An Interview With Hayley Dawson from Let’s Talk Human Skills
Let’s Talk Human: An Interview with Dr. Hayley Dawson
In a world of fast-paced work and rising automation, one thing remains essential: human connection.
Dr. Hayley Dawson, founder of Let’s Talk Human Skills, is on a mission to bring relational intelligence back into the workplace. With a background spanning education, translation, and research, she’s developed a practical, research-backed curriculum that helps people build the skills we’re rarely taught—like confidence, communication, and collaboration.
In this conversation, Hayley shares:
What most workplaces get wrong about connection
How small, everyday actions build genuine relationships
Why emotional and relational skills are just as critical as technical ones
How she’s using her experience to build a new kind of human skills education
If you’ve ever felt like your workplace could use more humanity and less burnout, this one’s for you.
You’ve had a career as an educator, translator and researcher. How has it impacted your approach to Let’s Talk Human Skills?
My career has been full of work that required technical ability. Lesson planning as an English teacher, command of language as a Spanish translator, timing and accuracy as a subtitler and data analysis as a researcher.
I’ve had 16 jobs across 4 sectors, held 2 leadership positions, and collaborated with hundreds of people.
Two years ago, I noticed a pattern… The people who did well at work, who were well respected, who had influence, who were listened to, who got stuff done, who created a positive impact, and who were promoted, all had strong human skills.
And I thought, “I can do something with this”.
Because I’d experienced this myself too. What made a difference in my career wasn’t what I knew. It was how I connected, communicated and influenced others.
I did well as an educator, translator and researcher not only because I had the technical skills, but also because I knew how to work well with other people. Now, helping other people work well together is a core outcome of my work.
Let’s Talk Human Skills has become a research-backed curriculum so that definitely ticks the educator and researcher boxes. And I might translate it into Spanish one day to tick that translator box!
You note how we’re craving workplaces where we understand each other and work well together. What’s one mistake you keep seeing within workplaces you support?
Recently, I’ve been seeing that we don’t set aside time to think carefully about how we communicate or build relationships with people. But I think AI has given us an opportunity to do so
I like to ask people, “If AI saves you time, how are you spending your extra time?”
People usually say they’re smashing through more fast-paced work. I think we could use the time more wisely to connect with others instead.
This doesn’t mean not working. It means having the difficult conversation you’ve been putting off. It means carefully reviewing someone’s work and giving them honest feedback. It means going for a walk with your coworkers in the sun while you chat about work.
If we use AI to make room for considered human connection at work, our days could feel a lot brighter. As a side note to my work, I encourage people to create that kind of space in the workplace. It works well.
How do you run your workshops?
It’s no good me standing in front of a group of people and talking for hours on end. It’s boring and many of us don’t enjoy learning in that way.
Instead, I like to share an idea, then lead an activity to put it into practise, then facilitate a discussion around that topic.
I believe that we can use science and research to learn human skills, so the majority of ideas I share are backed by fascinating research.
Stories also form an important part of the workshops I run because we learn best through stories, especially when they’re based on experiences from the people around us. Hearing people’s wins, mistakes and lessons when it comes to human skills works really well to build genuine connection between coworkers inside the workshop too.
How do employees build genuine workplace relationships? Where does it all start?
It starts with a willingness to want to connect with your coworkers.
Six years ago, I used to manage someone who didn’t want to talk about her work. She was rude, didn’t engage in conversation with others and made it quite clear how she felt about our team. Whenever I’d address the way she showed up to work, she’d say, “I don’t come to work to make friends, Hayley”. I'd feel sad hearing this because why would you pay the least attention to the people you spend the most time with?
Once you’re willing to connect with your coworkers, it comes down to things like: taking an interest in a project someone is working on, inviting someone to a coffee catch up, sparking engaging conversations, sharing your mistakes and learnings, mentoring someone more junior, or seeking mentorship from someone more senior.
Genuine relationships aren’t built overnight, they’re built from the small moves we make to connect with people.
