Truly Human Leadership

It's been almost 6 months now since we lost Bob Chapman, our late Chairman and CEO of 50 years. But that doesn't mean our mission has changed or we're wavering in our desire to uphold his legacy by continuing to show that business can be a force for good when you understand that human and economic vibrancy can work in harmony. If you didn't know, you can find everything about Bob, his writings, videos, everything about the book he wrote with Raj Sisodia: Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family online at the Bob Chapman Archive: bobchapman.co We're adding more content to the site all the time, but we hope it is a reference point for future leaders to learn from the words of the man himself. Speaking of Raj, on this podcast we want to reshare a webinar Bob and Raj gave together in 2020 to the Boston Chapter of Conscious Capitalism titled "Creating and Sustaining Caring Cultures." The discussion Raj and Bob have is just as relevant today as it was six years ago.

Recently in Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute's People and Performance Playbook Newsletter, Mike Budden and Gunnar Millot wrote a thought provoking article that may be contrary to your perceptions of how and why teams are successful. It was called A High-Performing Team Is Not Necessarily a Team of High Performers . Is that how things work in your organization? Do you just grab and group of the hi-pos, the people generally considered to be the best in the company and throw them in a room and expect all the problems in your company's world to be solved? And does that always work out for you? Here's something they say in the article" "Capability, affinity, and alignment don't add up to value, they multiply into it. This means you can stack a team with extraordinary capability and still end up with almost nothing to show for it, because anything multiplied by a number close to zero stays close to zero. "That's the arithmetic of the superstar team that loses. And here's the part leaders tend to miss: affinity and alignment don't just show up on their own. They get built, or quietly torn down, by whether people trust the person in charge. "That trust rests on three things: Is the leader competent? Do they actually care? And are they congruent, meaning do they walk their talk?" This is another podcast installment of the People and Performance Playbook where the experts at Chapman & Co. share their knowledge on leadership development. You can subscribe to the People and Performance Playbook Newsletter when you follow Chapman and Co on Linkedin. On this episode, to challenge your expectations about high performing teams, is Chapman & Co.'s Gunnar Millot and Mike Budden.

Brooke Erol has been an author, leadership coach and consultant for more than 20 years. She's currently based in the US, but as you'll hear in our interview, she's worked with people and organizations around the world. Brooke has been a big supporter of our message at Barry-Wehmiller for quite a while and had the opportunity to talk with Bob Chapman on a number of occasions and is determined to help continue his legacy. She has a new book out: More Than a Paycheck: A Step by Step Guide to Clarity, Alignment and Purpose to Find and Do the Work You Love . You can get it from booksellers such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble and you can find out more about Brooke on her website: www.yourbestlifeinc.com One of the messages that you'll definitely get from the book is in alignment with what Bob says at the beginning of each of our episodes: The way we lead impacts the way people live.

Is change a dirty word in your organization? Do scenes like this often play out: You schedule a town hall meeting. You talk about major new initiatives. You're met with blank stares and crossed arms. This may happen time and again and your leadership keeps saying the same thing: They just don't like change. They don't deal well with change. They don't want to change. But maybe, it's not a change resistance or change management problem in your organization. Maybe your people are trying to tell you something. This is another podcast installment of the People and Performance Playbook where the experts at Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute share their knowledge on leadership development. You can subscribe to the People and Performance Playbook Newsletter when you follow Chapman and Co. on Linkedin. Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute was founded by the late Bob Chapman to bring Truly Human Leadership to companies around the world and improve their leadership, culture and performance. The discussion in this episode about change in organizations is led by Chapman & Co.'s Barry Kirk and Emily Gauvain. You can listen through your favorite podcast provider or through the link in the header above.

