Transform Your Workplace

What do landscaping and leadership development have in common? A lot more than you think. Jeff McManus, former landscaper and author of “Growing Weeders into Leaders”, joins us to discuss growing plants, growing leaders, and the things that they have in common. We’ll touch on Jeff’s philosophy toward leadership, the ways healthy environments can be cultivated, and the Landscaping Creed that every organization can and should be embracing to maximize everyone’s professional growth. How to Support this Show: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app (iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) Review us on iTunes Take our survey and we'll enter you in a drawing for a free book Follow Xenium HR (@XeniumHR) and Brandon Laws (@BrandonLaws) on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com  SPECIAL OFFERS:  e-learning courses at Xenium -www.xeniumhr.com/courses - promo code "POD" for 10% off all courses. Access the Growing Leaders in Your Organization PDF from Jeff: jeffmcmanusspeaking.com/brandon    About Jeff Jeff McManus grows things. As the Director of Landscape Services at the University of Mississippi, he grows plants…he grows people…he grows ideas. Jeff is a problem-solver, understanding that doing more with less is a 21st century mandate. Faced with a multi-million dollar landscaping beautification project, a demand for excellence, high productivity, and with a stagnant budget, Jeff knew that growing the people was critical to growing the plants. Understanding that all humans either have or strive for the innate elements of Greatness,  Resiliency, Opportunity and Wisdom, Jeff developed his GROW-theory into an impactful management and professional development leadership program for his staff. Taking his grounds employees, affectionately known as “weeders”, and developing them into “leaders” has been a joyous challenge that reaped acres of rewards in the form of national recognition by the Princeton Review, PGMS, Newsweek and every faculty, staff, student and visitor who has walked onto the Ole Miss Campus. Building on that momentum, Jeff has designed a professional development plan for his Weeders called Landscape University. His message rings true for any industry leader or manager looking to grow a high-performance and dedicated workforce.   Connect with Jeff: http://twitter.com/JeffMcManus https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-mcmanus-073b108   

Attitude, aptitude, accomplishments, adaptability, appreciation, amiability. Those are the six key attributes of “Attributional Interviewing” and they’re key to finding the right people for your company. Brad Owens, Culture Coach and recruiter for Fortune 500 companies, joins us to talk corporate culture, interview strategies and his sought-after best practices for hiring. We’ll cover the six attributes, why they’re important and how the interview can change everything. How to Support this Show: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app (iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) Review us on iTunes Take our survey and we'll enter you in a drawing for a free book Follow Xenium HR (@XeniumHR) and Brandon Laws (@BrandonLaws) on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com   SPECIAL OFFER: e-learning courses at Xenium - www.xeniumhr.com/courses - promo code "POD" for 10% off all courses.   About Brad Brad Owens has over a decade of experience as an external recruiter. He's worked with Fortune 500 companies all over the country to help them hire talent from straight out of school all the way to the top levels of an organization. Through that experience he's learned how the best companies attract, hire and retain their teams. Brad now calls himself the "Robin Hood" of hiring as he shares best practices from the largest companies in the world that you can apply in your very own small business. He's also the host of the "Small Business Hiring Podcast" that you can find at www.smallbusinesshiring.com. On the show he speaks with small businesses just like yours that have been voted "best place to work" and has them share exactly what they do to develop such a great corporate culture. You can also catch him answering your questions live every Thursday at 1pm ET at www.hiringlivestream.com   Connect with Brad: To download his Attributional Interviewing guide: www.yourinterviewguide.com To listen to his podcast: www.smallbusinesshiring.com To interact with Brad: www.bradowens.com For more tips on attracting, hiring and retaining your teams, visit: www.hrcoaching.com    

Most of the time, we don’t get to choose who we work with every day. But our coworkers and our relationships with them are crucial to our day-to-day work. Not only can poor workplace relationships be real personal downers, they can also hinder productivity and bring down office morale. To understand the necessity of positive relationships in the modern workplace, we spoke with Todd Davis, chief people officer and executive vice president at FranklinCovey. Davis’s new book, Get Better: 15 Proven Practices to Build Effective Relationships at Work, is a crash course in building relationships of value across organizations. On this week’s episode, Davis explains why we need to mitigate our emotional responses, how listening instead of talking can be a better way to contribute, and how establishing your own credibility with your coworkers can lead to relationships built on trust. How to Support this Show: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app (iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) Review us on iTunes Take our survey and we'll enter you in a drawing for a free book Follow Xenium HR (@XeniumHR) and Brandon Laws (@BrandonLaws) on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com   SPECIAL OFFER: e-learning courses at Xenium - www.xeniumhr.com/courses - promo code "POD" for 10% off all courses.   About Todd Davis: Todd Davis is the author of FranklinCovey’s upcoming book, Get Better: 15 Proven Practices to Build Effective Relationships at Work, available for pre-order May 9, 2017, and to be released on November 7, 2017. He is also a co-author of Talent Unleashed: 3 Leadership Conversations to Ignite the Unlimited Potential in People. Davis has over 30 years of experience in human resources, talent development, executive recruiting, sales, and marketing. He has been with FranklinCovey for over 20 years, and currently serves as chief people officer and executive vice president. He is responsible for FranklinCovey’s global talent development in over 40 offices in 160 countries. As the former director of FranklinCovey’s Innovations Group, Todd led the development of many of FranklinCovey’s core offerings containing the company’s world-renowned content, and he continues to contribute to the development of new offerings. Davis has also served as FranklinCovey’s director of recruitment and led a team responsible for attracting, hiring, and retaining top talent for the company, which included over 3,500 employees. For over 25 years, Davis has delivered numerous keynote addresses and speeches at top industry conferences, associations, corporate events, and for FranklinCovey clients, many of which are Fortune® 100 and 500 companies. His topics include leadership, personal and interpersonal effectiveness, employee engagement, talent management, change management, and building winning cultures. Davis has served on the Board of Directors for HR.com and is a member of the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).  

