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Xenium HR

Transform Your Workplace

A Management and Business podcast

#24 in Management · 🇮🇳 #30 in Management · 🇳🇬
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About the show

The "Transform Your Workplace" podcast, renowned as a top-rated HR and leadership podcast, covers into all aspects necessary for creating an outstanding workplace. It features a diverse lineup of industry experts, authors, speakers, HR professionals, and entrepreneurs worldwide who share their insights and big ideas for organizational transformation. Every week, the podcast explores a fresh topic, encompassing various subjects such as human resources, effective communication, cultural development, personal and business growth, leadership, and the latest workplace trends, such as A.I.

Newest episodes

Stop Asking Your People to Find Time for Their Health, with Joe Leutzinger and Wolf Kirsten

40 min

Most workplace wellness programs run on willpower. Step challenges, incentives, apps, wearables. Joe Leutzinger and Wolf Kirsten have spent decades in workplace health, and their new book, The Healthy Life Blueprint, looks at what 14 countries do to build health into everyday life. In this conversation, Brandon brings those lessons back to work. Joe shares what he learned running health promotion at Union Pacific and later evaluating wellness programs. He explains why leaders should know the cost of poor health before asking a program to prove its ROI, and why field employees often carry the highest health risks while getting the least attention. Wolf explains why the way work is organized, from workload to your relationship with your supervisor, shapes wellbeing as much as anything aimed at the individual. They also get into the difference between a default and a perk, why middle managers make or break any wellness effort, where the line sits between helping people and telling them how to live, and what simple living looks like for a leader who listens more than they talk. About our guests Joe Leutzinger, PhD, was director of health promotion at Union Pacific Railroad, where the program earned multiple C. Everett Koop National Health Awards. He later consulted with senior leadership teams on evaluating wellness programs and understanding the real cost of poor health inside their organizations. Wolf Kirsten is the founder of International Health Consulting and co-founder of the Global Centre for Healthy Workplaces, which runs the Global Healthy Workplace Awards and Certification. He has advised multinational employers including IBM, SAP, and Siemens, consulted the World Health Organization on its healthy workplace guidelines, and has lived and worked in Germany, the United States, England, China, and Brazil. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 01:45 How workplace culture shapes healthy choices 04:10 What Wolf saw in the parks of Beijing 07:35 What Joe learned evaluating...

AI That Sticks - Why Rollout Isn't Adoption with Lesley Bodine

38 min

Getting AI into everyone's account feels like progress. But having the tool and actually changing how people work are two very different things.   Lesley Bodine has spent more than 20 years helping teams change how they work. Now she's focused on a problem showing up inside small and mid-sized businesses: companies are investing in AI tools, rolling out training, and still struggling to see meaningful adoption or return.   Brandon Laws and Lesley get into why implementation is the easy part compared with adoption, and why resistance to AI may have less to do with the technology than leaders think. For an employee, changing a workflow can also mean changing how they see their role, their value, and even their future at the company.   They also talk about the risks of shadow AI, why HR can be set up to fail when AI adoption gets handed over as another training project, and what leaders can do instead. Lesley offers a practical place to start for a 30-person company: choose one department, build one useful AI workflow, work directly with the people affected, and use that early success as a test case before expanding.   About our guest   Lesley Bodine has spent more than two decades helping teams change how they work. Her work now focuses on helping founder-led and people-first businesses adopt AI without damaging the trust they have built with their people. Her AI That Sticks framework looks beyond tools and training to the human side of adoption, including employee identity, communication, adaptive culture, capability, governance, and measurable results.   Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:53 Why AI implementation and adoption are two different things 04:05 How traditional change management can miss the human side 07:04 How poor communication can make employees feel disposable 11:50 Why every company is behind on AI 13:29 How the AI That Sticks framework approaches adoption 14:59 Why AI resistance may really be about identity 16:28 Why AI tools can fail to produc...

Stop Telling Your People to Get Over It, with Tara Rolstad

46 min

Most managers want to support someone on their team who's struggling. Very few were ever shown how. So when it happens, a lot of leaders fall back on what they know, and too often that's some version of "get over it." Tara Rolstad came to this work as a family member. She teaches leaders what people need from them when work and life get heavy, and her answer is simpler than most managers expect: "We don't have to fix anything, we just have to be present." Brandon and Tara get into why "what happened?" lands so differently than "what's wrong with you?" They talk through what to say when someone tells you they're fine and clearly isn't, and the small, passing comment a leader can make that tells a whole team it's okay to be real. Brandon also shares what it means to have a manager who listened during a hard stretch, and the loyalty that came from it. This episode includes a discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US. About our guest Tara Rolstad, MBA, is a professional speaker, author, and mental health advocate who helps organizations open up honest conversations about mental health at work. Her path into this work started at home, as a foster parent to her nieces and later as a parent supporting one of her own kids through serious mental health struggles. She has been a consultant and program partner with NAMI organizations in Oregon and Texas and founded the Parenting & Mental Health conference. Her latest book, What to Do Right Now When Your Child Is Suicidal, is a practical guide for parents and caregivers. Her forthcoming book for managers is Get Real: Mental Health in the Workplace. She has also performed stand-up comedy about mental health, and that humor shows up in how she teaches. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 02:00 Why managers who want to help still default to "get over it" 05:10 How Tara first met mental illness 08:55 What a family member knows that an expert does...

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The newest 50 of 627 episodes

Stop Asking Your People to Find Time for Their Health, with Joe Leutzinger and Wolf Kirsten

40 min

Most workplace wellness programs run on willpower. Step challenges, incentives, apps, wearables. Joe Leutzinger and Wolf Kirsten have spent decades in workplace health, and their new book, The Healthy Life Blueprint, looks at what 14 countries do to build health into everyday life. In this conversation, Brandon brings those lessons back to work. Joe shares what he learned running health promotion at Union Pacific and later evaluating wellness programs. He explains why leaders should know the cost of poor health before asking a program to prove its ROI, and why field employees often carry the highest health risks while getting the least attention. Wolf explains why the way work is organized, from workload to your relationship with your supervisor, shapes wellbeing as much as anything aimed at the individual. They also get into the difference between a default and a perk, why middle managers make or break any wellness effort, where the line sits between helping people and telling them how to live, and what simple living looks like for a leader who listens more than they talk. About our guests Joe Leutzinger, PhD, was director of health promotion at Union Pacific Railroad, where the program earned multiple C. Everett Koop National Health Awards. He later consulted with senior leadership teams on evaluating wellness programs and understanding the real cost of poor health inside their organizations. Wolf Kirsten is the founder of International Health Consulting and co-founder of the Global Centre for Healthy Workplaces, which runs the Global Healthy Workplace Awards and Certification. He has advised multinational employers including IBM, SAP, and Siemens, consulted the World Health Organization on its healthy workplace guidelines, and has lived and worked in Germany, the United States, England, China, and Brazil. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 01:45 How workplace culture shapes healthy choices 04:10 What Wolf saw in the parks of Beijing 07:35 What Joe learned evaluating...

AI That Sticks - Why Rollout Isn't Adoption with Lesley Bodine

38 min

Getting AI into everyone's account feels like progress. But having the tool and actually changing how people work are two very different things.   Lesley Bodine has spent more than 20 years helping teams change how they work. Now she's focused on a problem showing up inside small and mid-sized businesses: companies are investing in AI tools, rolling out training, and still struggling to see meaningful adoption or return.   Brandon Laws and Lesley get into why implementation is the easy part compared with adoption, and why resistance to AI may have less to do with the technology than leaders think. For an employee, changing a workflow can also mean changing how they see their role, their value, and even their future at the company.   They also talk about the risks of shadow AI, why HR can be set up to fail when AI adoption gets handed over as another training project, and what leaders can do instead. Lesley offers a practical place to start for a 30-person company: choose one department, build one useful AI workflow, work directly with the people affected, and use that early success as a test case before expanding.   About our guest   Lesley Bodine has spent more than two decades helping teams change how they work. Her work now focuses on helping founder-led and people-first businesses adopt AI without damaging the trust they have built with their people. Her AI That Sticks framework looks beyond tools and training to the human side of adoption, including employee identity, communication, adaptive culture, capability, governance, and measurable results.   Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:53 Why AI implementation and adoption are two different things 04:05 How traditional change management can miss the human side 07:04 How poor communication can make employees feel disposable 11:50 Why every company is behind on AI 13:29 How the AI That Sticks framework approaches adoption 14:59 Why AI resistance may really be about identity 16:28 Why AI tools can fail to produc...

Stop Telling Your People to Get Over It, with Tara Rolstad

46 min

Most managers want to support someone on their team who's struggling. Very few were ever shown how. So when it happens, a lot of leaders fall back on what they know, and too often that's some version of "get over it." Tara Rolstad came to this work as a family member. She teaches leaders what people need from them when work and life get heavy, and her answer is simpler than most managers expect: "We don't have to fix anything, we just have to be present." Brandon and Tara get into why "what happened?" lands so differently than "what's wrong with you?" They talk through what to say when someone tells you they're fine and clearly isn't, and the small, passing comment a leader can make that tells a whole team it's okay to be real. Brandon also shares what it means to have a manager who listened during a hard stretch, and the loyalty that came from it. This episode includes a discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US. About our guest Tara Rolstad, MBA, is a professional speaker, author, and mental health advocate who helps organizations open up honest conversations about mental health at work. Her path into this work started at home, as a foster parent to her nieces and later as a parent supporting one of her own kids through serious mental health struggles. She has been a consultant and program partner with NAMI organizations in Oregon and Texas and founded the Parenting & Mental Health conference. Her latest book, What to Do Right Now When Your Child Is Suicidal, is a practical guide for parents and caregivers. Her forthcoming book for managers is Get Real: Mental Health in the Workplace. She has also performed stand-up comedy about mental health, and that humor shows up in how she teaches. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 02:00 Why managers who want to help still default to "get over it" 05:10 How Tara first met mental illness 08:55 What a family member knows that an expert does...

If You Want to Go Fast, You Need Great Brakes, with Christian Poensgen

45 min

Christian Poensgen earned his PhD studying stress and performance. Then he started a company right out of school and came close to burning out anyway. He was working 80-hour weeks and sleeping seven or eight hours a night, and he still woke up exhausted. Every morning, the day already felt lost. This episode is a little different. It's about your own performance, and it applies to the people you lead too. Brandon and Christian get into pseudo-productive busyness. That's the pattern of spending all day in meetings, email, and chat while the important work slides to evenings and weekends. Christian explains why the first five to ten minutes of focused work always feel terrible. He covers why a full night of sleep can still be junk sleep, and why checking your sleep score first thing in the morning can make your day worse. He also answers the objection he hears from nine out of ten executives he coaches: I don't control my calendar. You'll walk away with three small changes to your video calls, drawn from Stanford researcher Jeremy Bailenson's work on Zoom fatigue, that you can try in your next meeting. About our guest Dr. Christian Poensgen is a scientist turned entrepreneur, writer, and executive coach. He earned his PhD on the relationship between stress and performance. He has served as senior fellow of the Future of Work think tank in the German federal parliament and as co-founder and director of the European Center for Digital Competitiveness at ESCP Business School. He has also been an agenda contributor at the World Economic Forum. With his co-author, Eric Partaker, he coaches executives on focus, sleep, and stress. Their new book, Ultraproductive: The 90-Minute Method to Optimize Focus, Sleep, and Stress, is out now from Portfolio. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 02:05 What the "ultra" in Ultraproductive means 04:50 How a stress researcher came close to burnout 06:50 Why every morning felt like the day was already lost 09:15 What Christian would tell his younge...