Recently, in Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute's People and Performance Playbook LinkedIn Newsletter, there was an article by Jami Dix and Morgan Miller titled: The Five-Step System for Building Leadership Capability. Here's a section: "Most organizations treat leadership development as a series of programs to deliver. They ask: What workshop should we run next? Which coaches should we hire? What curriculum should we launch? "Organizations with true leadership systems ask different questions: What does our strategy demand of leaders right now? How do we assess reality against expectations? What experiences will actually build capability? And how do we reinforce it so it sticks? "This isn't just better planning. It's a fundamentally different approach to how leaders develop. "The shift from fragmented training to an intentional system changes everything." This is another podcast installment of the People and Performance Playbook where the experts at Chapman & Co. share their knowledge on leadership development. This episode features Jami Dix and Praisy Issac expanding on the article referenced above. You can subscribe to the People and Performance Playbook Newsletter when you follow Chapman and Co on Linkedin.

Peter Menges is the SVP Customer Engagement & Loyalty for Unique Vacation Inc., an affiliate of the worldwide representative of Sandals & Beaches Resorts. He has more than 20 years of experience in leadership in the hospitality space and he has a strong personal commitment to the power of human-centered leadership, and a human-centered approach to engaging and caring for customers. Sandals has been on a multi-year journey to re-imagine their points-based customer loyalty program as something more innovative and meaningful, where loyalty becomes an outcome of a great experience and where every guest feels like an insider. Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute has been part of that journey from the day one, working very closely with the Sandals loyalty team to help them craft a more Truly Human experience. Chapman & Co. Leadership was founded by our late Chairman Bob Chapman to bring Truly Human Leadership to organizations around the world. On this podcast, Barry Kirk, a partner at Chapman & Co., talks to Peter about that journey, as well as how Peter became a Truly Human Leader. Their conversation also includes a story about how Sandals dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in Jamaica in October 2025. The storm brought destruction and loss of life and livelihood across the island. Similar to Barry-Wehmiller when revenues collapsed during the great recession, the disaster also left Sandals Resorts facing a critical decision -- how to support the team members in their span of care when the very resorts they worked for had also been devastated by that storm.

Shortly after BW Chairman Bob Chapman passing in March 2026, it was announced that Pat Berges had been named CEO and Managing Partner of Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute. Chapman & Co. was founded by Bob to bring Truly Human Leadership to organizations around the world, improving their leadership, culture and performance. Pat was a longtime friend and colleague of Bob's, bringing more than 25 years of global leadership experience to Chapman & Co. He shares the convictions that drove Bob's legacy. Pat is the founder of H3 Leadership, now part of Chapman & Co., and has held senior leadership roles at Covidien and Medtronic. He previously served as executive director of The Curve Initiative, a nonprofit founded by bestselling author Simon Sinek, and has led large-scale leadership development and culture transformation efforts across more than 100 countries. On this episode of the Truly Human Leadership Podcast, Pat talks about his friendship with Bob and how his mentorship was inspiring and challenging. Pat talks about his leadership journey, the future of Chapman & Co. and why their work is more important now than ever.

A couple of episodes ago, we talked about the $60 billion problem. That is the amount of money organizations spend on leadership training a year, although recent reports say that number may be as high as $100 billion a year. But are organizations really seeing the ROI on that money and if not, why? This is another installment of the People and Performance Playbook where the experts at Chapman & Co. share their knowledge on leadership development. This episode is an discussion of a recent article in the People and Performance Playbook Newsletter by Theresa Carik, PhD titled: "If a Leadership Program Does Not Change Behavior, What is it Actually Changing?" Joining Theresa in this discussion is Chapman & Co.'s Gunnar Millot. You can subscribe to the People and Performance Playbook Newsletter when you follow Chapman and Co on Linkedin.

