Host: Lacy Dicharry, Senior Director & Executive Coach, LSU Leadership Development Institute
Interviewed by: Juan Vélez Court, Producer, LSU Leadership Development Institute
Also featured: Clips from Jerry Monier, Shelly Mullenix, and Dr. Jennifer Curry
Published: May 5, 2026
Run time: 30:48
Leadership research sits behind university walls for the people who can least afford to wait for it. Lacy Dicharry has spent twenty years on the other side of that wall, working with teams across states, tribes, territories, and countries, and she built the Leadership Development Institute to hand that research to anyone leading a team.
In the first episode of Teams That Win, producer Juan Vélez Court puts Lacy in the guest seat. They talk about why she waited twelve years to start this show, what the 70-20-10 model says about where learning happens, why the feedback sandwich works against you, and what a company should ask for when a one day workshop has not changed anything.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Lacy Dicharry: Change is physically painful for people. But the number one thing that will undermine any change management process has nothing to do with the change itself. It has everything to do with the people.
Lacy: Welcome to Teams That Win, a podcast of the Louisiana State University Leadership Development Institute, where we explore what makes teams win and get to sit down and talk with leaders who help get those teams there.
I'm Lacy Dicharry, your host and Senior Director and Executive Coach of the Leadership Development Institute. Geaux lead. Joining us is our very own producer, Juan Vélez Court, to help kick off what we are doing here, why this is important, and how it makes a difference for you as an everyday leader. Let's jump in.
So Juan, I have been wanting to do this podcast for years. Can you believe that?
Juan Vélez Court: That's a little bit of time.
Lacy: A little bit of time.
Juan: What would you say has sort of kept you? You inspire people, you motivate people. Where does that come from, and the idea of possibly doing things like this?
Lacy: Well, I want to start with the why. Not just to be very direct: I didn't have the right team. I think I was waiting for this time to come together eventually. But leadership is something that has changed my life.
My background is I spent 20 years doing community development work, helping young people to hear their voices, doing a lot of national level advocacy, international work. And what I found is that in the places that I traveled, and I've been to almost every state, tribes, territories, different countries, the places that had really awesome collaboration, they worked better together, they seemed to enjoy their work better, they had better outcomes and longer sustainability. The thing that was in common with all those groups is that they were investing in leadership development for all levels, including youth, parents, community members.
And eventually I realized, that's what I want to do. Whatever that magic is that makes that work, I want to do that.
Juan: You're talking a lot there about it's about the people, right? Because it's not just about doing the work, it's the structure. I think that a lot of us, whether we go to a restaurant, whether we go to a building, even if nobody is talking, you feel the vibe, you feel the energy, how a person says hi to you. So what does that motivation for caring about others, and how much they feel like they belong in the place. Where does that come from?
Lacy: Yeah. Leadership is actually an influence process. A lot of people think about it as a process, a lot of people think about it as a title or an action, right? And it is that influence and relational process between somebody who has this amazing idea, or a group of people who want to see something happen, and the people that they need to help them achieve that.
And the vibe of leadership is really driven by each person and situation. But that's really, you know, the energy underneath leadership is: what do you bring to the table, and how do you want to work together to make this thing happen?
Juan Vélez Court: I've had the privilege of knowing Lacy for well over a decade. And even now, and I have told you this privately, I envision you to be one of my own mentors. So truly it is a privilege to be part of all this. And I think it's wild, even for episode one you're the host, but it's kind of like we got you here, we got you on the spot.
Lacy Dicharry: On the spot the first session. (laughs)
Juan: Yeah, because I think it's important for anything. You can have the knowledge, but if you don't know the person behind the knowledge, it's just fancy words. So if you were to describe the human who is Lacy Dicharry, who is that?
Lacy: I really believe that I'm here to serve a much higher purpose than myself. I think that's the most important thing. I feel like my purpose here is to help humans level up and reach their potential. That's a belief that I exist at.
At a more daily level, I love ideas, I love innovation. I'm a mom. I have a [daughter] who is absolutely my favorite human in the world. She is hilarious and makes me laugh every day. I love competition and sports. That's part of it. I just thrive in that kind of environment, like how can we be the best.
And I love working, helping people to be their best version of what they want to be. That's why I love my team, getting to work with people who really want to be their best as well and help serve people. So that's really, I think, the core of me.
Juan: And that's beautiful, because I had the privilege of working at the federal level, national level, much like yourself. And whenever I was giving workshops, trainings, and I would see somebody that was a supervisor or a trainer, things like that, whenever I would learn about the story, there was a personal component that told them, I want to make a change. It's not just a fancy title. As you have said, this means something to me, because I want to change something.
