A while back, we asked followers of Barry-Wehmiller on social media to send in questions for CEO Bob Chapman to answer on our podcast.

We were overwhelmed by the response! We appreciate the time and thoughtfulness of everyone who submitted their questions. There were so many, the answers will be spread across multiple episodes of the podcast. Bob enjoyed the dialogue with you all so much, we will probably do this again in the future.

In this time of Thanksgiving in the U.S. we are very thankful for all of the Barry-Wehmiller teammates around the world who are a daily inspiration and we’re thankful for you, loyal readers and followers, who help spread our message of Truly Human Leadership.

BW CEO Bob Chapman met Dr. Anita Sanchez a few years ago through a mutual friend, William Ury. Since then, Anita and her husband, Kit Tennis, have become great supporters of what we’re trying to do at Barry-Wehmiller, spreading the message about the power of Truly Human Leadership.

As is described on her website, Anita’s book, The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times,  is a guide "in living as whole, joyful human beings in our modern lives. Through a series of breath-taking, up-lifting stories drawn from experiences of leaders in business and communities around the world as well as from her own amazing journey, the author inspires us to discover and trust our gifts showing us how to become the life-giving connection to all: People, Spirit and the Earth."

The principles Anita writes about and their connection to her heritage align closely to the similarities Bob has identified between leadership and parenting. When we lead others, when it comes to building teams, having a connection – like a family – is so important.

Sometimes, as leaders, we need to reconnect with the idea of what a family is to be able to connect with others. Anita’s book is filled with the wisdom to try to do that in order to move toward a world where people feel like they matter.

Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute is Barry-Wehmiller’s consulting arm that specializes in helping other organizations unleash the extraordinary in their businesses and their people.

They do this by helping those organizations identify, develop and equip their leaders. One of the ways Chapman & Co helps to equip leaders in an organization is with information. One of the ways they can provide that information is by administering an organizational culture survey.

On this podcast, we’re going to do a deeper dive into organizational culture surveys and implementing them within a global organization with Chapman & Co.’s survey expert, Morgan Miller. Morgan will explain the whats, whys and hows of organizational culture surveys and then she'll also talk to Yasmin Nehls, a people team leader from Barry-Wehmiller’s BW Papersystems company. Together, they address the challenges in implementing a global organizational culture survey, but they’ll also talk about the ways the survey has brought change to their organization.

Businesses destroy lives all the time. Not just by being poor partners to their consumers or communities, but through poor leadership and work environments where the employees feel overlooked or disregarded.

But what if businesses could be instruments of healing instead of destruction?

Our good friend Raj Sisodia and his co-writer, Michael Gelb, have written a wonderful examination of how business can be a force for good in the world with their book, The Healing Organization. We at BW encourage you to buy it, read it and take it to heart. Consider the stories they tell of companies who have found a better way to do business for all their stakeholders and ask yourself how you can contribute in your organization to create a better world.

Raj and Michael talk about their new book and share their valuable insights on this episode of our podcast.

“Most leaders understand their influence on team members’ lives during work hours, but often enough, they don’t think about how their leadership affects team members outside of the workplace as well.”

Barry-Wehmiller CEO, Bob Chapman, wrote this in a blog post on trulyhumanleadership.com titled “Wellness and Work: What's the ROI of Caring?” The connection between leadership and health has been a major point in his speeches over the past few years. In fact, he once told a group of CEOs that they were the cause of the healthcare crisis in our country.

A friend of ours, Jeffrey Pfeffer has a book, Dying for a Paycheck, which is a deep dive into the connection between the workplace and poor health. He had this to say about his book: "I tell people all the time...The workplace is killing people, and nobody cares. And to me, the second part is worse than the first. We do not care about human health and well-being. We do not care about human psychological physical health. We do not care about people. And until we change that orientation, it’s going to be ugly."

Much of Jeffrey’s book reinforces many of the things we’ve been saying for awhile. On this podcast, he talks about his book and explains why he thinks the workplace is killing people. 

A few years ago, BW CEO Bob Chapman had a conversation with Jane Adshead-Grant, a facilitator and coach in the UK and Europe.

In this conversation, they talk about the concept of the need for a “Human Revolution” in business. Bob has written before about the trajectory of leadership in business from the Industrial Revolution to now. As we look at the focus and priorities of business leaders today, there are bright spots, but the dark specter of management still looms large over our organizations.