Last fall, an episode of this podcast featured a discussion between Bob and Kyle Chapman. They talked about the legacy of the Chapman family in Barry-Wehmiller with an eye toward the future as Bob passed the mantle of CEO onto Kyle after 50 years in that role. It was a touching, heartfelt conversation between father and son, worth going back to listen, especially in light of Bob's passing on March 19, 2026 after a 16-month battle with leukemia. A little more than a month later, Kyle Chapman sat down for a wide-ranging conversation with our video producer, Chad Harris. Kyle reflects on the loss of his father, but also talks about how to channel that loss into action in carrying Bob's legacy forward. He talks about the future of Barry-Wehmiller, and lays out very clearly Barry-Wehmiller's intent to redefine success in business by demonstrating how human and economic vibrancy work in harmony. Continuing, expanding and fulfilling the work his dad started.

Did you know that globally, organizations spend more than $60 billion annually on leadership development and training? $60 billion in seminars, workshops, coaches, certifications, assessments, subscriptions, books and much, much more. A lot of money spent, but then your leaders are still micromanaging, avoiding difficult conversations and solving every problem themselves. You might as well have just set those dollars on fire. But, here's the thing, the training didn't fail, the approach did. On this episode of our People and Performance Playbook series, which features the experts of Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute, Jami Dix and Praisy Isaac discuss why leadership development should be like Russian nesting dolls. Layered, that addresses the heartset and mindset, as well as the skillset of leaders. You can learn more about Chapman & Co., founded by the late Bob Chapman to bring Truly Human Leadership to companies around the world at www.ccoleadership.com .

We recently started a series within the larger episode of the podcast called the People and Performance Playbook. The episodes are a little shorter, but packed filled with insight from the experts at Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute. Chapman & Co. was founded by our late CEO and Chairman Bob Chapman to bring Truly Human Leadership to organizations around the world. You can learn more about them at ccoleadership.com. On this installment, we hear again from Andrew Barenz and Mike Budden as they expand upon the most recent newsletter article, "What is the Cost of One-Dimensional Leadership in Your Organization?" Chapman & Co. has identified four styes of leadership, which Andrew and Mike discuss. You can subscribe to the People and Performance Playbook Newsletter when you follow Chapman and Co. on Linkedin.

We continue to honor the late Chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, Bob Chapman and his legacy on the podcast. This episode is a virtual talk Bob gave to a book club in 2020, during the pandemic. The club was made up of people around Aspen, Colorado, where Bob lived and they had read his book, Everybody Matters The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family . It is an interesting discussion, as Bob is in a relaxed environment talking about his life and sharing the insights he had learned throughout his career, which are the basis of his book. As you may recall, one of Bob's last projects before his passing in March 2026 was the re-release of Everybody Matters , in a 10 th anniversary revised and expanded edition. You can find out more about this new version at: everybodymattersbook.com

On this episode, we're introducing a new regular installment of the podcast, the People and Performance Playbook. Each one of these episodes will be shorter bits of insight from experts at Chapman &Co. Leadership Institute as they share stories from their work and the thinking and methodology they use to help organizations understand and put into practice the idea that people and performance, or human vibrancy and economic growth, can exist in harmony, not in conflict with one another. These episodes are also a deeper dive into issues written about in Chapman & Co.'s People and Performance Playbook Newsletter, to which you can subscribe when you find them on LinkedIn. Today's topic is The Shift in Leadership Norms. If you want to implement the principles discussed on this podcast within your organization to improve its leadership, culture and performance, check out Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute at ccoleadership.com, founded by Barry-Wehmiller' late CEO and Chairman, Bob Chapman, to bring Truly Human Leadership to organizations around the world.

A few weeks ago, Barry-Wehmiller's Chief People Officer, Rhonda Spencer spoke at the 2026 i4CP Next Practices Now Conference. Rhonda was a featured speaker, sharing our message of Truly Human Leadership alongside CEOs and other Chief People Officers from companies such as John Deere, Dick's Sporting Goods, Lumen, Northwestern Mutual, Accenture, Microsoft, FedEx and many more. Originally, Barry-Wehmiller's Chairman, Bob Chapman was supposed to be part of the presentation alongside Rhonda, but he passed away a week before the conference. However, Rhonda was able to incorporate Bob's thoughts through a series of video clips. As you've heard on episodes in the past, Rhonda was one of the architects of our culture at Barry-Wehmiller and as you'll hear her tell, she was often charged with implementing and putting structure around Bob's ideas. Rhonda offers an interesting, insightful and candid perspective for anyone who wants to understand more about Barry-Wehmiller's cultural journey. One that we're still on, every day, one step at a time.