And I think that's something a lot of people struggle with, which is: does my work actually matter? Because I can make you feel good, but if I leave the room and I never come back, did I contribute something that left a lasting impression? What does that hunger come from for you? Because I've seen you from youth run organizations to so many different things, and that motivation has been there, and that doesn't happen to a lot of people. Where does that come from?
Lacy: You're asking the hard questions straight out of the gate. I don't know if I have an answer for that. I have been asked that a lot of different, you know, I used to do a lot of speaking engagements and advocacy around my experience in foster care and mental health advocacy, and people would ask me that, like, where does your resilience come from? Where does that fire come from?
And to be quite honest with you, I don't really know. I don't know. It's always been there.
Juan: You say. Maybe that's what you're trying to look for, maybe that inspires you to be in different places, finding that answer.
Lacy: You know, I think when I was younger I would have wanted to know. I don't know if it's my life experiences, having gone through a lot of trauma growing up, or if it is just this fire that was put inside of me. But I think when I was younger, I would have wanted to know. Nowadays I think I'm okay with whatever the reason is. It is what it is, right? It is how it is.
And I just know that my truth is I want to use that passion, that fire. I hear “fierce,” “intense,” that's kind of how people describe me sometimes. But what I do know is I want to use that for good. I want to use that to help as many people as I possibly can with the time that I have.
Juan Vélez Court: Thank you so much for sharing that, because I feel like at some point we've all needed that source of motivation or inspiration. And to give everybody a preview of what's up on the show, we want to highlight a couple of clips from featured guests, starting with Jerry Monier.
Jerry Monier: [episode clip] Admit that you don't know it all. Because I think sometimes, especially with new frontline leaders, or even we get into these ruts, older guys too, where we've got to prove something, right, and we've got to be the smartest or the toughest person in the room. And you come to a point where they don't need to be me anymore. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of sitting back and kind of working through and figuring things out.
Juan: And here's Shelly Mullenix.
Shelly Mullenix: [episode clip] Focusing on the mental health angle, for me, going back to some of the student athletes. I've seen, unfortunately, a number of athletes who have maybe lost a relative, parent, grandparent, like that, prior to a game, or literally at halftime. They go back to their locker, their phone, and there's a moment.
So in that example, I remember sitting with a student athlete in the visitor locker room, experiencing the moment with him, because he had just lost a family member. And the expectation is that this kid needs to get back on the field. He was a starting player and it was a big game. And just trying to utilize all of my resources that I've either learned as an athletic trainer or been trained in as a social worker, to maybe reframe the moment for the person. Asking questions instead of what I want to do, which is I want you to go play. What would your mother, dad feel about that in this moment? What do you think they would want you to do?
Juan: And here's Dr. Jennifer Curry.
Dr. Jennifer Curry: [episode clip] And I became the counselor in a school, and one of the areas I was least prepared for was career and college readiness. And I realized, wait a second, nobody really taught me how to do this. In fact, most counseling programs have one class about careers, and they mostly focus on adult career development.
I had the idea, I want to explore this more, because I know that careers can give kids hope. So if a child is living in a situation where maybe their family is in poverty, maybe they have parents that are missing from their lives, maybe they're living with a guardian, maybe they just feel overall hopeless or in despair, knowing that life can get better matters. And it matters for helping our kids overcome anxiety and depression.
And so seeing a pathway in your life, that things can be different for you, is so important. And that you do have choices you can make, even if it feels like you don't.
Juan Vélez Court: And as we come back here, Lacy, and we listen to those clips, what can people expect from the show?
Lacy Dicharry: This space matters to me because it absolutely takes everyone. It takes every single person across the state to make Louisiana the best that it can be. And getting the privilege, and it is a privilege, to have this seat at the Leadership Development Institute and really get to drive the next iteration of the vision of this, it is a gift and an honor.
It really is. I genuinely feel that way with the LSU brand. I mean, we love you. I love you. And there is just this positive and energetic vibe, especially in the college. We're in the College of Human Sciences & Education. Our dean, [Roland Mitchell], every single time I hear him speak, I am energized, I am excited, I am inspired. And everybody on our team across the entire college is just the best people. They are the most genuine, good hearted people, and so getting to be a part of that team is incredible. So I think anybody would love getting to be a part of that team just because of that energy.
