Work Positive

From Roots to Fruits: The Soul of Leadership | Dr. Joey Faucette

Work Positive

Show Notes

How do you create a continuous learning positive work culture when only 23% of employees worldwide are engaged in their work? What if three out of four people on your team are among the ranks of The Working Dead, costing the global economy $8.9 trillion in lost productivity annually? How do you grow a culture that starts with souls, not systems? Discover the proven framework to grow your leader soul and cultivate a root-to-fruit culture on this special LinkedIn Live episode of the Work Positive Podcast. Dr. Joey Faucette unveils his groundbreaking Root-to-Fruit framework from his latest book "Leader Soul: Grow a Root-to-Fruit Culture," drawing from insights of six remarkable Work Positive Podcast guests who have done this internal work themselves and helped countless others do the same. Listen as Dr. Joey explores: ☀️ Why organizations that grow today don't start with systems but with souls, doing the internal work that creates external transformation ☀️ How leader soul is like a fruit tree with roots (inside job), trunk (seeing and being seen), branches (core essentials), flowers (permissions), and fruits (care and creation) ☀️ The three permissions framework: Permission to Feel, Permission to Fail, and Permission to Fly that protect the flowering of workers ☀️ Why values only become real when translated into specific, observable behaviors, not vague words like "integrity" and "excellence" ☀️ How trust deposits are small but withdrawals are large, with ratios of 5-to-1 or even 10-to-1 requiring consistent sustained attention Dr. Joey transforms how leaders think about culture by proving that when you grow from your roots through your trunk, branches, and flowers to fruits, you create a Work Positive culture where growing people grows profits. 🔑 Key Insight: "Picture a tree that produces beautiful oranges. We see the fruit and admire it. We might even try to study the oranges themselves. But the fruit comes from the roots. The organizations experiencing behavior problems throughout aren't dealing with a bottom issue but a top issue. The executive team is the root. The organization-wide behavior problem is the fruit. Words like 'integrity' and 'excellence' have been eroded by marketing. Everyone claims them. If a value can mean anything, it means nothing. Replace 'core values' with 'core essentials' and ask what does this look like in practice. Culture doesn't live on posters or in values statements. It lives in the hearts and minds of your people. The only way to know what's really in their hearts and minds is to be with them." 💡 Your DOT (Do One Thing): Choose one stage of the Root-to-Fruit framework based on where you have the best opportunity to grow. Then return to that chapter's Do One Thing challenge and do the one that resonates most strongly with where you are right now. Do it well. Build the habit. Then add another. Small, consistent actions create lasting change. A grand, unsustainable gesture is worth less than a small practice you maintain for years. Be patient with yourself. Be persistent with your practice. Trust the process. That's how you avoid going rogue in your leader soul and grow a root-to-fruit culture. The Root-to-Fruit Framework:

ROOT: Leader Soul is an Inside Job (Ask "Am I being the leader I want to be right now?" three times daily) TRUNK: The Power of Seeing and Being Seen (Write three handwritten notes to team members this week) BRANCHES: Core Essentials that Reach for the Sky (Define five specific behaviors for one core essential, three violations) FLOWERS: Permission to Feel, Fail and Fly (Focus on strengthening one permission, ask for feed-forward) FRUITS: Cultivate a Culture of Care and Creation (Identify one team member, schedule weekly leader soul cultivation meetings)

Featured Work Positive Podcast Guests:

Alison Jones (Practical Inspiration Publishing, The Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast) Christian Muntean (Fortune 500 transformation, automotive dealership example)

More from Work Positive

Oct 18, 2026

EP 209 | Make Retention a HABIT | Dr. Sharon Grossman An engineer at Hewlett-Packard ran into his manager’s office with a breakthrough. The manager wanted to say thank you on the spot. He reached into his lunch bag and handed over the only thing he had: a banana. It became the Golden Banana Award. In this week’s episode, psychologist Dr. Sharon Grossman talks with Dr. Joey about the fifteen-minute daily habit that keeps your top talent on your team. Who on your team earned a golden banana yesterday? ABOUT THE GUEST Dr. Sharon Grossman is a psychologist, keynote speaker and retention strategist. She helps organizations reduce turnover, strengthen leadership and create work cultures where people are motivated to stay. She combines behavioral science with practical systems that improve engagement, performance and retention, and she has for more than 25 years. Her executive coaching helps leaders recover from burnout, and her retention work extends that care to frontline teams. Her HABIT system equips people leaders to do five things in a fifteen-minute daily huddle: Huddles, Appreciation, Barometer, Improvement and Tracking. She’s the author of several books, including Don’t Buy Their Lunch! Buy Their Loyalty. You discover her books, speaking, coaching and consulting at drsharongrossman.com. Key Insights

