Everybody Matters ─ The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family

“Bob Chapman, CEO of the $1.7 billion manufacturing company Barry-Wehmiller, is on a mission to change the way businesses treat their employees.” –Inc. Magazine

“A lot of leaders talk about this. See what happens when you actually do it.” – Simon Sinek, author ofLeaders Eat Last

Starting in 1997, Bob Chapman and Barry-Wehmiller have pioneered a dramatically different approach to leadership that creates off-the-charts morale, loyalty, creativity, and business performance. The company utterly rejects the idea that employees are simply functions, to be moved around, “managed” with carrots and sticks, or discarded at will. Instead, Barry-Wehmiller manifests the reality that every single person matters, just like in a family. It’s not a cliche on a mission statement; it’s the bedrock of the company’s success.

During tough times a family pulls together, makes sacrifices together, and endures short-term pain together. If a parent loses his or her job, a family doesn’t lay off one of the kids. That’s the approach Barry-Wehmiller took when the Great Recession caused revenue to plunge for more than a year. Instead of mass layoffs, they found creative and caring ways to cut costs, such as asking team members to take a month of unpaid leave. As a result, Barry-Wehmiller emerged from the downturn with higher employee morale than ever before.

It’s natural to be skeptical when you first hear about Barry-Wehmiller. Every time it acquires a company whose team members have experienced more traditional management practices, the new team members are skeptical too. But they soon learn what it’s like to work at an exceptional workplace where the goal is for everyone to feel trusted and cared for – and where it’s expected that they will justify that trust by caring for each other and putting the common good first.

Chapman and co-author Raj Sisodia show how any organization can embrace this approach, rejecting the traumatic consequences of rolling layoffs, dehumanizing rules, and hypercompetitive cultures. Once you stop treating people like functions or costs, disengaged workers begin to share their gifts and talents toward a shared future. Uninspired workers stop feeling that their jobs have no meaning. Frustrated workers stop taking their bad days out on their spouses and kids. And everyone stops counting the minutes until it’s time to go home.

This book chronicles Chapman’s journey to find his true calling, going behind the scenes as his team tackles real-world challenges with caring, empathy and inspiration. It also provides clear steps to transform your own workplace and make it extraordinarily successful, in every sense of the word. As the authors put it:

“Everyone wants to do better. Trust them. Leaders are everywhere. Find them. People achieve good things, big and small, every day. Celebrate them. Some people wish things were different. Listen to them. Everybody matters. Show them.”

Bob Chapman is Chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, a $2-billion global capital equipment and engineering consulting company. A combination of almost eighty acquired companies spread among ten operating companies with nine thousand team members around the world, Barry-Wehmiller’s vision is to use the power of business to build a better world.

Raj Sisodia is FW Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Whole Foods Market Research Scholar in Conscious Capitalism at Babson College. His most recent book is theWall Street Journal bestseller Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business(with John P. Mackey, cofounder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market).