What is the “Human Revolution” and how would it change business today? Listen to this episode to find out.

Anese Cavanaugh is the CEO of Active Choices, Inc. She is the creator of the IEP Method (Intentional Energetic Presence) and the Positive Energy Workplace Initiative and a strategist and advisor to leaders and organizations around the world. She is devoted to helping organizations support their people so they are able to show up and bring their best selves to the table, create significant impact in their lives, and create authentic positive energy workplaces and cultures. Anese is a keynote speaker and author of Contagious Culture: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization That Thrives and Contagious You: Unlock Your Power to Influence, Lead, and Create the Impact You Want.

This was our first conversation with Anese on our podcast. She is as insightful as she is energetic and is passionate about making organizations better places to work and be. 

Dr. Donna Hicks is an Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. You may recall that she has facilitated dialogues in numerous unofficial diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Colombia, Cuba, Libya and Syria. She has consulted with governments, corporations, schools, churches, and non-governmental organizations. 

And she is an expert on the subject of dignity.

On this podcast, Donna introduces the Dignity Model and explains how it has been used to address numerous leadership challenges in the corporate world, healthcare, education, governments and organizations of all kinds. She also tries to give an understanding of what dignity is and is not, the neuroscience of dignity and what it looks like to have “dignity consciousness.”

Listening is not always a dedicated subject in educational curriculums. 

Think about it. There are speech classes, debate teams. You don't hear much about listening classes. That's why it's one of the foundational leadership classes taught in Barry-Wehmiller's internal university. We teach our people to "listen like leaders." It not only affects their relationships at work and with customers, but it has been shown to have a pround affect at home with their families, friends and neighbors. 

On this podcast, you'll hear how those teachings are being integrated into college curriculum by Lisa Waite, a professor in communication studies at Kent State University. Lisa teaches a course titled Business and Professional Communication. On this episode she discusses incorporating Barry-Wehmiller's empathetic listening curriculum and CEO Bob Chapman's TEDx talk into her college courses, as well as the effect it has had on her students and their leadership skills.

Laurie Butz is the President and CEO of Capital Credit Union, a credit union with more than 120,000 members in northeast Wisconsin.

And we at Barry-Wehmiller definitely consider Laurie part of our extended family.

Laurie’s husband, Dennis, worked for many years for our Paper Converting Machine Company, or PCMC, based in Green Bay, WI, part of our BW Converting group of companies.

Our CEO, Bob Chapman, has been privileged to be part of Laurie’s leadership journey. And Laurie has enlisted Bob and Cynthia Chapman’s non-profit, Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities, to bring our leadership training into her organization. Laurie is also working with the Chapman Foundation on a very special initiative in Green Bay, where Capital Credit Union is based.  

As we always say at the beginning of this podcast, the way we lead impacts the way people live. It’s one of the driving forces behind the importance of practicing what we call Truly Human Leadership. On this podcast, we’re going to tie all our common threads together as we talk to Laurie about the ripple effect of Truly Human Leadership in her life at home and, consequently, her own leadership journey.

On several episodes of this podcast, you’ve heard about Barry-Wehmiller’s efforts to transform how business education is taught. If you want leaders who have the skills and courage to care, that should be part of their education before they are out in the world and in positions of responsibility.

But what if we can reach people before they are in business school? What if these skills of Truly Human Leadership are taught alongside history, math, science and grammar in primary and secondary education? It could make an amazing difference in our neighborhoods and communities and in the future of our world.

This has become a focus of our CEO, Bob Chapman, and to kick-start this effort, we recently hosted a very important group of friends and allies at our St. Louis office to reflect on the purpose of education and formulate a vision to inspire our efforts as we begin in earnest. An “education summit,” if you will.

On this podcast, we’re going to feature a collage of takeaways from that special day from Anne White of Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities, David-Aaron Roth of Charlotte Latin School and Sarah Bennison of the Mattering Movement. 

If you want to change the way people lead, maybe you should go to the source of where they’re taught to lead – business schools. Maybe the way we teach people to lead should change.

Christopher Reina is the Founding and Executive Director of the Institute for Transformative Leadership and an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Chris came into our orbit at Barry-Wehmiller a number of years ago. Our relationship with Chris blossomed into a partnership at Virginia Commonwealth University, spearheaded by our Director of Outreach, Brian Wellinghoff, who is now their Executive in Residence.

