In Brain Chatter, we interview organizational leaders in diverse industries and roles at the intersection of Leadership, Workplace Culture, Profit, and Sustainability. Each offers insights into how they effectively lead themselves, their teams, and their organizations through all the ‘daily noise.’ What works and what doesn’t? What are key questions to ask? What leadership skills are most vital? What are the most valuable lessons they’ve learned? Brain Chatter is a production of Ken Chapman and Associates, Inc. www.LeadersCode.com For episode notes visit www.BrainChatterPodcast.com
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May 4, 2026Episode 3724 min
Engage & Retain: What Can You Do?
How can our organization retain our most valuable team members? The costs of turnover are startling and the benefits of key person retention are exponential. In this 23-minute episode, Ryan McShane explores what you or I can do to retain our best team members, through meaningful and practical engagement. Ryan goes through some of the characteristics which are most foundational and important in an ideal, successful team member. These individuals and the teams populated by them have major impacts on organizational success, customer and stakeholder success, and by extension, the success of every individual associated with the org. This episode discusses "the what" and "the how" of engagement that maximizes success. EPISODE RESOURCES:>Connect with Ryan McShane on LinkedIn>Ryan's bioThis episode edited by Michael Gordon. Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.
April 14, 2026Episode 3628 min
How To Get Promoted At Work
Getting promoted at work is not always straightforward. In this 28-minute episode, Alisa Patel, a VP of HR, talks candidly about what you need to do in order to be promotable, to learn about opportunities inside your company, and to effectively communicate your interest in the right way to the right people. -----About Alisa: Alisa Patel is a strategic, people-focused HR executive with more than 20 years of experience leading human resources initiatives that drive both business performance and employee engagement. She currently serves as Vice President of Human Resources at Aalberts Surface Technologies, where she partners closely with senior leadership to shape workforce strategy, strengthen organizational development, and align HR practices with broader business goals.Alisa is a certified SHRM-CP and a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business Executive Program in Strategic HR Planning. She’s deeply committed to continuous learning and advancing excellence in the HR field.Her experience spans employee relations, workforce planning, talent development, internal communications, and benefits strategy — all with a focus on building strong, inclusive, and high-performing workplace cultures.At the core of her work, Alisa is passionate about empowering teams and creating people-first solutions that support long-term growth, productivity, and organizational success.Aalberts is a global Dutch industrial technology company that designs andmanufactures specialized engineering systems and components used inbuildings, manufacturing, transportation, and semiconductor production.Aalberts HQ is in Utrecht, Netherlands and the company was founded in 1975. Today the company employs over 13,000 people across multiple continents. EPISODE RESOURCES: >Connect with Alisa on LinkedIn>Aalberts Surface Technologies Thanks to Michael Gordon for editing this episode. Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.
March 12, 2026Episode 3540 min
Effective Workplace Feedback
The Effective Workplace Feedback episode of Brain Chatter explores the role of effective feedback in building strong workplace cultures and improving leadership. Organizational psychologist Dr. Ken Chapman, founder of Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc. and author of The Leader’s Code discusses why traditional annual performance reviews often fail and what leaders should do instead. Drawing on decades of experience advising organizations around the world, Dr. Chapman explains why timely, specific, and goodwill-driven feedback is far more valuable than infrequent evaluations. The conversation begins by examining what meaningful feedback looks like in practice and why leaders should actively encourage feedback from employees, customers, and colleagues alike.Throughout the episode, Dr. Chapman highlights the elements that make feedback constructive—clear specifics, appropriate timing, mutual respect, and a shared interest in improvement. He contrasts this with feedback that becomes destructive or unhelpful and explains why the absence of constructive feedback is one of the most common causes of employee dissatisfaction with leadership. The discussion also explores the importance of trust, listening, willingness to cooperate, and empathy when giving or receiving feedback, as well as strategies for normalizing regular feedback in workplace environments where it may initially feel uncomfortable.The conversation concludes by addressing common challenges leaders and employees face around feedback, including defensiveness, resistance, or the misuse of feedback. Dr. Chapman shares practical strategies for soliciting useful feedback, responding to unfair or petty criticism disguised as feedback, and holding people accountable for growth and improvement. Ultimately, the episode emphasizes that feedback is a cultural practice—one that, when handled thoughtfully and consistently, strengthens relationships, improves performance, and helps organizations thrive. This forty minute episode answers many other questions related to this topic, as well. EPISODE RESOURCES: >Bio of Ken Chapman, Ph.D.>Follow Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc. on LINKEDIN>Follow Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc. on FACEBOOK>Books Authored or Co-Authored by Dr. Ken ChapmanThanks to Michael Gordon for editing this episode. Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.
September 13, 2025Episode 3421 min
Building Trust Across Generations in Your Workplace
Having challenges and lack of understanding or lack trust between different generations inside your company? This 22-minute episode explores why that may be and what can be done to close the potential gap of trust. Organizational development and HR expert Ryan McShane offers practical insights and strategies for accomplishing this, for the benefit of all concerned. EPISODE RESOURCES:>Connect with Ryan McShane on LinkedIn>Ryan's bioBrain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.
