Chapter 4
Leadership as Stewardship, Not Self-Interest
At Barry-Wehmiller, leadership isn't viewed as a position of privilege but as a profound responsibility-a stewardship of the lives entrusted to one's care. This perspective recognizes that 88% of American workers feel their organizations don't listen to or care about them, creating a crisis of leadership that damages people's souls and our culture.
While many businesses embrace having a deeper purpose beyond profits, most focus on customer-related purposes. At Barry-Wehmiller, the primary purpose is enabling team members to have meaningful and fulfilling lives. They're in business to improve lives-building capital equipment and engineering consulting are simply the vehicles that power their economic engine.
Chapman had a profound realization while listening to his mentor Ed Salmon deliver a weekly sermon. While Ed had his congregation for less than an hour weekly, Barry-Wehmiller had seven thousand people under their influence for forty hours each week. This gave them a far greater opportunity than the church to uplift, inspire, and shape people's lives through leadership.
This insight led to viewing the workplace as a "business family" rather than a traditional "family business." Roy Spence suggests every workplace should function as a business family with: unconditional love and nurturing; treating employees as you'd want your children treated; building a home people want to come to daily; coaching like exceptional parents; building on individual strengths; patience with those who've been hurt by previous leadership; letting people grow beyond your team when appropriate; and being authentically human together-celebrating, mourning, and breaking bread as a family.
This perspective connects workplace conditions directly to public health. Heart attack rates increase 20% on Monday mornings-a stark indicator that work is literally killing people. The healthcare crisis stems from a causal chain: rising costs come from chronic diseases (75% of US healthcare costs), which stem from elevated chronic stress (affecting 73% of Americans), with work being the primary stressor.
Dehumanizing workplaces where people feel disrespected create mental and physical health problems, substance abuse, and unhealthy habits. While wellness programs focus on lowering costs, the real solution is increasing care. Gallup data shows engaged, thriving employees have 41% lower healthcare costs than disengaged workers and 62% lower than those who hate their jobs.
Research confirms that workplaces where people express affection, tenderness, and compassion produce employees more satisfied, committed, and accountable. The human need to care is as powerful as our will to survive. Rather than the warrior-leader model using warfare terminology, Barry-Wehmiller's approach taps into something more fundamental: love. As Fred Kofman writes, "Love is strong. It is the most powerful force in the universe. Love is a competitive advantage."
Chapter 5
Hardwiring Culture Through Systematic Practices
Most corporate cultures breed fear, stress, gossip, and politics-environments that Tony Schwartz identifies as "deeply toxic to our well-being." At Barry-Wehmiller, they've created something extraordinarily rare: a culture almost completely devoid of fear, gossip, and politics. As their VP of strategy Carol O'Neill notes, "There is none of the stuff that you see in 90 percent of corporate environments... There is no politics or gossiping here."
This remarkable difference stems from leadership that refuses to tolerate negativity and instead fosters collaboration and respect. Their culture didn't happen by accident but through carefully thought out and consistently implemented initiatives.
To bring their people-focused culture to the 75% of their team who worked in operations, they adapted Toyota's Lean methodology with one critical difference-while most organizations adopt Lean to cut costs, Barry-Wehmiller wanted to use it to spread their people-centered culture. When a consultant presented Lean as a way to "get more out of people," Chapman walked out in frustration. He insisted their version of Lean would focus on human thriving, not exploitation.
They named their approach "Living Legacy of Leadership" (L3)-leadership practices so profound they stand the test of time. They call continuous improvement "the gateway drug to engagement and fulfillment"-likely the only company to begin this journey specifically to bring their people-centered culture to team members.
During their L3 implementation, a manufacturing team member named Steve revealed how these cultural changes affected his personal life: "My wife now talks to me more." He explained how before L3, working in an environment where he wasn't valued left him feeling empty and resentful at home. Now that people asked for his input and respected his contributions, he felt better about himself and treated his family better.
This powerful insight showed how workplace treatment directly impacts home life. When they send people home feeling valued rather than broken, they become better spouses, parents, and community members. As one spouse later observed about her husband's transformation after joining Barry-Wehmiller: "John's demeanor is completely different... Now he comes home happy, more content. And because of that, we are all happier." This is the ripple effect of caring-emotional contagion that spreads from workplace to home.
