Everybody Matters

Barry-Wehmiller's Chief People Officer, Rhonda Spencer, was recently recognized by the St. Louis Business Journal in their 2025 HR Awards for Innovation in HR. This was a long overdue recognition of Rhonda's leadership, but also the work of the BW Global People Team and everthing they've done to help all of our people, all over the world, feel like they matter. Rhonda has been with Barry-Wehmiller since before the development of our Guiding Principles of Leadership and was one of the major voices in its creation. She was our first Chief People Officer and 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. Recently, Rhonda took part in a webinar discussion with Mike Budden, one of the partners in our Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute, 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 them at ccoleadership.com. On this week's podcast, we want to showcase an edited version of that discussion. It's an interesting conversation as Mike and Rhonda discuss what it means to scale a Truly Human Leadership culture globally. They talk about the processes and systems we've developed to try to make that happen and there's a lot of insight to apply to your own organization.

True leaders create space for individuals to be passionate about their work and feel a sense of ownership. Nobody wants to be managed, bossed or supervised. We must inspire creativity in our people. Those ideas are the backbone of a culture of continuous improvement and a culture where people feel like they matter. Michael Gelb is the author of books such as How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci and Innovate Like Edison. He has been applying the principles of genius thinking to personal, leadership and organizational development for more than 40 years. He has worked to inspire creativity in the workplace and his journey led him to our friend and Everybody Matters co-author, Raj Sisodia. Together, they wrote The Healing Organization: Awakening the Conscience of Business to Help Save the World. On this podcast, Michael talks about inspiration, creativity and how that leads to helping people in organizations feel like they matter.

BW CEO Bob Chapman often tells a story about meeting Steve Jones, who was formerly a high school football coach who led his teams to five consecutive state titles from 2013-2017 with an incredible run of 70 consecutive victories, a Wisconsin state record. With those impressive credentials, Bob asked Steve what he taught his players about winning and losing. Steve said they didn't. He said that they teach them to play their position well for their fellow team members. Do it as an act of respect for their fellow team members. He said, “When people truly care for one another, it's amazing how hard they will work for each other.” To Bob, it begged the question: if you create an environment of unconditional care, wouldn't the people there want to “play their position well” for their teammates? Our friend, Shawn Murphy, has written a book about teams, team building and team performance: Work Tribes: The Surprising Secret to Breakthrough Performance, Astonishing Results and Keeping Teams Together. To Shawn, one of the key aspects of an environment of unconditional care is belonging. As he wrote in a guest post on our Truly Human Leadership blog: "As human beings, we are wired to belong. Some researchers say that belonging is what bonds people together. It's the bond that is either life-giving or life-depleting... Of course, the reverse is true when you don't feel a sense of belonging. You protect your thinking. You become hyper-focused on yourself. You limit pro-social behaviors. You close yourself off to relationships. Your potential is limited. Yet, when a leader can help someone feel like they belong to the team, the team benefits. Ultimately the company benefits. Human potential is unleashed. Mediocrity is diminished." As we often say, everyone wants to know that who they are what what they do matter. That is important for every leader to remember. On this podcast, you'll hear a discussion with Shawn as he talks about Work Tribes and the idea of helping your people feel like they belong.

Marcel Schwantes is a speaker, author, acclaimed executive coach, and an Inc. Magazine Contributing Editor. Marcel writes and delivers presentations, workshops, courses, and coaching programs about the human side of business and how cultures of care, connection, and belonging power companies to thrive and outperform the competition. Marcel also hosts the popular "Love in Action" podcast, on which our CEO, Bob Chapman has been a guest. Marcel has a new book that just came out, Humane Leadership: Lead With Radical Love, Be A Kick-Ass Boss. There are a lot of parallels in Marcel's writing with what we talk about at Barry-Wehmiller. In his book, Marcel draws on personal experiences, case studies, and compelling research to reveal how leaders can transform organizations by embracing genuine care for their people.  On this episode, we talk with Marcel about how he defines "Humane Leadership" by exploring what he calls the five principles of effective leadership: patience, kindness, humility, advocacy, and trustworthiness. explains the five principles of effective leadership: patience, kindness, humility, advocacy, and trustworthiness.explains the five principles of effective leadership: patience, kindness, humility, advocacy, and trustworthiness.

This podcast features a story from Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute, 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. Chapman & Co. has a dedicated branch in South Africa which has worked with Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages on leadership development for a number of years. Peninsula Beverages is the largest Coca-Cola franchise in South Africa with 1300 team members. To date, more than 60 percent of their organization has taken the Listen Like a Leader class, which is Barry-Wehmiller's groundbreaking empathetic listening training. Mike Budden is a partner at Chapman & Co. and the managing partner of their Cape Town South Africa office. On this episode, we're going to feature a conversation between Mike and his friend and colleague, Bryn Morse, Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages HR Leader. Mike and Bryn talk about their journey to bring Cola-Cola Penn Bev's company culture to another level. They talk about the difference it has made in the company and why the journey was important. And they talk about the importance of Barry-Wehmiller, our CEO Bob Chapman and Chapman & Co to that journey. They talk about a trip to a Barry-Wehmiller facility in Phillips, WI and a lot more.

