#121: Why Resilient Businesses Can't Depend on the Owner
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
In Episode #121 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by business and enterprise value creation coach Linda Ratner to explore resilience in leadership, life, and business, and why a resilient company cannot depend on the owner carrying everything alone. Linda's path spans emergency-room nursing, entrepreneurship, scaling Impact Urgent Care to seven locations, selling to private equity, and eventually coaching business owners and leadership teams. She explains how triage, staying calm under pressure, setting clear priorities, building accountability, and putting the right...
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#120: What Actually Changes People?
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
In Episode #120 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause steps back from four recent conversations to ask one leadership question: what actually changes people? Across discussions with Steve Rice, Dr. Ted Vokes, Chris Foy, and Murray Rodgers, a pattern emerges. Leaders often spend their energy trying to improve behaviour directly, but the stronger lever may be the conditions that shape behaviour in the first place. Jayson revisits Steve Rice's case for human empowerment over human resources and why engagement efforts can miss the deeper relationship between people and their work....
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#119: Human Flourishing
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
In Episode #119 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by educator and human flourishing advocate Steve Rice to explore what it means to live, work, and lead from the inside out. Steve shares how his own path moved from achievement, external validation, and a career that did not feel like an authentic fit toward a life centred on calling, purpose, and work as an expression of who he is. He describes the difference between living from the outside in and the inside out, and why fear often remains present when people move toward meaningful growth. The conversation...
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#118: Evil and Dark Leadership
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
The conversation explores the difference between influence and manipulation, why dark leaders are often drawn to power, how “kiss up, kick down” behaviour can hide for years, and why organizational culture plays such a critical role. Ted also discusses what he calls dark-activated behaviour: people who may begin acting destructively when the culture rewards or tolerates it. In Episode #118 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by industrial-organizational psychologist Dr. Ted Vokes for a deep examination of evil, the dark tetrad, and what dark leadership can look like inside...
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#117: The Power of Questions
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
In Episode #117 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by Level 52 coach and facilitator Chris Foy to explore the power of questions and why strong leadership often requires letting go of the need to have every answer. Chris explains the shift many leaders must make after being promoted for their expertise: moving from the person who solves the problem to the leader who creates the conditions for other experts to think, decide, and grow. Questions can build agency, accountability, curiosity, and capability, but only when they come from genuine wonder rather than an attempt to steer...
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#116: Coherence Is the Price of Being Trusted Under Pressure
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
In Episode #116 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by Murray Rodgers, author of The Psychedelic CEO, for a conversation about coherence, internal fragmentation, and the inner state leaders carry into every room Murray describes coherence as a state with less conflict between our thoughts, emotions, and actions. It is not simply calmness. It is the ability to stay present, anchored in what feels true, and responsive to what a moment actually requires. Drawing from his own experience of career success, depression, psychedelic work, being fired from a company he founded, and a...
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#115 The Best Leadership Lessons From My Summer Conversations
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
It’s been a busy summer at Level 52. Rather than publishing our regular August newsletter, we spent the month recording conversations for with leaders, entrepreneurs and coaches who challenged my thinking in unexpected ways. Some conversations confirmed things I believed. Others completely overturned them. This month’s newsletter is a collection of ideas I haven’t been able to shake.
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#114: Leading When Nothing Is Certain
Executive Commute With Jayson Krause
In Episode #114 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by Cathie Saroka, Level 52 Coach and Facilitator and CEO of Goldray Glass, for a conversation about leading through uncertainty without carrying the weight alone. Cathie has spent decades leading through recessions, business volatility, personal challenges, the pandemic, and constant change. Her experience has taught her that strong leadership in uncertain times is not about projecting certainty or having every answer. It is about building a team that can think, challenge, adapt, and solve problems together. Jayson and Cathie...
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#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...
info_outlineIn Episode #117 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by Level 52 coach and facilitator Chris Foy to explore the power of questions and why strong leadership often requires letting go of the need to have every answer.
Chris explains the shift many leaders must make after being promoted for their expertise: moving from the person who solves the problem to the leader who creates the conditions for other experts to think, decide, and grow. Questions can build agency, accountability, curiosity, and capability, but only when they come from genuine wonder rather than an attempt to steer someone toward a predetermined answer.
Jayson and Chris unpack the difference between high-impact questions and leading or "ninja" questions, why "what" often creates more exploration than "why," and when asking too many questions can actually undermine leadership. They also examine the role of clarity in crisis moments and situations where a leader simply needs to set direction.
Chris introduces the WATCH framework for stronger questions: Wonder, Accountability, Transformation, Challenge, and High Impact. The conversation also explores discovery listening, the danger of rescuing people or "stealing the lift," and the shift from problem solving to solution enabling.
Episode timestamps:
00:00 The power of questions
00:31 Chris Foy's path to leadership coaching
01:28 Why leaders need to ask more and answer less
03:16 Defining high-impact questions
03:50 Questions as a quest for understanding
04:48 Leading with wonder
07:00 Leading questions and micromanagement
08:44 From expert leader to leader of experts
10:03 The pressure to signal certainty
12:35 Good questions versus bad questions
14:19 Creating safety and agency
16:02 Helping people find their own answers
18:13 Rescuing people and stealing growth
20:33 What it means to "steal the lift"
23:46 Questions that activate growth
25:17 Why "what" can work better than "why"
26:10 Ninja questions and the need for clarity
27:42 Do more questions equal better leadership?
29:29 When too many questions hurt leadership
32:53 Great leaders do not have all the answers
35:09 Finding the right question before the answer
36:00 Leading outside your technical expertise
39:07 What makes a question hard?
40:43 Chris Foy's WATCH framework
42:00 The pause after a powerful question
43:35 Simple questions, significant impact
43:54 Challenge, discomfort, and ego
46:07 Smartest person or best question asker?
47:41 Problem solving versus solution enabling
48:41 Where leaders should start
50:01 Discovery listening
51:56 The worst advice about questions
53:05 Balancing questions with clear direction
54:05 Pushing the frontiers of your leadership
Follow Jayson Krause
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Voc2qOmcqGKfqy6CDiZOw
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayson-krause/