And then the thing that is really important to me is our founder, Dr. Ed Holton, founded this institute 15 years ago, and it's gone through a few different iterations in the last bit. And what I'm excited to do is really build on that vision and build on what was built before, so that we can take this out and make a huge impact for all sectors across Louisiana. I genuinely want to make life better for everyone across the state, and I think leadership development is a really great way to do that.
Juan Vélez Court: I want to hear a little bit more about that, because when we hear “institutes,” when we hear about leadership development, it can be really difficult for somebody that says, hey, I lead a team, in theory I want to do this, but I don't know what it practically looks like. Is it a slide deck? Is it a five hour workshop? Is it a structure of emails that I send to my team? So could you break it down for us as far as, what does LDI do on the day to day, and how can people benefit from that?
Lacy Dicharry: Yeah, that's a great question. There is an entire field of study of leadership and leadership development and leaders, right? And without getting too much into the weeds of the research side of things, what we do is translate really solid research into practical applications. So at an institute we get the best of both worlds. We stand half in research, half in practice.
And what I love about what we get to do, especially in this podcast, is we get to open doors. A lot of people out in the business world, if you have a business, if you've started a company, if you're in a family owned business, if you are in a corporation, sometimes you don't get access to that research, because it's gatekept behind some of the walls of the institutions. So unless you go to school for it, unless you go and get a master's or PhD, you don't know the best things that work. And there's some great companies out there, leadership companies, that do their own research, but it's not accessible to everybody.
As a leader, if you're a new leader, you're wanting to get a team going, or you're a new CEO and you have a new direction and a vision that you want to take your company, how do you do it? How do you know the right thing to do? How do you know what direction to go in?
And that's what I'm excited about with LDI and this podcast: how do we make leadership accessible? How do we make sure that people can access, even if it's 15 minute clips, something that I can do differently today to make my team better, or to make myself a better leader so that my people are better or perform better? I want to be able to make sure that that gets in the hands of everyone across the state.
Juan Vélez Court: I like that you mentioned accessible, because I think a cousin to it in the concept of leadership is the word intimidation. Because when you talk about research, maybe there's research that helps me, but what if it also identifies something that I'm maybe not doing great? What if it identifies something that not just my team needs to change, but I look at the mirror and I ask myself, am I willing to recognize that? But then after that, am I willing to actually do something about it, especially if I don't visualize what is the end result?
What would you say to somebody like that, that maybe is hungry for that change, maybe they want to contact somebody like us, but the fear of change is intimidating to them?
Lacy Dicharry: Okay, there's a lot in what you just said, I want to start with an example. There's this old practice of the [stuff] sandwich, right? So start with something good, put the bad feedback in the middle, and then end with something good. That has been practiced for decades, and what the research shows is it has the opposite effect that you think it does.
They hear the good thing, and then they know that the bad thing is in the middle, and then they're not even listening to the last positive thing. And so people have become accustomed to that, and so none of the positive feedback helps.
And what research shows is that we have to give that positive feedback in the moment as we see it. It's that immediate, “that was awesome, I love how you wrote that memo today. It was clear, it hit all the points that we talked about, and it was proofread really well. I didn't even have to make any changes.”
Juan Vélez Court: Yeah, because something that I know can happen is, I'm your supervisor: I've got to have a meeting with Lacy on Friday. So I send the email, you get the email, maybe it's on Monday, so you're cooking it up in your head, what can the meeting be about?
Lacy: Oh.
Juan: It often happens that when I start with, Lacy, first, congratulations, because I know you're doing great. But what the person can translate is, I'm waiting. I'm waiting for the turn. Thank you for all of this, but I am waiting. People get more defensive, so when the middle happens people go on the attack. But then I try to give you something positive at the end, like, it's going to be okay.
Do you think we fall under the habit of, we do what we learned, right? We don't know if it works or not, but maybe I don't even have enough time to figure out another option.
Lacy Dicharry: Well, I think that's human nature. We do as we see, and we do as we're shown. We don't even necessarily do as we're told. We know that from raising kids and what we learned growing up from our parents. We just kind of tend to replicate that unless we have an intervention and we learn a different way. And so the same thing happens in [leadership]. Unless we learn a different way of doing things, and really sometimes it's more than just learning to do different, it's learning to be different.
And, back to talking about leadership development, a lot of times people think that that's just training. If I just get a piece of information, or I go to a training, then I'm going to be an amazing leader that has all of the answers.
And there is this great image going around on social media, the difference in athletic teams and everyday in the workplace. Athletic teams have this train, train, train, train, train, perform. Train, train, train, train, train, perform. They spend most of their time training and only some of the time performing. And in the workplace it's perform, perform, perform, perform, that one day of training that we invested in this year, perform, perform, perform. And it illustrates this idea that it doesn't make any sense.
