4X Your Revenue
- JM Ryerson
- 11 hours ago
- 4 min read
On this episode of the Let's Go Win podcast, my guest Jessica Kriegel talks about how you can build culture that drives 4x revenue. Culture is the single most powerful lever a leader has. Not perks, not splashy initiatives, not a slick mission statement. Culture — defined simply as how people think and act to get results — is the engine behind sustainable performance. When purpose, strategy, and culture are truly aligned, companies grow at four times the rate of those that are only partially aligned. That is not a feel-good claim. It is research-backed and repeatable.
Why culture still feels elusive
Most leaders want a high-performing culture but fall into familiar traps. They choose aspirational buzzwords, plaster them across posters, and pass the responsibility to HR. They declare values at town halls and then wonder why nothing changes. This happens because culture often sits disconnected from the business framework that matters to investors and customers: purpose, strategy, and execution.
Culture is how people think and act to get results.
When those three pillars are disconnected — an outdated purpose statement, a boardroom strategy, and a delegated culture function — you get compliance, not alignment. Compliance keeps people doing just enough to avoid punishment. Alignment gets people choosing to do the work that advances the strategy and the purpose.
The framework that works: Clarity, Alignment, Accountability
Make culture practical. Start with three simple steps that create real movement.
1. Clarity
Complex mission statements fail. Simplicity wins. A clear purpose should act as a North Star that people can remember and repeat. Limit the words you use. Drill down to the core reason the organization exists so employees can easily connect their day-to-day work to something meaningful.
Practical rule: keep your purpose statement short and memorable. When people can say your purpose out loud, you start to get alignment.
2. Alignment
Alignment means linking purpose, strategy, and culture so people know not just what to do but why. Leaders often fall into the "action trap": they pile on trainings, dashboards, and programs without asking what beliefs drive people to take initiative. Beliefs, not procedures, drive behavior.
Ask two questions before launching another initiative:
What belief do we need people to hold to take this action voluntarily?
What experiences will create that belief?
3. Accountability
Reframe accountability as a personal choice rather than a blame assignment. The default workplace form of accountability is reactive: someone missed a deliverable, so we point fingers. That fosters fear and avoidance. Instead, promote choice-driven accountability: the decision each person makes to take the steps necessary to drive key results.
You're either above the line or below the line.
Above the line: "What choice can I make to move results forward?" Below the line: blame, excuses, and victim language. Shift meetings and conversations by naming the dynamic. Ask, "Are we below the line right now? What would above the line look like?" The difference in focus is vast. Organizations spend as much as 50 to 75 percent of their time below the line. Moving even a fraction of that time above the line multiplies productivity.
How beliefs change behavior: experiences matter more than process
Processes and procedures are necessary but insufficient. People act according to beliefs that form from cumulative experiences. If you want different behaviors, design different experiences.
Focus on three powerful experience levers:
Recognition — Publicly and privately acknowledge people for progress and effort. Recognition builds the belief that contributions matter.
Storytelling — Use stories to make abstract priorities concrete. Stories shape identity: this is who we are and why we do this work.
Feedback — Combine praise with constructive insight. Start with what worked, then offer one specific idea for improvement. Feedback that uplifts creates the belief that improvement is possible.
Encourage a culture of EPR: encourage, praise, recognize. When people see teammates owning responsibility and being celebrated for trying, accountability becomes attractive rather than punitive.
Surrender: the counterintuitive leadership advantage
Surrender is not weakness. It is the intentional release of the illusion of control. Leaders who try to make compliance look like alignment exhaust themselves and their teams. Instead, surrender invites leaders to design experiences that let people choose to opt in.
Surrender does three things:
It reduces leader anxiety by acknowledging you cannot control people.
It shifts focus from forcing outcomes to creating conditions where people want to contribute.
It increases long-term results because people commit out of belief rather than fear.
Think of the phrase "control the controllables." The hidden lesson is stop wasting energy on the uncontrollable. Elite teams use that principle in high-pressure environments. Surrender does not mean passivity. It means concentrating effort where it actually moves the needle.
Real-world results
Research shows the payoff. In a study of 243 companies, those with full alignment between purpose, strategy, and culture outgrew partially aligned peers by four times in revenue growth over three years. Case work with diverse organizations — from global brands to corrections facilities — shows the same pattern: clarity plus aligned experiences equals measurable business impact, including lower turnover and higher reinvestment in people.
Practical checklist: how to get started this week
Audit your purpose: Can someone new to the organization say your purpose in six words or fewer?
Map alignment: For one strategic priority, list the beliefs people need to hold and the experiences that will create those beliefs.
Shift accountability language: Start meetings by asking if the conversation is above or below the line. Encourage choice-driven next steps.
Design three experiences: Add one recognition moment, tell one story that illustrates your purpose, and give one piece of feedback using praise-plus-improvement.
Practice surrender: Identify one thing you are trying to control that you cannot. Stop doing it and instead design an experience to influence behavior.
Closing thought
Culture is not a poster. It is a system of beliefs and experiences that results in sustained behavior. When leaders simplify purpose, align strategy and culture, redefine accountability as choice, and design experiences that shape beliefs, the results follow — sometimes dramatically. The work is less about forcing people to comply and more about creating a place where they want to show up, contribute, and hold themselves accountable. That is where true, scalable performance lives.