We know empathy is important in relationships, but what about at work? Karen Millsap, CEO of Egency and TEDx speaker, joins us to share her story and how she’s using empathy to improve workplace culture. After losing her husband in a terrible tragedy, Karen realized how little support our society offers for grieving people. We’ll cover pivotal moments of her experience, how to best help our colleagues after trauma and how empathy and compassion can change the workplace for the better. How to Support this Show: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app (iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) Review us on iTunes Take our survey and we'll enter you in a drawing for a free book Follow Xenium HR (@XeniumHR) and Brandon Laws (@BrandonLaws) on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com   SPECIAL OFFER: e-learning courses at Xenium - www.xeniumhr.com/courses - promo code "POD" for 10% off all courses. About Karen Millsap:  Karen Millsap, also known as, The Grief Consultant, began her career in human resources and talent acquisition where she lead countless training, new process, and change initiatives. At a young age, she suddenly became a widow when her husband was tragically murdered which completely changed the trajectory of her life. After experiencing a domino effect of other losses, she became acutely aware of the overall lack of support in our society for grieving people. We are all connected through our struggles, from the death of loved ones, to life-altering illnesses, divorce, even job loss. This realization ignited Karen's desire to turn her pain into purpose and pay it forward to help others.   Karen’s work has been featured in SHRM Magazine, on Good Morning Washington, MSNBC, and many others! She is a TEDx keynote speaker who inspires audiences to embrace compassion and empathy to help alleviate other’s suffering by becoming advocates for their own adversaries.  This experience opens minds and hearts to revive connectivity.   Karen is the CEO (Chief Empathy Officer) of Egency, a firm that helps organizations create a human-centric culture with compassion and empathy. She's also the author of the upcoming book, Now What? and founder of Well Now Global Retreats.  ​Karen received her undergraduate degree in Communication from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist through the Grief Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, California.  Connect with Karen Millsap on LinkedIn Resources Mentioned: Karen's Tedx Talk Option B

When they’re created thoughtfully, employee handbooks can be useful tools for your employees not just when they’re new to your company, but over the course of their careers, too. But employee handbooks aren’t known to be riveting reading. This week, we spoke with Lacey Partipilo, Xenium’s Senior Human Relations Business Partner, on building the most accurate, helpful handbooks for your organization. Listen in to hear us discuss federal policies you can’t leave out, engaging your team with creative handbooks, and creating supplementary materials, like Xenium’s Benefits at a Glance sheet, to break down the onslaught of information.    How to Support this Show: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app (iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) Review us on iTunes Take our survey and we'll enter you in a drawing for a free book Follow Xenium HR (@XeniumHR) and Brandon Laws (@BrandonLaws) on Twitter and LinkedIn Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com   About the Guest:  Connect with Lacey Halpern

Many of us have been there: a stressful day at work turns into a hectic month, a hectic month turns into a punishing year, and a punishing year turns into pure physical and mental exhaustion and maybe even complete career burnout. Beth Genly, a former nurse and lead of the coaching and consulting company Burnout Solutions, knows a thing or two about burnout—and how to keep it at bay. Her new book, Save Yourself from Burnout: A System to Get Your Life Back, co-authored with Dr. Marnie Loomis, explores the burden of burnout and how to deal with it. On this week’s episode, we talk with Beth about high-risk professions for burnout, how burnout develops, and how to prevent it with proactive, persistent self-care.   How to Support this Show: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app (iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) Review us on iTunes Take our survey and we'll enter you in a drawing for a free book Follow Xenium HR (@XeniumHR) and Brandon Laws (@BrandonLaws) on Twitter and LinkedIn Follow Angela Perkins on LinkedIn Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com   About the Guest: Connect with Beth on LinkedIn Get the book: Save Yourself from Burnout Learn about Burnout Solutions

