In this episode of the Proteus Leader Show, host Erika Andersen interviews Kimberly Lee, founder and CEO of Lotix Systems and author of Building a Coaching Culture: The Ripple Effect, Raising Performance and Growth. The conversation opens with alarming burnout statistics—two‑thirds of U.S. workers report burnout, with up to 80% at risk—and frames coaching as a preventative strategy. Lee explains her "ripple effect" metaphor: a well‑executed coaching conversation spreads beyond the immediate participants, influencing peers, direct reports, and customers. She likens effective coaching to sports teams, using the New England Patriots as an example of how individualized coaching leads to collective success. The discussion contrasts this with environments lacking a coaching mindset, where micromanagement, fear of mistakes, and punitive responses erode accountability and stifle innovation. Lee shares concrete practices for leaders: replace blame‑focused questions with solution‑oriented ones, practice active listening and allow silence, ask what the employee is doing that the manager may not know, and involve employees in creating their own action plans. These habits foster psychological safety, shared ownership, higher engagement, reduced turnover, and early detection of burnout. The episode closes with calls to explore Lee’s Ripple IQ AI‑coaching app, her book, and Proteus International’s leadership development services.
Chapters
Welcome to the Proteus Leader Show, a podcast for forward-looking leaders driving transformation in their organizations, within their teams, or for themselves. Your host today is a senior leader at Proteus International, a firm that partners with companies around the world to make true transformation easier through change consulting, leadership development, and executive coaching. If you're looking for fresh perspectives and practical insights you can take back to work today, you're in the right place. Enjoy the episode.
Job burnout is at an all-time high, with 2/3 of US workers experiencing burnout at work, and even more employees are at risk— by some estimates, over 80%. How can leaders reduce the risk of burnout their teams and themselves. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Proteus Leader Show. My guest today is Kimberly Lee, a strategic leader, AI strategist, and compassionate coach who builds human-centered cultures. She's the founder and CEO of Lotix Systems and the creator of Ripple IQ, an AI-powered coaching app that turns her framework into a daily practice managers actually stick with. So welcome to the show, Kimberly.
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, I'm so glad you're here. We're going to be talking about your new book, Building a Coaching Culture: The Ripple Effect, Raising Performance and Growth. And, you know, when we were talking before we started recording, I could see that we're very aligned in our thinking about the importance of coaching and how many tendrils it has out into what's important in an organization. So let's get started.
You ready to go? Absolutely, I'm ready.
So in your book, you talk about the ripple effect. It's actually in your title that's created by coaching in an organization. So can you tell us a little bit about what you mean by that and why it's important?
Yeah, so the ripple effect is what happens when a coaching moment doesn't stay in the room. You think about a drop of water, it ripples out. And so a single conversation between a manager and an employee done well changes how the employee shows up for their peers, their Their direct reports, if they have them, you know, their customers. So that wave keeps going long after you stop talking.
Oh, that's great. Okay, so it has a lot of downstream effects.
Absolutely, absolutely.
When coaching becomes kind of the norm in organizations, how do you see that ripple effect affecting the organization? What have you seen?
Well, so a good part of coaching, if you step back— I use sports in some parts of my book, and the thing with anytime somebody is getting coached in a sport or a musician or anything, they have a goal in mind and that coach is attaching the feedback and the work that they're doing to that goal. And if you think in terms of the Patriots, although that's not my favorite sports team, football team, I do use them. Everybody on that team is getting coached and they're all getting coached so they are individually doing well. So the team's doing well, they win the game and ultimately maybe the Super Bowl. Everybody knows their role, their place. And why they're there, and the feedback is meant for them to grow and develop. Everybody's looking for that edge. And so if you take that and apply it at work, it's the same thing. If you have your team individually understanding their role, the impact, the feedback is meant to make them do their best, and acknowledging the things that they're doing well, acknowledging the things that we all need to grow and develop, and how that ties into the team's goals, the department, and so on. So you have that individual.
Yeah.
To the work, and then you have the team connection, all cohesive, trying to accomplish great things.
Yeah, that's great. And I'm sure you've seen this. So let's say there's a manager, they're okay, but mostly they're just focusing on, I'm trying to manage resources, I'm trying to direct people. And they start to have a coaching mindset, and they start to focus on that developmental aspect of their team and the individuals on the team. How do you see that changing them And their team. What positive changes have you seen as a result from that?
I think just in general, the relationship, and I've experienced that certainly within my teams. I've worked in private equity, and HR tends to be one of the leaner sides of the house in many organizations. And the amount of work that we were able to do and accomplish because we had this really great team— people were willing to go over and above, they knew how to communicate when they had kind of reached their max. We have to, you know, take our foot off the gas now and again. They were in place to have those conversations, to say, I'm ready to take on more, I think I need to scale back. And that gave me the input and information I needed to push. My role is to manage that.
Yeah.
You can see that within those teams as they are performing and connecting and communicating well with one another. Not that there's not conflicts, but if you have that foundation of connection and communication and that the feedback is genuine and well-intended, the team is giving each other feedback. works much more cohesive. And that manager, one, you're able to grow and develop some because now you have a team that is being creative and coming up with solutions and taking things on. So that gives you that ability to also grow and develop. And you're getting better work. You have better performing teams. Your team is more effective.
I love that. You and I were talking a little bit before we started recording about safety, that feeling of, okay, it's safe. I can say the hard things. I can ask a question. I can not know something. That trust builds, that safety builds, and it just lubricates everything. It sounds like what you're saying. That's great. Yeah.