Chris has also recently published a paper in the Academy of Management Review, titled “Humanistic Organizing: The Transformative Force of Mindful Organizational Communication,” that lays out a framework for businesses to transform into more people-centered organizations where individuals feel valued and a strong sense of belonging. And it features Barry-Wehmiller as one of its case studies.

On this podcast, we’re bringing Chris and Brian together to talk about the partnership at VCU to transform the way leadership is taught. 

Dr. Ken Druck has been a trusted advisor through the years, personally to Barry-Wehmiller CEO Bob Chapman, and also to the leadership of BW during some of our tough times.

After the loss of his daughter, Ken decided to dedicate himself to helping others find their way through grief. He founded the Jenna Druck Center in his daughter’s honor and went on to be a source of hope to families affected by the tragedies of 9-11, Columbine, Katrina and Sandy Hook.

A few years ago, we invited Ken to Barry-Wehmiller corporate headquarters in St. Louis as part of our Leadership Speaker Series. We at Barry-Wehmiller often talk about how listening is key to helping people feel valued, but that must be accompanied by empathy and compassion.

In his talk, Ken spoke not only about how he processed his own grief, but he also talked about how to be a good friend and encourage those who are experiencing grief. But, the things that Ken discusses in this podcast can not only be guidelines to be compassionate to those experiencing grief, they're good things to think about when approaching people in everyday life. Especially during stressful or tense times. Our friends, family, teammates and acquaintances. In our workplaces, our neighborhoods and our homes.

Barry-Wehmiller CEO Bob Chapman met Steve Jones, former head football coach at Kimberly High School, several years ago through a mutual friend.

Coach Jones said something to Bob that made a lasting impression: “When people truly care for one another, it’s amazing how hard they will work for each other.”

When Coach Jones stepped down in 2021, his career at Kimberly High School included five WIAA state championships, 10 conference championships, a 70-game winning streak that set a state record and an overall 129-9 record. He was the 2016 and 2017 Associated Press state coach of the year and the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association/Green Bay Packers coach of the year from 2015 to 2017.

But Coach Jones’ desire to spread the principles of caring leadership extends much further than his team. He developed and taught classes on leadership at Kimberly High School, touching the lives of many future leaders.

In fact, that's why Coach Jones stepped off the football field, to try to help leaders everywhere up their game.

In 2021, Coach Jones and Lucas Jadin, a professional mindset coach, co-authored the Amazon best-seller,The Twin Thieves: How Great Leaders Build Great Teams. Together, they formed Jadin Jones, a company that seeks to inspire and coach world-class business leaders, educators, and elite athletes to thrive in competitive environments, to empower themselves and others and compassionately create cultures of strength, unity, and resiliency.

On this podcast, first released in 2019, Coach Jones talks about his efforts on and off the football field to bring caring leadership principles to upcoming generations. Leaders in business should listen closely.

The leaders of your business can affect its health and vibrancy. They also can have a tremendous impact on the people within their span of care in the business.

So, when it’s time to bring someone new into your organization, how do you know when you’re hiring the right person? You can’t always rely on your gut or a couple of meetings. If you make the wrong decision it can be devastating to the business and the people within.

When Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute works with an organization to identify leaders, they use a number of proprietary pre-hire assessments and tools to help make those determinations. But it’s not a bunch of impersonal, rigid tests. They take a truly human approach to pre-hire testing, to make the best decision for everyone involved.

On this podcast, we’re going to explore how to keep the humanity in pre-hire assessments with the experts at Chapman & Co. First, you’ll hear a mini-case study as Chapman & Co.’s managing partner, Sara Hannah interviews a customer, Carol O’Neill of BW Packaging. You’ll hear how Carol and her team have used pre-hire testing and the difference it has made in that business. Then you’ll get a deeper dive into how Chapman & Co approaches pre-hire testing as Matt Whiat interviews Chapman & Co partner Melinda Bremley, including discussion on the role of AI in the assessment world.

Dr. Melinda Bremley is the newest Partner at Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute, Barry-Wehmiller’s consulting arm that specializes in helping other organizations unleash the extraordinary in their businesses and their people.

Melinda and the rest of the team at Chapman & Co do this by helping those organizations identify, develop and equip their leaders. You can learn more about Chapman & Co. on their website: ccoleadership.com

Melinda has over 25 years of experience in executive coaching, excelling in nurturing leadership at various career stages. At Chapman & Co., Melinda plays a pivotal role in realizing their mission, bringing extensive experience in creating and maintaining selection processes across organizational levels. Notably, she also spearheads succession planning and CEO/President performance feedback processes.

