Yesterday, we saw a model of leadership being demonstrated at this conference that is likely, as the 21st century goes on, to kick most of the egotistical autocrats into oblivion – but if you weren't concentrating, you might have missed it.

Everyone knows that Terry Leahy turned Tesco into one of the UK's most successful businesses despite having a famously low-profile personality. What stood out during Leahy's opening plenary presentation was his clarity and the force of his belief in two things: Tesco's values, and its people.

For the man who was arguably Britain's most successful-ever chief executive until he retired in March, the goal of good leadership is to inspire trust and confidence. Most people, he said, are not naturally confident. They need inspiring and encouraging. "That's mainly all I did – make the people in the organisation feel better about themselves and able to take on new challenges," he said.

A still more forceful statement of these enabling principles came from the second ceo of the day – masterclass speaker William Rogers of commercial radio operator UKRD, which leapt to national attention when employees voted it Sunday Times Best Company to Work For 2011.

Rogers is even less the charismatic leader than Leahy. In fact, he started out as an insurance broker. But he has a passionate belief in the need for a values-based approach to business, and an impressive commercial track record of growth in a very competitive market to back it up.

Rogers brought in external facilitators to involve all staff in an exercise "to distill down what they most wanted in their working environment". The only stipulation: express it in single words, and no more than six. The values that emerged were: honest, open, fair, fun, professional, unconventional.

Since then, he said, "everything we do is filtered through these values". Each one of them, he emphasised, has its tough commercial side as well as its supportive people side. For example, everyone in the company has a day's training a year in how to initiate "courageous conversations" with colleagues – including their boss, if necessary – to sort out problems.

Leaders "have to be a walking, talking ambassador for the culture and values of the business," said Rogers. He and Leahy are ambassadors extraordinary for an approach to business that brings out the leader in every employee.