Hi, everyone. It's Marie-Helene, host of the Proteus Leader Show and CEO of Proteus International. I'm delighted to share that the Proteus Leader Show has been featured in the 2026 edition of the top 40 change management podcasts, and we are honored to be ranked number 20. For those who may be new to us, Proteus International is an American-based company providing transformation, coaching, and leadership development services globally. Through this podcast, our goal is to help leaders navigate change, lead with clarity, and create true transformation in their organizations and their lives. You can find the link to the top 40 list in the show notes. And while you're there, please make sure to follow the podcast so you'll be notified when new episodes are released. You can also help more people discover The Project Leader Show by leaving us a review and sharing the episodes you've enjoyed with your colleagues. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your support. And here's to creating the leadership you truly want.
Okay, let's go to the dark side. What happens in your experience when there's just Not little or no coaching in an organization.
Things fall short. So, um, I have some, you know, experience in watching when a leader feels like they're the smartest person on the team. Everything has to go through them, whether it's micromanaging or response to when things don't go right is, you know, punitive or accusatory. And if a team feels like, hey, If I make a mistake, it's not the end of the world. I have a guy, he's worked for me a couple of times. He now works at a big medical group, but his response was, there's nothing we can't fix. It's okay. Yeah. And sometimes it's bigger mistakes and sure, there's different accountability, but one, you're accountable. And 2, you know that it's not the end of the world.
Yes.
As long as you learn from those lessons, I think that's the important thing. So when you have a manager who feels like they need to read and review every single email before it goes out to people. Has to approve and sign off on every little detail, you're taking away the accountability of your team. And I've watched it firsthand where you have people really embracing and being accountable and wanting to do really great things to stepping back because there's just not any reason. There's no, you're either going to be in trouble or get, you know, yelled at, lectured. The work's going to be undone. So.
Why bother? Okay, so it sounds like your observation is when there's not a coaching mindset and practice in an organization, there's a lot of fear, and that can turn into either apathy or just kind of self-protection.
Absolutely. If you think that this next mistake is going to cost you your job, you're not going to stretch. You're not going to try and come up with something that might not be tried and true.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Okay, so we always promise practical takeaways. From your point of view, what can our listeners who are leaders start doing now, start doing today, to build a coaching culture with and for their teams?
So there's a few of them. I would say in your next one-on-one, replace, why didn't this get done, if you're asking that question, with, what's something that I can help with? Is there something I'm not aware of? How can we Do this better to make sure that this doesn't happen again? You're still asking the same question, but you're solution-oriented. Like, let's work together on how we can get this done. I've used with team members, let's talk through a way so we can make sure that this doesn't happen again, so that the person who the responsibility lies with is part of that solution. There's other things is you can, you always want to listen. As well. So you ask a question, you should always be open to that silence to give them that opportunity to think through how to respond. And if you ask a question and immediately follow it up with something else, then you've taken that opportunity away. And then you can always ask, what are you doing that I am not aware of? I understand that you might be doing things that I don't know, and I want to change that. So making sure that they're seen and heard and giving them that opportunity to grow in those areas. Yeah.
I love that. You know, sometimes the most simple things are the most powerful. You just said, be sure to listen. And that sounds so simple, but we've seen over the years, it's so powerful. Exactly what you said. Managers will ask a question and then either answer it or ask another question versus just take a breath, let the person say whatever they're going to say. That's great. That's wonderful advice. And I love the changing from that Potentially punitive, why didn't this happen, to how can we? How can we? What can we? That's great. Oh, that's really good advice.
I've seen it work so, so many times. When you're having performance discussions, I've always coached managers, ask the employee to create their plan on how to get this done so that there's some accountability there. It's not just, you need to do it, but let's talk about how this can get done. It just changes the narrative altogether.
Absolutely. A couple of podcasts ago, I was talking to a guy about creating ownership versus control, which is exactly what you're talking about too, that a good coach creates shared ownership. This is our responsibility. How are we going to do this together? That's great. Oh, thank you so much, Kimberly.
You're welcome.
I think the work you're doing is— and we talked about this before— it's just the opposite of fluffy. It's really foundational to help people Feel that ownership, grow, feel a part of what's happening. It's really fundamental.
It truly is. And I have definitely seen it multiple times in my own career with my own teams, and then watching my people who worked for me going on and doing that in other places with other teams. It's truly culture-changing. And when, you know, when it's allowed to be the culture, companies accomplish so much more. You have the obvious reduction in turnover and things, but really you have a team who is connected. and feels valued and is willing to go over and above.
Yes.
But also you are aware when there's burnout that might be coming up.
Yeah.
And because of that work, it's definitely fundamentally a great culture shift.
Yeah, that's great. So listeners, you can find out more about Kimberly and her work at lotixsystems.com, and that'll be in the show notes as well, and at mytalentadvantage.com. And you can buy Building a Coaching Culture at Amazon. And to find out how Proteus develops leaders and supports them to be better coaches for their teams, just go to proteus-international.com and click on What We Do. So thank you so much, Kimberly.
Thank you, Erika. I appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you for listening, everybody. And until next time, here's to creating the life You truly want.
Thanks for listening to the Proteus Leader Show. We hope you're leaving with ideas you can put to use on your team, in your organization, or in your own career. To learn more about how we support true transformation through change consulting, leadership development, and executive coaching, visit us at proteus-international.com. Until next time.
