Most people are not at their best under pressure. Put a group of highly pressured people together, and unhealthy workplace behaviour can quickly become the norm.

In this episode of Wired to Work, Jess Chapman is joined by leadership coach Kate Franklin to explore why workplace relationships become so difficult—and why a challenging boss is not necessarily a bad person.

They discuss how stress changes the way we communicate, why relational skills matter just as much as technical expertise, and how leaders can create the conditions for trust, honesty and high performance.

In this conversation:

• Why poor workplace behaviour has become normalized
• How pressure affects leaders and their teams
• Why relationships are a critical part of performance
• How to give honest feedback to your boss
• The difference between intention and impact
• Why complaints are more useful when turned into requests
• How leaders can discover the impact they are having
• Why caring about people and expecting strong results are not opposites
• How much agency we really have to improve difficult workplace relationships

Most difficult workplace relationships are not beyond repair. But improving them requires courage, curiosity and a willingness to remember that the person across from you is human too.

🎧 Listen to Wired to Work:
https://wiredtowork.buzzsprout.com

📩 Get practical insights about leadership, neuroscience and making work better:
https://wiredtowork.substack.com

Follow Kate Franklin:
LinkedIn: @Kate Franklin
Instagram: @coachkatefranklin

Subscribe for more honest conversations about leadership, workplace culture and how to make work work better for everyone.

#Leadership #WorkplaceRelationships #WorkplaceCulture #ManagingUp #LeadershipDevelopment #EmployeeEngagement #WiredToWork

Your brain is changing all the time, whether you realize it or not.

In this episode of Wired to Work, Jess Chapman breaks down one of the most important concepts in neuroscience: neuroplasticity. From habits and learning to performance and leadership, understanding how your brain forms and strengthens neural pathways can completely change the way you think about personal growth.

You’ll learn:

• Why “use it or lose it” is literally true for your brain
• How habits are created through repetition
• Why multitasking hurts learning
• The surprising role emotion plays in memory and behaviour
• Why practice—not just knowledge—is the key to lasting change

Whether you’re trying to build better habits, learn new skills, or help your team perform at their best, this episode explains the science in a way that’s practical and easy to apply.

Subscribe for more conversations about neuroscience, leadership, workplace psychology, and making work work better.

#Neuroplasticity #Habits #Neuroscience #Leadership #PersonalDevelopment #BrainScience #WiredToWork

In this special season finale, Jess Chapman looks back at the five conversations that challenged her thinking the most - and the ideas that every leader, HR professional, and workplace designer should be paying attention to.

From the hidden burnout crisis facing HR professionals to what healthcare can teach us about designing better systems, this episode explores the themes that kept resurfacing all season: cognitive load, psychological safety, technology, boundaries, climate anxiety, menopause, and why the future of work has to be designed around humans, not just processes.

Jess revisits powerful conversations with:
• Dr. Jo Burrell on the growing burnout crisis in HR
• Dr. Paul Zak on measuring whether people are actually thriving at work
• Ange Crockwell on why boundaries are an act of leadership—not selfishness
• Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo on climate grief and its impact on today’s workforce
• Tina Pomroy on reframing menopause as an evolution rather than a decline

If there’s one thread running through every conversation this season, it’s this:

Work isn’t broken because people aren’t trying hard enough. It’s broken because we’ve spent too long designing systems without fully considering the humans inside them.

Whether you’ve listened to every episode or you’re just discovering Wired to Work, this is the perfect place to catch up on the biggest ideas from the season, and to start thinking differently about what work could become.

🎧 Join the Wired to Work Substack:
https://substack.com/@wiredtowork

🌐 Episode archive:
https://wiredtowork.buzzsprout.com

Healthcare workers are asked to make high-stakes decisions in fast-moving, overloaded systems.

But what happens when the systems around them make the work even harder?

In this episode of Wired to Work, Jess Chapman sits down with Jennifer Woodland, experimental psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of New Brunswick, for a fascinating conversation about healthcare, burnout, cognitive load, technology, and the real-world messiness of clinical environments.

They explore why healthcare work places such intense demands on the brain, how poorly designed systems and technology can add to stress, and why resilience can’t be treated as an individual problem when the system itself is creating overload.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Wired to Work: https://wiredtowork.buzzsprout.com

📩 Join the Wired to Work Substack for leadership insights, practical tools, webinar invitations, and behind-the-scenes content: https://substack.com/@wiredtowork

#healthcare #burnout #leadership #workplaceculture #healthcareworkers #cognitiveload #technology #ai #workplacepsychology #wiredtowork

Meditation still gets dismissed as “woo-woo” in a lot of workplaces.

But the science tells a different story.

In this Wired to Work summer repost, Jess is joined by Tina Pomroy and Roz Mugford for a practical conversation about meditation, mindfulness, and why slowing down may be one of the most useful tools we have for modern work.

They explore how meditation can support focus, memory, emotional regulation, stress management, decision-making, and the ability to respond instead of react.

This episode is for anyone who has ever said, “I can’t meditate,” “I don’t have time,” or “isn’t that a bit woo?”

Because meditation doesn’t have to mean sitting cross-legged on a cushion for 30 minutes.

It can start with one breath, one pause, one meeting, one mindful lunch, or one moment of noticing what’s happening before you react.