On this podcast, we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Melinda Bremley through a discussion she has with two other Chapman & Co team members, Morgan Witzig and Jessie Turner. They’ll talk about Melinda’s background and experience, but also talk about leadership coaching, the benefits of assessments, AI and leadership and Melinda talks about some of the biggest challenges she is seeing leaders face at the moment.

Times of transition can be challenging for any organization. But challenging times and times of change often presents many opportunities for growth. 

But the ability to maximize those opportunities depends on effective leadership.

Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute is Barry-Wehmiller’s consulting arm that specializes in helping other organizations unleash the extraordinary in their businesses and their people.

A few years ago, Chapman & Co. acquired Leadership Alliance – a data-driven talent acquisition and development business equipped with a team of consultants, many of whom have their Ph.D. in psychology.

The Leadership Alliance brand is now officially combining under the Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute name, which has inspired a number of emotions around the transition, especially from Leadership Alliance’s founders.

On this podcast, Chapman & Co.’s Matt Whiat talks to David and Karen Weller, Leadership Alliance founders and current partners in Chapman & Co. We’re going to explore this transition in the hope that it can help other organizations in their own change journeys. We explore some of the things to keep in mind to make transitions as smooth as possible for the people inside the business.

It is a universal truth -- every one of us, no matter what our job or where we live, simply wants to know that who we are and what we do matters. As leaders in business, we have the awesome responsibility to let people know that they do. Our goal at Barry-Wehmiller is to show the world that business can be a powerful force for good when we realize that the way we lead impacts the way people live and have the courage to care for those we lead. 

And that is what Barry-Wehmiller CEO, Bob Chapman, did as he spoke to more than 80 different organizations in 2023, sharing the message of Truly Human Leadership. This podcast features a talk he gave to a luncheon for business leaders at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hopefully, it will inspire you to be the leader you wish you had in the coming year. 

At Barry-Wehmiller, we consider leadership to be an awesome responsibility--it holds the key to growing our business and, as important, improving the lives of our team members.

It’s our job, as leaders, to help them establish goals so they know how to contribute, to remove barriers that get in the way of them achieving their goals, and help them chart a path for their growth.

Our team members deserve that and, consequently, if we’re asking them to contribute, we must ensure that they are led by leaders who have the skills to help them perform and the courage to care about them along the way.

A few years ago, we introduced Leader Expectations & Commitments, developed to help all formal Barry-Wehmiller leaders with team members in their span of care understand the actions and skills needed to embody Truly Human Leadership. 

On this podcast, we thought we’d explore Barry-Wehmiller’s leader expectations and commitments through five outstanding leaders in our organization. You’ll get to hear how they view these expectations in the scope of their responsibilities and how they try to apply the commitments in their daily interactions and leadership of those within their span of care. 

While presenting our message of Truly Human Leadership, our CEO Bob Chapman is often asked: What about the people who don't get it? What about the people who actively work against positive change?

Barry-Wehmiller has acquired more than 130 companies and we've certainly found that the people within that company are a product of their experiences. They may have experienced great leaders in their past or, more likely, they have had some negative experiences. Consequently, some have difficulty trusting our leadership message. That’s okay. We’re all at a different point on this journey, and we have to be patient and trust that the skeptics will eventually see the transformative power it can have—on both their work lives and their personal lives.

On this podcast, you'll hear the story of Randall Fleming, who was a welder in our BW Papersystems company in Phillips, Wisconsin, and very much a skeptic. Randall's story is testament to the life-changing power of meaningful work. It's what happens when you establish a workplace culture of empathy and shared purpose as opposed to the "command and control" atmosphere of most traditional management environments. 

When Lean was introduced to the Barry-Wehmiller organization a number of years ago, CEO Bob Chapman's concern was that people would be lost along the way. But we found a way to adopt Lean methods and stay true to our Guiding Principles of Leadership. 

Instead of using Lean to reduce waste, we use it to reduce frustration. It's part of the bag of tools we use in continuous improvement to ensure a stable and thriving business for the benefit of our people. It's part of our overall Operational Excellence strategy. Our vision is about engaging people’s head, heart and hands in creating their own future and actively shaping the legacy of the business every day.

