It’s All In Your Head w/ Barry Wolfe

In this episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, hosts Joel Cheesman and Chad Sowash interview Barry Wolfe, a former Fortune 500 HR leader turned consultant and author of It’s All In Your Head: Why Psychology Doesn’t Help Your Employees Deliver Value – And What Can (2025). Wolfe critiques the "bullshit psychology industrial complex," comparing tools like Myers-Briggs and DISC to 19th-century phrenology, arguing they’re unscientific and fail to predict performance. He blames executives’ desire for easy answers for their reliance on these flawed methods, even as AI risks amplifying the problem with recycled "gibberish." Instead, Wolfe’s Value-Centric Leadership model urges leaders to define business value through a “same page” document and replace appraisals with “success maps” focusing on measurable deliverables. HR, he suggests, can lead by demanding clarity on 3-5 value-added results per role. The candid, humorous discussion, peppered with banter about a Napoleon-era jacket, targets HR pros and leaders, urging them to ditch platitudes for results. Wolfe plugs a free Chapter 3 at argoshr.com/book, and the hosts endorse the book as “anti-bullshit.”