Jeff Wilser on Why Your AI Rollout Might Be Theater

45 min

Plenty of companies say they're all in on AI. Privately, a lot of them aren't sure what to do with it. Jeff Wilser sees that gap in leadership rooms all the time, and he calls what often fills it AI theater. Think shiny tools that never make it into real workflows, or quotas that punish people for not using AI enough. Brandon and Jeff get into why leaders are usually excited about AI while their most junior people are anxious, and why adoption won't stick until that gap gets addressed. They talk through the choice every company faces when AI frees up time, whether to grow or cut. Jeff explains why he thinks the companies that only cut will get lapped by the ones that grow. Jeff also makes the case that AI is a people issue, and that most companies don't bring HR to the table nearly enough. He shares the red line he holds as a writer: AI won't write a word of his book. He also names the line he believes every HR team should hold. No one gets hired, fired, or put on a PIP because an AI recommended it. If you're a one-person HR team with no IT support, don't skip the end. Jeff's first move takes an hour or less, and he says it almost always works. About our guest Jeff Wilser is a journalist, keynote speaker, and AI strategist who works with leadership teams on what to actually do about AI. He has reported for The New York Times, WIRED, Fast Company, and GQ, and he's the author of eight books. On his podcast, AI-Curious, he's interviewed people at the center of AI, from OpenAI's Sam Altman to IBM's chief scientist. Today he runs hands-on AI workshops for organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to community banks. He started his career in business and finance at Intel and lives in Denver. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 02:45 What leaders say about AI in public versus in private 04:10 How leadership teams get aligned when some love AI and some won't touch it 07:35 Why admitting you don't have AI figured out builds trust 09:15 How a journalist ended up teaching com...

If Your Team Stopped Complaining, That Should Worry You, with Suzi Wear

23 min

A quiet team can feel like proof that things are going well. Suzi Wear sees it differently. If you're not hearing suggestions, feedback, or even complaints, something is usually keeping people from being open and honest with you. In this episode, Suzi and Brandon dig into the moment a frustrated employee shows up at your door. The common reflexes are to smooth it over, avoid it, or get defensive and explain the decision. Suzi's read on why: passion is appreciated as long as it's convenient. How you respond in that moment either builds trust or shuts it down, for that person and for everyone else watching. Suzi shares the story of a high-performing, usually reserved employee who came in visibly frustrated that leadership had made decisions affecting her team without asking the people closest to the work. Her supervisor went straight to defending the process. She felt defeated and went quiet, and it wasn't because she agreed. She had learned that speaking up didn't help. You'll also hear how to tell a chronic complainer from a real signal, why responses like "let's be constructive" or "you need to calm down" shut people down, and what to say instead. Suzi closes with a simple three-step approach any manager can use the next time a complaint lands on their desk: reward it, mine it, and close the loop. About our guest Suzi Wear is Managing Director of Learning and Development Services at Xenium HR. She has more than 20 years in HR and leadership roles, with work spanning employee relations, workplace culture, and leadership development, including consulting for hundreds of small and growing businesses. Suzi designs and delivers practical training and coaching for leaders. She is a certified coach through the Institute of Social and Emotional Intelligence and recently earned her accreditation in Conversational Intelligence, which shapes much of the workshop content she teaches. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction 01:31 Why a quiet team should make you nervous 02:34 How...

Why Your Team Won't Give You the Real Feedback, with Tanya Uyigue

36 min

Tanya Uyigue applied for a promotion she was qualified for and didn't get it. She asked why. Nobody ever told her. That silence became the starting point for her book, What Your Team Won't Tell You. It's written for the employees who can't safely give their managers honest feedback, and for the managers who were never trained to see what their people are seeing. Brandon and Tanya talk about what happens when a high performer keeps taking on more work while the goalposts keep moving. They get into the "safe bet" employee managers tend to promote, and what a senior leader really means when they say someone lacks "polish." Tanya also shares the moment she found out she'd been an absentee manager, from her own employee, as a joke, in front of her boss. You'll walk away with the questions to ask every new hire, and what to do if you recognize yourself in a few of these chapters. About our guest Tanya Uyigue is a career and workplace strategist, coach, and speaker based in Chicago. She's spent more than 20 years working across corporate and nonprofit settings, and she trained as a professional coach through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). Her content on workplace dynamics and management reaches a large audience on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, where people regularly share their own manager stories with her. Her new book, What Your Team Won't Tell You: The 7 Management Fails to Avoid, is out now from Berrett-Koehler. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 02:50 Why Tanya stopped being careful with her words 04:05 How she was passed over for a promotion with no feedback 07:10 What happened when a colleague she helped hire became her boss 08:15 Why she sat on her viral video for a month 11:00 Who the book is really written for 13:20 What "I played myself while they played me" means 15:00 What a "safe bet" employee is and why managers promote them 18:05 What leaders really mean when they say someone lacks "polish" 21:15 How Tanya found out she was an ab...

Why Being Helpful Keeps You Stuck with Alli Murphy

36 min

Most leaders who carry everything already know they're doing it. Alli Murphy did. Four years ago on this show, she named her own patterns, from perfectionism to finding it easier to advocate for her team than for herself. She had a coach. It still nearly broke her. Alli is back to talk about what finally changed. She describes becoming what she calls the Chief Everything Officer, the leader that every decision and fire drill runs through. Then came the weekend a friend joked to her husband on a chairlift that Alli must be a figment of his imagination, since nobody had ever met her. She explains why "just say no" advice falls flat for leaders who were rewarded for the opposite, and why she runs mini-experiments instead, such as a week with no Slack or email in the first hour of the day. She also shares the question her coach asked that she couldn't answer: "What's your definition of enough for a workday?" For HR leaders who are a one-person department, Alli gets practical. List everything you own and question what's only there out of habit. Decide what enough looks like. Use a shutdown ritual so tomorrow starts with a plan instead of an inbox. About our guest Alli Murphy is a leadership coach and speaker who helps women directors and above step out of the Chief Everything Officer role. Through her business, Work & Thrive HQ, she runs The Elevate Lab, a 90-day coaching program, and a free community called the Non-Negotiables Club. Before going out on her own, Alli was a managing director and podcast host at Engage for Good, where she spoke on 700-person stages, led a corporate mastermind, and partnered with brands like Subaru, Hasbro, and Disney. She's a former collegiate athlete, grew up in Mexico City, and lives in Bend, Oregon. She's currently writing a book. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 02:15 Why Alli walked away from her managing director title 05:00 Why the ambition gap is really a support gap 06:10 How an acquisition made her the Chief Everything Officer 07:20...

How to Tell Someone They're Wrong When AI Says They're Right with Nicole Blevins

21 min

Your Employee Did Their Research. It Was for the Wrong Industry. An employee walks in with AI research, fully confident they're owed back wages and penalties for missed 10-minute rest breaks. The research wasn't made up. It was valid information for a different industry, and it didn't apply to their employer. Xenium HR Director of HR Services, Nicole Blevins, is back to walk through what happened next. Her team didn't argue. They listened, asked where the information came from, checked it with Xenium's compliance team and a legal partner, then went back to the employee with what actually applied and a plan to make sure the breaks were happening. Brandon and Nicole also get into why this is showing up more often, from employees and managers alike, and why a leading question gets you the answer you were hoping for. Brandon admits his own worry about trusting these tools too much, and Nicole shares how to correct someone without turning it into a debate about who's right. If you lead people, assume your team is using AI. This conversation gives you a steady way to respond when their research lands on your desk. About our guest Nicole Blevins is the Director of HR Services at Xenium HR, where she works directly with client businesses and their leaders. She has more than 10 years of experience in HR and is a familiar voice on Transform Your Workplace. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 02:30 Why Brandon wonders if he's trusting AI too much 03:05 How employees are showing up with AI answers they trust completely 03:40 The missed rest break claim and the demand for back wages 05:15 Why the research was valid but for the wrong industry 06:05 How missing context changes the answer AI gives you 07:30 Why Nicole got curious instead of correcting the employee 09:35 How to tell someone their research doesn't apply 11:05 Does HR end up looking like it's on the employer's side 13:25 Why this is coming up more with employees and managers 15:05 Why free AI tools give you weaker answers...

Your Engagement Survey Is Measuring the Wrong Thing with Dustin Snyder

42 min

Most leaders treat problem behavior at work as a people problem. Dustin Snyder treats it as a design problem. Dustin came up through HR, then took both the VP of HR and president seats at a 600-employee manufacturing division that had been losing money for years. The turnaround taught him something uncomfortable. The HR toolkit he had been trained on, including progressive discipline, was built to limit liability, not to change behavior. That led him to human systems theory, the finding that behavior at scale is a rational adaptation to the environment. If people don't change when you ask them to, it's because the environment hasn't changed. In this conversation, Brandon and Dustin get into why engagement surveys return symptoms instead of root causes, the UPS survey that hit record scores a few months before a companywide strike, the skilled trades team that was quitting over pride rather than pay, and the rural energy company that was hiding the exact thing its best candidates wanted. If absenteeism, turnover, or disengagement keeps coming back no matter what you try, this one gives you a different place to look. About our guest Dustin Snyder is a consultant and the author of Sink or Swim: The Human Systems Theory Approach to Business Performance, the first of three planned books. He spent his career in HR before taking on both the VP of HR and president roles at the American division of a global metals company, roughly 600 employees and $300 million in annual revenue. That turnaround became the basis for SWIM, short for strategic workforce insight mapping, the process he now uses to trace systemic employee behavior back to its root causes. He has worked with manufacturers, hospitals, software companies, and higher education. TIMESTAMPS 01:45 Why the goals were never the problem 03:55 How a losing manufacturing division changed his management style 05:20 Why the HR toolkit limits liability instead of changing behavior 06:35 How stricter attendance policies...