On this podcast, we take a look at how our approach to Lean puts people at the center to make it about eliminating frustration, not waste. In addition, you'll hear an interview with Jacob Stoller, author of The Lean CEO. Jacob’s book features a number of organizations, which, like Barry-Wehmiller, found a way to empower people, not processes. And that is the true power of Lean.

John Michel is a former Air Force General who has not only used his leadership experience in service of his country, but also to help transform businesses into places that think more about people than profit.

John has written two books, (No More) Mediocre Me: How Saying No to the Status Quo Will Propel You From Ordinary to Extraordinary and The Art of Positive Leadership. He has written articles for the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Huffington Post, National Geographic, Joint Forces Quarterly, and the Washington Post.

In addition to writing and speaking about leadership, John has held executive positions in the transportation and aeronautics industries and is an entrepreneur in the hospitality industry.

John talks about his leadership journey and what he's learned from Barry-Wehmiller in an interview with Brent Stewart and Mary Rudder on this podcast.

Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute is Barry-Wehmiller’s consulting company that helps organizations identify, develop, and equip leaders. They bring the lessons we have learned at Barry-Wehmiller and our principles of Truly Human Leadership alongside scientific methods to provide individual and organizational assessments, training, and consultation. They help their clients drive exceptional results through a culture where people and performance are in harmony.

On this THL Refresher podcast, we bring you a discussion between two of Chapman & Co.’s leading partners, Sara Hannah and Matt Whiat and Barry-Wehmiller CEO Bob Chapman. This was done at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the three use Barry-Wehmiller’s experience during crisis to give leaders insight into how they may handle their own. But it’s not a discussion that is limited to the unique situation of a global pandemic. Crisis can hit business at any time.

Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute is Barry-Wehmiller's consulting arm that specializes in helping other organizations unleash the extraordinary in their businesses and their people. They do this by helping those organizations identify, develop, and equip their leaders. You can learn more about Chapman & Co. at ccoleadership.com

One company that Chapman & Co. has a long relationship with is Meijer, a midwestern chain of grocery stores that currently has about 270 stores with 70,000 team members. On this podcast, Barry Kirk, one of Chapman & Co.’s partners, has an indepth conversation with Dave Lopez and Josh Barber of Meijer. They talk about why Meijer began working with Chapman & Co. and share some of the results, as well as how they are trying to sustain those results. They also talk about a fascinating aspect of training that incorporates gamification. But most importantly, they share how they were able to let their leaders be leaders.

Rhonda Spencer is Barry-Wehmiller’s Chief People Officer. She has been with our company since before the development of our Guiding Principles of Leadership and was one of the major voices in its creation. It’s her primary responsibility to be the steward of our values and make sure that light shines to the furthest reaches of our organization.

Rhonda joined Brent Stewart and Mary Rudder on this podcast to talk about the nuts and bolts of how we try to make everybody feel like they matter at Barry-Wehmiller. She also talks about how she became Barry-Wehmiller’s first Chief People Officer and what the position means to her.

Imagine going to get coffee for your team and finding your coffee maker had been repossessed.

In the early 1980s, Barry-Wehmiller was in trouble as a business, but we learned to embrace the lessons that arise during times of adversity and uncover the opportunities hidden within periods of crisis.

BW CEO, Bob Chapman, tells this story in his book,  Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring For Your People like Family, co-written with Raj Sisodia. On this podcast, Bob talks about challenging times in Barry-Wehmiller’s history in greater detail. Many of the lessons learned during that time were lessons that informed BW's journey to Truly Human Leadership more than a decade later.

Here are some insights on the effects of burnout: 

• The World Health Organization (WHO) officially recognized burnout as an occupational phenomenon in 2019. It estimates that over 75% of professionals worldwide experience burnout at some point in their careers.
• According to Gallup, burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day and 2.6 times more likely to actively seek a new job
• The American Institute of Stress estimates that workplace stress and burnout cost U.S. businesses around $300 billion annually due to absenteeism, reduced productivity, and healthcare costs
• A study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that individuals with burnout are at a significantly higher risk of developing mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.
• A study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health revealed that individuals experiencing burnout were more likely to report personal conflicts and difficulties in maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Our guest this week, Neha Sangwan, MD, CEO and founder of Intuitive Intelligence, is a physician, engineer, author, speaker, and communication expert. Her new book, Powered by Me: From Burned Out to Fully Charged at Work and in Life deals with her struggles with burnout and gives practical life advice to coping and overcoming burnout in the workplace and in a very stressful world. 