If we want to be the best worker, the best leader, the best builder of teams, the best strategist for our company, whatever your role is, we have to spend more time training and learning, and more than technical skills. I think that's the other piece. We focus a lot on workforce development in Louisiana, that's very, very, very important for us right now, but it's the soft skills. What we hear across industries is that we have great technical people. What we need help with is the human side. How do we manage the human side?
And so that's what leadership development does, and it takes, over time, that intentional development of those skills that we need to be the best. Leadership is not a training. It can be, right, but that real leadership development follows this thing called the 70-20-10 model.
The Center for Creative Leadership, which is a worldwide, well, they've been doing leadership research for fifty years. They're one of the leaders in this, and we are one of their channel partners, so we help to disseminate their information. But the [10]: ten percent of becoming a better leader, of learning, happens in training. It happens with some kind of information that you get. Twenty percent happens in that transfer, whether it's coaching or mentorship or very specific supervisor guidance. You have to have that 20%. Okay, learn this thing. But then how do I apply it?
And sometimes it's that inner work, like, I'm afraid of the change, I'm afraid of going to have this conversation. I learned how to have a hard conversation, but I don't have the emotional bandwidth to do it.
Juan Vélez Court: Right. And if we don't stop and do that, we actually have more questions, because, yeah, you gave me this knowledge, but then I come to you, Lacy, how do I put it into practice? You can figure it out, I just learned about it, right? And it was a one day workshop. Contact a resource? No.
Then you start looking it up online, you find ten articles and it's overwhelming. Because it's not like their work stops to figure all that out, right? They end up not using it.
Lacy Dicharry: Or you use it and you cause damage, because you're like, okay, so they said clear is kind, so I'm going to be very clear and I'm going to tell this coworker exactly everything that they did that wasn't okay. And we have to unlearn a little bit too. Like, okay, it's good that you practiced. And what does it look like to have somebody to talk through and try to apply it? How do I get better at applying it? That's really the development piece.
And then the seventy percent of learning actually happens in real time. That's the hands on, in practice [data]. And without that, to come back and ask questions, we're just not going to be able to develop as we should as a leader.
I want to say that it is absolutely crucial, but what a lot of companies do is they think training is a solution. Training is a multi billion dollar industry around the world, and actually 70% of that training is wasted. That money is wasted, and we know that from learning transfer research. Dr. Holton is the king of learning transfer research, and what we know is that if you don't have that 20 percent for implementation and that ongoing follow up, actually most of what people learn in training is not going to be applied.
Juan Vélez Court: And I think that leads to maybe a word that can be incredibly intimidating for many, which is delegation. Because at the end of the day, I can train you, I can coach you, I can mentor you, but as a leader, how do you trust in your team to be able to delegate, and maybe they don't do things to the best of your expectations, because each individual's expectation is going to be so different? Could you talk to us about what that role is, what that day to day looks like to help them get to that next level?
Lacy Dicharry: Yeah. What we do is help leaders, [whether] we can do that for them, help them with ongoing coaching and feedback and partnership with a leader, or help them to learn how to coach. So there's a whole practice around being a coach as a leader.
And, can they invest the time it takes to teach their team members or their followers how to do the thing right? It does take time, it does take intention, but you have to be able to build up their capacity to be able to delegate to them.
And so, often what I hear from a lot of leaders is, we don't have time for that, our workload is already overwhelming, we cannot get to everything in the day, we don't have time to really invest in that. And so they just end up taking it on and doing it rather than developing that next generation, or their next successor.
And what we at LDI do is we either help the leader, teach them how to become a developer or a coach for their people, or we can actually help to coach their people directly. And so that's one of my favorite things I get to do, is really invest the information, but then the time to help develop those people.
Juan Vélez Court: And what I'm grateful for is, I know we've been talking about psychological safety, we'll be talking about many things that even as we were planning this podcast, it's what is the correlation between these different individuals, professionals. So as we begin to warm up for future episodes, and we begin this one for you, what is a strategy that not only do you help organizations implement, but it is a strategy that you put into practice as well?
Lacy Dicharry: One of the things, I am constantly learning. And so, you know, what's going to make us more effective, what new information is out there, what are we learning? And especially with AI and tech and all of that stuff changing so fast, we have to learn how to be agile. We have to learn to learn more quickly.
Juan: Adapt.