Being the Smartest Person in the Room Is Ruining Your Team with Heather Graves-Ramsey

38 min

Most managers have one move in a hard conversation. They tell people what to do. It works until it doesn't, and when it stops working, most of us just tell harder. Executive coach Heather Graves-Ramsey lays out three kinds of leadership conversations. Managing and mentoring both push. Coaching pulls. The difference is whether you walk in with the answer or walk in believing the person across from you can find it. She explains why the pulling conversation is so hard to learn, why it can feel like you're not doing your job, and why the manager who gets the least credit is often doing the most good. Host, Brandon Laws, pushes on the obvious question. If anyone can get an answer in seconds from AI, what is a leader for? Heather's case is that the value is not in having answers. It is in the intuitive read, the follow-up nobody else would ask, and seeing something in a person they can't yet see in themselves. You'll also hear her POWER model for preparing a conversation you're dreading, the three levels of listening, a trick for getting your own head out of the room, and a short list of questions to try with your team this week. Plus the story of the 11-year-old client who hissed at her for three sessions, and what finally broke through. About our guest Heather Graves-Ramsey is an executive coach and leadership development trainer and the owner of Coach to Brilliance, based in the Portland, Oregon area. She is a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation and trained through the Coaches Training Institute, with a background that spans business, counseling, and education, including time as a school-based mental health counselor. She works with individuals and teams on communication, retention, and leadership impact, and she is active in community leadership in Lake Oswego. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro and a word from Xenium HR 02:00 Why managing and mentoring both push, and coaching pulls 05:08 Why most leaders don't know which conversation...

Why Half of Us Feel Lonely and What Actually Fixes It

38 min

More than half of adults say they feel lonely. Among young men, 27 percent say they do not have a friend at all. Dr. Tracy Brower has spent her career studying what work does to people, and her new book is about what happens when the relationships go missing. This conversation starts with the research and then turns practical. Tracy explains how convenience removed the small interactions that used to hold us together, how many close friends a person can realistically keep up with, and what it takes to build a friendship as an adult when nobody is assigning you a locker anymore. Brandon and Tracy also get into AI. Specifically, where the line sits between using it to save yourself some typing and handing over the parts of the job that carry trust. Tracy's distinction between cognitive offloading and cognitive surrender is worth the listen on its own. For leaders, the last stretch is the most useful. Tracy argues that the best team bonding does not come from the escape room or the pasta making class. It comes from groups doing hard work together, which means connection is something you can build into how the work is structured rather than something you schedule. About our guest Dr. Tracy Brower is a sociologist and the vice president of workplace insights at Steelcase. She is a senior contributor at Forbes and a contributor to Fast Company and Newsweek. She is the author of Critical Connections: Build Relationships and Harness the Power of Community in Work and Life, along with The Secrets to Happiness at Work and Bring Work to Life by Bringing Life to Work. Tracy holds a PhD in sociology, a master of management in organizational culture, and a master of corporate real estate with a workplace specialization. This is not her first time on the show. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Why Brandon opens with his own friendship habits 01:35 Why connection needed its own book 03:10 Why loneliness is on an upward trend worldwide 04:55 How removing friction from daily life also removed...

How We Could Instead of Why We Can't with Alex Dorr

48 min

Every leader has run the meeting where the team can list twenty reasons something won't work and zero ideas for how it could. Alex Dorr has a name for what's happening in that room, and a five step process for getting out of it. Alex is the CEO of Reality-Based Leadership and the author of How We Could, out September 22, 2026. In this conversation with Brandon Laws, he walks through the Call to Greatness framework: validate the experience, clean up the thinking, find your part in the mess, know your role in the solution, then take next right action. He opens with a day in New York with a group of regional retail directors who were stuck on a decision they didn't like, and the moment one of them looked at a whiteboard full of constraints and said, "I can see it." The conversation gets practical fast. Alex explains why he thinks empathy has been weaponized at work and how it stalls teams before they reach action. He draws the line between empathy and sympathy with an emergency room story that will stick with you. He makes the case that your most expensive employee might be your best performer, the one who has started judging everyone falling behind. And he breaks down three roles most people confuse: decision maker, consultant, and good person to be informed. His take on that last one is worth the listen on its own. If you lead people at a small or mid-sized company and you're tired of the same circular conversations, this one gives you something to use in your next one-on-one. About our guest Alex Dorr is the CEO of Reality-Based Leadership, where he works with leaders around the world on ditching drama, building alignment, and coaching teams to next right action. He is the author of How We Could: The Framework to Lead Without Drama, Build Alignment, and Call Teams to Greatness, launching September 22, 2026, and the host of the Reality-Based Leadership Podcast. He holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation and a master's in international business from...

What Is Actually Behind Your Inability to Delegate with Susan Drumm

35 min

Most leaders who cannot delegate assume it is a process problem. Susan Drumm has studied both sides of it, and her answer is that the skill gap is real but it is rarely the whole story. Underneath it is usually a belief you have been carrying since long before you managed anyone. Susan has spent two decades coaching C-suite executives, and her work centers on pattern recognition and pattern disruption. In this conversation she explains how she spots those patterns in a leadership team, why leaders resist looking at them, and what it takes to change one in the moment. She shares the story of a leader whose habit of sugarcoating feedback traced back to being the middle child nobody paid attention to, and what shifted once he could name it. She makes a direct case that staying in pretense with your team destroys trust rather than protecting it. She walks through her four steps for catching a pattern and shifting it, explains why she uses the Enneagram over DISC or MBTI, and gets into the neuroscience of how music speeds up new habit formation. Worth your time if you manage people and keep running into the same problem in different clothing. About our guest Susan Drumm is a CEO advisor, executive coach, and the USA Today bestselling author of The Leader's Playlist. She founded Meritage Leadership 20 years ago, where she and her team work with senior leaders and executive teams on pattern recognition, team performance, and leadership development. Her background is unusual for the field. She holds degrees from Harvard Law School and Carnegie Mellon University, plus a master's in acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Before starting her own firm, she worked as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and later at NBC. She describes herself as an Enneagram type seven, which she says explains her habit of pulling unrelated disciplines together. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro and sponsor 02:00 How Susan finds patterns in an executive team 04:05 Why the...

Why Your Labels Are Your Limits with Nir Eyal

35 min

Most managers already know what good management looks like. Give real feedback. Delegate. Have the hard conversation. Knowing it has never been the problem. Nir Eyal spent years asking why people who have the right answer still don't act on it. His conclusion is that the gap is not motivation or discipline. It's belief. And beliefs are harder to spot than habits, because from the inside they feel like facts. In this conversation, Nir walks through what a belief actually is, why confirmation bias quietly hardens a manager's read on an employee until it stops being reviewable, and what to do when you find yourself already dreading a conversation that hasn't happened yet. He also makes a blunt case against two labels a lot of leaders wear comfortably: imposter syndrome and perfectionist. The practical takeaways here are small and usable. Look for where you're suffering instead of hunting for the belief directly. Keep a reality log when your read on your own performance has gone lopsided. And pay attention to whatever words follow "I am." About our guest Nir Eyal is the author of Hooked, Indistractable, and Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results, an instant New York Times bestseller written with Julie Li. He is a former lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and Time. He writes about behavior, focus, and belief at NirAndFar.com. Nir is offering listeners a free 5-Minute Belief Change Guide at nirandfar.com/beyond-belief-live. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Why managers know what to do and still don't do it 02:00 Why readers kept telling Nir his last book didn't work for them 06:00 Why the best advice becomes wasted breath without belief 07:15 The difference between a fact, a faith, and a belief 08:50 Why your conscious mind only gets 50 bits of what's in front of you 11:00 How a manager's opinion of an employee hardens into fact 13...

Unpacking the 2026 Human Capital Trends Report with David Mallon

38 min

Deloitte's David Mallon on the Culture Debt AI Is Building Most organizations are treating AI like the last big tech rollout. Buy the licenses, run some training, expect results. The data says that approach is backfiring. David Mallon leads the research behind Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends report, now in its 15th year. In this conversation, he explains why 59% of organizations taking a tech-first approach to AI are 1.6 times more likely to miss the return, and what changes when you redesign the work instead of layering tools on top of it. Brandon and David get into the human side of the shift. Work slop and what it means for developing people when entry-level roles disappear. Culture debt, and the 80% of leaders and workers who suspect their teammates are using AI to look more productive. Decision rights, and why accountability breaks down when nobody can trace a choice back to a person. And the question sitting underneath all of it: who actually owns work. There is a practical throughline here for small and mid-sized companies. You do not need a transformation budget to start. You need to think in capabilities, build friction back in where people need to practice, and say out loud what counts as good work now. About our guest David Mallon is a managing director at Deloitte Consulting LLP and head of research and chief futurist for Human Capital in the US. He has more than 25 years of experience in human capital and has been a contributor to Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends study since its inception. He leads Insights2Action, Deloitte's Human Capital decision intelligence capability, and is a former head of research for Bersin. He co-hosts the Capital H podcast and speaks widely on organization design, culture, HR strategy, and learning. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Welcome and what this episode covers 01:45 Why 2026 is the year leaders can no longer sit on the fence 04:15 The tech-first trap and why AI is not the last tech wave 05:40 What a human-centric...

Why Your Sunday Night Mood Is Not Lying to You with Amy Leneker

39 min

How you feel on Sunday night tells you something real about your relationship with work. Amy Leneker, the author of Cheers to Monday, calls it one of the most honest assessments we have, and she would know. Seven weeks into medical leave after a panic attack, she sat in a doctor's office, got handed a questionnaire, and could not answer a question about what she did for fun. In this conversation, Amy walks through what she learned from that unraveling and the research that followed. She explains the difference between the stress that helps you perform and the stress that wears you down, and why leaders and their teams so often talk past each other on exactly that point. She shares the zero-to-10 question that opens up a conversation about stress without putting anyone on the spot, her three-step See, Sort, Solve method, and how to separate what you can control from what you cannot. There is a lot in here you can use this week if you lead people. Including one calendar trick involving a standing Friday appointment with Dr. Green. About our guest Amy Leneker is the founder and CEO of the Center for Joyful Work and the author of Cheers to Monday: The Surprisingly Simple Method to Lead and Live with Less Stress and More Joy, published by Wiley in 2026. The book debuted as the number one bestselling business book on the USA Today list. Amy spent more than two decades in leadership, including ten years in the C-suite, before burnout forced a different path. She has studied leadership at Yale, neuroscience at the NeuroLeadership Institute, and stress resilience at Harvard Medical School. She leads an annual national workforce study on stress and joy at work, has trained more than 100,000 people, and hosts the Less Stress, More Joy podcast. She and her family live in the Pacific Northwest. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro and sponsor 02:10 The question in a doctor's office she could not answer 05:05 The signs she ignored for years 05:55 Why your Sunday night mood is honest data...

