Greg Dyke, in conversation with Adam Kirtley, gives frank insights into what it means to be a leader and what is key. Greg explains how important the way people are managed is to the success of the business and wonders why this doesn’t always happen. He goes on to explain the qualities of a good leader and how to assess success, using a personal, nightmarish situation to illustrate the point. Selling change is key to employee engagement with the process. Experience at the NHS had an impact on how he achieved change at the BBC. Greg explains the cost- effective strategies he used to improve relationships, enabling him to get agreement on some tough decisions. Leadership training, Greg says, is a must for supporting managers in their jobs. He then tells us how he used ‘public money’ to build a more caring culture and describes the cost benefits of doing so, despite repeated media criticism. At LWT, big, unpleasant changes needed to be made to the company. This was done using a sensible long-term view and treating people properly. Greg tells Adam how he views the differing roles of line managers and HR managers and explains why HR was centralised at the BBC. We hear that encouraging a culture where risk and innovation are important and that getting information to everyone, especially in a big organisation like the BBC, is crucial. Adam asks Greg about his failures. Not following ‘rules’ has had mixed results in his career at the top. He also concedes that impatience is, to some extent, a weakness. Finally, hear Greg’s two top tips that listeners should follow to win at leadership.