We all know communication is key to successful collaboration at work. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Craig Weber, author of “Conversational Capacity” and founder of the Weber Consulting Group, joins us today to discuss his celebrated approach to work communication. We’ll cover the different communication styles people use and tools that leaders and employees alike can apply to foster effective collaboration, share ideas, respond to tough challenges and ultimately create better work. How to Support this Show: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app (iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) Review us on iTunes Take our survey and we'll enter you in a drawing for a free book Follow Xenium HR (@XeniumHR) and Brandon Laws (@BrandonLaws) on Twitter and LinkedIn Follow Angela Perkins on LinkedIn Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com About Craig Weber Craig Weber is the author of the groundbreaking book, Conversational Capacity: The Key To Building Successful Teams That Perform When The Pressure Is On (McGraw-Hill, 2013), and the founder of The Weber Consulting Group – an alliance of experts committed to helping people build more resilient, healthy, and agile organizations. Craig helps an eclectic range of clients improve their performance by treating dialogue as a discipline. His unique work is the result of his formal education – in Organizational Development at Brigham Young University in Hawaii and Organizational Psychology at Columbia University – combined with nearly two decades of in-depth consulting experience with a wide range of teams and organizations. Famous for his sharp, inspiring, and engaging style, Craig is a sought after consultant and presenter. In 2012 he was awarded the prestigious Vistage International Speaker Of The Year award, and in 2015 he was named the TEC-Canada Speaker Of The Year.

Are modern professionals more alone or does it just feel that way? From remote employees to communication technology, many factors are changing workplace dynamics. Megan Leatherman, career coach and HR consultant, joins us to share her own experiences and how it translates to the experience of professionals today. We’ll cover changing relationships in the workplace, the factors most likely to lead to isolation, and measures you can take to ensure solid connections in the workplace.   How to Support this Show: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app (iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) Review us on iTunes Take our survey and we'll enter you in a drawing for a free book Follow Xenium HR (@XeniumHR) and Brandon Laws (@BrandonLaws) on Twitter and LinkedIn Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com   Learn More About or Connect With Megan Leatherman  

For a long time, running a corporation and doing good have been at odds with each other. But times have changed. Listen in as we chat with Cameron Madill, CEO of Pixelspoke, leader in the B Corp movement and chair of the B Corp Board in Portland, Oregon. We’ll be talking about how businesses can be used as a force for good, the benefits of B Corp certification on recruiting, retention and revenue, and what you can expect when making the transition from standard organization to certified B Corp. How to Support this Show: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app (iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) Review us on iTunes Take our survey and we'll enter you in a drawing for a free book Follow Xenium HR (@XeniumHR) and Brandon Laws (@BrandonLaws) on Twitter and LinkedIn Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com   About the Guest: Cameron is the owner and founder of PixelSpoke, a digital marketing agency that specializes in credit unions and progressive businesses. His passion for credit unions and their mission also led him to start The Remarkable Credit Union podcast, the only podcast to focus specifically on trends and challenges in the credit union space. PixelSpoke is a B Corp, which means they are committed to creating positive and sustainable work environments, giving back to the community, and caring for the environment. It’s a rigorous certification process, and they're proud to be part of the B Corp community. He organized the local B Corp Board for the city of Portland, OR and currently serves as the board’s chair. He is deeply passionate about helping entrepreneurs to grow and thrive through volunteer activities promoting education. He has worked on multiple academic papers studying success factors in entrepreneurship and believes deeply in the importance of bringing scientific thinking to small and midsize companies. He launched the Portland Accelerator program, a local incubator for growth-oriented businesses, ran the business education curriculum for a US State Department international leadership program, and served as one of twenty delegates to the 2011 G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit in Nice, France. Social justice plays a large part in his life. He frequently travels to Dilley, TX to volunteer with the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project, which works with Central American mothers and their children who are fleeing horrific gang violence and other persecution.   

We all know it’s important to recruit and hire great talent. But are you doing enough to grow and develop the people you already have? James Sudakow, author and principal of CH Consulting, is back on the podcast with some fresh insights on human capital. We’ll be discussing the ins and outs of talent management, including cost-effective ways to develop your people, the risks of holding on to poor performers and the employee trait you should always look for when making a new hire. How to Support this Show: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app (iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) Review us on iTunes Take our survey and we'll enter you in a drawing for a free book Follow Xenium HR (@XeniumHR) and Brandon Laws (@BrandonLaws) on Twitter and LinkedIn Learn more about Xenium HR at xeniumhr.com   About the Guest: James Sudakow is the principal and founder of CH Consulting – a boutique consulting firm specializing in organizational transformation and talent management strategies – where he has led engagements with clients ranging from small, entrepreneurial start-ups to Blue Chip Fortune 100 organizations across various industries including healthcare, medical device, technology, finance, and entertainment. Prior to starting CH Consulting, James began his career at Deloitte Consulting, where he worked for seven years in the Organizational Performance practice. Upon leaving Deloitte, he has held progressively larger roles in multi-billion dollar global technology organizations, most recently serving as the Vice President of Talent Management and Organizational Effectiveness at CareFusion – a medical device and systems organization. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California and his master’s degree from the University of Arizona.