The Space Between Communicating and Being Understood with Lee Caraher

47 min

You wrote the announcement, rehearsed it, sent it, and a week later the questions rolled in anyway. In this episode, communication strategist Lee Caraher explains why most workplace communication fails on delivery, not message, and what to do about it. She shares a practical three-send formula for making any announcement stick, a protocol for deciding which messages belong in email, Slack, or a meeting, and a test for knowing whether your message actually landed. Silence and nodding, it turns out, are the clearest signs it didn't. Lee also makes the case for retiring the feedback sandwich for good and shows how to remove the ambiguity that quietly creates conflict, starting with how you assign a deadline.   About our guest Lee Caraher is the founder and CEO of Double Forte, a national public relations and digital media agency based in San Francisco. A communication strategist known for practical solutions to big problems, she is the author of Millennials and Management and The Boomerang Principle. This is her third appearance on the show.   TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro and a word from Xenium HR Compensation Services 02:00 Why communication fails on delivery, not message 05:30 The three-send formula for big announcements 08:00 Building a receptacle for questions 10:30 Mixed messages and the four parts of delivery 13:00 Yes-people and why leaders need truth-tellers 14:30 Using AI tools to critique your own delivery 16:00 Reading the room and adapting your style 20:45 Which messages belong in which channel 25:00 The case for a weekly leader email 25:45 Nodding heads mean they didn't get it 34:00 Crisis, apologies, and losing control of the narrative 38:20 What a real deadline includes 43:30 Throw away the feedback sandwich A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR Host: Brandon Laws In Brandon's own words: "The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-t...

What Being Always On Is Costing You with Justin Hai

41 min

Stress has become so normal at work that plenty of people wear it like a badge. Justin Hai wants that to change. He is the co-founder and CEO of Rebalance Health and the author of Stress Nation, and he studies what our always-on habits do to our stress, our sleep, and our health. Justin breaks down cortisol, the hormone he calls the body's alarm system, and explains why it gets stuck in the on position when we never put the phone down. He makes the case that sleep is the first thing to protect, not the last, and that most of the shortcuts people reach for are treating symptoms instead of the cause. Brandon and Justin also get practical. You will hear simple changes you can make with your phone, your evening routine, and your schedule to feel more like yourself again. They talk through why in-person connection lowers stress, the real difference between stress and anxiety, and why running your work life on four hours of sleep is a decision you would never make behind the wheel. If stress has become a badge of honor on your team, this one is worth sharing with them. About our guest Justin Hai is the co-founder and CEO of Rebalance Health, a company focused on cortisol and hormone health backed by clinical research. He is the author of Stress Nation: Escape the Technology Trap, Eliminate Stress, and Reclaim Rest, published by Wiley. Before Rebalance, he co-founded Alastin Skincare and GLO Pharmaceuticals. He holds a degree in industrial design from RISD and an MBA from Pepperdine. His work centers on how modern technology disrupts cortisol, sleep, and overall health, and what people can do to get back into balance. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro and sponsor 01:35 Why stress belongs on a workplace podcast 02:20 How your devices are making you sick 04:40 Cortisol, your body's alarm system 07:20 Why protecting your sleep comes first 09:15 What throws your cortisol out of balance 11:30 Your phone as a trigger and the trap of social media 14:40 The real cost of being always o...

Why Knowing Your Blind Spots Is Not Enough with Cam Yenokida

33 min

Most leaders think self-awareness means understanding their patterns. Cam Yenokida sees where that falls short. The executive coach and founder of Achieve Excellence explains why intellectual self-awareness alone never changes anything, and what it takes to turn insight into new behavior. Cam and Brandon get into the quiet reality of senior leadership, where the higher you climb, the less room you have to think out loud. They talk about what actually makes a leader coachable, why assessments are a starting point and not an answer, and how a simple look at your calendar can reveal where your attention is really going. Cam spent 20 years in corporate leadership before starting his own practice. He shares the turnover problem that became a defining moment, the two-year onboarding approach behind it, and what separates leaders who are good from those who become excellent. About our guest Cam Yenokida is an executive coach and the founder of Achieve Excellence, based in Lake Oswego, Oregon. He spent more than 20 years in corporate leadership before starting his own practice, and he has facilitated over 200 leadership and team development workshops. Cam coaches leaders at every level, from solo entrepreneurs to senior executives, using a systematic approach built around diagnostics, planning, implementation, and follow-up. His focus is on helping leaders move from understanding their patterns to actually changing how they show up. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Welcome and why pay is a quiet driver of turnover 01:00 Meet Cam Yenokida 02:00 The patterns that pulled Cam toward developing leaders 04:00 The turnover problem that became a defining moment 05:00 Why onboarding should last two years, not 90 days 09:00 Leaving a 20 year career to start Achieve Excellence 11:00 The identity shift of becoming the brand 14:00 The blind spot of self-awareness that stays intellectual 16:00 Turning awareness into real behavior change 18:00 Why senior leaders lose room to think out loud 20:00 He...

Why Waiting Is the Most Expensive Decision You Can Make

36 min

Most leaders treat their technology problems as technology problems. Richard Tarity has spent 26 years watching companies prove otherwise. In this episode, Brandon Laws talks with Richard, the founder of truCX and author of The Intelligence Within, about why how an organization decides matters more than the tools it buys. They get into how slow discovery quietly kills good projects, why sitting on the sidelines costs more than picking the wrong tool, and how some teams gather more insight in one week than others do in ten months. Richard shares real stories, including a healthcare company that spent ten months on discovery and still watched the project fall apart, and a utility company that rebuilt its customer operation in weeks after a major storm. Along the way, he walks through a four-step framework for making faster decisions without cutting corners. If you have ever sat through a long, careful process and wondered why it still led nowhere, this conversation will give you a clearer way to think about the choices facing your team. ABOUT OUR GUEST Richard Tarity is the founder and CEO of truCX, a discovery platform that helps organizations align, plan, and decide faster when they choose new technology. He has spent 26 years in customer experience and technology, guiding companies through business transformations and seeing firsthand where those efforts succeed and where they stall. He is the author of The Intelligence Within, written for leaders who are tired of slow discovery cycles and want a clearer, faster way to make big decisions. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Welcome and the book behind the conversation 00:10 Technology isn't the bottleneck, deciding is 03:08 The illusion of progress and a discovery that failed 06:27 The paradox of choice and getting yourself right first 08:15 The bigger AI risk, wrong tool or no move at all 11:58 Why slow discovery only looks like due diligence 15:05 Netflix, Blockbuster, and the price of hesitation 17:29 A four-step framework...

The Job Market Is Not Broken the Way You Think with Bonnie Dilber

44 min

The job market feels broken to a lot of people right now. Bonnie Dilber has a different read on it. As Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Zapier, she looks at hiring data for fun, and she says the problem is not that the jobs disappeared. It is that more people are competing for a pool of roles that has stayed flat, while plenty of work in trades, healthcare, and education goes unfilled. In this conversation, Bonnie and Brandon Laws get honest about what is actually happening in hiring. They cover the myths job seekers still believe, why AI-written resumes are making recruiters work harder, and how Zapier is using agentic AI interviews and automation across its process. Bonnie also shares direct advice for anyone stuck in a long search, including why your self-assessment is probably off and where the real opportunities are. If you hire people or are looking for your next role, this one is worth your time. About our guest Bonnie Dilber is the Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Zapier, where she leads recruiting for the company's business and go-to-market teams. She started her career in education through Teach For America, spent 4 years in the classroom, and moved into teacher development before making the jump to tech recruiting. Today, she is one of the most followed recruiting voices on LinkedIn, and she writes a newsletter for job seekers called Landed. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 02:00 From the classroom to tech recruiting 04:00 Why she left education for Zapier 07:00 Building a following on LinkedIn 09:00 The biggest myth about applicant tracking systems 11:00 What the job market actually looks like 16:00 AI resumes, fraud, and verifying real candidates 18:30 Honest advice for a long job search 23:00 How AI is helping Zapier hire 30:00 Hiring for roles that may not exist in a year 36:00 AI and equity 41:00 How to vet new HR technology 43:00 Where to find Bonnie Resources mentioned: Landed BrightHire Zapier What People Want from Work survey A QUICK G...

We're Not Aliens. We're People - A Case for Belonging at Work with Zhou Fang

38 min

What does it mean to truly see your employees? In this episode, Brandon Laws sits down with Zhou Fang, founder of Intersectional Group LLC, to explore how an intersectional lens can transform the way leaders support their teams. Zhou draws on her experience as an immigrant, multilingual professional, and DEI consultant to unpack what most organizations get wrong about inclusion, how to hold people accountable with warmth and compassion, and why your people are your most important business decision. Whether you're leading a team of five or five hundred, this conversation will challenge you to do better and give you the tools to start! Key Timestamps 00:02 Welcome and introduction of Zhou Fang, founder of Intersectional Group LLC 00:33 How Zhou's immigrant experience, coming to the U.S. in 2010, shaped her perspective on the workplace 01:04 "Don't make us feel like an alien": What immigrant workers need from employers 02:12 Defining intersectionality and why it matters for leaders and business owners 04:16 How an intersectional lens helps turn workplace problems into opportunities 07:13 How Zhou developed her intersectional lens through lived experience in the U.S. workforce, not in the classroom 09:51 What good and bad employer experiences taught Zhou about what workplaces should look like 11:40 What most leaders miss when supporting employees on visas or non-citizens 14:32 How to start the intersectionality conversation inside your organization 16:34 The most common misunderstanding organizations make when beginning DEI work 18:34 Why deprioritizing people is a harmful business decision 20:16 Practical, low-cost steps small organizations can take to support their teams 22:06 Balancing warmth and accountability: why they are not opposites 24:52 The difference between empathy and sympathy, and why it matters for leadership 28:16 What Xenium HR does internally to build curiosity and belonging across teams 29:38 How company retreats and shared experienc...

The Secret of Top Leaders with Mark Miller

40 min

What separates a leader people want to follow from one they're quietly escaping? Mark Miller, longtime Chick-fil-A executive and co-author of the bestselling book The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do, joins Brandon Laws to unpack the timeless leadership framework he helped develop over 25 years of research. With more than 700,000 copies sold and now in its fourth edition, The Secret has reached leaders in 32 languages because it's built on something most leadership books skip entirely: the character beneath the skills. In this conversation, Mark walks through the SERVE framework, a behaviorally grounded model built on five fundamentals: See the future, Engage and develop others, Reinvent continuously, Value results and relationships, and Embody the heart of a leader. He and Brandon dig into why character is the overlooked "turbocharger" of effective leadership, how most leaders learn by trial and error (and why that fails them), and why the best leaders never stop reinventing themselves. Whether you're a seasoned executive or a new leader trying to find your footing, this episode is packed with practical, proven insight you won't want to miss. KEY TIMESTAMPS [00:00:00] Introducing Mark Miller and The Secret [00:01:00] Why The Secret has sold 700,000+ copies and resonated globally across 32 languages [00:02:00] The iceberg model: why character (90%) matters more than skills (10%) [00:05:00] How new leaders typically learn (trial and error) and why organizations fail them [00:06:00] The key question every leader must ask: "Am I self-serving or a serving leader?" [00:07:00] The origin of the SERVE framework at Chick-fil-A [00:11:00] Breaking down all five fundamentals of SERVE [00:12:00] S: See the future and how to make vision and values stick beyond the wall [00:15:00] The storytelling habit that amplifies culture and gets people to take the vision seriously [00:18:00] E: Engage and develop others, starting with who you hire [00:20:00] Fitting vs....

