Over the last few years, Bob Chapman has been honored to present the message of Truly Human Leadership to more and more audiences. Whether to a group of manufacturing executives, city government leaders, business students, human resources professionals, and countless others, the goal remains the same. Bob wants people to understand that the way we lead impacts the way people live. Bob has long been inspired by the work of The Aspen Institute and their contribution to the conversation around lead...
Jun 26, 2025•35 min
The term "influencer" has really become a marketing term. It's a job. People are paid on social media to influence behavior, usually toward certain products. But there are real influencers in our lives -- intentional or unintentional -- that have a much greater effect on our behaviors, in positive or negative ways. We've long held at Barry-Wehmiller that your leader is one of the most powerful influencers in your life. Many years ago, I was told that the person you report to at work can be more ...
Jun 12, 2025•28 min
Here’s something our CEO Bob Chapman recently wrote in a post on our Truly Human Leadership blog : The people our leaders lead, they do not “report to” that leader, they are within that leader’s span of care. Just that simple deviation from the normal way of phrasing things completely changes the dynamic of the relationship. Per a Google search, the literal definition of “report to” someone is “to work under the supervision of or take instructions from someone who is in a higher position. It imp...
May 28, 2025•45 min
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 voice...
May 22, 2025•51 min
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 Vinc i and Innovate Like Edison . He has been applying the principles of genius thinking to personal, leaders...
May 07, 2025•37 min
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 f...
Apr 24, 2025•43 min
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: ...
Apr 09, 2025•44 min
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 deve...
Mar 27, 2025•46 min
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 or...
Mar 13, 2025•35 min
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: ...
Feb 19, 2025•48 min
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 ...
Feb 12, 2025•37 min
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 sc...
Feb 06, 2025•54 min
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...
Jan 22, 2025•35 min
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...
Dec 17, 2024•36 min
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!
Dec 10, 2024•40 min
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 ...
Dec 03, 2024•41 min
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-...
Nov 20, 2024•30 min
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-...
Nov 04, 2024•35 min
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 t...
Oct 23, 2024•51 min
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...
Oct 14, 2024•31 min
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 corre...
Oct 01, 2024•40 min
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...
Sep 23, 2024•43 min
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...
Sep 09, 2024•51 min
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 ...
Aug 19, 2024•52 min
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...
Aug 05, 2024•38 min
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 goi...
Jul 11, 2024•31 min
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 ...
Jun 27, 2024•36 min
“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 ...
Jun 13, 2024•28 min
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...
May 30, 2024•27 min
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 spea...
May 16, 2024•29 min