On this Truly Human Leadership Podcast where we continue to pay tribute to Bob Chapman, our leader and mentor who passed away on March 19, 2026. All of us at Barry-Wehmiller are very appreciative of all the tributes, condolences and kind words that have come in over the last few weeks. If you'd like to send your own tribute, condolence or remembrance of Bob, we have a page to do so at bobchapman.co. When you submit it, we'll make sure it gets to Bob's family. On our last episode, we paid tribute to Bob Chapman in his own words. On this episode, we want to hear from some of his friends, colleagues and admirers. Last fall, there was a dinner held at Barry-Wehmiller's St. Louis office to honor Bob's 50 years as CEO of our company and to also celebrate his 80 th birthday. Bob and his entire family were there to enjoy the evening and we're incredibly thankful Bob got to experience this tribute while he was with us. On this podcast, we want to feature the speeches that were given that evening. We share them not only to remember Bob, but to share the lessons all of these folks learned from him. They include: Raj Sisodia, the co-founder of Conscious Capitalism and the co-author of Bob's book, Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family Tim Sullivan, Barry-Wehmiller board member and longtime part of Bob's leadership team Rhonda Spencer, Barry-Wehmiller's Chief People Officer Steve Gund, who is the CEO of the Gund Company Simon Sinek, speaker and author, Bob's close friend and one of the biggest champions of Bob's message on leadership

On this episode, we remember BW Chairman Bob Chapman, who passed away on March 19, 2026. Bob Chapman was more than a business leader, author and speaker, he was a relentless optimist who dedicated his life to building a better world. He worked to redefine what it meant to be a leader in business, to further the understanding that it was an awesome responsibility because the way we lead impacts the way people live. He worked tirelessly to bring more caring to business and built the foundation for Barry-Wehmiller to champion new definitions for success in business: by demonstrating that economic growth and human vibrancy can exist in harmony. Bob became CEO of a struggling Barry-Wehmiller in 1975 upon the death of his father, William Chapman. At the time, the company was a $20 million supplier of equipment for the brewing industry. As of 2025, when Bob handed the reigns of the business to his son Kyle, the current President and CEO, Barry-Wehmiller had become a $3.6 billion-plus global powerhouse with 12,000 team members and a portfolio spanning industrial and packaging automation, professional services, and life sciences technology. Beyond his business acumen, in the late 1990s into the 2000s, Bob underwent a personal transformation that changed his thinking from that of traditional "management" to what would later be called Truly Human Leadership. He then spent the last 15 years of his life sharing the lessons of his transformation by writing prolifically and speaking to audiences around the world. Although there's no way we could encapsulate the whole of Bob and what he has meant to so many, on this episode, we want to try to pay tribute to Bob through a clips of a number of interviews we've featured with Bob over the duration of the podcast. Clips that we selected that not only pay tribute to his ideas and insight, but that hopefully showcase the person he was.

For more than 75 years, The Gund Company has grown into one of the largest manufacturers and fabricators of composite materials, thermoplastic materials, and elastomeric materials. They have 12 manufacturing locations in five countries and have seen a tremendous amount of growth in the past few years. Like Barry-Wehmiller, the Gund Company is based in St. Louis and also like Barry-Wehmiller, they are a family business. On this podcast, we're featuring the Gund Company as Truly Human Leadership Case Study. A few weeks ago, Steve Gund, CEO of the Gund Company gave a presentation at Washington University here in St. Louis to students in their business school. Steve was joined by Brian Wellinghoff, Barry-Wehmiller's Director of Outreach, who you've heard several times before on this show. Steve talked about the Gund company's leadership journey and the part Barry-Wehmiller played in helping them along the road to becoming a Truly Human company. Brian provides some additional context from Barry-Wehmiller's own story. We hope you're inspired by this story that shows how human and economic vibrancy can exist in harmony and how business can be a force for good.