Why Compliance Cultures Fail the People You Need Most with Beven Byrnes

32 min

What if the problem was never the student, but the system? In this episode, Brandon Laws sits down with Beven Byrnes, Executive Director of Bridges Middle School in Portland, Oregon, the only school in Oregon exclusively serving neurodivergent students. Beven shares how Bridges is flipping the script on traditional education through relationship-based teaching, sensory-aware classrooms, and a deep commitment to belonging. But the conversation doesn't stop at the classroom door. Beven connects the dots between what neurodivergent students need to thrive and what employers are still getting wrong. If you're a business leader, HR professional, or anyone who believes every person deserves a place where they can do their best work, this episode will challenge how you think about talent, culture, and what it really means to build an inclusive workplace. KEY TIMESTAMPS 00:02 Welcome and introduction to Beven Byrnes and Bridges Middle School 00:44 Why traditional school systems fail neurodivergent students 01:50 The power of relationship-based teaching and small class sizes 02:23 Preparing students for the workforce and the gap employers still need to close 03:39 Compliance vs. belonging: Why the model has to change 05:48 Real examples of meeting students where they are, including advanced algebra with a calculator 07:15 What belonging actually looks like and why it unlocks learning 09:34 The role of language in shifting from a deficit to an asset-based approach 10:24 Neurodivergent brains and AI: A blessing, a challenge, or both? 12:12 Project-based learning and why multiple pathways for demonstrating knowledge matter 14:22 Sensory-aware classrooms and how physical environment shapes engagement 16:34 Movement breaks, reset time, and the small changes that make a big difference 17:30 How Bridges rebuilds confidence in students who've been told they don't fit 19:15 Where students go after Bridges and what success looks like long term 22:02 Self-advocacy as a...

Why Staying Busy Is Keeping You Stuck with Peter Economy

34 min

If 82% of people lack a time management system and the average worker spends half their day on low-value tasks, what's the real cost of doing nothing about it? In this episode, Brandon Laws sits down with bestselling author Peter Economy, who has written over 140 books, to dig into his latest release, Wait, You Need a Win? The Essential Guide to Time Management, Productivity, and Powerful Habits That Get Things Done. From the neuroscience behind habit formation to the Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand framework, Peter shares practical, immediately actionable strategies for anyone who has ever ended the day wondering where the time went. If you've been meaning to get more intentional about how you work and live, this conversation is your sign. Key Timestamps: [00:01] Welcome Back, Peter Economy Brandon introduces return guest Peter Economy and his latest book on time management and productivity. [00:54] Why 82% of People Still Don't Have a System Peter explains why most people avoid time management and how ingrained habits keep us stuck in low-value routines. [02:17] The Real Cost of Poor Time Management Research shows the average employee loses about 500 hours per year to unproductive work. Peter breaks down what that means for individuals, teams, and organizations. [03:24] Phones, Interruptions, and the 23-Minute Rule The average person picks up their phone 96 times a day, and a single interruption costs over 23 minutes of refocus time. The numbers are hard to argue with. [07:03] The Paradox of Time We think we have all the time in the world. Peter explains why that illusion is one of the biggest obstacles to getting anything meaningful done. [08:26] Working from Home Like You Mean It Remote and hybrid workers face a unique challenge: the people around them don't always see them as "really working." Peter shares how to establish non-negotiable work boundaries at home. [10:50] Designing Habits Using Neuroscience New habits mean new brain pathways. Peter walks through...

Why Working Harder Was Quietly Breaking Her with Meghan French Dunbar

54 min

Most of us answer "how are you?" with busy, stressed, or exhausted, and somewhere along the way we decided that was just the cost of doing good work. Meghan French Dunbar lived that way for years as a startup CEO, until a panic attack made her stop and question the whole script. In this conversation, Brandon and Meghan get into why so many workplaces wear people down, and what the leaders and companies who do it differently actually do instead. Meghan shares the moment her own success started to break her, the interview that reshaped how she thinks about leadership, and a set of practical habits anyone can start this week. You will hear how to essentialize your time, relationships, and inputs, why the healthiest leaders draw from a wide range of human traits, and how opening the books with her team surfaced ideas and savings she never expected. It started as a book for working women. By the end, it is plainly for anyone who has poured their whole self into work and wondered if there is a better way to succeed. About our guest Meghan French Dunbar is an author, speaker, and workplace strategist. She co-founded Conscious Company magazine, a print publication that launched in 2015 and landed in Whole Foods stores across the country. She grew it with angel funding, stayed on as CEO after the company was acquired, and stepped down in early 2020. Her book, This Isn't Working, came out of that experience and the reflection that followed. In it she lays out ideas like holistic leadership, essentializing, and the unified workplace, all drawn from her conversations with leaders who found healthier ways to build and run their businesses. Timestamps 01:50 The book and the moment on the floor 04:15 The panic attack and six months of runway 06:50 COVID, postpartum, and a forced pause 09:50 Why the workplace was not built for women 13:50 The interview that changed how she sees leadership 18:30 Holistic leadership and healthy versus toxic traits 21:30 Authentic leadership and...

Why Your Data Strategy Keeps Failing with Dr. Sebastian Wernicke

46 min

You've invested in the dashboards. You've declared data a top priority. So why does transformation still feel out of reach? In this episode, Brandon Laws sits down with Dr. Sebastian Wernicke, author of Data Inspired: Building an Organizational Culture of Inquiry for Lasting Transformation, to unpack one of business's most frustrating paradoxes: companies that succeed at data... and still don't change. Sebastian challenges the conventional wisdom around data-driven organizations, reveals why human psychology is working against your data strategy, and introduces a more powerful mindset: becoming data inspired. From Goodhart's Law to Netflix's bold decision-making model, this conversation is loaded with ideas that will fundamentally change how you think about data, leadership, and organizational transformation. Don't miss it. Key Timestamps [00:00] — Welcome & Introduction to Data Inspired [00:39] — The bold opening argument: data initiatives don't fail; they succeed at keeping organizations the same. Sebastian unpacks the difference between getting modest value from data and achieving true transformation, and why only ~10% of companies ever get there. [07:38] — Are organizations paralyzed by too much data? Sebastian explains why collecting more data is often a way of avoiding the harder, more courageous work of challenging your own assumptions. [09:39] — What "data-driven" actually means in practice and why it's harder than it sounds. Sebastian introduces the "data deficit theory" and draws on 50 years of psychological research showing that data often hardens our existing beliefs rather than changing them. [13:45] — The Charles Barkley moment: what a legendary NBA star's skepticism about data analysts gets right and wrong about using data in sports and business. [16:03] — How data is collected and used in modern organizations, and why the real challenge isn't gathering data; it's organizing it. (Yes, there's a "data swamp" warning here.) [18:00] — Why the clas...

Why Trustworthiness Is the Most Underrated Asset in Business with Eric Ries

46 min

What if the very success of your company is what eventually destroys it? Eric Ries, the mind behind the Lean Startup movement, is back with a warning every founder, leader, and employee needs to hear. In his new book Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great, Eric tackles the question he admits he failed to answer the first time around: once you build something worth protecting, how do you actually protect it? In this conversation with host Brandon Laws, Eric unpacks the invisible force he calls "financial gravity," the systemic pull that quietly bends companies away from their mission. You'll hear the jaw-dropping story of Saul Price (the man Sam Walton credited as the father of modern retail), the real reason Costco still sells a hot dog and soda for $1.50, and why protecting your company's values is always "too early," until suddenly it's too late. If you care about building a business that means something, this episode is essential listening. Key Timestamps [00:00:00] — Welcome & episode intro; overview of Eric Ries and Incorruptible [00:01:30] — Why Eric wrote this book: the personal pain of watching great companies get hollowed out — and what The Lean Startup missed [00:04:00] — Ordinary failure vs. unusual failure: why success itself is often the cause of collapse [00:05:30] — The legend of Saul Price: the father of modern retail, his "fiduciary duty to the customer" philosophy, and what happened when investors changed the locks on his office [00:11:00] — The ultimate A/B test: Fed Mart's destruction vs. the rise of Costco — and what it proves about ethos + governance [00:14:30] — Redefining corruption: it's not just illegal behavior — it's any act that destroys the moral logic of business [00:17:30] — Organizations as superorganisms: why founders can wake up and not recognize the company they built [00:21:30] — Financial gravity explained: the force that pulls every company toward mediocrity (and how to fight it) [...

What a Productivity Company's People Strategy Can Teach the Rest of Us with Mandy Mekhail

38 min

What does it take to build a thriving, high-performance culture inside one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the world, without ever requiring a college degree to get in the door? Mandy Mekhail, Chief of Staff of People at ClickUp, went from teaching in a classroom to leading the people function at a 1,200-person global company, and her journey is anything but conventional. In this episode, Mandy pulls back the curtain on ClickUp's non-traditional hiring philosophy, their obsession with onboarding excellence, and how they're turning AI agents into literal coworkers on the org chart. Whether you're an HR professional, a people leader, or simply curious about where work is headed, this conversation will challenge the way you think about hiring, culture, and the role of AI in your organization. Don't miss it. Key Timestamps [00:00:00] — Introduction: Mandy's Unconventional Path to People Leadership From educator to customer support to Chief of Staff of People at ClickUp, Mandy shares the leap of faith that started it all and the mindset that carried her through. [00:03:00] — Joining ClickUp at Employee #110 Mandy reflects on what it was like to join ClickUp when it had fewer than 100 functional employees and what it's meant to watch it scale to 1,200 people globally. [00:04:00] — The Role That Shaped Everything: Building the Quality Team Six months into ClickUp, Mandy was tasked with building the customer support quality function — and it became the role that fused her education background with her passion for people impact. [00:05:00] — Recruiting Power Users: ClickUp's Unconventional Hiring Strategy Forget job boards. ClickUp finds top talent by recruiting passionate product users from online forums and communities — and it's still a core part of their strategy today. [00:07:00] — Why ClickUp Dropped the Degree Requirement From Day One CEO Zeb Evans made a deliberate call early on: if a bachelor's degree isn't the real signal of capability, don't require...

How Small Companies Beat the Giants Now

43 min

If you think AI is just another productivity tool your business can bolt on to stay ahead, Shawn Busse has a wake-up call for you. In this riveting conversation, Brandon Laws sits down with Shawn Busse, founder of marketing firm Kinesis, keynote speaker, and one of the sharpest strategic thinkers in the business world, to unpack a truth that most leaders aren't ready to hear: AI isn't going to save companies that have optimized the creativity out of themselves. Shawn draws on provocative ideas from "The Great Rotation" by Latticework, Kent Beck's explore-expand-extract model, and Blue Ocean Strategy to build a compelling case that decades of Wall Street-driven optimization have left businesses intellectually hollowed out, right at the moment when original thinking matters most. From the collapse of "AI slop" content marketing to the resurgence of the physical, tactile "3D world," this episode is packed with ideas that will challenge how you think about your organization, your people, and your competitive future. Key Timestamps [00:01] Welcome and Introduction Brandon introduces Shawn Busse and the central thesis of the episode: AI is not going to save uncreative, non-innovative companies. [01:20] "The Great Rotation": AI and the Supply Shock in the Digital World Shawn unpacks the Latticework article that crystallized his thinking: how AI has turbocharged oversupply in the 2D digital world and why the 3D, tangible world is where value is shifting next. [04:52] The Rise of "AI Slop" and Why Playing the Volume Game Is a Losing Strategy The conversation turns to how AI-generated content floods channels with "halfway decent" material, and why competing on volume alone is a dead end for businesses. [07:00] Real-World AI Use Cases: Bookkeeping, Contracts, and Appraisals Shawn shares his own eye-opening experiences using AI to replace a $700 bookkeeping task and to expose critical flaws in a real estate appraisal at zero cost, illustrating how AI is moving up market on...