August 12, 2025Episode 3329 min
Day #1 as a Supervisor: Avoiding Common Tripping Hazards
What advice do most people wish someone would have offered when they were first promoted to supervisor? What are common missteps and mistakes newly promoted supervisors often make that are avoidable? What are strategies for navigating a promotion when your peers, yesterday, are your direct reports, today? This episode offers the insights of Beth Lanier (Savannah, Georgia), from her 30-year career in human resources and management consulting, working with numerous first time supervisors in heavy industry, public accounting, and other sectors. EPISODE RESOURCES:>Connect with Beth Lanier on LinkedIn>Beth's BioBrain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.
January 6, 2025Episode 3239 min
Onboarding + Career Pathing in Healthy Workplace Cultures
What impacts do effective onboarding and career pathing have on the health of a company culture? And what does such onboarding and career pathing look like? Patrick Frazier, Director of Organizational Development at ME Global (Tempe, Arizona) discusses the culture inside their foundries in Arizona and Minnesota. Working in metal foundries is hard, hot work. How do you continue to find, keep, and provide advancement opportunities for team members? How do you ensure you attract and retain team members who are the right fit for the organizational culture of an action-oriented, successful foundry company? EPISODE RESOURCES:>Connect with Patrick Frazier on LinkedIn>ME Global >American Foundry SocietyBrain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.
November 23, 2024Episode 3118 min
A Playbook for Success: Tim Duncan
KC&A's David Stanfield explores the life and career of one of the NBA all-time greats, Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs). The focus in this episode is on the 'walking the talk' examples Tim Duncan provided throughout his basketball career, by focusing on wins for the whole team and other teammates, cool-headed calmness, sharing credit, being coachable, accepting accountability and mentorship, and showing gratitude to teammates, fans, family, and coaches. All the while, consistently being humble.EPISODE RESOURCES:>Connect with David Stanfield on LinkedIn>David Stanfield Bio>Tim Duncan Stats on ESPN>Biography of Tim Duncan on Wikipedia>Tim Duncan's Retirement Letter (on Sports Illustrated)>Air Alamo article referenced in episodeBasketball sound effects used by authorization of https://uppbeat.ioBrain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.
June 27, 2024Episode 3036 min
A Bull in the China Shop & Emotional Intelligence
Whitney Tate and Delcia Petersen explore the practical side of Emotional Intelligence as it is most often encountered in the workplace. What is the cost of being 'A Bull in the China Shop' as it relates to EIQ? How do we each avoid being that bull in the china shop in our own workplace, dismissive of competence about it at our own immense personal cost? If Emotional Intelligence is arguably the greatest predictor of success in a leader and in success within any given career, then how do we use it as an asset rather than suffer from the lack of success with it as a liability. RESOURCES:Whitney Tate on LinkedInDelcia Petersen on LinkedInBook Recommendation: The Social Animal on AmazonBrain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.
May 2, 2024Episode 2924 min
Stuckeys: A Story of Grit and Brand Revival
Stephanie Stuckey recently released her book "UnStuck: Rebirth of An American Icon". In this interview she discusses reviving and rebuilding one of the most iconic American roadside brands, "Stuckeys." This 25 minute episode explores grit and how it can be contagious in organizational leadership. We look at the history of the brand, the various pivots that allowed it to survive and then thrive to its height of having 368 locations in 40 US States, why Stuckeys was able to weather so many storms along the way when competitors could not, and then the decline of the brand after her grandfather sold it months before his death. Stephanie has purchased the brand and trademark and is now on a quest to rebuild the brand and its old reputation, in a new era. She and her business partners are making lots of progress... you can now buy Stuckeys pecan candies in over 5000 retail locations, with more locations being added regularly. EPISODE RESOURCES:>Stuckeys.com>UnStuck (Stephanie's new book): --on Barnes & Noble--on Audible--on Books-A-Million --on Amazon>Stephanie on LinkedIn>Handle for Stephanie on Instagram, Facebook, and X: @stuckystop>Stuckeys and The Green Book>Stuckeys History TimelineBrain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.
February 20, 2024Episode 2844 min
Generative AI & Workplace Culture: The Right Choices Provide an Edge
Michael Mendola is leading the effort at a 75,000+ employee consulting firm to implement Generative AI strategies for the benefit of their employees and clients. In this episode, Michael shares his insights on the impact Generative Artificial Intelligence is having and will continue to have on workplace cultures. He also shares a wide array of information about Generative AI, as well as some of the AI programs he is currently using the most. -----MORE ABOUT MICHAEL:Michael Mendola is a Manager at PwC Labs. He is a Certified Public Accountant. He and his wife live in Columbus, Ohio. He holds a Bachelors Degree from Miami University (Ohio) and a Master's of Accounting from Oakland University. He has also earned a number of certifications and credentials related to Artificial Intelligence from Microsoft and Google. EPISODE RESOURCES:> Michael Mendola on LinkedIn>PwC's Knowledge Base on Generative Artificial Intelligence>iNaturalist>ChatGPT>Microsoft CoPilot>Dall-E AI Image GeneratorBrain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.
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