Oct 11, 2026

EP 208 | You Invest. Your People Invest Back. | Katherine Kobs About a decade ago, a company told a young team member, "We wanna send you to college and we'll pay for it." Kate Kobs said yes. Nearly a decade later, she invests in people the way that company invested in her. In this week's episode, Kate talks with Dr. Joey about attracting top talent with total rewards and retaining them as you follow through. Who on your team waits for you to invest first? ABOUT THE GUEST Katherine (Kate) Kobs is a human resources leader who creates people-first HR functions. She created them across manufacturing, municipal government, energy, and retail companies. She loves translating compliance into practical guidance managers use to positively influence their culture. Today she leads HR for an organization with entities spread across Wisconsin. She also serves as a human resources sergeant in the Wisconsin Army National Guard. Kate lives in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She shares inspiring stories about work culture on LinkedIn. She welcomes your questions there. Key Insights

Oct 4, 2026

EP 207 | Slow Down to Grow Trust | Sara Valentine Halloween comes every Monday at Give Kids The World Village. Christmas comes every Thursday. Sara Valentine says your culture happens on the days in between, on ordinary Tuesdays. In this week's episode, Sara talks with Dr. Joey about the HEART framework she discovered as she watched her team serve Wish families, and how a culture climbs back from rock bottom one conversation at a time. What does your team hear from you on an ordinary Tuesday? ABOUT THE GUEST Our guest on this episode is a human resources executive, leadership speaker, and creator of the Heart Leadership framework. It's a simple approach that helps leaders like you and me build trust through intentional conversations and everyday actions. She's led people and culture for nearly 20 years, and is passionate about helping organizations like yours create work cultures where employees feel heard, valued, and empowered. She currently serves as vice president of talent and culture at Give Kids The World Village, and hosts the Heart Leadership podcast. She believes that leadership is less about having all the answers and more about how we show up for our people. Sara welcomes messages from the Work Positive community on LinkedIn. KEY INSIGHTS

Sep 27, 2026

EP 206 | You Go First. Then Your Team Follows. | Dr. Joey Faucette Every February at Dr. Joey's farm, the first crocus pushes through frozen ground before the daylilies stir. The crocus goes first. Then spring follows. In this week's episode, Dr. Joey coaches all five B.R.A.V.E. @ Work practices from the Work Positive Community Live Experience. Who on your team waits for you to go first? ABOUT DR. JOEY Dr. Joey Faucette is the creator of the Work Positive Culture framework and founder of Work Positive Today. He serves as a Positive Culture Architect, Executive Coach, and host of the Work Positive Podcast. He helps people leaders transform their work cultures so they attract top talent, reduce turnover, and grow productivity and profits. The bestselling author of 19 books, Dr. Joey brings more than four decades of culture coaching to every conversation. Each month he hosts the Work Positive Culture Live Experience, where he coaches the Work Positive Community through one framework at a time. He works from Pleasant Gap Farm in Dry Fork, Virginia. KEY INSIGHTS

Sep 20, 2026

EP 205 | Millions Hiding in Your Organization | Porschia Parker-Griffin Two sisters bought a pearl necklace at a Goodwill for sixty-nine cents. The appraisal came back at $50,000. Do you undervalue your team in a similar way? One designer at an architecture firm shared her underappraisal with Glassdoor because her owner had yet to ask. Porschia Parker-Griffin helps organizations unlock the millions of dollars of potential hiding inside their own teams. What would an appraisal of your team discover that you priced too low? ABOUT THE GUEST Porschia Parker-Griffin is the founder and CEO of Fly High Coaching. She helps organizations attract, engage, and retain high-caliber professionals through tailored consulting, training, and coaching programs that achieve their business goals and enhance their culture. She holds the ICF Professional Certified Coach credential along with numerous other important certifications, including master practitioner status in the MBTI and certification in the Hogan assessments. She holds two psychology degrees, including a master's in industrial and organizational psychology, and she hosts the Career 101 Podcast, which she describes as everything you were never taught about career growth, development, and change. Her company tagline is soaring to your full potential. She especially enjoys helping companies unlock the millions of dollars of potential hiding in their organization, and she offers the Work Positive community her case studies, her podcast, and an open LinkedIn inbox. KEY INSIGHTS

See all episodes →