Our last episode featured an interview with Raj Sisodia and Nilima Bhat on their new book, Healing Leaders: 7 Steps to Recovery of Self. In that discussion, we talk about their previous book collaboration, Shakti Leadership: Embracing Feminine and Masculine Power in Business . To compliment the discussion of Healing Leaders, we're going to re-release a podcast episode from 2016 where Raj and Nilima talk about Shakti Leadership in more depth. Raj once said, "Vulnerability is not a liability, it's an ability. He was speaking about the benefits of bringing both the masculine and feminine sides of our psyche that exists inside every one of us to our leadership every day. Moving from leadership that is about acquiring power to leadership that nurtures and inspires people. We at Barry-Wehmiller have long believed that there's room for emotion and caring in business. And that's why these two conversations with our friends Raj and Nilima are important insights into how leaders can bring those attributes into their stewardship of those within their span of care.

Raj Sisodia is the co-founder of Conscious Capitalism and, with BW Chairman Bob Chapman, the co-writer of Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family. Raj is a frequent guest on this podcast. For one, he's a very insightful friend and secondly, he's a prolific writer. Raj has co-authored a new book, Healing Leaders: 7 Steps to Recovery of Self with his friend and fellow conscious leader, Nilima Bhat. Nilima is a pioneer in integrating Indian wisdom traditions with modern leadership practice, she has trained leaders at organizations such as Microsoft, Etsy, and Tata. Nilima and Raj previously co-authored the book Shakti Leadership, which took a transformative look at the notion of power and business and how leaders can balance all of their inherent traits to lead with their whole self. As you'll hear on this podcast, Healing Leaders continues that journey. But it isn't just another leadership book—it's a spiritual and emotional roadmap for reclaiming your humanity in a world that asks you to perform, produce, and pretend. You can find out more about the book and get your copy at rajsisodia.com.

Barry-Wehmiller Chairman Bob Chapman has said this about the importance of listening: Time and again, I've written that listening is the most important thing a leader can do. But it transcends the leader role. Listening is the most important thing we, as humans, can do for one another. It shows empathy, it shows you care, and most importantly, it shows the person you are listening to that they matter. We are not taught to listen in our society. So much value is placed on speaking, but not listening. How many listening classes do you see in schools or colleges? They have "speech" classes and debate teams. The skill of listening is special and we need to be taught how to do it well. Learning the skills to become an effective listener will not only make you a better leader, but a better human being as well Listening is something we talk about often at Barry Wehmiller, and you've probably heard a lot about it on this very podcast. It's the foundational class of Barry Wehmiller University, our internal school for our team members. We call this class Listen Like a Leader. It's also one of the most important offerings of our consulting company, Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute, as they bring Truly Human Leadership to their clients. And it was the reason Bob and his wife Cynthia created their non-profit, Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities, who brings our listening curriculum to municipal and non profits organizations under the name Our Community Listens. On this podcast, we want to feature an interview with someone our listening curruculm has had a large impact on, Gregory Bulanow, a retired a fire chief in North Charleston, South Carolina. In 2014, Chief Bulanow was looking for training for the leadership of his department and heard about Our Community Listens through word of mouth. After he attended, the chief knew this was something that could make a huge impact on his department and on the North Charleston community. In his retirement, Chief Bulanow is still a professor bringing our listening curruculm to his community. His story was featured in the revised and expanded 10 th anniversary edition of Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia's book, Everybody Matters the Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family . This interview with Chief Bulanow was dome several years ago before his retirement and he talked about the significance of listening in his work, and he starts off talking about why a class such as this would apply to his department.