Chapter 6
The Ultimate Test: Crisis Response
Until the 1980s, layoffs were rare, but by the 1990s "downsizing" became routine business practice. Companies now use euphemisms like "rightsizing" and "streamlining" to mask the devastating impact on people's lives. When laid off, people experience profound rejection and shame, while those who remain shift into survival mode.
The 2008-2009 recession tested Barry-Wehmiller's commitment to their Guiding Principles of Leadership as orders disappeared and financial pressure mounted. Rather than following the conventional path of layoffs, they asked themselves, "What would a caring family do?" The answer: share the sacrifice so no one member experiences dramatic loss.
Throughout the mid-2000s, Barry-Wehmiller was growing profitably while Chapman regularly shared their Guiding Principles with people across the organization. When the economic crisis hit, they faced their own challenge as customers began canceling orders. Rather than implementing layoffs as suggested by a board member, they developed a plan of shared sacrifice: everyone would take four weeks of unpaid time off (with flexibility on when to take it), they suspended executive bonuses and 401(k) matching, reduced travel expenses, offered a voluntary retirement program, and Chapman cut his own salary from $875,000 to $10,500.
Within days, their leadership team turned these ideas into actionable plans, and Chapman delivered the news via video message to convey authenticity and care. The response was overwhelming-fear disappeared, replaced by relief, gratitude and togetherness. Some team members even volunteered to take additional unpaid time for colleagues who couldn't afford to lose the income.
The response was remarkably positive across all divisions. Even teams not suffering financially willingly contributed to spread the impact. Union members in Green Bay met their target of 1,400 weeks within days on a voluntary basis with full support from their bargaining committee.
When business rebounded nine months later (with record earnings in 2010), they retroactively restored the 401(k) match that people had sacrificed. The crisis, though initially traumatic, became a blessing in disguise for Barry-Wehmiller. Their Guiding Principles provided clarity when faced with difficult decisions. By choosing to protect jobs through shared sacrifice rather than layoffs, they cemented their culture in a way nothing else could have. Team members who had been skeptical about their cultural transformation became true believers.
Chapter 7
The Virtuous Cycle: Business Growth and People Growth
Business growth and people growth aren't separate ideas; they are complementary pieces in creating value. Barry-Wehmiller refers to this as their "virtuous cycle." They succeed FOR their people, not using people to build products. They use their products to build people. This "upside down" approach has created solid financial value-growing their share price by 16 percent compounded for over twenty years.
To bring this virtuous cycle to life, they do two kinds of visioning: business visioning and cultural visioning. Business visioning dreams about what their business future could be, starting with the ideal rather than incremental improvement. Cultural visioning addresses their "why"-how they should treat each other so everyone goes home fulfilled.
A good visioning process makes the implicit explicit, paints a vivid picture of the organization they want to be, and builds cohesion. Beyond its output, the process enhances communication, opens eyes to new possibilities, creates shared ownership, and shows they care by listening to all participants.
They operate with unusual transparency, providing far more information to people than most companies do-including financial data that builds trust and demonstrates integrity. Their focused visioning process brings people together in a personally meaningful experience to craft a compelling document within days.
At Barry-Wehmiller, they apply visioning to every significant challenge, from safety to team wellness. Creating a vision statement is just the beginning-implementation is critical. They spread their vision through small-group sessions where leaders identify gaps between reality and vision, then take immediate steps to close them. Vision participants become passionate ambassadors who embody the change.
Their vision statements remain vibrant guides, with people even saying things like "That's not very GPL" when behaviors stray from their principles. As Joe Wilhelm reflects, visioning empowered leaders to "think big" without conventional constraints, accelerating careers and creating better leaders.
Chapter 8
Cultivating Responsible Freedom
Both American society and capitalism are founded on freedom, yet businesses remain bastions of command-and-control dictatorships. This harms both people and organizations. Barry-Wehmiller identifies two types of freedom: "freedom from" excessive hierarchy and burdensome rules, and "freedom to" innovate and express oneself.
Through continuous improvement, they strive for "just enough" structure-defining what winning looks like while allowing maximum responsible freedom within that framework. However, "freedom to" requires a foundation of shared values to prevent self-serving anarchy. As Dov Seidman notes, "A handful of shared values is worth more than 1,000 rules."
At Barry-Wehmiller, responsible freedom involves three behaviors: sharing gifts and talents, having a bias for action, and being accountable for outcomes. It means bringing full selves to work, proactively taking action toward their shared vision, and recognizing accountability to each other as stewards of one another's lives.
