Unlocking High Performance

WRKdefined Podcast Network
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Management
  • Updated Weekly

Unlocking High Performance, hosted by Jason Lauritsen, is a podcast for leaders who want strong results without burning out their people. Through solo reflections and honest conversations with leaders, Jason looks at how clarity, alignment, and connection shape the way work actually gets done.

  1. 3d ago

    Aligning Strategy And Culture At Scale with Jamie Griffin

    If you are trying to keep your culture consistent as you grow, this conversation shows you how one people leader is doing it across hundreds of locations and thousands of frontline workers. You will learn why clarity and alignment are two different jobs, how an origin story becomes a tool for shaping culture, how to design the employee experience so people live your values without ever being handed a document, and why the shift from being nice to being kind changes how leaders show up. It is a practical look at connecting strategy and culture so they push the organization forward together instead of pulling in different directions. Key Takeaways → Clarity and alignment are not the same thing. Two people can agree on the exact same words and still picture completely different outcomes, so leaders have to slow down and make sure everyone sees the same result. → A company's origin story shapes how it should grow. Knowing where you came from gives you a source to design culture forward as you scale. → Culture lives in the minds of your team members and brand lives in the minds of your guests. You shape both by controlling the experience, not by handing people a values statement. → Every part of the employee journey can be designed as an episode, from the first day to orientation, so the culture comes to life without anyone being lectured about it. → Systems and processes are how culture scales. Design the work so it is easy to get right and hard to get wrong, then look at the design first when someone gets it wrong. → Feedback only matters if you close the loop. Guest and team member sentiment should feed back into training and coaching, not sit unused in a report. → Attendance problems are often a leadership signal, not a team member problem. When one leader has repeated issues, you need a leader intervention, not an attendance policy. → Leader stability drives results. People need time in one place to build connection with their team and community, so growth should not always mean moving somewhere new. → Nice is not the same as kind. Nice avoids discomfort, while kind embraces a little discomfort to leave someone better than you found them. → Caring for someone means telling them the truth. Keeping people comfortable while they are struggling is not care, and keeping someone safe is not the same as protecting them from discomfort. Timestamps 01:07 – Why people are the solution, not the problem 04:38 – Keeping strategy and culture from pulling apart 05:44 – Why clarity has to come before alignment 08:02 – Using your origin story to define who you are 10:24 – Turning company values into a culture napkin 13:01 – Getting the message all the way to the frontline 15:15 – Designing every moment as an episode 18:46 – Building systems that close the feedback loop 22:59 – Why leader stability drives performance 25:23 – Moving from nice to kind in how you lead Keywords scaling company culture, aligning strategy and culture, leadership clarity and alignment, frontline employee experience, building culture across multiple locations, moving from nice to kind leadership, chief people officer insights, employee onboarding and orientation, giving honest feedback at work, retaining frontline workers —  Connect with Jamie: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiejgriffin/ — JOIN THOUSANDS OF LEADERS WHO ARE HARNESSING THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/59nrvxnj — Connect with Jason Lauritsen: Website: https://jasonlauritsen.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasonLauritsenVideo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlauritsen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonlauritsen/

    Aligning Strategy And Culture At Scale with Jamie Griffin

  2. Jul 2

    What Caring Actually Looks Like as a Leader

    In this solo episode, Jason explores with a question that sounds simple until you look at it closely. What does it look like to care for someone as their leader? He talks through why care at work has to look different from the care we show at home because the relationship has specific purpose. And he highlights the moments when the most caring thing a leader can do is to step into a difficult conversation with the employee. Key highlights from the conversation: ➡️ Why the way we care for the people we love outside of work can actually backfire when we bring it to the people we lead ➡️ The mistake Jason has watched leaders make hundreds of times, avoiding a hard conversation because they mistakenly think that keeping employees comfortable is the kind thing to do ➡️ A moment from Jason's own career when avoiding the hard conversation was making things worse ➡️ What leaders should do to truly care for their people in a way that supports their performance and engagement at work JOIN THOUSANDS OF LEADERS WHO ARE HARNESSING THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/59nrvxnj Connect with Jason Lauritsen: Website: https://jasonlauritsen.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasonLauritsenVideo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlauritsen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonlauritsen/

    What Caring Actually Looks Like as a Leader

  3. Jun 17

    Scaling Without Losing Your Culture with Spencer Douglas

    When a company grows fast, it's easy to see only the good in it. The wins keep coming, so the quieter thing underneath is easy to miss. Some of the core things that fueled the company’s growth start to drift, and it rarely shows up as a culture problem at first. It shows up somewhere else, in a client commenting that things feel different or a long-term employee deciding to leave. In this episode, Jason talks with Spencer Douglas, the chief marketing officer of BZI, about what fast growth did to a culture the company had always been proud of and how the leadership team finally recognized the problem and decided to do something about it. It's a candid look at what it actually takes to protect what makes a company special when growth is coming faster than the company is ready for. Key highlights from the conversation: ➡️Why brand and culture are really two sides of the same coin. ➡️The early signals that a culture is starting to drift, the kind that show up in how clients talk about you before they ever show up in the numbers. ➡️What it sounds like when a leadership team stops settling for good and commit to being the best. ➡️How growing fast can quietly cost you the culture you worked hard to build and why protecting it gets harder the bigger you get. — Connect with Spencer: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerdouglas98/ — JOIN THOUSANDS OF LEADERS WHO ARE HARNESSING THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/59nrvxnj — Connect with Jason Lauritsen: Website: https://jasonlauritsen.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasonLauritsenVideo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlauritsen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonlauritsen/ #UnlockingHighPerformance #JasonLauritsen #HumanResource #Leadership

    Scaling Without Losing Your Culture with Spencer Douglas

  4. Jun 10

    Introducing the Connected Performance Group

    In this episode, Jason does something a little different and talks through his own business, newly relaunched as Connected Performance Group. He shares why he rebuilt the way he works with clients, and lays out the system he developed over two decades for getting at the root of performance problems instead of just the surface. If you've followed his work for years but were never quite sure what he actually does for organizations, this is the episode that answers it. You can learn more and schedule an exploratory conversation at https://connectedperformancegroup.com — JOIN THOUSANDS OF LEADERS WHO ARE HARNESSING THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/59nrvxnj — Connect with Jason Lauritsen: Website: https://jasonlauritsen.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasonLauritsenVideo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlauritsen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonlauritsen/ #UnlockingHighPerformance #JasonLauritsen #Management #Leadership

    Introducing the Connected Performance Group

  5. Jun 3

    Your Leadership Blind Spots Are Hiding in Plain Sight

    Everyone carries a particular way of seeing the world. It's shaped by where we grew up, how we were taught, and the experiences we’ve collected along the way. Most of the time, it goes unnoticed. But that lens shapes how situations get read, how people get judged, and how someone leads. When it goes unexamined, it can become a dangerous blind spot for leaders. In this solo episode, Jason looks at how the lens through which we see the world can become a leadership liability. He shares a training experience that challenged a belief he'd held for years about what good management looks like. It's the kind of belief that feels like plain common sense until someone gives you a reason to question it. What he learned changed how he thinks about supporting the people on his team. Key highlights from the conversation: ➡️Why the way you see the world is never neutral, even when it feels like common sense. ➡️The belief about checking in on your team that Jason had to rethink. ➡️How our lenses lead us to dismiss new ideas and judge people too quickly. ➡️Two practical ways to broaden your perspective and lead more effectively. — JOIN THOUSANDS OF LEADERS WHO ARE HARNESSING THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/59nrvxnj — Connect with Jason Lauritsen: Website: https://jasonlauritsen.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasonLauritsenVideo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlauritsen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonlauritsen/ #UnlockingHighPerformance #JasonLauritsen #HRLeaders