The Skills Gap We're Talking About Isn't the One We're Solving with Krista DiGiacomo

28 min

The labor market is unlike anything staffing veteran Krista DiGiacomo has seen in 24 years, and she's not mincing words about why. In this episode, Krista, franchise owner of Express Employment Professionals in Vancouver, Washington, joins host Brandon Laws to unpack the growing skills gap reshaping hiring today. From soft skills like punctuality and reliability, to hard skills like reading blueprints and running a budget, employers are struggling and the education system is a big part of the story. Krista makes a compelling case for rethinking the four-year degree mandate, investing in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, and why the skilled trades may be the most future-proof career path in an age of AI. If you're an employer, job seeker, parent, or anyone invested in the future of work, this is an episode you can't afford to miss. ⏱️ KEY TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Welcome & Introduction: Krista DiGiacomo joins the show as the first-ever Express Employment Professionals guest in 580+ episodes 00:51 – The State of the Labor Market: What Krista is seeing on the front lines after 24 years in staffing and why she's never seen anything quite like this 01:19 – The Skills Gap Unpacked: Soft skills (attendance, reliability, punctuality) and hard skills (blueprints, budgets, trade knowledge) are both in short supply 02:53 – Who Uses a Staffing Agency? Krista breaks down the wide range of candidates Express serves, from recent grads to career changers to those reentering the workforce 04:16 – Higher Education's Identity Crisis: Why universities optimized for enrollment over practical application and why a bachelor's degree doesn't mean what it used to 07:50 – Changing the Narrative at Home and in Schools: Why the four-year-degree-or-bust mindset is hurting society and what parents can do differently 08:58 – CTE Programs: The Comeback Story: How Career and Technical Education programs are making a powerful return in high schools and what Krista is doing personally t...

Finding Good in the Hardest Moments with James Ferguson

34 min

James Ferguson is back on the show to talk about his new book, Seek the Good and Celebrate, and the leadership framework that came out of 12 weeks of chemotherapy. He shares what it was like to lose his job, get a cancer diagnosis, and watch his wife go into early labor all in the same week, and how that experience rewired the way he shows up as a leader. We get into his CONFETTI model, the mindset shift from protecting your team to preparing them, why engagement is a practice and satisfaction is just a promise, and the simple Friday habit he uses to celebrate small wins. Practical, honest, and full of ideas any leader at any level can put to work tomorrow. Timestamps (00:00) Welcome and a quick word from our sponsor, Xenium HR (02:00) The mantra born during 12 weeks of chemotherapy (04:30) Job loss, a cancer diagnosis, and a premature birth in the same week (07:00) Finding the good in the worst day of your life (09:30) Why an attitude of gratitude has to be a daily habit (11:30) The CONFETTI framework explained (13:00) Why most leaders skip celebrating themselves (15:00) The Friday gratitude jar practice (18:00) Protect or prepare, the mindset shift every leader needs (21:00) Coaching your team by asking better questions (23:00) Engagement is a practice, satisfaction is a promise (25:00) What you want FROM people versus what you want FOR people (28:30) Why your biggest wins come on your worst days (31:00) What James would tell himself during treatment Learn more about James Ferguson A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR Host: Brandon Laws In Brandon's own words: "The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders. About Xenium HR Xenium HR is on a mission to transform workplaces by providing expert outsourced HR and payroll services for small and medium-sized bu...

The Shift From Reactive to Proactive Mental Health at Work with Stephen Sokoler

38 min

Most companies don't think about employee mental health until something goes wrong and by then, it's already too late. In this episode, Brandon Laws sits down with Stephen Sokoler, founder and CEO of Journey and author of The Mental Health Advantage, to make the case for flipping that script entirely. Stephen shares his own transformative personal journey from a decade of rollercoaster habits to discovering meditation through a book he bought at a mall and connects those lessons to what he's building at the organizational level. The conversation covers why traditional EAPs are fundamentally broken, what a 30%+ engagement rate looks like compared to the industry-standard 3%, how AI and tools like Journey Signal are enabling real-time proactive mental health support, and why culture change has to start at the top. Whether you're an HR leader, executive, or someone simply trying to build better habits, this episode is packed with insights you can't afford to miss! ⏱️ Key Timestamps 00:02 — Welcome & introductions: Stephen's book, The Mental Health Advantage, and the focus on proactive mental health at work 00:48 — Stephen's personal story: from gym rat to sloth — and how discovering a book called Buddhism for Busy People at a mall changed everything 02:22 — Demystifying meditation: why it's simple but not easy, and what consistent practice actually does for your day 05:05 — The reactive vs. proactive gap: why society — and employers — default to treating mental illness rather than building mental wellness 08:14 — The EAP problem: why only 3% of employees use their benefits, why EAPs are designed to stay in the background, and what a better model looks like 10:30 — Journey's approach: flipping the EAP model on its head to achieve 30–40%+ employee engagement and treating mental health as "the operating system of the company" 11:32 — Mental health is not a peak state: why the goal isn't to "achieve" mental wellness and check a box — it's an ongoing practice, like g...

Why Human Performance Will Define the Next Era of Work with Dr. Jennifer Posa

40 min

What if your company's biggest untapped competitive advantage isn't technology or talent, but well-being? In this episode, Brandon Laws sits down with Dr. Jennifer Posa, an organizational psychologist with 30 years of experience building well-being strategies inside some of the world's most demanding organizations, including Mayo Clinic, Johnson & Johnson, and the CIA. Jennifer shares her bold 2026 predictions for the workplace, explains why most well-being programs fail before they start, and reveals what it actually takes to build a strategy that drives real business results. From psychological contracts to the AI culture crisis brewing right now, this conversation is packed with insights that HR leaders, executives, and people managers can't afford to miss. If you care about the future of your workplace and who's going to be left standing after the next wave of disruption, this episode is essential listening. Key Timestamps [00:01] – Introduction & Jennifer's Unique Background Brandon introduces Dr. Jennifer Posa and her remarkable 30-year career in well-being at high-performing organizations including Mayo Clinic, Johnson & Johnson, and the CIA. [00:55] – When Well-Being Became a Strategy, Not a Perk Jennifer shares the personal and professional turning points that revealed well-being isn't just a "nice to have"—it's backed by decades of research showing measurable improvements in business outcomes. [03:03] – Lessons from the CIA: Well-Being in High-Stakes Environments What does well-being look like when the stakes couldn't be higher? Jennifer unpacks three powerful lessons from her role as Chief Well-Being Officer at the CIA, starting with the critical insight that well-being is individual—not prescriptive. [07:25] – Proactive vs. Reactive: The Well-Being Gap Most Employers Miss Brandon and Jennifer discuss why so many organizations wait for burnout, turnover, and absenteeism before taking action—and what a truly proactive approach looks like when it's embe...

Why Engagement Numbers Haven't Budged and What Leaders Are Missing with Aoife O'Brien

43 min

Only 21% of people globally are engaged at work. That number hasn't moved much despite years of attention, investment, and intervention. So what's going wrong? Aoife O'Brien is back on the show to talk about her new book, Thriving Talent, How Great Leaders Drive Performance, Engagement and Retention. After 20 years in corporate roles, a Master's in Organizational Behavior, and over 200 conversations with business leaders on her podcast Happier at Work, Aoife built a practical framework that helps leaders stop chasing engagement scores and start creating the conditions where people actually do their best work. In this episode, Brandon and Aoife dig into why most workplace interventions fail, why busyness is not the flex we think it is, how AI tools are making us busier instead of freeing us up, and why psychological safety is the foundation everything else depends on. Whether you lead a team of five or five hundred, this conversation will challenge how you think about culture, motivation, and what it really takes to help people thrive. Timestamps 0:00 Introduction and sponsor message 2:42 Welcome back, Aoife O'Brien 3:17 Why global engagement numbers haven't improved 5:38 The busyness trap and why it's not productivity 8:38 What else is wrong with work today 10:22 Why traditional workplace interventions fail 12:30 The personal experiences that shaped the Thriving Talent framework 15:15 Breaking down the Thriving Talent framework 20:20 Psychological safety and the signals leaders miss 23:17 How leaders create culture unintentionally 26:26 Should you stay or leave a toxic workplace? 29:42 Why money fails as a motivator and the case for emotional salary 33:26 The Eggbeater Effect and why AI is making us busier 37:38 Leadership as the capstone, not the foundation 40:42 Where to find the book and connect with Aoife A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR Host: Brandon Laws In Brandon's own words: "The Transform Your...

The Canary Code and What Neurodivergent Employees Are Trying to Tell You with Ludmila Praslova

36 min

What if the employees struggling most in your workplace are actually detecting problems everyone else will eventually feel? Dr. Ludmila Praslova, organizational psychologist and author of The Canary Code, joins Brandon Laws to unpack why neurodivergent employees are often the first to feel workplace dysfunction and why that signal matters for everyone. From rethinking job postings and ditching "culture fit" hiring to fixing performance reviews that punish personality instead of measuring outcomes, this conversation is packed with practical ideas leaders can act on now. If you've ever wondered why your best people keep leaving or why your culture feels off despite good intentions, this episode will challenge how you think about inclusion, belonging, and what a healthy workplace actually looks like. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction and sponsor message 2:12 Meet Dr. Ludmila Praslova and The Canary Code 4:18 Why neurodivergent employees feel workplace dysfunction first 7:30 Defining neurodivergence and who it includes 9:42 Why the business case for inclusion can actually backfire 11:30 What holistic inclusion means and why people aren't brains on a stick 13:45 The six principles of the Canary Code framework 16:42 Culture fit vs. culture add and why we keep hiring clones 19:15 How to rewrite job postings that attract different kinds of talent 22:15 Pre-onboarding and setting up belonging before day one 24:30 Productivity theater vs. real outcomes 26:45 The story of Charlie and fixing performance management 28:30 Supporting neurodivergent leaders who are hiding in plain sight 32:00 The Glastonbury moment and what true belonging looks like 34:30 Where to connect with Dr. Praslova A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR Host: Brandon Laws In Brandon's own words: "The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industr...