Kristen Hadeed hadn't turned 30 and she was already the CEO of a successful company and well on her own leadership journey. Through her company – Student Maid, an all-student cleaning company – she was able to touch the lives of hundreds of college students and hundreds more clients. She has helped these students work their way through school, but she also created a culture that helps them develop important life and leadership skills. Today, Kristen spends her time helping leaders, teams, and organizations around the world embrace their humanity. She has worked in just about every industry,in almost every U.S. state and several other countries, and in hundreds of virtual meeting rooms. Whether she is delivering a keynote talk, multi-day workshop, or facilitating ongoing development, her goal is always the same: to ignite the kind of human leadership that builds trust, belonging, and wildly engaged cultures. Her work has been featured in news outlets including PBS, FOX, Inc., NBC, TIME, and Forbes. Her first TED Talk has more than three million views on YouTube. Kristen has long been a friend of Barry-Wehmiller and she wrote about her leadership journey in a new book, Permission to Screw Up: How I Learned to Lead by Doing Almost Everything Wrong, that has sold more than 50,000 copies worldwide. Kristen was previously a guest on our podcast for a profound conversation about the Millennial generation. She returned to talk to us around the time Permission to Screw Up was released.

Raj Sisodia is the co-author of our CEO, Bob Chapman's, book, Everybody Matters, and the co-founder of Conscious Capitalism. You can find out more about Raj on his website, Raj Sisodia.com Raj is working on a very special project we'll be able to talk about soon and, as every conversation with Raj is enlightening, we decided to roll the proverbial tape to capture some of his insight. We ended up talking about Raj's experiences for the last 20 years or so, specifically through some of his books: Firms of Endearment, Conscious Capitalism, Everybody Matters and The Healing Organization. Raj's career in and out of writing has mirrored the rise of the conscious leadership and conscious business movement, and so we talk a little history as well. On this podcast, you're going to hear that conversation. One of the reasons it's such an important conversation, is that while Raj recounts a bit of history, he traces things to today and where the conscious business movement is right now. It'll give you a lot to think about.  

Our friend Donna Hicks, a Harvard professor, world peace negotiator and author of the book, Leading With Dignity, was recently in St. Louis to participate in an event co-sponsored by Barry-Wehmiller at St. Louis University. It was a roundtable discussion on a subject of which Donna is an expert: dignity. We also brought her to Barry-Wehmiller to have a discussion with our senior leadership team. Donna has appeared on this podcast before, but while she was in town we wanted to sit down and have a conversation to talk about her work in defining and characterizing the importance of the concept of dignity. We also wanted to talk with Donna about how Truly Human Leadership and the work Barry-Wehmiller is doing to influence leadership and business honors dignity.    

We've all heard about those organizations who have a dynamic and powerful leader who brings everything to new heights of success and notoriety. But then, when the times comes where that leader moves on, things are never quite the same. Other able and competent leaders left because they never received an opportunity to grow and use their gifts because the organization so relied on that one dynamic leader. So, after his departure, the organization flounders, or worse, ceases to exist. This is a scenario that Barry-Wehmiller has seen a time or two in our history of acquiring or, as we say, adopted companies and brought them into our family to hopefully give them new life. One of the most caring acts of leadership and one of its greatest responsibilities is to provide a safe and stable living for those people who are in our organizations, who are within our span of care. That's why the subject of today's podcast is so important. We're going to talk about succession planning, or strategic workforce planning. You may think you understand what that means, but after this discussion, you'll truly understand why it should be a high priority of caring organizations. 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. Succession planning is at the heart of what Chapman & Co. does, helping those organizations identify, develop, and equip their leaders. Today's discussion features three Industrial Organizational Psycologists from Chapman & Co. — Melinda Bremley, Andrea Cornelius and Jenny Morton Eagen — and is moderated by Chapman & Co's Jessie Turner. As Melinda says during the discussion, "Succession planning requires people to stop and think more strategically about 'what are we looking for, what is needed now, what is needed in the future.' And that front-end piece of the process really is kind of the game changer for having a more strategic mindset."

Often on this podcast, you'll hear Barry-Wehmiller CEO Bob Chapman, other BW leaders or other thought leaders talk about the waycaring leadership or Truly Human Leadership impacts the lives of people in our workplaces. However, on this episode, you're going to hear from some of our team members within Barry-Wehmiler. A few years ago, we started a video series called “Better Work, Better World” that you can find at trulyhumanleadership.com or on our social channels. The series is a way to feature our team members' stories and recognize them for their contributions. On this podcast, you'll hear from five team members from our BW Packaging platform of companies, namely BW Integrated Systems and BW Flexible Systems. You'll hear them talk about how they came to Barry-Wehmiller, what their roles mean to them, how Truly Human Leadership affects their roles and why they refer to BW as a family. 

