Executive Commute With Jayson Krause

In Episode #122 of The Executive Commute, Jayson Krause is joined by prioritization expert Jill Urbanoski, owner of Euda Prioritize, to explore why strategy succeeds or fails in the trade-offs leaders make after the plan is set.

Jill spent years as a chief of staff to a CEO and sat on an executive team at a large finance organization. That experience gave her a front-row view of how strategy, decision-making, competing priorities, and limited resources collide in real organizations. Her central argument is simple: prioritization is not a list. It is the practice of deciding which good thing wins when two good things are in tension.

Jayson and Jill unpack strategy-led prioritization, the role values play in difficult decisions, and Jill's use of "even over" statements to make trade-offs explicit. They also explore psychological safety, decision rights, sunk costs, why stopping work is so difficult, how leaders can prioritize under pressure, and what "disagree and commit" looks like after a decision is made.

The conversation ultimately comes back to execution. A brilliant strategy can still fail when leaders do not have the structures, language, and discipline to make clear trade-offs and communicate them consistently.

Episode timestamps:

00:00 Meet Jill and why prioritization is her focus

01:34 What prioritization really means

03:59 What leaders mistake for prioritization

05:33 Competing priorities across an executive team

06:03 Strategy-led prioritization

10:56 Why prioritization determines strategic success

12:51 Staying adaptable without losing the strategy

15:50 Why smart leaders struggle to prioritize

18:17 Making the implicit explicit

21:15 Psychological safety and hard trade-offs

24:43 How values shape priorities

26:43 The "even over" method

31:06 Sunk costs and knowing when to stop

35:04 Why subtraction matters

37:49 Resolving competing priorities

41:23 Can everything be the number-one priority?

43:52 Prioritizing under pressure and uncertainty

46:02 Deciding what deserves your time and energy

48:08 What to ask before accepting a new commitment

52:03 Applying "even over" to a major transformation

57:38 Prioritization true or false

59:25 Where leadership teams should start

1:00:22 Why consensus is a myth

1:02:29 The worst prioritization advice

1:03:34 Communicating priorities after the decision

1:05:47 What "disagree and commit" actually means

1:07:29 The one prioritization principle to remember

1:08:11 Where to find Jill Urbanoski

Prefer to watch? Find the full video episode of The Executive Commute on the Level 52 Inc. YouTube channel.

Learn more about Jill Urbanoski: https://eudaprioritize.com

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/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 people in the right roles became essential leadership disciplines.

The conversation then goes deeper into Linda's personal story. She shares experiences of childhood instability, abuse, loss, and rebuilding her life after leaving home with $200. Her perspective on resilience is not about ignoring hardship. It is about maintaining faith that circumstances can change, taking ownership of what you can control, and continuing to act even when the path forward is difficult.

Jayson and Linda connect that personal resilience back to business: culture must be modelled, difficult conversations require clear standards, owners need to let go of work others can own, and resilience has to be distributed across people, systems, financial discipline, and leadership accountability.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of childhood abuse, sexual abuse, addiction, and suicide.

Episode timestamps:

00:00 From ER nurse to business coach

03:12 Triage, calm, and decision-making under pressure

08:20 Building structure around priorities and accountability

10:23 Why leaders do not need to do everything themselves

12:00 What Linda learned about being a CEO

13:27 Lessons from the ER and developing people

18:32 What makes a business owner coachable

19:50 Difficult conversations and broken promises

21:26 Why leaders avoid accountability

24:57 Ownership starts with the leader

27:15 Living your values and modelling culture

30:40 Staying connected as a company grows

32:20 What CEOs need to stop doing

35:34 Linda's earliest experiences with hardship

37:00 Childhood instability and learning to cope

39:13 Leaving home and building a new life

43:24 Making meaning after sexual abuse

45:44 Putting herself through school without guidance

48:13 Discovering resilience

49:21 Linda's definition of resilience

51:05 Taking ownership of your life

54:48 Grief, anger, and loss

56:52 The mindset that carried Linda through adversity

58:35 Purpose and helping others

1:00:35 What hardship taught her about control

1:03:11 Agency, acceptance, and what you can control

1:05:24 Building a resilient business beyond the owner

1:06:56 Where to find Linda Ratner

Prefer to watch? Find the full video episode of The Executive Commute on the Level 52 Inc. YouTube channel.

