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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 younger self 10:45 Why a full night of sleep can still be junk sleep 13:00 What pseudo-productive busyness looks like at work 14:10 Why so many interruptions are self-inflicted 16:40 How burnout and a heart attack shaped the book 19:55 Why going fast takes great brakes 23:20 Why raw sleep data beats your sleep score 26:15 Why checking your sleep data first thing can backfire 29:05 Why the first ten minutes of focus always feel terrible 32:55 What to do when you don't control your calendar 35:50 How to plan focus time around your chronotype 39:30 How to cut Zoom fatigue, starting with hiding self-view 44:10 Where to find Christian and the book 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Christian Poensgen: Website LinkedIn Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 companies about AI 11:55 What Jeff heard in his first workshops 14:40 Why leaders are excited and junior employees are anxious 16:35 Where Jeff draws the line on AI in his own work 20:45 Why companies that only use AI to cut get lapped 27:10 Why HR belongs at the AI table, and how to earn a seat 29:05 What AI theater looks like 31:15 Why your AI rules should fit on one page 34:50 The HR decision AI should never make 36:55 How to use AI to get smarter instead of dumber 41:00 What a one-person HR team should do first 42:30 What HR work should stay human five years from now 44:20 Where to find Jeff 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Jeff Wilser: Website LinkedIn X YouTube AI-Curious Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 to tell a quiet team from a resigned one 03:34 Why quiet gets mistaken for everything going well 04:25 Why leaders smooth it over, avoid it, or get defensive 05:42 Why passion is only welcome when it's convenient 07:32 What "let's be constructive" tells an employee 08:39 How "I'm so glad you came to me" changes the conversation 09:28 How the power dynamic shapes your response 10:20 How to tell a chronic complainer from a real signal 12:55 Why a high performer went quiet after raising a concern 15:10 Why the whole room learns from how you react 16:05 Why there are no good or bad emotions at work 16:44 Why trust dies when people stop talking 17:55 Why leaders have to regulate their own emotions first 18:27 How to handle a complaint tomorrow: reward it, mine it, close the loop 20:45 Where to find Suzi's workshops and courses 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Suzi Wear: LinkedIn Xenium HR Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 absentee manager 24:30 Why "never let your staff know what's going on" backfires 26:20 What to do when the problem is two levels above you 28:00 How to start strong with a new hire 29:55 What to do if you see yourself in the book 32:15 Why being direct is still the hardest part 34:20 Where to find Tanya and the book 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Tanya Uyigue: Website LinkedIn Instagram TikTok YouTube Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 The chairlift joke that pushed her to get help 11:15 What's your definition of enough for a workday? 15:00 Where the pattern started 18:45 Process integrity vs. outcome integrity 21:05 How you still help when you stop doing it yourself 23:05 Why knowing your patterns isn't enough 25:55 What an HR department of one can do 29:10 Coach the leader or change the company? 30:20 What kept her from leaving sooner 32:05 Where to start 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Alli Murphy: Website LinkedIn Instagram Newsletter The Elevate Lab Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 16:15 How a leading question gets you the answer you wanted 16:50 What managers should do when AI research lands on their desk 18:10 Why access to information isn't the same as understanding it 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Nicole Blevins: LinkedIn Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 produce worse attendance 11:30 What human systems theory means in plain language 12:45 Why engagement surveys hand you symptoms instead of root causes 14:20 How UPS hit record engagement scores right before a strike 15:45 Why a skilled trades team was quitting over pride, not pay 17:35 Why most consulting engagements fade the moment the invoice clears 23:35 How triangulation spreads dysfunction through an organization 26:15 What a top performer really costs when they leave 28:45 What leadership is actually responsible for when behavior is a system output 31:40 How a rural energy company turned its weakness into its hiring pitch 34:35 Where AI helps with this work and where trust makes it fail 38:30 The one mindset shift to try next week 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Dustin Snyder: LinkedIn Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 to have 06:25 Watching a leader push when the moment calls for a pull 07:55 How problem solvers learn to ask instead of answer 10:20 Why leaders still matter when AI has all the answers 13:30 How to get better at asking powerful questions 16:12 Why new leaders can't hear their own intuition 17:45 How to quiet your own head and stay present 21:15 Why silence after a question is a good sign 22:50 Naming what isn't being said in the room 24:45 The 11-year-old who hissed 26:45 The POWER model for preparing a hard conversation 34:25 Questions to try with your team this week 36:20 Closing and where to find Heather Resources from this episode Powerful one-on-one questions [Download] Levels of Listening [Download] 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Heather Graves-Ramsey: LinkedIn Website Coach to Brilliance on LinkedIn Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 the people 05:50 Why young men are the group struggling most 07:15 How to build a friendship when the job is remote 09:00 What close friendship does to physical and mental health 10:10 Why the youngest workers have the hardest time 12:20 Where AI crosses from cognitive offloading into cognitive surrender 15:40 How to use AI without losing your own voice 17:30 Whether the social media backlash is real 21:20 Why self-awareness comes before better relationships 23:05 What it actually takes to make a friend as an adult 25:35 How many close friends a person can realistically keep 29:10 How to start a conversation when the mixer terrifies you 33:00 Why work is where most people make their more diverse friends 34:45 What leaders can do to build connection into the work itself 37:30 Where to find Tracy and the book 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Tracy Brower: LinkedIn Website Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 the University of Derby in England. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Welcome and what this episode covers 02:10 Why a room full of retail directors went silent 08:15 How making constraints visual changes the conversation 09:50 Why leaders should spend less time motivating people 12:45 The five steps of the Call to Greatness framework 16:45 What loving people up actually looks like day to day 20:40 Why empathy gets weaponized at work 24:30 How a trip to the ER changed the way Alex solves problems 28:10 Why your best performer might be your most expensive one 31:00 Decision maker, consultant, or good person to be informed 39:20 Why asking teams to think outside the box backfires 44:00 What to keep in mind when you screw this up 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Alex Dorr: Website LinkedIn How We Could Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 old playlist starts in childhood 06:05 Why this work goes better with playfulness 07:15 How sugarcoating feedback wrecked one leader's results 08:50 Why the pattern traced back to being the middle child 09:50 Why staying in pretense destroys trust 10:45 How to tell if a pattern is helping or hurting you 11:40 Harvard Law to acting school and why it all connects 17:20 What the neuroscience says about music and the brain 19:00 How to pick music that actually shifts your state 20:45 The four steps to catch a pattern and change it 23:40 Why Susan uses the Enneagram over DISC or MBTI 27:15 Where to start if you want to do this work 28:30 Why leaders who cannot delegate end up burned out 31:20 How leaders should be approaching AI right now 34:00 A first step if you feel stuck and cannot name why 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Resources mentioned: The Leader's Playlist Free leadership quiz Enneagram Applied Meritage Leadership Connect with Susan Drumm: Website LinkedIn Facebook X YouTube Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 13:30 Why you can see everyone's limiting beliefs except your own 15:15 Don't look for the belief. Look for where you're suffering. 17:45 The flowers Nir sent his mom and what he learned from the phone call 20:15 How a reality log corrects a belief about your own performance 23:00 What happens to Thursday's hard conversation when you decide Tuesday it will go badly 25:50 Why your labels are your limits 28:00 Why Nir says imposter syndrome isn't real 30:00 Same sweaty palms, different belief 32:20 Where to start if you want to test one belief this week 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Nir Eyal: Website LinkedIn Instagram Beyond Belief Free Belief Change Guide Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 approach looks like in practice 07:25 Hardwiring and softwiring when you design human and AI work 08:40 The telecom example, 5% versus 30%, and the lesson for smaller companies 10:50 How to bring an entire organization along on new tools 13:00 Fabrication, embellished profiles, and verification in hiring 15:15 Work slop, the experience gap, and building friction back in 17:30 Decision rights, machine autonomy, and where accountability lives 19:15 Culture debt and what suspicion does to a team over time 21:30 Isolating what the human actually brings to the work 22:35 A history teacher's assignment as a model for verification 24:45 The orchestration gap and what is getting in the way 27:15 Who owns work, and the trio organizations will need 29:40 Have organizational functions outlived their function 31:45 The biggest change workers felt this past year 33:25 Decisions that echo and the one message for every leader 35:20 What David wants people to take away and act on 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Resource mentioned: 2026 Global Human Capital Trends report Connect with David Mallon: LinkedIn X Deloitte profile Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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 07:10 Turning her own burnout into a literature review 09:35 Eustress and distress, and why leaders and teams talk past each other 11:40 The check engine light and the cost of waiting 13:20 See, sort, solve 15:25 The stress ruler and the zero to 10 question 19:40 Stress and joy are both contagious 20:45 Values that leave you out will burn you out 24:10 Sorting what you can control from what you cannot 26:45 Why the people quickest to offer help are the slowest to ask for it 28:50 Cancel a meeting 30:20 The Dr. Green calendar story 32:35 What leaders get wrong in uncertain moments 34:45 Stress thrives in isolation 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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Mentioned in this episode: Xenium HR Leadership Cohorts Connect with Amy Leneker: Website LinkedIn Cheers to Monday Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

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-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 businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Lee Caraher: Website LinkedIn Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube