Lead Culture with Jenni Catron

What does it actually take to build a remarkable team?

In this episode, Jenni Catron talks with Slingshot Group CEO Tim Foot about the patterns they’ve both seen across hundreds of teams including what works, what doesn’t, and where things tend to break down.

Tim shares the seven key signatures of remarkable teams, along with the common traps that quietly stall progress. From misalignment and unclear messaging to avoiding healthy conflict, this conversation helps you see where your team may be getting stuck and what to do about it.

At the center of it all is a simple idea: if your mission matters, your team matters more.

The Biggest Takeaways:

•  The 7 key signatures that shape healthy, high-performing teams 
•  Why team awareness matters just as much as self-awareness 
•  Where most teams drift out of alignment (and how to catch it early) 
•  The difference between functional teams and teams that produce real impact 
•  How to approach conflict in a way that strengthens—not fractures—your team 

Next Steps

•  Take the team assessment: reachingforremarkable.com
•  Get the book: Reaching for Remarkable by Tim Foot 
•  Share this episode with your team and use it to start a conversation 

About Our Guest

Tim Foot is CEO and President of Slingshot Group, where he works with organizations to build strong, healthy teams through staffing and coaching. His work focuses on helping leaders move teams from simply getting by to doing meaningful, aligned work together. You can learn more about Tim here. 

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What if the biggest problem in your organization isn’t strategy—but culture?

In this episode, leadership and culture expert Jenni Catron unpacks a shocking reality: only 31% of U.S. employees are engaged at work—and most leaders don’t know how to fix it. 

You’ll discover why traditional “core values” exercises fail, how culture is actually formed, and the powerful (often overlooked) role language plays in shaping team behavior. Through a fascinating example from The Masters golf tournament, Jenni reveals how intentional language reflects deeper values—and how you can apply the same principle to your organization.

This episode will help you:

•  Understand why your current values aren’t driving results 
•  Learn how strong leaders create clarity, trust, and engagement 
•  Turn vague values into actionable behaviors your team lives daily 
•  Build a culture that performs under pressure—not just when things are easy 

If your team feels disconnected, inconsistent, or stuck, this is your roadmap to building a culture that actually works.

Register for the Values Intensive Workshop here.

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What if the biggest barrier to your leadership isn’t what you see, but what you hide?

In this episode, Jenni Catron sits down with leadership mentor Tyler Dickerhoof to unpack a reality every leader faces: unresolved fears and insecurities don’t disappear—they show up in how we lead.

Through honest storytelling and hard-earned insight, Tyler shares how these hidden patterns often surface as intensity, isolation, inactivity, or insensitivity—behaviors that quietly undermine trust, relationships, and culture.

This isn’t just a conversation about awareness. It’s about ownership.

Jenni and Tyler challenge leaders to stop managing symptoms and start addressing root causes. Because when you face what’s beneath the surface, you don’t just grow personally—you lead more effectively, build healthier teams, and create cultures where people can actually thrive.

If leadership has felt harder than it should, this episode will help you name what’s really going on and give you a path forward.

Learn more about Tyler here. 

We need your help to get the LeadCulture podcasts in front of more leaders! There are three simple things you can do that truly help us:

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If you’ve ever wondered “How can I influence company culture if I’m not in senior leadership?”—this episode is for you.

In this episode of the Lead Culture Podcast, Jenni Catron breaks down one of the most common leadership challenges: how to improve team culture from any role, not just the top. Whether you’re a mid-level manager, emerging leader, or executive trying to activate your team, you’ll learn practical, proven ways to shape a healthy, high-performing workplace culture.

Jenni shares 5 essential leadership behaviors that drive culture, including how to:

•  Influence culture without formal authority 
•  Build a positive team environment through everyday actions 
•  Take ownership of team engagement and performance 
•  Communicate in a way that builds trust and respect 
•  Stay motivated and aligned with your purpose at work 

You’ll also discover why culture isn’t owned by leadership alone—it’s shaped by every person on the team and how small, intentional actions can create outsized impact across your organization.

If you’re searching for answers to:

• How do I improve workplace culture?
• How can managers influence team culture?
• What are the best leadership habits for building strong teams?

This episode gives you clear, actionable strategies you can start using immediately.

We need your help to get the LeadCulture podcasts in front of more leaders! There are three simple things you can do that truly help us:

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What does it really take to build a culture people want to be part of? In this conversation, Jenni Catron sits down with Heather Broeder, Executive VP at Refined Technologies, to explore how intentional culture-building drives healthier leaders, stronger teams, and better business outcomes. Heather shares how her company has made culture a true differentiator through leader development, shared language, meaningful recognition, second-chance hiring, and a deep commitment to purpose. This episode is full of practical wisdom for leaders who want to move culture from a nice idea to a daily reality.

Don't miss the next Free Masterclass. Save your seat here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zrfd5aSgS4yHgpMV56TSOg

We need your help to get the LeadCulture podcasts in front of more leaders! There are three simple things you can do that truly help us:

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In this episode of the Lead Culture Podcast, Jenni Catron sits down with renowned leadership expert and bestselling author Patrick Lencioni to explore his groundbreaking framework, The Six Types of Working Genius.

Lencioni—best known for The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and his work on organizational health—shares how the Working Genius model helps leaders and teams understand the kinds of work that energize them and the tasks that drain them. When teams gain a shared language for how people are wired to contribute, collaboration improves, frustration decreases, and culture becomes healthier.

Patrick explains the six types of work required in every project—Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanizing, Enablement, and Tenacity—and how each person typically excels in two of these areas. By identifying these strengths, leaders can build more balanced teams, place people in roles where they thrive, and reduce unnecessary guilt and judgment in the workplace.

Throughout the conversation, Catron and Lencioni discuss:

• Why organizational health is more important than strategy alone
• How the Working Genius framework improves team communication
• Why many leaders unintentionally place people in the wrong roles
• How shared language around strengths transforms team culture
• Practical ways leaders can use the model to hire, develop, and align teams

Whether you’re new to the Working Genius assessment or already using leadership tools like DISC, Myers-Briggs, or the Enneagram, this conversation will help you rethink how work gets done—and how understanding your team’s natural gifts can unlock greater engagement, productivity, and purpose.

If you want to build a healthier culture, lead people more effectively, and help your team do their best work, this episode is a must-listen.

Take the assessment here with 20% off. 

We need your help to get the LeadCulture podcasts in front of more leaders! There are three simple things you can do that truly help us:

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In this special anniversary episode of the Lead Culture Podcast, Jenni Catron celebrates one year of Culture Matters, her USA Today bestselling book on building healthy organizational culture. If you’re a leader looking for practical tools to strengthen your team culture, improve workplace alignment, and create a clear culture strategy, this episode is for you.

Jenni revisits the core principles of the Lead Culture Framework—a five-phase leadership framework designed to help leaders assess their current culture, define their desired culture, build a strategic culture plan, equip their teams, and commit to ongoing culture development. Leaders across industries are using this proven model as a step-by-step “how-to” guide for building high-performing teams and closing culture gaps before they turn into crises.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why organizational culture requires proactive leadership—not crisis management
• How to assess gaps in your workplace culture with clarity and confidence
• The five essential phases of a sustainable culture strategy
• How to create alignment around values, beliefs, and behaviors
• Why culture conversations feel vulnerable—and how to lead them well
• Practical steps to start building a thriving team culture today

Whether you’re leading a small team, a growing organization, or an established company navigating change, this episode will equip you with actionable leadership tools to strengthen team alignment, boost engagement, and create a healthy, high-performing culture.

If culture work has been sitting on your back burner, this conversation will challenge and inspire you to take the first step—because your leadership shapes everything, and culture truly matters.

Learn more about CultureMattersBook.com

Get the LeadCulture Course Anniversary Sale Here.

We need your help to get the LeadCulture podcasts in front of more leaders! There are three simple things you can do that truly help us:

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AI isn’t just a tech conversation—it’s a leadership conversation.

In this episode, Jenni welcomes AI strategist Jackie Celske for a timely discussion on leading with wisdom, clarity, and conviction in a rapidly evolving digital world. As AI moves from novelty to necessity, leaders are faced with real questions: How do we reduce fear? How do we protect our culture? How do we ensure innovation makes us more human—not less?

Jackie shares practical insights on AI training, governance, team readiness, and the widening talent gap—along with a powerful reminder that empathy, discernment, and emotional intelligence are still our greatest leadership assets.

This episode will challenge you to think beyond cost-cutting and instead ask: How can we steward this technology in a way that strengthens people and builds thriving teams?

Learn more about Jackie here.

We need your help to get the LeadCulture podcasts in front of more leaders! There are three simple things you can do that truly help us:

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Culture doesn’t break down because leaders lack effort or good intentions—it breaks down when there’s a gap between how leaders show up and how teams experience that leadership.

In this episode, Jenni Catron builds on last week’s conversation about the Clarity Cascade—mission, vision, strategy, and structure—and takes it one level deeper. The focus shifts from who is on the team to how well leaders are equipping people to fully engage once clarity is in place.

Jenni unpacks why self-awareness is one of the strongest predictors of leadership success and how emotional intelligence directly shapes organizational culture. Drawing on research, real-world leadership experience, and the LeadCulture Framework, she explains why competence alone isn’t enough—and why leaders must develop both self-awareness and others’ awareness to build healthy, high-trust teams.

You’ll also hear why tools like personality assessments and Patrick Lencioni’s Working Genius can be powerful culture-shaping resources when used well—not as labels, but as shared language that improves collaboration, alignment, and momentum.

If you’ve clarified roles, strategy, and structure but still feel like your team is getting stuck, this episode will help you identify what might be missing—and how growing emotional intelligence can unlock the next level of effectiveness.

This conversation sets the stage for Jenni’s upcoming webinar with Patrick Lencioni, where they’ll dive deeper into how Working Genius strengthens teams and accelerates culture health.

We need your help to get the LeadCulture podcasts in front of more leaders! There are three simple things you can do that truly help us:

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You’ve done the work.
You cast the vision.
You built the strategy.

So why does execution still feel slow, stalled, or stuck?

In this episode of the Lead Culture Podcast, Jenni Catron unpacks a challenge leaders face every year—especially as they move from strategic planning into real-world execution. Teams aren’t failing because they don’t care. They’re struggling because clarity is breaking down in the system.

Jenni introduces a powerful framework she calls The Clarity Cascade, showing how results depend on more than just a strong strategy. You’ll learn how mission, vision, strategy, structure, and role clarity must intentionally cascade together to create momentum—and why most leaders stop one step too soon.

This episode will help you:

• Identify why your team feels busy but isn’t making progress
• Understand how organizational structure either fuels or blocks execution
• See why misaligned org charts create confusion, frustration, and disengagement
• Clarify roles and responsibilities so every team member can confidently contribute
• Audit your structure to ensure it actually supports your strategy

If your 2026 goals feel solid but results aren’t showing up yet, this conversation will help you uncover the invisible barriers holding your team back—and give you practical next steps to realign for impact.

We need your help to get the LeadCulture podcasts in front of more leaders! There are three simple things you can do that truly help us:

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3. Share - let your friends know about the podcast by sharing your favorite episode on social media!