Learn more about Linda Ratner: https://www.ratnerconsult.com

Subscribe to Level 52 Inc. on YouTube for full conversations, clips, and more leadership content.

Follow Jayson Krause

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/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. He then draws on Dr. Ted Vokes' work on dark traits and dark-activated behaviour to explore how culture can influence whether harmful patterns spread inside a team.

From there, the episode turns practical. Jayson shares a two-week coaching experiment inspired by Chris Foy: ask one frontier-pushing question, ask only one question at a time, and leave enough silence for thinking to happen. He closes with Murray Rodgers' reframing of imposter syndrome and the idea that the grass may be greener on the inside.

The episode also includes a preview of Champions Summit and a reminder about Level 52 leadership offsites.

Episode timestamps:

00:00 Four conversations, one leadership question

05:09 Culture, dark traits, and the 20% + 20%

09:48 The frontier question and the coaching experiment

14:46 The grass is greener on the inside

Prefer to watch? Find the full video episode of The Executive Commute on the Level 52 Inc. YouTube channel.

Subscribe to Level 52 Inc. on YouTube for full conversations, clips, and more leadership content.

Follow Jayson Krause

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/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 explores Steve's faith-informed view of human flourishing, including the shift from achieving to receiving, the role of spirituality and historical wisdom traditions, and his distinction between positional and possessional leadership. Jayson and Steve also examine how those ideas translate into organizations through human empowerment, spaces for ideas, and cultures that help people become more fully themselves.

They discuss the Office of Possibilities, Humanitas, disruptive innovation, and why new ideas may need to be built separately but in service to the larger organization. Steve also explains why human flourishing is not simply self-improvement, using the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly as a metaphor for becoming something fundamentally different rather than polishing the current version of yourself.

The episode closes by connecting human flourishing to AI and the future of work. Steve argues that technological progress should be paired with an equally intentional effort to rediscover what it means to be human, framing this moment as the beginning of a possible human revolution.

Episode timestamps:

00:02 Human flourishing, innovation, and humanpreneurship

00:31 Steve Rice's path to human flourishing

03:16 Learning to listen to your life

04:41 When work becomes joy

05:35 Is your work an expression of who you are?

07:59 Saying yes to a calling

09:58 Making fear your ally

12:39 Preparing people for an unknown future

14:00 Drawing out what is already inside people

16:14 Vertical versus horizontal living

17:49 Spirituality beyond religious language

20:13 The Office of Possibilities

22:47 Rediscovering desires beneath obligation

23:10 A practical 10-minute reflection practice

24:59 Achieving versus receiving

30:15 Agency, participation, and relationship

35:53 Positional versus possessional leadership

37:42 The personal and societal cost of outside-in living

39:25 When the vertical informs the horizontal

43:53 Human empowerment versus exploitation

45:40 Building an expression-driven culture

48:10 An Office of Possibilities inside an organization

49:16 Building a human flourishing academy

51:49 Why the work of flourishing is messy

54:53 Building innovation on the edge

57:35 Separate, but in service to the organization

59:16 What human flourishing actually means

1:03:46 Why a better version of yourself is not enough

1:07:03 Human flourishing and organizational flourishing

1:09:52 Will AI help or hinder human flourishing?

1:11:45 The business case for human flourishing

1:16:38 Exploitation versus expression

1:17:06 The human revolution

1:20:29 Where to learn more about Steve Rice

1:21:29 Leadership through the lens of human flourishing

Prefer to watch? Find the full video episode of The Executive Commute on the Level 52 Inc. YouTube channel.

