“I'm always surprised that nobody seems to be worried that we're investing since 70, 80 years, huge amounts of money in training and development, leadership courses... And despite that, we only have... 23% engaged employees around the world, 11% if you go to Europe... So either managers are stupid, or they do it on purpose, or we don't give them what they need... The managers... the ones that I thought were losing a lot of impact, were most of the time, ego-system driven... Those guys, however good they were, systematically got less than the managers... who were... actually putting the employee at the centre, looking for empowerment... the eco-system ones, the respectful, the servant leader kind of ones...” S04E08 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Reggy-Charles Degen to explore the intersection of HR, leadership, and scalable frameworks for people success. Reggy is the founder of Q7Leader, a professor at Solvay Business School in Brussels, and author of The People Model Canvas. With over 20 years in international HR and 12 years as an entrepreneur in HR tech, Reggy shares how his legal and academic background shaped his mission to bridge the gap between managers and employees. He introduces the seven dimensions of the People Model Canvas, explains why HR must evolve from theory to engineering, and challenges traditional views on leadership, performance, and culture. This episode is a masterclass in rethinking how organizations support their people. 📢 Do you want to build a high-performance culture? It all starts here: www.rethinkculture.co Production, video, and audio editing by Evangelia Alexaki of Musicove Productions. Listen to this episode to discover:• Why HR needs an engineering mindset, not just empathy• The 7 core elements every HR system must include• How the People Model Canvas helps managers scale support• Why competence is the true asset of an organization in the age of rapid change and AI• The difference between ego- and eco-system leadership• Why performance enablement beats performance evaluation• How to equip managers with simple, scalable frameworks• Why HR must prove value in attracting, developing, and retaining talent• How open-source tools can democratize great HR practices• Why HR must master the basics before leading culture work Further resources:• The Q7Leader Website: https://www.q7leader.com/ • Reggy-Charles on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdegen • People Model Canvas: https://www.peoplemodelcanvas.com/ Chapters:00:00 — Introduction to Reggy-Charles Degen01:58 — Reggy’s journey from law to HR03:18 — Transitioning from HR to entrepreneurship05:16 — Why HR fails to support managers effectively06:53 — Overview of the People Model Canvas10:41 — Aha moments from using the framework12:25 — Lessons from building the model over 12 years13:58 — How HR professionals can use the Canvas16:12 — Leadership mistakes and best practices18:17 — Ego-system vs eco-system leadership21:13 — The undervalued role of HR in strategy24:54 — HR vs culture: where the lines blur27:57 — Why managers need frameworks to scale31:33 — What students thank Reggy for35:13 — What Reggy had to rethink personally37:00 — What's stopping Reggy from the best work of his life38:36 — What CEOs should hear about people-first leadership
