#108: Why Burnout Isn't a Workload Problem
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
Release Date: 07/02/2026
#113: Resilience Is Not Toughing It Out
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
In Episode #113 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by Level 52 coach and facilitator Lara Koretsky for an honest exploration of resilience, adversity, and growth. Resilience is often described as the ability to bounce back or keep pushing when life becomes difficult. Lara challenges that definition. True resilience is not about returning to who you were before adversity or ignoring the toll it has taken. It is the ability to learn, adapt, recover, and create something stronger from the experience. Drawing from profound personal loss, family challenges, burnout,...
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#112: How Transparent Leaders Build Trust in Tough Times
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
In Episode #112 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by experienced entrepreneur, former CEO, and TEC Canada Chair Mark Terrill for a candid conversation about transparency in leadership. They explore why transparency is essential for building trust, particularly during difficult periods, and why employees create their own explanations when leaders fail to communicate clearly. Mark also explains why effective transparency does not mean sharing everything. Leaders must balance openness with confidentiality, timing, focus, and empathy. When handled poorly, transparency can become...
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#111: The Practice of Curiosity and Why Leaders Default to Certainty
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
A 360-degree review told Tyler Chisholm exactly what was wrong with his leadership: he filled every room, jumped to conclusions, and never let his team finish a sentence. His team had stopped contributing. They were just waiting to be told what to do. In this episode of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause talks with Tyler Chisholm, CEO and author of Curious as Hell, about the moment that feedback forced him to rebuild how he leads. Tyler unpacks the difference between the leader he was in the boardroom and the host he'd become on his own podcast, and how closing that gap turned curiosity from...
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#110: Your Empathy Might Be Making You a Worse Leader
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
Empathy gets treated like a personality trait: you either have it or you don't. Roxana Radulescu, Level 52 coach and facilitator, argues that's wrong. It's a muscle, and most leaders are either overusing it, avoiding it, or using it to avoid the hard conversation instead of having it. In this episode of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause talks with Roxana about what empathy actually is (her definition: care plus trust), what it isn't (sympathy, agreement, an excuse to skip feedback), and where it goes wrong at the top of organizations. They dig into a Yale psychologist's argument that...
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#108: Why Burnout Isn't a Workload Problem
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
Most leaders think burnout comes from too much work. So they respond with wellness programs, lighter workloads, and lunch hour yoga. Then nothing changes. In this episode of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause sits down with Dr. Tianne Foster, physician, burnout researcher, and author of Reality Check, to unpack what actually drives burnout and why most organizations are solving the wrong problem. Trained across Canada, the US, and the UK, Dr. Foster became obsessed with burnout after a senior physician told her entire class to get out of medicine while they still could. Her conclusion:...
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#109 MML What does high performance actually look like?
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
Welcome to The Meaningful Leader — July Edition. This month, we’re looking at the invisible forces that shape how leaders and teams actually perform: the standards we fail to define, the belonging we misunderstand, the thinking environments we create, and the warning lights we ignore. Three of this month’s sections were sparked by great conversations I had on with Level 52 coach and facilitator - Jessica Heafey, Flow state advisor - Dr. Murray Heber, and author of Reality Check - Dr. Tianne Foster. Links to each full discussion are below. But the thread running through all of...
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#107 Why Belonging Is Not About Being Nice
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
Belonging gets mistaken for everyone getting along. But what if a team with no conflict is the clearest sign that belonging is missing? In this episode of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause sits down with Level 52 coach and facilitator Jessica Heafey to explore belonging, what it is, what it isn't, and the mistakes leaders make trying to create it. Drawing on a career that began in professional theatre, Jessica explains why being hired is not the same as belonging, why the difference between kind and nice matters more than most leaders realize, and why real belonging asks...
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#106: The Science of Flow State and Peak Performance
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
Most leaders think better performance comes from working harder. Dr. Murray Heber argues that mindset may be a much bigger factor than effort. In this episode of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause and Dr. Murray Heber explore the science of flow state, why high performers burn out, and how leaders can create the conditions for peak performance without relying on constant pressure. They discuss the difference between playing to win and playing not to lose, why curiosity is one of the most powerful tools available to leaders, and how confusion can sometimes be the pattern interrupt needed...
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#105: Most Leaders Don’t Have a Motivation Problem
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
Most leaders are waiting to feel ready before they act. That mindset may be the thing keeping them stuck. In this episode of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause unpacks four leadership ideas from this month’s Meaningful Leader newsletter and explores the deeper patterns underneath them. He breaks down why high-performing leaders struggle to stop carrying other people’s work, why motivation follows action, how leaders mislabel emotions under pressure, and why “just be yourself” is often terrible leadership advice. This episode is about leadership under pressure, internal...
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#104: Motivation Is Not Something You Wait For
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
Most people think motivation is something you either have or you don’t. Alec Harrison argues the opposite. In this episode of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause sits down with Emmy-nominated composer Alec Harrison to unpack what motivation really is, why waiting for it is dangerous, and how action itself creates momentum. Drawing on his experience composing music for Monday Night Football, the FIFA World Cup, film, and television, Alec shares how his relationship with motivation evolved from chasing external validation to reconnecting with the love of the craft itself. They explore why...
info_outlineMost leaders think burnout comes from too much work. So they respond with wellness programs, lighter workloads, and lunch hour yoga. Then nothing changes.
In this episode of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause sits down with Dr. Tianne Foster, physician, burnout researcher, and author of Reality Check, to unpack what actually drives burnout and why most organizations are solving the wrong problem.
Trained across Canada, the US, and the UK, Dr. Foster became obsessed with burnout after a senior physician told her entire class to get out of medicine while they still could. Her conclusion: burnout isn't an individual weakness. It's a mismatch between people and the environment they work in, and it starts with leadership.
In this episode:
- The six workplace factors that drive burnout (workload is only one of them)
- Why nurses turn down pay raises in toxic workplaces, and what that means for retention
- How to tell the difference between burnout, depression, and a hard season
- Why treating burnout as an individual problem lets organizations off the hook
- The Yale finding that high engagement scores can be an early warning, not a win
- The petri dish question every leader should ask about their culture
If your best people are running on fumes and your wellness budget isn't moving the needle, this conversation explains what's actually happening and where to intervene.
Follow Jayson Krause
YouTube: 
/ @jaysonkrauseleadership
LinkedIn: 
/ jayson-krause
0:00 - "Get Out While You Still Can": The Story That Started It All
3:15 - Why Trust Dr. Foster on Burnout
7:38 - The Six Workplace Factors That Drive Burnout
10:16 - Compensation, Fairness, and Why Raises Don't Fix Toxic Workplaces
13:38 - Defining Burnout (and How It Differs From Depression)
15:25 - Stress vs. Burnout: What People Get Wrong
17:28 - The Noonday Demon: Burnout as a Collapse of Meaning
19:51 - The Petri Dish: How Burnout Spreads Through Organizations
22:15 - Growth Requires Stress: The Weight Room Analogy
25:32 - Should Burnout Be a Medical Diagnosis?
28:31 - Jayson's Own Brush With Burnout
31:53 - The Superhero Persona (and Its Kryptonite)
34:53 - Why Wellness Programs Fail
37:40 - Would You Rather: $1M Wellness Budget or Fire One Leader?
39:27 - True or False: Burnout Myths (and a Yale Surprise)
44:48 - High Achievement Without Sacrifice: Know Your Values
48:13 - First Signs of Burnout and the Simplest Way Back