Why Love Is the Most Powerful Force in Business with Marcus Buckingham

58 min

What if the secret to sustained business performance isn't strategy, efficiency, or even culture, but love? In this episode, renowned researcher and bestselling author Marcus Buckingham joins host Brandon Laws to discuss his new book Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business. Marcus makes a compelling, data-backed case that "love" isn't a soft concept. It's the most predictive force in driving employee loyalty, customer behavior, and long-term business value. From a behind-the-scenes look at Disney's most beloved executive to a cautionary tale about a Netflix CMO using AI to crank out 26 performance reviews in 20 minutes, this conversation is packed with insights that will fundamentally change how you think about leadership. If you care about building a workplace where people genuinely thrive and a business that sustainably grows, you cannot afford to miss this one. Key Timestamps [00:00:00] — Introduction: Marcus shares the personal, vulnerable story of selling his company and watching love drain out of the organization he built — the catalyst for everything in Design Love In. [00:04:00] — The crisis of trust: Why we're living in the least trusting workplace environment ever recorded, what AI and surveillance are doing to human connection, and how leaders must respond differently today. [00:07:00] — Experience Intelligence: Marcus introduces the core leadership competency that top business schools don't teach — and why experiences, not directives, are the only path to sustained behavior change. [00:09:00] — The Josh Effect: Marcus recounts his days shadowing Josh D'Amaro, a senior Disney executive, and what his instinctive, human-first leadership style reveals about what great experience design actually looks like in practice. [00:18:00] — The business case for love: How data from an 8,000-store retailer proved that the relationship between experience and outcomes isn't linear — it's a hockey stick — and why "fives" are the only scores...

The Leadership Skill No One Talks About (But Everyone Needs) with Margaret Andrews

36 min

Most leaders get promoted because they're great at their job. But being great at your job and being a great leader are two very different things. In this episode, Brandon sits down with Margaret Andrews, leadership educator and author of Manage Yourself to Lead Others, to explore why self-understanding is the real foundation of effective leadership. Margaret shares stories from decades of working with executives, including the moment a high-achieving engineer stood up in front of his peers and admitted he'd been a terrible manager. They dig into why 85% of the reasons people choose their best boss come down to interpersonal skills, what happens when your intentions don't match your behaviors, and how to build the muscle of pausing before you react. Whether you're a new manager trying to find your footing or a seasoned leader who's hit a wall, this conversation will challenge you to look inward before you try to lead outward. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome and Xenium HR sponsor message 2:30 Intro to Margaret Andrews and episode preview 3:00 The Dr. Ventura story and why high achievers see themselves in it 6:30 Why talent, hard work, and good intentions aren't enough 7:00 There's no single right way to lead. So how do you find yours? 9:30 The Best Boss Exercise and what 85% of people say 14:14 The gap between intentions and behaviors 15:45 What happens when leaders stop growing 17:30 Phil's story and finding your own definition of leadership 20:30 Bad Mood Beth and why self-awareness without self-management falls short 22:30 Using the pause between stimulus and response 25:45 Sharon's approach to getting the best out of her team 27:00 Culture makers vs. culture takers 31:30 The John Reed story and why small ethical lapses matter 33:00 Why people fear their potential more than their limitations A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR Host: Brandon Laws In Brandon's own words: "The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your g...

What Small Business Leaders Need to Know About the Economy Right Now

49 min

What happens when the labor shortage economists warned about finally arrives, AI reshapes entire industries overnight, and the economic outlook is anything but certain? Economist Dr. Bill Conerly joins Brandon Laws to break it all down. With over 1,400 speaking engagements and decades of experience advising business leaders, Bill brings a rare combination of sharp data analysis and plain-spoken clarity. This conversation covers the demographic forces squeezing the labor market, why AI's impact on jobs is more uneven than the headlines suggest, how small businesses can start adopting AI without overthinking it, and what a "flexible stance" looks like when the range of economic possibilities keeps widening. If you're a business owner, HR leader, or anyone making workforce decisions right now, this is the episode you need to hear. Timestamps 0:00 Introduction and episode overview 2:00 The labor shortage economists predicted is now here 5:30 Why doom and gloom forecasts keep missing the mark 7:30 Is the pipeline behind Baby Boomers enough to fill the gap? 9:30 How an era of labor abundance created sloppy management habits 11:00 Are there people who could work but choose not to? 13:00 The trades shortage and whether younger workers are filling it 15:00 What skills people should be learning in the age of AI 17:30 Are AI-driven layoffs real or a convenient excuse? 20:00 Could we see 10% GDP growth and 10% unemployment at the same time? 23:00 The shift from wanting stuff to wanting experiences 26:00 The productivity paradox of doing more but not working less 28:00 How small businesses should start adopting AI 32:00 Is AI an existential threat? 35:00 Fed decision, inflation, and the economic outlook 38:00 Why small businesses are struggling while the stock market climbs 41:30 What's underhyped and overhyped in the economy right now 44:00 What's going on in Oregon's economy 45:30 What a flexible stance looks like for business leaders right now A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCA...

High Functioning Alcoholism Is the Workplace Problem Nobody Talks About with Sarah Allen Benton

40 min

In this eye-opening episode of Transform Your Workplace, host Brandon Laws sits down with Sarah Allen Benton, licensed mental health counselor, treatment program owner, and author of Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic: Breaking the Cycle and Finding Hope. Together, they unravel one of the most misunderstood issues affecting modern professionals and workplaces today: high‑functioning alcoholism. Sarah shares her personal journey to sobriety, the psychology behind addiction, and the cultural and workplace systems that keep high achievers hidden in plain sight. She offers practical guidance for leaders and HR professionals on creating healthier work cultures, supporting employees in recovery, and recognizing silent struggles before they escalate. This conversation is raw, insightful, and essential for anyone committed to fostering a workplace where people can truly thrive. This is a powerful conversation that every workplace leader, team member, and caring human should hear. Key Timestamps 00:02 — Brandon welcomes guest Sarah Allen Benton to discuss high‑functioning alcoholism. 00:39 — How high-functioning alcoholism hides in plain sight. 01:53 — What defines an alcoholic vs. a high-functioning alcoholic. 02:43 — The danger of craving, obsession, and loss of control. 03:19 — Sarah's personal story: from early drinking to "functioning" success. 05:04 — The strict rules high-functioning alcoholics create to justify drinking. 06:15 — Reaching a breaking point and the failed attempts to control alcohol. 07:03 — Sobriety begins: the moment things had to change. 08:20 — The internal motivators that pushed Sarah to recovery. 09:17 — The illusion of "not hitting bottom" and why accountability matters. 10:43 — Why Sarah believes the workplace is full of high-functioning alcoholics. 12:06 — The harmful stereotype of the "chronic severe alcoholic" and why it misleads us. 13:37 — How workplace culture and performance expectations keep problems hidden. 15:...

What Leaders Get Wrong About Helping Their Struggling People

24 min

What should you do when someone on your team is struggling? Most leaders default to jumping in and solving the problem. But that instinct, while well-meaning, can do more harm than good. In this episode, Brandon Laws sits down with Lacey Partipilo, VP of Client Success at Xenium HR, to talk about how leaders can uncover what's really getting in the way of their people's success. They dig into the difference between being stuck and struggling, why leaders need to take their own "backpack" off before coaching conversations, and the ego trap that comes with being the one who always saves the day. If you manage people, this one will change how you show up in your next one-on-one. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction to the episode and Lacey Partipilo 1:48 Why regular time with your people is non-negotiable 3:18 The difference between stuck and struggling 4:00 Taking the backpack off: going in with an open mind 5:07 The three conversations: solve it, fix it for me, or let me vent 6:30 Setting ground rules for better one-on-ones 7:30 Helping people solve their own problems by asking better questions 8:48 Patterns that signal someone is struggling 11:48 Building a culture of trust so people can be honest about their gaps 13:50 How self-sabotage and outdated beliefs keep people stuck 16:22 Why accountability starts on day one, not when things fall apart 18:24 The ego trap: why solving feels good but holds your team back 19:48 Angela Perkins' advice on finding fulfillment through your team's success 21:48 Practical changes leaders can make starting now 23:18 Why every leader needs a peer group A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR Host: Brandon Laws In Brandon's own words: "The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders." About Xenium HR Xenium HR is on a mission to transf...

How AI Is Redefining the Future of Work with Sharon Gai

39 min

In this compelling episode, Brandon Laws sits down with Sharon Gai, author of How to Do More with Less: Future-Proofing Yourself in an AI-Driven Economy. Sharon shares eye-opening stories—from witnessing AI compress weeks of work into seconds at Alibaba to her global perspective on how human roles are rapidly evolving. Together, they explore the widening gap between people who embrace AI and those who resist it, and why learning to orchestrate AI—not fear it—will define the next era of work. Sharon introduces practical frameworks (like becoming a "centaur worker") that help knowledge workers offload repetitive tasks, elevate their creativity, and reclaim agency in a world that often feels like it's moving too fast. If you're unsure how to keep up—or overwhelmed by all the talk of automation—this conversation will leave you feeling informed, inspired, and ready to adapt. If you miss this episode, you'll miss the roadmap to staying relevant and empowered in the AI economy. Key Timestamps 00:02 – Welcome Sharon Gai Brandon introduces Sharon and her new book, highlighting its practicality for both beginners and experienced AI users. 01:13 – The Growing AI Divide Sharon explains why the workforce gap isn't just about technology—it's about power, agency, and access to information. 01:43 – The Bee vs. Beekeeper Metaphor How a simple analogy became the foundation for Sharon's philosophy on doing more with less. 04:52 – The Alibaba Aha Moment Sharon shares the night in 2018 when she watched an AI design tool compress weeks of work into seconds—forever changing her view of what's possible. 12:00 – Resistance to AI & Fear of Replacement Why some people reject AI tools and how fear, identity, and uncertainty shape adoption. 15:26 – A Future of AI-First Workflows A discussion on billion‑dollar one‑person companies, automation, and which predictions hold weight. 19:34 – The Centaur Worker Sharon introduces the half‑specialist, half‑orchestrator worker who will thr...

What Leaders Can Learn From HR's Meme Culture with Jamie Jackson

32 min

📋 Episode Description What happens when an HR director reaches her breaking point during a global pandemic — and decides to cope by making memes? For Jamie Jackson, it became a movement. With over 3 million combined followers across her Instagram channels Humorous Resources and Millennial Misery, Jamie has turned the unfiltered reality of workplace life into one of the most relatable communities on the internet. In this episode, host Brandon Laws sits down with Jamie to unpack the behind-the-scenes chaos of HR, what it's really like being laid off when you've spent 22 years laying others off, why employers are flat-out refusing to hire her because of her social media, and why she wouldn't change a single thing. This one is funny, honest, and hits close to home — whether you work in HR or just survive the workplace every day. Don't miss it. ⏱️ Key Timestamps [00:01] — Welcome & introductions: Brandon explains how he found Jamie through Instagram and why he knew she'd make for a great episode. [00:08] — The meme that defines Jamie: She shares her all-time favorite ("per my last email… they didn't know you were a gangster") and why it perfectly captures her spicy, no-nonsense personality. [01:50] — The origin of Humorous Resources: Jamie takes us back to the pandemic, when she was an HR director managing 150 employees across four nonprofit health clinics — tracking daily CDC changes and carrying the weight of an entire organization's safety. [03:07] — Breaking point and birth of a community: Isolated as a "department of one," Jamie created the page as a personal outlet — never expecting it to go anywhere, let alone resonate with hundreds of thousands of HR professionals who desperately needed to laugh. [05:59] — The vaccine mandate chaos: Employees screaming in her face, and Jamie walking back to her desk to make a meme about it. The coping mechanism at its finest. [07:04] — How she actually makes memes: Chronically online (now on purpose), stockpiling screensho...

