Brain Chatter Podcast

Episode 20: Sustainability & Pivoting Required to Last 100 Years as an Organization

What does it take to last 100 years? Nancy Meadows, CEO of BridgeWays, shares her insights on how and why her organization has lasted almost a century. She discusses necessary organizational pivots of mission, programs, branding, and more that BridgeWays has made over the decades. So, how do you know what or which pivots to make (or not make)? What’s the appropriate timeline for successful pivots? Should the process be fast or slow? What types of data and analysis is useful when it comes to d…

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Episode 19: Do Company Wellness Programs Work and Do We Need One?

How does absenteeism and presentism impact a company’s effectiveness and sustainability? Does my company need a wellness program? What are the goals of company wellness programs? How do corporate wellness programs work? How do you create a workplace wellness program? What are the organizational leaders’ responsibility to workforce wellness programs when it comes to program success? What are the bottom line costs of a workforce with unhealthy habits? What are the wellness and nutrition impacts…

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Episode 18: Safety Beyond The Numbers

Tony Orlowski provides an overview of the new book on workplace safety, Safety Beyond The Numbers, co-authored by he and Dr. Ken Chapman. The two of them wrote the book based on their 80+ years of leading change in workplaces in the US, Canada, and in locations across the globe. What can be achieved beyond basic workplace safety compliance and why does it matter?What is the responsibility of a front-line worker, front-line supervisor, safety manager, department manager, or executive to other …

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Episode 17: Mentorship: How to Find One & How to Be One

Shannon Allen walks through how mentorship works, sharing her experiences of both having mentors and serving as a mentor herself. What makes successful mentorships mutually beneficial to both participants? Who should seek out mentorships? What are the expectations of mentors and mentees? Should both participants be from the same industry? Should you choose a mentor much older than you? What should the mentor have in common with the mentee to maximize success? How long should mentorships…

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Episode 16: Recipe for a Company Growth Culture: The Taziki’s and Greek Street Story

Keith Richards explores the importance of a strong company culture and purpose in building a strong restaurant and franchise business with unusually high team member retention. He and his wife Amy founded fresh-casual restaurant Taziki’s in 1998, which now has 90 locations in 15 US states. More recently, they have started a second restaurant business, Greek Street. Keith served as President from May 1998 until December 2012, and then served as the Chief Franchise Officer from June 2012 till 2…

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Episode 15: Balance & Planning in Leadership and Life

Tommie Goggans III, husband, father of eight, president of The Goggans Group, Financial Advisor, active community volunteer, and dedicated physical fitness devotee, delves into the ever-challenging topic of “Balance & Planning in Leadership and Life.” On a day-to-day basis, Tommie helps his clients with planning. With a large family of his own, his own company, and multiple leadership roles in the community, he actively practices balance in his own life. So, what are the strategies and pa…

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Episode 14: The Speed of Trust

In this episode of Brain Chatter, Derek reads The Speed of Trust, a chapter from the book The Leader’s Code (2023 version) authored by Dr. Ken Chapman. The chapter defines the Speed of Trust, identifies why it is critical to high functioning teams and organizations, provides examples, and outlines strategies for developing and growing The Speed of Trust in an organization. Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of …

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Episode 13: Communication: Everybody’s Friend and Foe

Deborah Boswell, communication consultant, coach, and author, examines the practical side of effective communication in the workplace. Ask your peers and direct reports, ‘do we do a good job with communication here?’ How do they respond? Are you surprised? Ineffective communication costs organizations big money while it also costs trust in leadership. What’s the fix? How many moving parts are there to just one sentence communicated from one person to another? How can we each do what we can to…

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Episode 12: Through The Looking Glass

Dr. Ken Chapman discusses the imperative of accurate self-reflection in organizational leadership and success. In fact, at the heart of almost every leadership issue in an organization, is the lack of accurate self-reflection on the individual level. What is practical self-reflection? Why is it important? What are best practices? What tools and strategies are helpful? How do you self-reflect accurately without doing so neurotically? How can one help a leader who is unaware of their…

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Episode 11: A Giant Money Pit: Employee Turnover

Kyle Roed is Global HR Manager for CPM Holdings, based in Waterloo, Iowa. He discusses the massive costs of team member turnover. How can you start to measure these often unrecognized, un-reported, and siloed costs, both financial and cultural? How can you minimize them? What are some top strategies to retain top human capital talent? Are you asking the basic questions? Do you conduct ‘stay interviews’ in addition to exit interviews? Does your human resources department have operational and b…

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Brain Chatter

Effective leadership in our daily life and work requires each of us to wisely sort through a tremendous amount of ‘daily noise.’ We all want to become better at hearing and processing what matters and hear past what doesn’t, without disruption or derailment. Brain Chatter is a series of interviews with organizational leaders on the front lines of leadership who are skilled at doing just that. These are leaders who lead themselves, their teams, and their organizations with clarity. In each episode one of them offers their insights into what works and what doesn’t. Among the front line leaders interviewed are general managers of manufacturing plants, HR directors, supervisors, company executives, nonprofit CEOs, consultants, and individuals with no titles, but lots of influence.

Resources

Thank you for being a Brain Chatter Podcast listener. Here you’ll find resources from each episode.  If you have questions or comments about an episode, feel welcome to email Derek at dcbrown@leaderscode.com

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