How intentional Leadership Ownership Culture turns growth pressure into lasting performance

Growth doesn’t usually break because of strategy. It breaks when Leadership Ownership Culture doesn’t scale at the same pace as revenue, headcount, or complexity. In this episode of The Catalytic Leadership Podcast, I sit down with an executive operator who has lived this tension—and built a system that turns ownership, culture, and performance into a durable advantage.

🎧  Listen to the Full Episode on Leadership Ownership Culture

Listen to the Full Episode

Why Growth Fails Without Leadership Ownership Culture at Scale

In the episode “Why Growth Fails Without Leadership Ownership Culture,” I’m joined by Chris Sund, President and COO of UnitiMed and GQR Healthcare, two of the largest healthcare staffing companies in the country.

Chris has led teams through rapid growth, stepped into organizations after founders transitioned out, and made counterintuitive leadership decisions that paid off long-term. One of the most impactful? Prioritizing Leadership Ownership Culture before sales velocity, marketing scale, or operational efficiency.

This conversation explores what happens when leaders stop relying on control and instead build ownership into the fabric of the organization—through culture, clarity, and disciplined execution. The result isn’t slower growth. It’s growth that holds.

For Agency Owners Scaling Teams, Systems, and Responsibility

This episode is especially relevant if you’re navigating challenges like:

• Carrying too many decisions because ownership hasn’t fully transferred
  
• Scaling internal systems while team accountability lags behind
  
• Wanting performance without resorting to micromanagement
  
• Refining culture as headcount and complexity increase
  
• Setting the pace of change without burning out yourself—or your leaders
  

This is not about fixing broken teams. It’s about refining strong organizations so growth doesn’t outpace leadership.e.

Where Growth Quietly Breaks—and How Leaders Prevent It

One of the patterns I see repeatedly with high-performing agency owners is this: growth accelerates, systems expand, revenue increases—and yet the leader feels more necessary, not less. That’s rarely a systems problem. It’s almost always a Leadership Ownership Culture problem.

Ownership doesn’t emerge because you hired smart people or implemented better tools. Ownership emerges when leaders consistently choose clarity over speed, responsibility over blame, and execution over intention. In this episode, Chris articulated something I’ve learned the hard way myself: when leaders move faster than their culture can absorb, the organization compensates by pushing responsibility back up the chain.

Catalytic leaders slow the right moments down. They ask better questions. They resist the urge to “fix” what others need to own. They understand that an 85% solution someone believes in often outperforms a 95% solution imposed from above. This is how leaders stop being the bottleneck—not by doing less, but by building ownership that multiplies impact long after they leave the room.

Key Moments That Shift the Way Leaders Think About Growth

00:00 – Why growth fails when ownership doesn’t scale

03:53 – Leading inside high-growth, competitive markets

07:17 – The hidden challenge of stepping in after a founder

09:44 – Culture vs. performance: where leaders miscalculate

11:03 – Why hiring a Director of Culture changed everything

21:38 – Staying sharp as leadership complexity increases

28:34 – Ending blame cycles with ownership-based leadership

31:30 – Setting the pace of change without burnout

Resources & Books from the Episode

• The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell
  
• Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
  
• The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
  
• The Need to Lead by Dave Berke

Connect with Chris Sund

To connect with Chris, visit chrissund.com or find him on LinkedIn. He enjoys engaging with leaders who are intentional about culture, ownership, and sustainable performance.

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About Dr. William Attaway:

Dr. William Attaway is a seasoned Executive Mindset and Leadership Coach who helps 6-, 7-, and 8-figure digital agency owners scale their businesses with clarity, systems, and confidence. With over 30 years of experience, he equips growth-driven entrepreneurs to build high-performing teams, implement scalable systems, and transition from freelancer to CEO.

He hosts the Catalytic Leadership™ Podcast—ranked in the Top 1.5% of podcasts globally (source: Listen Notes)—with a weekly reach of over 50,000. Each episode features elite agency owners and top digital entrepreneurs sharing what actually works when scaling a service-based business.

From leadership development and visionary thinking to mindset transformation and team optimization, Dr. Attaway empowers agency leaders to build a business that thrives without their constant oversight—and a team that flourishes under intentional, scalable leadership.

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