine transfers rotational energy magnetically through a window to an indoor fan, drawing air through wool filters. No mains electricity or holes in the wall required.
It challenges the assumption that solving a problem always means adding batteries, electronics, or greater complexity.
Canterbury graduate Jay’s Path Finder is an adjustable device intended to guide crawling movements for children aged two to six with cerebral palsy, potentially reducing a task involving several therapists to one.
Learning to crawl
Working with the Centre of Movement, she observed therapy sessions rather than assuming she understood what children, parents and clinicians needed.
“I don’t know anything, so I need to go find out,” she says, describing the mindset behind her research.
Jay built her proof of concept with a budget of about $50, inexpensive components, and help from university technicians.
None of these inventions is a finished commercial product. Further testing, funding and development lie ahead. The graduates also describe a tough employment market, but a desire to stay in New Zealand and pursue their projects here.
West, Williams, and Jay now progress to the international award stage, with the top 20 international finalists announced on October 14 and the winners, chosen by Sir James Dyson, revealed on November 4.
Listen to the full interview with the Dyson Award winner and runners-up on The Business of Tech, streaming on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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You don’t need years of industry experience to build a successful product brand.
I had never worked in a salon, formulated a haircare product or built an electrical product before starting Tidal Hair. In 2023, the brand did $5.6 million in annual revenue.
In this episode of Make It Happen, I break down exactly how I entered an industry I knew almost nothing about and built a multi-million-dollar brand. From spotting the opportunity and finding a manufacturer on Alibaba, to launching with one hero product, working with influencers and expanding into the US market.
I also share the parts that were much harder to figure out: compliance, product development, Amazon, international fulfilment and the mistakes that cost me time and money. Plus, the three-step framework I’d use today to enter a completely new industry (and what I would do differently if I were starting again!).
If you’ve ever thought, “I don’t know enough about this industry to start,” this episode might change the way you think about building your next business.
Ready to take your business further?
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📣 Share this episode with a business owner who has a product idea but thinks they don’t have enough industry experience to make it happen.
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When the price of moving goods around New Zealand rises, who picks up the bill?
Increasing fuel prices are putting pressure on the trucking industry, with fuel now accounting for up to 30% of operating costs.
And that cost can travel far beyond the petrol pump, into the price of groceries and other everyday essentials.
So how much can freight companies absorb, and how much gets passed onto us?
Today on The Front Page, I talk to Justin Tighe-Umbers, CEO of National Road Carriers about the squeeze on trucking and what his industry wants from the next government.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Katie Bradford
Editor/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Jane Yee
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