The Growth Strategy Hiding Inside Delegation with Brad Federman

38 min

Most leaders think delegation is about getting things off their plate. Brad Federman, author of Never Delegate Again, argues it's actually one of the most powerful — and most misused — tools for growing your people, your company, and yourself. In this episode, Brad joins host Brandon Laws to challenge the outdated models that have shaped how leaders hand off work, and introduces a new framework built for today's fast-changing, AI-driven workplace. If you've ever handed an assignment to your go-to person out of convenience, told a struggling employee "just figure it out," or wondered why your team isn't developing the way you'd hoped — this conversation is for you. Don't miss it. KEY TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – Welcome & Introduction — Brad Federman joins the show 0:07 – Working harder on someone else's career than they are — the trap well-intentioned leaders fall into 1:38 – The Olivia story: how shifting ownership transformed an employee's trajectory 3:25 – Brad's unconventional reflection habit — two children's books that help him gain perspective 6:05 – Why most delegation models are built for a different era — and how AI is changing everything 8:59 – Introducing the Growth Matrix — a new model for thinking about tasks as growth opportunities 11:41 – The disappearing entry-level job problem and what leaders must do about it 12:18 – Time, reflection, and value: the three ingredients of real growth leaders routinely skip 15:50 – Brandon's personal story: a delegation experience from his 20s still in use 17 years later 17:20 – Why delegation gets glossed over — and why it's finally time to treat it as a strategic imperative 19:02 – Mini-me syndrome and the "I can do it better" trap — how leaders recognize growth-limiting control 23:15 – A VP of sales with 25 years of experience and the 6-month benchmark problem 25:29 – The Fast Forward Model — meeting people where they are during change 29:33 – How to decide what to keep, delete, automate, or assign as a real growth opportu...

Why Leaders Are Struggling in Silence (And What to Do About It) with Melissa Doman

41 min

What happens when the people leading your organization are silently falling apart — and no one has a system in place to help them? Psychologist and author Melissa Doman returns to Transform Your Workplace to pull back the curtain on one of the most overlooked conversations in the workplace: leadership mental health. In her new book Cornered Office: Why We Need to Talk About Leadership Mental Health, Melissa makes the case that leaders have been conditioned — by biology, sociology, culture, and centuries of expectation — to hide their emotional struggles. And that silence? It's costing organizations their best people. This episode is a must-listen for anyone who leads, works with, or aspires to lead — because the cost of ignoring this conversation is far greater than the discomfort of having it. Key Timestamps [00:00] — Welcome & episode intro from host Brandon Laws; why this conversation hits home for leaders [02:00] — What's in the episode: silence, burnout, and a practical framework for leaders to talk about mental health [03:30] — Melissa on why she wrote Cornered Office — including the workshop moment in London that changed everything [07:00] — How leadership mental health has been "quietly erased" by history, biology, and social norms [10:30] — The psychology of authority, impression management, and why leaders are conditioned to hide emotional struggle [13:00] — Melissa's three-stage framework: look back, name the present, choose differently — and where leaders get stuck [16:00] — Why not every workplace is safe for this conversation, and how leaders can find external peer support [18:30] — What happens when mental health goes unaddressed: burnout, reactive behavior, and the domino effect on teams [21:00] — How identity, culture, gender, and industry shape whether a leader feels safe speaking up [24:30] — Systemic change vs. personal responsibility: why individual leaders must take full ownership of their mental health regardless of the environment...

The Small Behaviors That Build Trust (and the Common Ones That Destroy It) with Dr. Paul Zak

39 min

Most leaders say they value trust. It shows up in mission statements and team meetings. But when trust breaks down, few can explain why performance slows, collaboration frays, or innovation quietly disappears. Dr. Paul Zak doesn't treat trust as an abstraction. As a behavioral neuroscientist with over 25 years of research, he studies trust the same way an engineer studies load-bearing structures. His work has identified the specific neurochemical, oxytocin, that drives human connection. And the behaviors that trigger it are simpler than most leaders expect. In this episode, Paul breaks down what trust actually looks like day to day, why autonomy outperforms surveillance, how recognition needs to happen to actually stick, and why human connection matters more than ever in a world shaped by AI and remote work. Whether you lead a team of five or five hundred, this conversation will change how you think about the small moments that drive performance.   Timestamps 0:00 Introduction 2:00 What trust actually looks like at work 3:30 The role of oxytocin in team performance 4:48 Why moderate stress builds stronger teams 6:42 The adjective hack for better Monday conversations 8:32 Why emotional states are contagious 9:48 How the brain values experiences (and the 20-minute rule) 12:28 The real cost of micromanagement and surveillance 14:30 Coaching to high performance (and firing with dignity) 16:22 Why forward-looking reviews beat backward-looking ones 18:08 How home life and work life feed each other 19:30 Trust in hybrid and remote work environments 21:40 Vulnerability as a leadership superpower 23:12 Ovation: How to celebrate wins the right way 25:20 How to tell the difference between trust and manipulation 27:30 Why recognition needs to be fast, personal, and peer-driven 28:48 Celebrating failure to accelerate learning 29:30 Why human connection matters more in the age of AI 32:30 The loneliness epidemic and rebuilding social skills 34:30 Simple trust hacks every lea...

Why High Performers Burn Out First (and How to Stop It) with Guy Winch

44 min

Most of us think burnout only hits people who hate their jobs. Psychologist and bestselling author Guy Winch says the opposite is true. In this episode, Guy joins Brandon to unpack the hidden ways work takes over our lives, from the autopilot trap and procrastination to evening rumination and self-neglect. Drawing from his new book, Mind Over Grind: How to Break Free When Work Hijacks Your Life, Guy shares research-backed exercises that any professional can use to reclaim their time, protect their health, and actually be present when they get home. If you have ever told yourself "it's just a busy season," this episode is for you.   Key Timestamps [00:00] Why even mental health experts miss their own burnout [02:30] The survival mode trap and how autopilot takes over your life [05:30] The Goldilocks zone: how stress improves performance until it doesn't [06:30] Why more strokes happen on Mondays and how a simple brain hack can ease the Sunday scaries [09:15] Reframing procrastination: why treating dreaded tasks as nuisances gets them done faster [11:45] Challenge state vs. threat state: the mindset shift that changes how you perform under pressure [14:30] The mind whisperer exercise and how to prep your brain before high-stakes moments [15:45] Rumination: why replaying work conflicts at home is unpaid overtime that damages your health [20:30] The "locating your job stress" exercise that turned 90% stress into 10% [23:30] Role curation: how to take charge of your career growth when your manager won't [26:00] The red light, green light technique for managing after-hours emails without losing your evening [30:15] Canaries in the coal mine: identifying your personal early warning signs of self-neglect [34:30] The empathy effort exercise for switching from work mode to home mode [36:45] Triple dipping: how to squeeze a month of happiness out of a single weekend away A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR ...

Designing Meetings That Actually Get Work Done with Rebecca Hinds

36 min

Are your meetings indistinguishable from 1940s wartime sabotage tactics? You're not alone. In this episode, Rebecca Hinds, author of Your Best Meeting Ever: Seven Principles for Designing Meetings That Get Things Done, reveals why corporate meetings have become the single most dysfunctional practice in modern organizations—and how to fix them. Brandon and Rebecca explore a radical idea: what if we treated meetings like products, applying the same design principles that make great products great? From "meeting doomsday" (a complete calendar reset) to Amazon's study hall approach, Rebecca shares actionable strategies that organizations like Slack, Dropbox, and Shopify have used to declare war on meeting bloat. You'll discover why double-booking has become a toxic badge of honor, how the visibility bias makes us associate presence with productivity, and why crowdsourcing your agenda using the "Dory method" can transform boring monologues into engaging collaboration. Rebecca also tackles the AI paradox—why more meeting bots might be making your meetings worse, not better—and shares the "iron rule" that every leader needs to embrace. If you've ever walked out of a meeting wondering what you just accomplished (or why you were even there), this episode is your blueprint for change. Don't miss Rebecca's insights on why meetings are the most important—and least optimized—product in your organization. KEY TIMESTAMPS 00:01 - Introduction and welcome to Rebecca Hinds 00:08 - Brandon introduces Rebecca's book Your Best Meeting Ever: Seven Principles for Designing Meetings That Get Things Done 00:24 - Rebecca explains why meetings are the most important yet least optimized product in organizations 00:58 - The fascinating 1943 OSS sabotage manual story: how wartime meeting sabotage tactics mirror modern corporate meetings 01:33 - Why we use meetings as a "lazy substitute for smart thinking and real work" 03:24 - The toxic "badge of honor" culture: why busyness in meetings...

Why Perfectionism Is Slowing Your Team Down (And What to Do Instead)

34 min

Perfectionism can look like "high standards," but in real life it often turns into burnout, bottlenecks, and teams that overthink everything. In this episode, Brandon Laws sits down with Jason F. McClennan, author of The Magic of Imperfection, to unpack his three-quarter baked philosophy: a practical way to ship smarter, get better feedback, and unlock innovation without lowering the bar. Jason breaks down the difference between quarter-baked, half-baked, three-quarter baked, and the illusion of "fully baked." They also dig into how leaders can build cultures where failure is treated as valuable data, how to use feedback without taking it personally, why deadlines must be owned, and how teams can avoid mission drift before they waste months heading in the wrong direction. If your team is stuck polishing the last 10% while everything else suffers, this conversation will help. Key timestamps 00:00 Intro and why "imperfection" is a leadership advantage 01:00 The three-quarter baked idea and why perfectionists struggle with it 02:40 How perfectionism fuels burnout and steals time from real work 04:30 Quarter-baked vs half-baked vs three-quarter baked (and why the timing matters) 06:45 The Buckminster Fuller dome story: reframing failure as a data point 08:55 How leaders reward learning, not just outcomes 09:45 The "crit" method: separating ego from work so feedback actually helps 12:00 The significance meter: calibrating effort so everything is not treated like heart surgery 14:00 "If you accept the task, you own the deadline" and why that changes everything 15:30 Momentum surfing: when to push, when to pause, and why grinding backfires 18:30 Process turning into bureaucracy: how to spot when the system is blocking the outcome 20:10 End-game thinking and mission drift: the two boats metaphor for team alignment 22:30 How to bring a team along when perfection is the default culture 23:40 Becoming a "trim tab": how individual contributors can shift big organ...

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