A few years ago, the World Health Organization added “burn-out” to the International Classification of Diseases. Here’s how they define it: Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.

Quite a while ago, we learned from the Centers for Disease Control that your immediate supervisor is more important to your health than your primary care doctor. If burn-out results from chronic workplace stress, we’re seeing that to be true.

And it makes sense. 74% of people say the workplace is the leading cause of stress. On Monday mornings, there’s a 20% increase in heart attacks.

On this podcast, you'll hear an edited version of a webinar featuring Barry-Wehmiller CEO Bob Chapman and Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer, author of Dying for a Paycheck, called, “The Next Leading Cause of Death: The Workplace?” They'll talk about this crisis and what leaders need to do to solve the issue. 

As we’ve talked about in several past episodes of this podcast, Barry-Wehmiller’s CEO, Bob Chapman, has a passion for transforming the way business education is taught in our universities. We want to transform these institutions that train people to manage into institutions that foster Truly Human leaders who honor individual dignity and demonstrate the courage to care for others. It's why we helped found the Humanistic Leadership Academy.

But it’s not only important to teach students how to be truly human leaders, the teachers must model those principles as well.

On this episode, we feature a conversation between myself, David Pickersgill (who is on Barry-Wehmiller’s outreach team who is working with the Humanistic Leadership Academy) and Abhimanyu Gupta, an Instructor in the Department of Operations & IT Management and Interim Director of Emerson Leadership Institute at St. Louis University.

Our conversation with Abhi discusses how he approaches his relationships with his students and why modeling behaviors of truly human leadership is important. And then we talk about his experiences with the Humanistic Leadership Academy, why he became involved and how it has affected him.

Throughout his writing career, Raj Sisodia has put together a roadmap of how businesses can be a powerful force for good in the world through powerful stories of conscious organizations and their leadership.

However, in Raj’s new book, Awaken, The Path to Purpose, Inner Peace and Healing, he uses his own story to show others how to turn inward if they want to be an effect, empathetic and truly human leader.

On this podcast, Raj talks about the circumstances that inspired his turn inward, which then inspired the idea to write the book. But we also place it in the context of why the story he tells in Awaken is important for leaders. 

It was Simon Sinek who coined the term “Truly Human Leadership.”

Simon and Barry-Wehmiller CEO Bob Chapman became fast friends when they first met years ago. Simon wrote about Barry-Wehmiller in his book, Leaders Eat Last, and he also wrote the foreword to Bob and Raj Sisodia’s book, Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring For Your People Like Family. He is a significant voice and one of our most important allies in spreading our message.

In 2015, Bob and Simon recorded this conversation around the release of Everybody Matters. We re-present it to you in this THL Refresher podcast. 

In 2016, Harvard Business School published a case study on Barry-Wehmiller's approach to leadership that is now taught at 80 business schools. In this episode of our podcast, its authors, Jan Rivkin and Dylan Minor talk about the case study method of teaching, why they chose Barry-Wehmiller as a subject, how business school students are responding to people-centric principles and how Truly Human Leadership might apply in our current business and political climate.

Joey Coleman is the founder and Chief Experience Composer of Design Symphony – a customer experience branding firm and also the author of Wall Street Journal bestseller, Never Lose a Customer Again. Joey has a new book that very appropriate for our current times where we’ve had a Great Resignation and people are demanding better leaders and better work experiences, Never Lose an Employee Again: The Simple Path to Remarkable Retention. Whether you are an owner looking to hire your first few employees, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or an enterprise that needs to keep growing on a global scale, on this podcast, Joey will reshape the way you think about recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and retaining quality team members.

What if the best workplace we’ve ever experienced is just a fraction of what is possible? Dare we dream of something so far beyond ‘business as usual’ that it feels like a fantasy? ...to venture past the workplaces of the past and into the unknown to imagine and create something recognizably different. To create Truly Human work.

The preceding passage is from the introduction of the book, Human Work: Five Leadership Mindsets for Humanizing the Workplace, written by Leanne Holdsworth and Naryan Wong. On this podcast, we’re going to talk about the five leadership mindsets mentioned in their book’s title and we'll address the initial question asked in their introduction.