As Carol O'Neill explains, this means knowing the goal and how progress is measured, but having latitude to determine the path. This environment attracts entrepreneurial, driven people who want clear goals but enjoy figuring out how to achieve them.
Conventional wisdom celebrates leaders as firefighters who miraculously solve problems. But Barry-Wehmiller has learned the best leaders rarely fight fires-they light them. They develop inspiring visions, design resilient business models, and build environments of responsible freedom where everyone watches for potential issues. They light fires in others through caring, listening, recognizing, and inspiring.
Trust is the foundation of responsible freedom. At Barry-Wehmiller, they build trust through CCCI: compassion (demonstrating care through listening and empathy), competence (performing tasks effectively), consistency (providing predictable reactions), and integrity (aligning actions with stated values). Trust is essential not just between leaders and associates, but among all team members.
Without trust, organizations become defensive, suspicious, and fearful, depleting creativity and imposing higher monitoring costs. Building trust requires authentic communication through both words and actions. High-trust businesses exhibit teamwork, synergy, and cooperation, radiating trust to all stakeholders and creating a virtuous cycle that builds tremendous value.
Chapter 9
The Power of Recognition and Celebration
People need to feel personally significant at work-to feel that they make a valuable contribution. One of Barry-Wehmiller's Leadership Checklist items is "I recognize and celebrate the greatness in others." Their many recognition programs provide a framework to identify and celebrate team members who exemplify true success, making this a unique aspect of their culture.
While most organizations focus on what goes wrong, Barry-Wehmiller makes a conscious effort to fill their airwaves with goodness, ensuring that positive communication outweighs the negative to avoid oppressive relationships.
When they launched the GPL award program in Phillips, Wisconsin, they found people starved for recognition after years under distrustful entrepreneurs. The first award winners faced jealousy from colleagues-like serving one feast to a room of starving people. They realized they needed to create a culture where recognition and celebration are plentiful.
Unlike companies that recognize people to get better engagement and productivity, Barry-Wehmiller does it simply because it's the right thing to do-never to get more out of people but to let them know they matter. Research shows a strong correlation between feeling recognized and contributing to the company mission.
Award winners like Richard Pike often grow into even better leaders after winning, as he explained: "I come in every day and try to be the person they think I am." They systematically teach recognition, put programs in place to support it, and encourage its everyday practice.
They recognize what they want more of, focusing on "fire lighting" rather than "firefighting" behaviors. While many organizations celebrate heroic problem-solving, Barry-Wehmiller recognizes sustained excellence-people who consistently distinguish themselves through their actions with little drama.
Their recognitions are personal, memorable, creative, sincere, timely, proportionate, significant, and meaningful. They avoid monetary components, finding they're not as impactful. Instead, they create unique celebrations and send letters to people's homes, which has profound impact-like when Mike Wilwerth's wife gained new appreciation for his work, or when Polo Juangorena still treasured a recognition letter sent to his wife fifteen years earlier.
During the 2009 economic downturn, many worried their recognition programs would be cut as they're often seen as frivolous expenses. While they scaled back celebrations to be less lavish and appropriate to the times, they didn't reduce them. The actual cost of their GPL SSR Award program is minimal compared to its enormous lasting impact.
Chapter 10
Educating Leaders for Sustainable Culture
Barry-Wehmiller University (BWU) was formally launched in 2008 after leaders identified leadership training as the number-one need for successfully fusing Lean tools with the Guiding Principles of Leadership. The university's purpose is to develop an integrated, inspirational, and sustainable way of living the company vision, with the belief that business can positively impact the world.
BWU is built on three core principles: 1) They develop their own distinctive material rather than using external content; 2) All professors are Barry-Wehmiller team members who bring authenticity through their personal stories; 3) The teaching process must be inspirational and transformational.
Unlike traditional corporate training, BWU isn't about productivity or ROI-it's about enhancing people's ability to touch lives both inside and outside the company. Their Professor Training program has prepared nearly 200 people to teach by imparting insight, creating the perfect learning environment, and inspiring change through immersive experiences.
Rather than focusing on "people who don't get it," BWU follows the philosophy of "feed the hungry." No training is mandatory-all participants must apply, ensuring they're intrinsically motivated. This approach benefits both learners and professors, as motivated participants acquire, retain, and apply knowledge more effectively.
Leadership education isn't reserved for people with titles but for anyone ready to grow, regardless of position. This sometimes creates discomfort when team members attend Leadership Fundamentals before their managers, but the company remains committed to personal choice over organizational hierarchy.
After launching Communication Skills Training (CST), which teaches that "I am the message"-communication is largely nonverbal, encompassing gestures, tone, and presence-Barry-Wehmiller developed Leadership Fundamentals around their leadership checklist.
The program differs fundamentally from traditional leadership training, beginning with the belief that how we treat team members can positively transform society rather than focusing on mission accomplishment. Unlike traditional corporate training, their approach never mentions profits, efficiency, or business outcomes. Examples used in training often come from everyday life rather than workplace scenarios.
The training intentionally mixes participants from all organizational levels without identifying their positions, creating an environment where a CFO might sit beside a production floor worker. The program's structure allows for application between sessions, with deep discussions about each principle in the leadership checklist.
Chapter 11
Everybody Truly Does Matter
The book concludes with the story of Baldwin, acquired by Barry-Wehmiller's "hybrid" equity arm Forsyth Capital in 2012, demonstrating how their leadership approach can be successfully applied by a new team across different industries globally.
Rich Bennett exemplified the traditional "manager" at Baldwin's Lenexa plant-an enforcer who ruled with intimidation, confronting employees for minor infractions like taking extra minutes at the water cooler. He was the go-to person for difficult tasks, including once firing ten people in a single meeting. In this "eat your young" culture where "only the strong survive," Rich felt constantly exhausted and dreaded coming to work despite his tough exterior.
Founded in 1918, Baldwin began with an invention that reduced press cleaning time from hours to minutes, becoming crucial to the growth of offset printing. However, following the 2009 financial crisis, revenues plummeted, 115 employees were laid off, and by 2011, profits had vanished with share prices crashing to $0.48.
After years of traditional restructuring that had left employees cynical, Forsyth's first message was radical: "Trust us. We're in this for the long haul. We care about you and will be patient." Some existing leaders worried this approach made people "feel too safe," but Kyle Chapman, Forsyth's managing director and Baldwin's new CEO, rejected this thinking: "We're not saying you don't have to work. We're saying you don't have to fear for your job."
Rich Bennett had a job offer elsewhere when the acquisition happened, but Forsyth recognized his potential and convinced him to stay. Initially skeptical after researching Bob Chapman, Rich soon changed his perspective after joining international leaders on a tour of Barry-Wehmiller businesses.
Within thirty months, Baldwin was achieving stability and growth. Employees felt more connected and hopeful, empowered to explore new markets beyond printing. Following Barry-Wehmiller's approach, they didn't bring in outside leaders but found and liberated talent from within.
Rich now sees his purpose as helping everyone at Baldwin achieve their professional dreams. "I feel like I can finally be my true self at work," he says, noting his home life has also improved dramatically with less stress and longer vacations. Kyle Chapman reflects that beyond improved financial performance, "There is no other KPI that you can have that is greater than people saying they are happy and they are fulfilled."
Chapman emphasizes that Barry-Wehmiller's success comes from caring about people rather than just machinery. "I will not go to my grave being proud of all the machines we have built," he writes, but rather grateful for "all the lives that we touched and uplifted."
Early capitalism was rooted in Judeo-Christian morality, but as we moved into a more secular world, economists defined business purely in terms of profit. Capitalism lost its ethical foundation and became strictly amoral, drifting toward objectification and exploitation. Separating markets from morals caused enormous suffering for individuals, families, communities, and the environment.
Business isn't just a profit machine but a vehicle for self-expression, creating the future, and accomplishing together what we cannot do alone. It must serve the noble cause of greater human and planetary flourishing, requiring courageous, enlightened, truly human leadership.
When sharing their leadership journey with business leaders, few disagree with being good stewards of lives in their organization, but most think it's an impossible journey. Chapman's response is simple: "Since when do you need a memo from corporate that tells you that it is acceptable to be good stewards of the lives in your care?" Like in The Wizard of Oz, what we seek is already within us. No spreadsheet can show you how to treat people. No executive order is required to have thoughtful conversations with someone in your organization. Listen to them and show them that they matter. Everyone already has everything within themselves to live the universal truth that everybody matters.