This is the third and final part of this podcast series where Barry-Wehmiller CEO Bob Chapman answers questions submitted by our social media audience. You will find the questions below the You Tube embed. Don't forget to go back and listen to part one and part two. We hope you find the dialogue we've been having over these last three episodes as inspiring as we have. We will do it again in the future! The way we lead impacts the way we live. Let's move into this New Year abandoning the thinking of traditional business management and embrace the practice of caring leadership.

This is the second episode of our podcast where Barry-Wehmiller CEO Bob Chapman answer questions submitted by our social media audience. You will find the questions below. Don't forget to go back and listen to part one.  We appreciate everyone who took the time to send in questions. Bob thought it was a wonderful dialogue. More to come!

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.  

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.  

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.

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

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.

Barry-Wehmiller's CEO, Bob Chapman, often says that to be a Truly Human Leader, you need to have the skills and courage to care. Often, when you are placed into the role of leadership the traditional way to view the people within your span of care is as functions. So, you try to get them to do what you want so you can be successful, not because you care about them. It's not about who those people are or why they matter. They're just a function for your success or the success of your organization. Caring is reserved for family and friends outside the doors of the office. But, Bob says, caring is what we need more of in the workplace. Everyone on the team – especially leaders -- needs to shed their emotional armor. It's only then that we connect more deeply so that the 40 hours a week we spend away from home are not draining but fulfilling. As leaders, we should create work environments in which our team members feel safe, cared for and comfortable being their true, fully human selves. This is also one of the main insights in a new book in which Bob and Barry-Wehmiller are featured. It's called The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out. It was written by four senior partners from McKinsey and Company, one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world. It's a look-behind-the-curtain at McKinsey's step-by-step approach to transforming leaders both professionally and personally, which was gleaned through lessons from its legendary CEO leadership program “The Bower Forum,” which has counseled 500+ global CEOs over the past decade, as well as McKinsey's global CEO counseling practice. On today's podcast, we feature a conversation between Bob and Ramesh Srinivasan, one of the McKinsey Senior partners who co-authored The Journey of Leadership. We'll talk about what it means to lead from the inside out, and how that connects to Bob's thoughts on caring in the workplace.

McKinsey and Company is one of the most, if not the most, prestigious consulting firms in the world. McKinsey creates immeasurable value for its clients, influences how the business world operates, and produces many of the world's business and political leaders. Barry-Wehmiller and our CEO, Bob Chapman were recently featured in an important new book written by four McKinsey Senior Partners. It's called The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out. It was written by Hans-Werner Kaas, Dana Maor, Ramesh Srinivasan, and Kurt Strovink. The Journey of Leadership offers leaders a method by which they can assess their own leadership and reinvent their approach in a way that is in alignment with many of the principles Bob Chapman talks about, and that we often talk about on this podcast. The authors have packed it full of lessons from McKinsey's legendary CEO leadership program “The Bower Forum,” which has counseled 500+ global CEOs over the past decade, as well as insights gleaned from McKinsey's global CEO counseling practice. The Journey of Leadership shares how you can hone the psychological, emotional, and ultimately, the human attributes to be what we would call a Truly Human Leader. We at Barry-Wehmiller are honored to be one of the case studies in the book, appearing in chapter 12, which is titled: For People to Care, Show Them You Care.” On today's podcast, we bring you a conversation between Bob Chapman and one of the authors of The Journey of Leadership, Hans-Werner Kaas. Hans-Werner introduces himself and explains the inspiration behind the book and he and Bob have a meaningful discussion about the importance of human-centered leadership.

Have you ever thought about what your eulogy might say? It's kind of a macabre thought, but it's actually a pretty important question. And it's the topic of conversation on this podcast between Barry-Wehmiller CEO, Bob Chapman, and Garrett Potts, an assistant professor at the University of South Florida. As you've heard over several episodes of this podcast, Barry-Wehmiller is working with a number of universities to try and instill principles of Truly Human Leadership into business schools, so future leaders are not only taught the hard skills you'd expect they need in their career, but also the essential skills of how to be a caring leader. Bob met Garrett through those efforts and he came up with the idea of having students write their own eulogy. Bob challenged Garrett to impress upon his students to live their lives with intention and ask them, “When your life comes to its end, which eventually it will, what do you want people to say about your life?” On this podcast, you'll hear why Bob and Garrett think this is an appropriate challenge for students at this point in their career, but you'll also hear a broader discussion on the purpose of education and how better leaders can be created through it.

Rich Sheridan is the CEO and co-founder of Menlo Innovations, a software development company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He's the author of the books Joy, Inc. and Chief Joy Officer: How Great Leaders Elevate Human Energy and Eliminate Fear. In chapter three of Chief Joy Officer, Rich says “If there is a core tenet upon which I would build my leadership life, and in doing so inspire those I led, it is this: love wins every time.” He then goes on to relate one of the most famous passages of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, to the qualities of a loving leader. Whether or not you're a religious person – in fact, that verse is used often in even the most secular of wedding ceremonies – the relation of what the verse says to the qualities a leader should have is powerful. Rich talks about this chapter on this podcast. However, we encourage you to pick up his book and read for yourself. That chapter alone may affect the way you approach your responsibility for those entrusted to your care in your organization.

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. 

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.

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.