Truly Human Leadership

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jane Adshead-Grant has been a very good friend to all of us at Barry-Wehmiller. She has interviewed our CEO, Bob Chapman, on a number of occasions. She’s worked with us as a facilitator and she was instrumental in putting together Bob’s Truly Human Leadership tour in Europe in 2020.

Most of all, Jane is a tireless advocate for Truly Human Leadership in the world.

Jane has written several books and her most recent one is titled The Listening Coach: Coach Yourself Through the Elements of Listening That are Critical in Life, Business and our Communities.

And our conversation today will be about the power of listening.