💬 Join the Wired to Work Substack community for exclusive content, behind-the-scenes conversations, bonus clips, and leadership insights:
https://substack.com/@wiredtowork

#leadership #meditation #mindfulness #workplacewellbeing #emotionalintelligence #stressmanagement #workplaceculture #neuroscience #wiredtowork

Most people aren’t afraid of feedback.

They’re afraid of the awkwardness, defensiveness, tension, and fallout that often comes with it.

In Part 2 of Jess Chapman’s feedback series, she shares the N.I.C.E.R. framework — a practical, brain-friendly approach for having difficult conversations without triggering defensiveness or damaging relationships.

You’ll learn:
• Why most feedback conversations fail
• How to reduce threat responses and defensiveness
• The five-step N.I.C.E.R. framework
• How to address behaviour without attacking the person
• What to do when someone doesn’t change after receiving feedback

If you’ve ever put off a difficult conversation, this episode is for you.

Want to go deeper?

Join Jess live on June 24 at 12 PM EST for Fearless Feedback, a practical webinar on how to give feedback that actually lands.

The webinar is free for Substack subscribers and will include real-world examples, tools, and opportunities to practice these skills.

Sign up through the Wired to Work Substack for access.

#leadership #feedback #communication #management #emotionalintelligence #leadershipdevelopment #workplaceculture #wiredtowork

• (00:00:00) - How to Get a Bad Person to Change Their Behavior
• (00:00:50) - How to Make Feedback More Annoying
• (00:06:29) - "I hear your intention" in the following conversation
• (00:07:27) - How to Manage Time in a Meeting
• (00:10:28) - Lesson 6 on Validating Intent and Talking to People
• (00:16:07) - E3CA: Working In The World of Work

Feedback is one of the most important tools a leader has. It’s also one of the most avoided.

In this replay episode of Wired to Work, Jess Chapman explores why feedback conversations feel so difficult, what neuroscience tells us about our reactions to feedback, and how leaders can create conversations that help people grow instead of triggering defensiveness.

You’ll learn:

• why feedback activates the brain’s threat response
• the hidden reason leaders avoid giving feedback
• how to normalize feedback so it becomes part of everyday work
• why mindset matters more than scripts
• the difference between being direct and being harsh
• how curiosity creates better outcomes than correction

Jess also introduces the principles behind NeuroWorks’ NICER framework for feedback conversations and explains why the best feedback conversations feel more like exploration than evaluation.

This episode is a perfect companion to Jess’s upcoming Fearless Feedback workshop on June 24.

️ Fearless Feedback is free for Patreon and Substack subscribers.

Join the Wired to Work community:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wiredtowork
Website & Podcast Hub: https://www.wiredtowork.castos.com

Wired to Work with Jess Chapman. Watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts!
https://lnkd.in/ezzK9CVZ

#Leadership #Feedback #Neuroscience #Management #Communication #WorkplaceCulture #WiredToWork

• (00:00:00) - How to Have a Feedback Conversation
• (00:00:38) - Wired to Work: Feedback Episode 3
• (00:01:34) - The Need for More Feedback
• (00:03:57) - Why We Find Feedback So Difficult
• (00:07:16) - The New Normalization of Feedback
• (00:09:49) - As we normalize feedback conversations,
• (00:14:29) - How to Have a Good Feedback Conversation with Someone
• (00:20:04) - E3CA: Working in the World of Work

Menopause is having a moment.

There’s more conversation, more awareness, and more information than ever before. But when it comes to the workplace, many leaders still don’t understand what menopause actually looks like—or how it can affect performance, wellbeing, and day-to-day work.

In this episode of Wired to Work, Jess Chapman speaks with counselor and researcher Tina Pomroy about the biological, psychological, and professional realities of menopause and perimenopause.

They discuss:

• what’s happening with estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, and dopamine during menopause
• why symptoms are often misunderstood or treated in isolation
• how menopause can affect cognition, memory, focus, and emotional regulation
• the mental health risks that often go unrecognized
• why many leaders feel uncomfortable discussing menopause at work
• practical ways organizations can better support employees
• why menopause should be viewed as a transition—not a decline

Whether you’re experiencing menopause yourself, supporting someone who is, or leading a team that includes midlife professionals, this conversation offers practical insights and a more informed way to think about performance, flexibility, and workplace support.

Join the Wired to Work community on Patreon for bonus content, exclusive clips, and deeper conversations:
https://www.patreon.com/WiredtoWork

Wired to Work with Jess Chapman. Watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts! https://www.wiredtowork.castos.com

• (00:00:00) - What to Talk About When You're Going Through Perimenopause
• (00:01:21) - Tina Pomeroy on Perimenopause and Mental Health
• (00:06:04) - What Women Need to Know About Menopause
• (00:11:04) - What Is Perimenopause and Menopause?
• (00:15:15) - How to Survive Perimenopause
• (00:19:51) - How to manage menopause symptoms in the US
• (00:22:46) - How to Talk About Menopause in the Workplace
• (00:28:38) - What Kind of Led Me To Think About Menopause?
• (00:33:47) - How Menopause Affects Your Brain
• (00:39:23) - Hormone regulation in menopause and ADHD
• (00:42:33) - How to Deal with Depression in the Year 2
• (00:47:11) - How to Ask People How Are You Really?
• (00:50:38) - E3CA: Working in the World of Work