The Daily HR Conversations Podcast

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with James Davies about how to evolve your style when your team, culture, or market changes. James Davies is the Chief Executive Officer of Kinetic Data, a Minneapolis-based software company focused on empowering organizations to deliver unified digital experiences across complex technology ecosystems. With over a decade at Kinetic, James has helped evolve the company from its workflow roots into a leader in digital experience platforms serving both enterprise and government sectors. Before assuming the CEO role, James served in multiple operational and leadership capacities, shaping the company’s growth strategy, culture, and partner ecosystem. Under his leadership, Kinetic Data reorganized around four key pillars—Growth, Product, Success, and Operations—creating an agile, scalable structure designed to drive collaboration and efficiency. James is known for his transparent and people-first leadership style, often communicating directly with employees through his “Friday Thoughts” updates—open reflections on company direction, lessons learned, and team progress. His approach blends operational discipline with an emphasis on empowerment and trust, traits that have earned him recognition for cultivating both performance and authenticity inside growing tech organizations An advocate for sustainable growth and innovation, James is passionate about bridging the gap between legacy systems and modern experiences—particularly within government and large-scale enterprises. He also champions the “low-code revolution,” believing that empowering small teams to build and adapt workflows quickly is key to organizational agility. A graduate of James Madison University, James credits his alma mater with shaping his collaborative, team-first mindset. Outside of work, he’s known for drawing leadership parallels to his love of restoring classic Toyota Land Cruisers—symbols, to him, of durability, reliability, and purpose-driven engineering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Josefine Campbell about developing your strengths to create a positive change. Josefine Campbell is a distinguished executive coach, educator, and inspirational speaker who empowers multinational leaders, companies, and employees to unleash their full potential. Through meaningful conversations, she elevates clients' situations by maintaining an open, non-judgmental mindset, sharing data-driven insights that challenge conventional thinking, and emphasizing actionable outcomes that create tangible impact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Lamell J. McMorris about his book, THE POWER TO PERSIST: 8 Simple Habits To Build Lifelong Resilience. Lamell J. McMorris is a nationally recognized entrepreneur, activist, and changemaker dedicated to advancing equity and revitalizing underserved communities. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, he went on to find phenomenal success as a D.C. policymaker, a consultant in the financial and professional sports arenas, and a civil and human rights advocate. McMorris is the founder and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based company Phase 2 Consulting, which offers strategic insight and external affairs services to some of the nation's leading decision-makers in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, including Fortune 100 companies. He is also founder and managing principal of Greenlining Realty USA, a comprehensive urban redevelopment firm dedicated to neighborhood investment, redevelopment, housing rehabilitation, and home improvement in low-income communities. He holds a BA in Religion and Society from Morehouse College, a MDiv in Social Ethics and Public Policy from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a DLP in Law and Policy from Northeastern University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Stephanie Van Meter about talent enhancing development and employee engagement within your team. As Chief Operating Officer at Ammunition, Stephanie is a distinguished leader known for fostering teamwork, strengthening communication, and driving organizational growth. Joining Ammunition in 2022, she advanced from Chief of Staff to Chief Operating Officer in 2024, a testament to her leadership and impact across the agency. Her strategic guidance has been instrumental in Ammunition’s recognition by Adweek’s Fastest Growing Agencies, Inc. 5000, The Financial Times, and the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Previously, as Director of Operations, Process, and Development for Barry’s, an international boutique fitness brand, she launched the company’s first learning management system and optimized operational best practices. Stephanie’s passion for people development, operational excellence, and clear communication continues to drive her success and the success of the organizations she leads.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Abstract: Individual work performance fluctuates considerably within persons across days and even hours, yet traditional performance models focus primarily on stable between-person differences. This article synthesizes recent research demonstrating that momentary affective states substantially influence episodic work performance through their impact on attentional resource allocation. Drawing on affective events theory and the episodic performance framework developed by Weiss and colleagues, we examine how negative emotional states misallocate attention away from task demands, impairing concurrent performance, while certain positive affective states can enhance attentional focus. We distinguish between background core affect and discrete emotion episodes, showing that emotion episodes—characterized by heightened arousal, cognitive elaboration, and regulatory demands—exert particularly strong effects on attention and subsequent depletion. The article integrates evidence from experience-sampling studies across diverse occupations and discusses organizational implications for performance management, work design, and employee wellbeing. Practitioners gain insight into managing the affective climate of work, designing tasks with appropriate attentional pull, and recognizing that daily performance variability represents meaningful psychological processes rather than mere measurement error. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices