Truly Human Leadership

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.

Our friend Lynne Twist is a global visionary and pro-activist committed to creating a future that is environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just. Lynne has written a new book, Living a Committed Life: Finding Freedom and Fulfillment in a Purpose Larger Than Yourself. Its stories demonstrate how a commitment to a purpose larger than yourself can enliven and empower, enable you to see new possibilities, turn breakdowns into breakthroughs, engage in effective action, and draw on resources and capacities you may not know you have. This podcast, is a wide-ranging conversation on the nature of purpose, the importance of purpose in business, and how it can help us turn this world from me-centric to we-centric.

Building trust requires constant, authentic communication. Communication is not just about words; it is also based on actions. Every action communicates something to the people in an organization. Too many companies say one thing and do another, breeding deep cynicism among its people over time. This THL Refresher podcast features a discussion on the nature of trust and how to build trust in your organization with the Leadership Freak, Dan Rockwell, and Matt Whiat and Sara Hannah of Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute.

In 2009, at the age of 20, Kristen Hadeed started Student Maid, an all-student cleaning company that grew to employ more than 400 college students in two cities. In 2021, she took the lessons learned from that experience and moved fully into leadership development. This was our first interview with Kristen, originally from 2016, but she had a prescient insight into the causes of today's "Great Recession." She has been part of a growing generation of leaders who are helping to highlight the sense of meaning and purpose that millennials are looking for in their work. In other words, like everybody else, they simply want to know that who they are and what they do matters.

Who heals the healers is a question Barry-Wehmiller CEO, Bob Chapman asked in 2019, long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, the need for better leadership in healthcare has reached a breaking point. Healthcare professionals are suffering from burnout and other mental health issues and are leaving the profession in droves. On this episode of our podcast, healthcare industry vets Paul DeChant and Bruce Cummings talk about their efforts to reverse the dramatic trends.

Recently, our CEO, Bob Chapman, spoke to a group of new Barry-Wehmiller team members in our St. Louis office. Bob gives a good overview of the history of our company, the development of our culture of Truly Human Leadership and how we are trying to trying to change the world. We decided to share this talk on this podcast in the hopes that it would be as inspiring to you as it was to the team members in that room.

Many people think of customers as existing externally from an organization, someone who pays for goods and services. We at Barry-Wehmiller feel that anyone becomes a customer at the moment we have an opportunity to serve. A culture of service is culture with a shared purpose where everyone is focused on meeting the needs of others inside and outside the organization. Our friend Bob Burg is an author and speaker who has taught true customer service to hundreds of thousands of people with his book, The Go-Giver. On this podcast, he gives is thoughts on how to treat customers in a Truly Human way.

On this THL Refresher, we bring you the first interview we did with Richard Sheridan, the CEO and Chief Storyteller of Menlo Innovations. Menlo is a company that builds custom software, whose mission is to "end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology." Like Barry-Wehmiller, Menlo has a unique culture which they want to share with the world. We call it Truly Human Leadership, they call it "the business value of joy." Rich talks with us about leadership, Menlo and his book, "Joy Inc."

Barry-Wehmiller is a $3+ billion global supplier of manufacturing equipment to a variety of industries. Our companies build machines that help our customers bring their products to the world. So, how does a company that builds manufacturing equipment and measures success by the way we touch the lives of others and is trying to build a better world approach environmental sustainability? This podcast features a conversation with Carol O'Neill, the Group President of Packaging for Barry-Wehmiller and Michelle Bryson, Global Sustainable Packaging Leader for BW Packaging Systems. They talk about how our values shape the way we approach environmental sustainability and the journey we are on to be a better partner to our customers and to the planet.

Michael Pirson is an Associate Professor of Management, Global Sustainability, and Social Entrepreneurship at Fordham University and Research Fellow at Harvard University. Michael is also part of a group comprised of business leaders and professors from around the world that wants to transform business education into institutions that foster human-centric leaders who honor individual dignity and demonstrate the courage to care for others. Brian Wellinghoff, Barry-Wehmiller's Director of Strategy, Improvement and Culture, has led Barry-Wehmiller's support of this group. On this podcast, he talks with Michael about humanistic management, what it is and how they are working to Humanize Business Education.

As well as co-authoring the groundbreaking book with Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey, Raj Sisodia is the co-founder and co-chairman of the Conscious Capitalism organization. A professor at Babson College, he's written seven books and published hundreds of academic articles. On this podcast, which reshares our first interview with Raj, he talks about Conscious Capitalism and the process of co-writing our book, Everybody Matters, with our CEO, Bob Chapman. Raj also about his own leadership journey and shares much of the thoughtful insight he's written and spoken about around the world.

Recognition and celebration is one of the most important ways you can help everybody in your business feel like they matter. This episode is an audio-documentary taking you inside the creation of one of BarryWehmiller's recognition programs and inside a recognition event. The episode features Barry-Wehmiller CEO Bob Chapman and a number of BW team members.

Darrin Tulley had a dramatic experience where he found out he wasn't who he thought he was. He wasn't the leader he thought was. And it completely changed his life. Darrin is now the CEO and Chief of Possibilities at Ignite Happy. He has a new book out called Live Your Possible: Ignite Your Happy, Authentic Self and Live a Fulfilling Life Rooted in Joy, Inclusion, Love and Possibilities! On this episode of our podcast, Darrin joins us to talk about work, about creating a more inclusive workplace, looking inward as a leader and he starts off by telling his story of transformation.