Subscribe to Level 52 Inc. on YouTube for full conversations, clips, and more leadership content.

Follow Jayson Krause

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/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 organizations.

Ted breaks down four dark personality traits: narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism. He explains how these traits can show up in leaders who appear charming, capable, and impressive to those above them while exploiting, manipulating, intimidating, or destabilizing the people below them.

Jayson and Ted then move from recognition to response. They discuss how to protect yourself, set non-negotiable boundaries, contain damaging behaviour through clear expectations and behaviour management, and why organizations should act decisively when they have grounds to remove a toxic leader.

The episode closes with a more hopeful question: what protects leadership from becoming dark? Ted points to social and emotional intelligence, ego maturity, and the ability to be secure in your own power while making room for the power of others.

Episode timestamps:

00:00 Evil and dark traits in leadership

00:11 Ted's personal connection to dark leadership

03:47 Rethinking "hurt people hurt people"

08:24 Ted's background in industrial-organizational psychology

12:24 Understanding the dark tetrad

13:45 Narcissism

14:56 The dark, Goldilocks, and dazzling zones

19:15 Psychopathy

22:43 Psychopathy in executive roles

27:10 Why dark leadership can look delightful

28:15 Machiavellianism

29:43 Manipulation versus influence

31:47 Narcissistic theatre and self-serving causes

34:47 Machiavellianism in practice

37:54 Sadism

40:00 What workplace sadism can look like

44:23 How common dark traits may be

47:56 Culture as the antidote

49:00 Dark-activated behaviour

51:52 How culture can activate destructive behaviour

57:20 "What if I'm one of them?"

59:42 Working alongside a dark leader

1:03:00 Containment and behaviour management

1:06:39 Why not simply let them go?

1:08:04 The three outcomes of containment

1:11:00 Can people with dark traits change?

1:12:41 The worst advice for dealing with dark traits

1:16:52 Where the hope comes from

1:19:01 Boundaries are not negotiations

1:22:30 Where to learn more about Ted

1:23:37 The invisible force behind leadership success

1:27:27 Closing reflections

Prefer to watch? Find the full video episode of The Executive Commute on the Level 52 Inc. YouTube channel.

Follow Level 52 Inc. on YouTube for full conversations, clips, and more leadership content.

Follow Jayson Krause

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/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 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/

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 decade of deeper personal work, Murray explains how external achievement can coexist with internal fragmentation.

Jayson and Murray explore why leaders transmit their internal state to teams, how anger and anxiety can become signals worth listening to, why truth can carry real social and professional costs, and what it takes to reduce the noise that keeps us disconnected from ourselves.

They also examine the role of psychedelics, breath, integration, and presence in Murray's journey, along with a central leadership question: can you remain coherent in a fragmented or toxic environment without simply avoiding what needs to change?

Episode timestamps:

00:34 Coherence and personal scar tissue

01:08 What internal fragmentation feels like

02:30 The primary wound and the authentic self

04:04 The path to The Psychedelic CEO

07:53 Why leadership development misses the inner state

09:50 Finding the signal in the noise

11:06 Defining coherence

12:01 What coherence feels like

13:49 Friction, achievement, and inner peace

15:17 Transforming emotion through integration

16:06 What fragmented leaders do to teams

18:39 Anger, joy, and the inner dialogue

20:12 Psychedelics and self-knowledge

21:32 The work of integration

24:15 What people misunderstand about coherence

25:37 Truth and the cost of coherence

26:55 The golden column of being

27:47 Presence as coherence

29:52 When standing in truth costs you

31:05 Coherence and responsibility for impact

32:00 Being fired for taking a stand

34:29 Imposter syndrome and ignored parts of self

35:09 Recognizing the quieter voice

36:15 The grass is greener on the inside

37:28 Would you rather: coherence or shared values?

39:02 Can you stay coherent in a toxic culture?