Michael Bungay Stanier (or MBS) is the founder of Box of Crayons, a learning and development company that helps organizations move from advice-driven to curiosity-led. They’ve trained hundreds of thousands of managers to be more coach-like and their clients range from Microsoft to Gucci.

A few years ago, Barry-Wehmiller CEO, Bob Chapman, shared our leadership philosophy with MBS on the Great Work Podcast from Box of Crayons, which is where we were first introduced to his work.

One of MBS's books, The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More and Change The Way You Lead Forever, has sold more than a million copies and is the best-selling coaching book of the century. The Coaching Habit very much resonates with our core principles at Barry-Wehmiller, you can see it in the title: “Say less, ask more.” In other words, listen. Really, truly listen.

On this podcast, Michael talks about the difficulty leaders have in listening and why that may be, but he also gives practical suggestions on how leaders can be better coaches and help their people feel like they really matter

Does your organization have a Speak Up Culture? One where people feel it is safe and worth it to share their ideas, concerns, disagreements, and mistakes?

Are you a leader who listens? What are you doing to make sure all voices in your organization are heard? These things are vital to having a thriving organization.

You may recognize Stephen Shedletsky from his work with Simon Sinek. On this podcast, Shed defines a Speak Up Culture and talks about why it is important for leadership, business and the people within. 

Howard Behar, former president at Starbucks and a key figure in establishing their culture, talks about his views on leadership, his time at the coffee giant, Uber, Lyft, Amazon, Whole Foods and a whole lot else.

Over the past several years, for multiple reasons, we’ve seen an upheaval in the workplace. Not least of which is the so-called Great Resignation.

But could the turmoil of the last few years result in better workplaces? Could business leaders really understand the value of caring for their people? Could we really see a massive shift from traditional management to Truly Human Leadership?

Dr. Alise Cortez thinks so. In fact, she thinks the time is ripe for a Great Revitalization.

Dr. Alise Cortez is an author, leadership consultant, an organizational logotherapist, the host of the Working on Purpose radio show and the Chief People officer at Dr. Alise Cortez and Associates. Alise has been on our podcast before, where we had a conversation about the insights she gained from leaders and their experiences in 2020.

On this podcast, Alise will talk about her new book, which is incidentally titled The Great Revitalization: How Activating Meaning and Purpose Can Radically Enliven Your Business.

You may have heard our CEO, Bob Chapman, say that the person you report to at work is more important to your health than your primary care physician. It sounds outrageous, but it underscores one of the profound truths we’ve discovered at Barry-Wehmiller: That the way we lead impacts the way people live.

The research to back it up can be traced to Dr. L. Casey Chosewood, the Director of the Office for Total Worker Health at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Learn more in this in-depth discussion about wellness and work.

Jennifer Wallace recently wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal, "The Power of Mattering at Work" that was forwarded to Barry-Wehmiller CEO, Bob Chapman.

Jennifer has written a book that discusses the importance of mattering in children that comes out in August 2023, Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic-and What We Can Do About It.  Along with her friend, Sarah Bennison, Jennifer is trying to build The Mattering Movement, with the goal of helping people of all ages learn the skills and tools to enact meaningful social change by identifying genuine needs, big or small, and to recognize the unique value that each individual can bring to the world.

Bob and Jennifer struck up a conversation because of their similar interests in the idea of mattering. Bob invited Jennifer and her friend, Sarah Bennison to visit a couple of Barry-Wehmiller facilities. After their visit, they had a conversation with Bob and Mary Rudder about the idea of mattering, which is featured on this episode of the podcast.

“Today, leaders need to recognize the impact work has on peoples’ overall life satisfaction. It is an antiquated belief that leaders should focus solely on the professional side of team members’ lives. Work needs to be a positive influence, given that it consumes much of our waking time. The work we do and how we feel about it shapes our identity. Leaders have a responsibility to help their teams understand the importance of their work."

On this podcast, find out more about what "The Optimistic Workplace" is in an interview with author Shawn Murphy.

Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute is Barry-Wehmiller’s consulting arm that helps other companies and organizations through what we have come to call a Truly Human approach to business.

They can help companies hire the right people, inspire them through a thriving and inclusive culture, develop and support your leaders and create stronger customer loyalty.

Sara Hannah and Matt Whiat are the leading partners of Chapman & Co. On this THL Refresher, we’re going to bring you a couple of individual talks given by Sara and Matt that discuss their personal leadership journeys.

