When Nate Meikle, Ph.D., talks about his journey to becoming a professor at the University of Kansas (KU) School of Business, he doesn't start with academic credentials or business theory. Instead, he begins with football.
"I love sports, grew up playing sports, and even played football at BYU in college," Meikle explains, detailing the athletic foundation would prove relevant to his future career in business academia. "Working in a team, achieving goals. It felt like there were a lot of similarities between business and athletics."
Like many ambitious students, Meikle was drawn to business for its versatility. Following his brother's advice that "business opens all sorts of doors for you," he completed his undergraduate business degree at Brigham Young University (BYU) while balancing his commitments as a college football player.
What followed was not a straight path to academia, but rather a winding journey through medical device sales, real estate development, law school, and eventually a doctorate in organizational behavior. This nontraditional route has given Meikle a unique perspective that resonates with the diverse professionals who find their way to KU's MBA program.
Today, as an assistant professor of management and organizational behavior at the KU School of Business, Meikle brings his varied experiences into the classroom, connecting theory with practice in ways that particularly resonate with working professionals. His background embodies the kind of real-world expertise that the KU School of Business values in its faculty—individuals who understand both the theoretical foundations of business and the practical challenges of applying those principles in competitive, dynamic environments.
Organizational behavior: Where sports meets business
Meikle's academic focus on organizational behavior traces back to a transformative experience during his football days at BYU, when he witnessed firsthand how management principles could revitalize a struggling organization.
"When I was at BYU playing football, the team had three consecutive losing seasons for the first time in about 40 years," Meikle recounts. "The program was struggling and the board of trustees were actually considering just eliminating the program because it was such a disaster."
The turning point came when BYU hired a new coach, Bronco Mendenhall, who began implementing management principles to rebuild the team. "I was taking organizational behavior at the time, and I was like, wow, he is just kind of like following a playbook for how to improve culture."
What particularly fascinated Meikle was discovering that Mendenhall was being guided by an organizational design consultant, Paul Gustavson, who was training coaches and players on management techniques and organizational design. The coach wasn't just intuitively leading—he was systematically applying proven management principles. Mendenhall transformed the program and went on to successful coaching positions at multiple universities, continuing to apply those same management principles throughout his career and leaving a lasting impression on Meikle.
Early career adventures: Risk, recession, and reinvention
Meikle's post-graduation career began in medical device sales, where he worked in operating rooms while surgeons performed knee and hip replacement surgeries. But an unexpected opportunity soon changed his trajectory.
Inspired by a friend's real estate venture, Meikle tapped into his network and connected with a successful real estate developer from Texas. What began as an informational interview ended with a surprising opportunity for collaboration.
Despite having no direct experience in real estate, Meikle and a friend seized the opportunity. They acted as connectors, bringing together experienced builders with capital, ultimately developing office buildings and renovating apartment complexes. Then came 2008, and with it, the Great Recession.
"We couldn't sell anything for what we'd hoped," Meikle explains. "We basically just had to get rid of everything at cost. And so we didn't make any money.”
While they managed to pay back all their investors, the situation taught Meikle an important lesson he now shares with his students: "As much as I think we can put a dent in the world and we can control a lot of outcomes, there are some things that are just out of our control."
The real estate venture also helped Meikle learn something crucial about himself—that he didn't thrive under that particular type of stress. “It was so exciting putting the deals together. And then so stressful when we realized we weren’t going to hit projections, and there was a legitimate risk of default on the loans. That's when I decided I wanted something a little more stable and a little more predictable.”
Finding a new purpose in learning
After weathering the storm of the recession, Meikle made the pivotal decision to pursue a law degree at Stanford. But his motivation wasn't necessarily to practice law in the traditional sense.
"The primary driver was to improve my brain. I wanted to be smarter," Meikle explains. Influenced by his father and brother, both attorneys, he admired the way they thought and their logical approach to problems.
This decision marked a significant shift in Meikle's life. "It was the first time in my life where school was the priority as opposed to school just kind of being the thing I did, because athletics had always been the priority," he reflects.
At Stanford Law School, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Meikle found himself surrounded by intellectuals and industry leaders. He studied under professors who were commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission, learned from guest speakers who represented major companies during IPOs, and even took classes from influential figures like Peter Thiel.
"I'm learning from amazing people, and they're bringing in guest speakers every week," Meikle recalls with enthusiasm. "It was so cool to learn from all these amazing people."
This immersive educational environment sparked something transformative in Meikle. "I realized I wanted to stay in school forever. I wanted to keep learning from amazing people."
This realization led him to pursue a doctorate in Organizational Behavior at the University of Utah, where he researched topics like workplace dynamics and artificial intelligence. Interested in applying scientific rigor to an anecdote made popular by staffers for former President Obama, Meikle studied the effects of professional “amplification.”
“Years ago, when President Obama was in office, he had a number of female staffers who felt like they didn't have the status and influence that they should have so they decided to start ‘amplifying’ one another,” Meikle explains. “Imagine you're in a meeting and you say something but it kind of gets ignored. What I could do is say, ‘Hey, remember when she said that thing? That was a really good idea. I think we should consider it.’” In effect, colleagues repeat what was previously said and attribute credit for the idea, thereby bringing attention back to the person who originated it. “The female staffers felt like by doing this, they actually did enhance their status and influence,” Meikle reports, “So we wanted to empirically test it to see if it actually was true.”