40:48 When coherence becomes ineffective

42:17 How to know you need more coherence

43:57 The simplest practice: breathe differently

45:13 What coherence feels like in practice

46:55 What coherent communities make possible

48:10 The worst advice about coherence

49:15 Less noise, more space

50:54 Slowing down to find the signal

52:31 The invisible force behind leadership success

53:55 Where to find Murray

Learn more about Murray Rodgers: www.thepsychedelicceo.com

Follow Jayson Krause

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Voc2qOmcqGKfqy6CDiZOw

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/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 explore why uncertainty creates fear and unproductive stories, how leaders can create clarity without pretending to know what comes next, and why values, trust, collaboration, and scenario planning become critical when information is incomplete.

They also examine the danger of theatrical certainty, the difference between composure and competence, why leaders need to make decisions with minimal viable information, and how to create an environment where people feel safe enough to surface the ideas and concerns that leaders need to hear.

Episode timestamps:

00:52 The myth of leading through uncertainty alone 03:12 Building a company in constant uncertainty 06:29 Choosing what deserves your focus 08:52 Cathie's experience as a "wartime CEO" 09:43 Leading Goldray Glass through the pandemic 12:20 What worked and what Cathie would change 14:28 Defining leadership through uncertainty 17:20 Creating conditions for adaptability 18:14 When following the plan becomes the problem 24:15 The danger of theatrical certainty 25:45 Cathie's biggest leadership mistake 29:02 Trusting your gut under pressure 30:21 What leaders misunderstand about control 33:08 Warning signs a leader is struggling 35:07 Scenario planning through best, worst, and likely outcomes 39:19 Building the team before uncertainty arrives 45:04 Composure, transparency, and vulnerability 47:56 Making decisions with minimal viable information 50:56 Using values to make decisions in chaos 54:13 Why the team matters more than having all the answers 59:56 Cathie's final lesson for leaders

Follow Jayson Krause YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Voc2qOmcqGKfqy6CDiZOw LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/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, career transitions, and years of developing leaders, Lara explains why resilience is not a fixed personality trait. It is a capacity that can be strengthened.

Jayson and Lara explore the five pillars of resilience, the difference between grit and grind, why workplaces often reward the wrong behaviours, and how perseverance can become toxic when it causes people to tolerate the intolerable.

They also examine an important leadership tension: how do you challenge people to grow without rescuing them, overwhelming them, or carrying their backpack for them?

Episode timestamps:

00:00 What resilience really is

00:40 Lara's experience with adversity

01:51 Resilience is a muscle

02:23 Lessons from Lara's father

03:24 Medical assistance in dying

04:21 Creativity through grief

06:21 Lara's career journey

08:58 Feeling least resilient

10:10 Learning from rejected feedback

11:19 The kintsugi metaphor

13:35 Moving beyond "bouncing back"

15:19 Owning your role in adversity

16:35 Defining resilience

16:45 Why grinding through is not resilience

17:31 Choosing where to persist

19:30 Recovery creates growth

20:13 Myths about resilience

21:09 When organizations reward burnout

23:28 Why leaders wait until it is too late

25:22 Building resilience proactively

25:31 The five pillars of resilience

29:09 Humour versus avoidance

30:29 Stealing opportunities for growth

31:38 Do not carry someone else's backpack

34:04 Choosing hope

35:22 Choice within resilience

35:57 The downside of resilience

37:47 Can resilience prevent growth?

40:58 Toxic perseverance

42:18 Grit versus grind

43:11 Knowing when to keep going

44:24 Strategic quitting

45:22 Organizational responsibility for resilience

46:08 Expanding people's capacity

47:50 Workload and real priorities

49:03 Why recovery is essential

49:29 Resilience and stress exposure

50:58 Training adaptability

51:50 How organizations create fragility

53:37 Hiring for resilience

54:48 Where leaders should begin

56:29 The worst resilience advice

56:45 The key lesson

57:09 Writing your resilience story

59:03 Stepping into the real work

60:00 Closing reflections Follow Jayson Krause

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Voc2qOmcqGKfqy6CDiZOw

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayson-krause/