Bill Ury is the co-founder of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation and is one of the world’s leading experts on negotiation and mediation. Trained as a social anthropologist, Bill has carried out his research on negotiation not only in the boardroom and at the bargaining table, but also among the Bushmen of the Kalahari and the clan warriors of New Guinea.

On this podcast, Bill shares his unique perspective on how empathetic listening can make a difference. Not just across a negotiation table between world powers, but in our day to day interactions with people. He also has a conversation with Barry-Wehmiller CEO, Bob Chapman.

One of the cornerstones of Truly Human Leadership is that everybody wants to know that who they are and what they do matters. 

Someone else that came to that same insight in a scholarly manner, through his experiences and his research, is Professor Isaac Prilleltensky. He, along with his wife, Ora, wrote a book on the science and importance of mattering: How People Matter: Why it Affects Health, Happiness, Love, Work and Society.

You can find our more about the Professor, his work and his book on his website: professorisaac.com

On this podcast, we talk about the science of mattering, the poverty of dignity in the world, the importance of listening, moving from a me-centric culture to a we-centric culture and we also talk about how all this relates to the work place and how leaders can apply the science of mattering to those within their span of care.

This is such an important discussion, you’ll want to go back and read the transcript of this conversation on our website, trulyhumanleadership.com.

It’s been almost eight years since the publication of Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family by Raj Sisodia, one of the founders of Conscious Capitalism and Barry-Wehmiller CEO, Bob Chapman.

It’s the story of Bob and Barry-Wehmiller’s journey from traditional business thinking to Truly Human Leadership. All these years later, people are still discovering the book and are touched by the story.

Around the time of Everybody Matters’ release, Bob and Raj did a number of interviews talking about why they wrote the book and what they hoped to accomplish by writing it.

Jacob Stoller previously appeared on our podcast to discuss his last book, The Lean CEO: Leading the Way to World-Class Excellence. A number of years later, he has a new book: Productivity Reimagined: Shattering Performance Myths to Achieve Sustainable Growth.

This episode features a fascinating conversation about the evolution of Jacob's thinking between the writing of his two books that coalesced around the idea of productivity. Mainly, are we viewing the idea of productivity through the correct lens and how can companies approach the idea of productivity in a more sustainable way? One that benefits not only the company, but the people within.

Also on this episode, we touch on topics that are currently at the forefront of the productivity discussion, such as AI and remote work. Jacob's research into these aspects of poductivity may surprise you.

At the start of every new year, many people make New Year’s resolutions to get in shape. They join a gym, go on a diet. But do we ever think about what shape our leadership is in and do we take steps to change it? On this podcast, David Vandermolen talks about the shape of leadership and offers tips on how you can improve yours.

Matthew Lee, Baylor professor and Research Associate at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University and Brian Wellinghoff, Barry-Wehmiller Director of Strategy, Improvement and Culture, recently had the opportunity to speak at the Humanity 2.0 conference at the Vatican.

This conference gathered distinguished academics, researchers, philanthropists, and business leaders around the question: “How do we promote human flourishing in our world?” 

On this podcast, we feature a conversation between Matthew and Brian about this event and it's importance. You'll hear about the idea of human flourishing as it pertains to business education and you’ll hear how Barry-Wehmiller fits into this work.

Rightsizing, de-layering, business re-engineering, streamlining the organization…these are a few of the more current terms for the conventional business practice of eliminating jobs to improve profit.

You rarely hear anyone talk about the impact on the lives of the individuals and the family members of those laid off after sending them home with damage to their self-worth and a dramatic loss of income. Rarely do they consider the impact on those who remain in the organization.

On this podcast, we look back at Barry-Wehmiller response during the recession of 2008-2009 where many companies were laying people off. It was a time of shared sacrifice, but we came through it stronger and more dedicated to our beliefs. Just as a caring family would.

We first talked to Mark C. Crowley in May of 2021 when people were starting to return to the office amidst a global pandemic that transformed the remote work paradigm in 2020

Around that same time, something called the Great Resignation was happening and just starting to garner attention. According to a report by the BBC, in 2021 an average of nearly 4 million people left their jobs each month.

On this week’s Truly Human Leadership podcast, Mark and talks about the state of the workforce since the Great Resignation began, if it is still happening, how leaders should respond and other issues brought about by this long-simmering reckoning.