After conducting several studies, Meikle’s team had their answer. "What we found supported the female Obama staffers' intuition," Meikle explained. "If I amplify you, that does increase your status and influence in the group. But one of the cool findings we found was that not only does it boost the original speaker’s status and influence, but also it boosts the amplifier’s status and influence."
Meikle's research demonstrates a practical strategy for having an impact in meetings. "When you're in a meeting and there are limited opportunities to speak... one way to actually have an impact that is really easy is to listen for good ideas. And then when somebody says a good idea, amplify it," he noted.
Beyond his work on workplace communication, Meikle has conducted forward-thinking research on artificial intelligence. In 2017, his dissertation explored people's understanding of exponential change related to their perceptions of artificial intelligence advancement.
"The backbone of artificial intelligence is computing speed. And we know that computing speed has been doubling every year to two years for the last 60 or so years," Meikle said. "As long as computing speed accelerates, AI will continue to progress at an exponential rate. But what we know about exponential progress is that our brains aren't good at anticipating it."
His research surveyed when people believed AI would pass the Turing Test—a benchmark for AI appearing human in conversation. While most respondents estimated around 2030, with 10% believing it would never happen, Meikle's predictions were far more aggressive.
"I predicted that it was going to happen pretty soon because of exponential growth," he recalled. "It was really cool for me to see ChatGPT come out just a few years after I did that research, when the vast majority of people said AI was going to take a long time to develop.”
Following his time at the University of Utah, Meikle took a postdoctoral position at Notre Dame then ultimately landed at the University of Kansas as an assistant professor. "I ended up at KU because I wanted to stay in school forever. I love teaching so it was the perfect fit to be able to teach and learn."
Teaching philosophy: Practical wisdom for MBA students
When it comes to teaching management and organizational behavior to MBA students, Meikle focuses on practical frameworks that leaders can immediately apply in their professional environments. His approach reflects his unique journey through both business and academia, offering students insights that bridge theory and practice.
"The outcomes of your life are only determined by two things," Meikle explains, quoting World Series of Poker champion Annie Duke. "One, is luck, and two, the decisions you make." This framework underpins much of his teaching philosophy, particularly when discussing decision-making in business contexts.
Instead of binary thinking–asking simply whether a venture will succeed or fail–Meikle teaches his students to think in terms of odds. "A better approach is to say, what's the probability that this company succeeds, and if it does succeed, how big could it be?"
What sets Meikle's teaching apart, however, is his commitment to bringing real-world expertise directly to his students. Rather than relying solely on textbooks, he leverages his podcast experience to incorporate interviews with industry leaders into his courses.
"Rather than just talk about how to motivate people through recognition, I interviewed Frank Blake, the former CEO of Home Depot. And he shares stories about how he would write hundreds of handwritten notes each week, just recognizing people for their good work and the impact that had on Home Depot," Meikle explains.
Similarly, when teaching about negotiation and influence, his students learn directly from Chris Voss, the former lead hostage negotiator for the FBI. When discussing servant leadership, they hear from Andy Reid, Super Bowl-winning coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, about how he builds relationships with his players.
This approach reflects Meikle's keen understanding of what students are seeking from KU: "The MBA students are generally interested in the practical. ‘How can I use this and apply it now to improve the lives of my customers, my colleagues, or my own life?’"
By combining theoretical frameworks with insights from successful practitioners, Meikle creates a learning experience that prepares KU's MBA students to make better decisions, motivate their teams effectively, and lead with both confidence and wisdom.
Building community in an online environment
For Meikle, the decision to join the University of Kansas faculty was about becoming part of a community that reflected his values and aspirations as much as it was joining a respected institution.
Located in Lawrence, Kansas, KU anchors the city as a midwestern cultural hub. “I wanted to live in a college town," Meikle explains. He was drawn to "the excitement and the energy, interesting people that a university not only attracts, but I think also helps create."
This emphasis on surrounding oneself with admirable people connects to one of Meikle's core beliefs about personal development, "You really want to surround yourself with people that you admire and respect because we're going to become like them because we mimic those around us."
While this may seem primarily relevant to in-person environments, Meikle has discovered that the online MBA program at KU creates similarly powerful learning communities starting with his first online cohort in the fall of 2023. "I had 223 students and I had them introduce themselves by recording a video or just writing a paragraph, sharing a picture, whatever," he recalls. "And I was blown away at all of the interesting people that were taking my class. NASA engineers, professional athletes, artists, writers, cooks... You name it, there was somebody that had done it."
While networking is often cited as a challenge in online education, Meikle emphasizes how the KU online MBA program intentionally fosters meaningful connections among students. "There are so many interesting, amazing people doing online MBAs that you expand your network exponentially. You get exposed to so many interesting, creative people–not only in the country but also all over the world."
These connections are developed through thoughtfully designed activities that facilitate student interaction. Moreover, the program distinguishes itself from self-directed online learning by providing access not just to information but to people. "What you can't learn from YouTube, what's harder to replicate is the interaction with people and learning specific lessons from people," Meikle explains. "And so I think that's where an online MBA is different from just sitting at your computer and learning these topics from a computer. You get to interact with other people and learn from other people and create relationships."
For prospective students considering KU's online MBA program, Meikle's experience offers compelling evidence that the virtual format doesn't diminish–rather enhances–the diversity and richness of the learning community. It's a program where students don't just acquire business knowledge; they join a network of accomplished professionals who inspire and challenge each other to reach new heights.