Melissa Robinson-Winemiller
Author, Speaker, Coach
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Winemiller isn’t just talking about leadership: she’s challenging us to do it differently. With over 20 years of cross-industry experience, she helps leaders build emotionally intelligent cultures that don’t just feel better, they perform better. A TEDx speaker, EQ coach, and author of The Empathic Leader, Melissa blends research, real-world insight, and lived experience to make empathy actionable at every level of leadership. She’s on a mission to prove that the so-called “soft” skills are the ones driving the hard results — and the future of leadership depends on them.
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Feb. 22, 2026
E323: Melissa Robinson-Winemiller - The power of Empathy
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Weinmiller is an empathy expert, TEDx speaker, and founder on a mission to make empathy actionable—and profitable. In this episode of Back2Basics, she shares how growing up as a military child shaped her ability to read people and how a traumatic experience in academia led her to redefine empathy as a strategic leadership skill. We explore the hard data behind empathy in business—including research linking it to major gains in productivity, innovation, and profit—along with a simple 20-minute daily leadership practice that transformed a department in just 90 days. From self-empathy and emotional intelligence to company culture, communication, and the future of leadership in the age of AI, this episode makes one thing clear: empathy isn’t fluff—it’s performance.
Guest: Melissa Robinson-Winemiller