    Your Leadership Blind Spots Are Hiding in Plain Sight

  6. May 28

    Proud Employees Don't Need to Be Pushed with Chris Sund

    In this episode of Unlocking High Performance, Jason is joined by Chris Sund, President and CEO of UnityMed and GQR Healthcare and COO of Nebula. Chris leads a distributed workforce across healthcare staffing, recruiting, and AI-powered talent solutions, and he shares how his teams treat experience design as a deliberate, structured part of the business. At a time when many workplaces are leaning harder into productivity pressure, Jason and Chris explore a different perspective. They push back on the idea that fun, care, and connection somehow compete with performance. Instead, Chris makes the case that proud, connected employees often do their best work because they actually want to. Key highlights from the conversation include: 👉 How Chris and his leadership team turned experience into a company-wide thematic goal across employees, candidates, and clients 👉 Why looking for friction is one of the most practical ways Chris's team improves both customer and employee experience 👉 The kinds of shared moments, from Mario Kart in the parking lot to birthday celebrations, that become the core memories employees actually remember 👉 Why leaders should sometimes let employees run with an imperfect idea instead of stepping in with a "better" one 👉 Chris's perspective on the link between employee pride, coachability, and sustained performance — Linkedin: Connect with Chris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersund/ — JOIN THOUSANDS OF LEADERS WHO ARE HARNESSING THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/59nrvxnj — Connect with Jason Lauritsen: Website: https://jasonlauritsen.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasonLauritsenVideo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlauritsen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonlauritsen/ #UnlockingHighPerformance #JasonLauritsen #HRLeaders

    Proud Employees Don't Need to Be Pushed with Chris Sund

  7. May 20

    The Golden Rule of Management Behind High-Performing Teams

    In this solo episode of Unlocking High Performance, Jason unpacks one of the most important drivers of team performance: clarity. He describes a pattern he’s seen repeated across organizations of every size. Leaders get frustrated with team members who seem unmotivated or off track, when the real issue is that they have not been clear about what's expected. Jason makes the case that clarity, not motivation, is the real fuel behind strong performance. When leaders assume their people understand expectations, they often create the very friction they're trying to avoid. This episode offers two simple practices that any leader can use to build real clarity with individuals and teams, including what Jason calls “The Golden Rule of Management.” Key highlights from the conversation include: 👉Why most performance problems are actually clarity problems in disguise, and how leaders mistakenly label them as character or motivation issues 👉The two practices of clarity every leader can put into action to strengthen performance and reduce friction on their team 👉Why writing things down forces a level of clarity that talking alone never can 👉How the practice of comparing notes reveals the gap between assumed clarity and the real thing inside a team 👉A practical example of how a leadership team can use comparing notes to align on what it means to be a leader in their organization 👉The hidden cost of skipping clarity work, including wasted time, repeated conversations, and damaged trust between leaders and their teams — JOIN THOUSANDS OF LEADERS WHO ARE HARNESSING THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/59nrvxnj — Connect with Jason Lauritsen: Website: https://jasonlauritsen.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasonLauritsenVideo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlauritsen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonlauritsen/ #UnlockingHighPerformance #JasonLauritsen #HRLeaders

    The Golden Rule of Management Behind High-Performing Teams

  8. May 7

    Why Job Descriptions No Longer Fit Modern Work with Lisa Sterling

    Join Jason Lauritsen as he sits down with Lisa Sterling, Chief People Officer at Perceptyx, for a conversation about why the traditional job description has run its course and what becomes possible when leaders stop trying to fit people into predetermined boxes. Lisa argues that job descriptions are a century-old artifact, originally built for factories that needed standardized, repeatable work. We are still using that same container to hold modern jobs, and it no longer fits. When we start deconstructing our jobs, we make room for people to do the work they are actually great at, and that is where real performance starts. Key highlights from the conversation include: 👉 Why the job description is an industrial era container that no longer holds modern work, and what it takes to start rebuilding roles around tasks instead 👉 A behind-the-scenes look at the hackathon Lisa ran with her people team to break work into tasks, surface hidden strengths, and decide what AI could automate or augment 👉 How matching work to people's genius zones surfaces hidden strengths, improves retention, and gets more out of the team without adding headcount 👉 How Lisa is rethinking compensation, career ladders, and job architecture when titles and levels stop driving the work 👉 A more honest way to frame the AI conversation by focusing on tasks rather than jobs, which makes the question less scary and far more useful Connect with Lisa: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamsterling/ --- JOIN THOUSANDS OF LEADERS WHO ARE HARNESSING THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/59nrvxnj -- Connect with Jason Lauritsen: Website: https://jasonlauritsen.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasonLauritsenVideo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonlauritsen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonlauritsen/

    Why Job Descriptions No Longer Fit Modern Work with Lisa Sterling
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Unlocking High Performance, hosted by Jason Lauritsen, is a podcast for leaders who want strong results without burning out their people. Through solo reflections and honest conversations with leaders, Jason looks at how clarity, alignment, and connection shape the way work actually gets done.

Information

  • Creator
    WRKdefined Podcast Network
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    74
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved by WRKdefined
  • Show Website
    Unlocking High Performance

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