Lacy: Adapt and implement quickly, which underneath all of that actually means, how do we change faster? And change is physically painful for people. The neurons in our brain, physiologically, they have to grow differently, and that is painful. And it's no wonder people are not wanting to change, and they definitely don't want to change at the rapid pace that our world today requires.
Juan Vélez Court: Especially if maybe they're even feeling burned out. It's, how do I change when I need these strategies for my team and I myself don't have them, but then it is expected for me to be the one to pivot, for me to be the one to change, or for me to be the one to lead the way when I need that for myself?
Lacy Dicharry: Yes. And you're getting into my absolute favorite topic, which is human-centered leadership. And we know this from change management research for decades, but the number one thing that will undermine any change management process has nothing to do with the change itself. It has everything to do with the people, the people's response to that change.
Are they willing to buy in? Are they bought in? Do they think it's a good idea? Are they willing to do the effort it takes to make that change? And we skip that step so often.
And what I get called in for with these big level initiatives, and I get called into coaching, sometimes [leaders] who are really struggling with the human side of change. Either they can't get their team members to change, or they're not sure how to engage people in that human side of things, or they themselves are struggling.
Juan Vélez Court: [Give an] example. I call you. What do I tend to share with you that leads to maybe you providing some of those coaching services?
Lacy Dicharry: Yeah. A local hospital was implementing a brand-new electronic health record system, and they had an executive who had excellent technical skills, knew exactly what to do. He had flown in from a different state and moved his family down here. They really needed [him], because he was like, okay, we're staying on track, we're pushing this forward.
But really they called me in to say, can you help him? We don't want to lose him, it'll take a year and a half to replace [him]. We need help. How can we teach him how to listen? How to get his people on board? Because all of the people wanted to leave, because it was so stressful.
And it's, how do we help on that human side of things? How do we manage the emotions? How do we understand resistance and engage resistance in people? And so that's some of the stuff that we can do. We do everything from individual executive coaching, leadership coaching at all levels. We really partner with companies to understand what is the actual need that they have, what are the problems that they're trying to solve, and what are the best solutions for those problems.
Again, a lot of people think training is the answer, so they go out, they find a trainer, they bring them in, they do a one off, and then it doesn't shift the needle. I think a lot of people have probably had that.
Juan Vélez Court: And then maybe they give you a call, Lacy: that was great, but things didn't change.
Lacy Dicharry: Or they don't call back, because it's like, well, it didn't work, so we're not going to try again. And that's the biggest mistake I think that companies make: well, we did this training, we got some stuff, but it didn't actually change, do anymore training. And that's really the wrong answer, because what do you need to do differently? And that's the development piece. And maybe training wasn't actually what was needed to solve that problem. There's a lot of different things that can happen.
And so what we do with companies is we come in, we partner, we do a validated process based on research. What is the need that you actually have? So we think that this is the problem, but we can do the deeper dive to understand the actual problem. We map the strategies to that actual problem that will help achieve the goal, and we can do that at every level.
We come in more as a strategic partner. I mean, we can do one off workshops, we can do team building, we do a lot of those, people want those, Emergenetics or Five Behaviors or DiSC or strengths building workshops, for those team sessions. But really we want to be a long-term strategic partner for you.
Juan Vélez Court: From all these workshops, opportunities to connect from so many industries, and you get to do research, learn about what that environment looks like, what have you learned as you have had this role here at LDI?
Lacy Dicharry: Well, the biggest thing that I have learned is that building teams that win is an art and a science. And a lot of times leaders get these teams, and you've got great people who perform these great roles, but how do you make them work together to be highly effective? And there is an entire science behind that.
And that's why I'm excited about this particular podcast, because we get to dive into what actually makes teams work, what makes them win, from talking to actual athletic coaches and athletes, to some of our incredible world [class] researchers here who lead these amazing research teams. Some of our team is going to come in and share some of that wisdom with people.
Really that's what I am so excited about. We want everybody listening to this podcast to have access to that high level, high quality research in a way that you can learn about and apply, that while you're brushing your [hair] getting ready for the day, you can take it and be like, I'm going to try this today with my team.
We really want to showcase those teams that win and the leaders that make them win, that build those teams. We want to make sure that leadership is accessible, not only the research but the practice based application, and that everybody has access to that leadership development.
And we want to make sure that we're connecting everybody in Louisiana to the incredible things that are happening at LSU. There are so many literally world renowned, award winning researchers and teams here who are making everyday life better for Louisiana, and we need to share that. We want to highlight that. And what are the lessons we can learn from those teams that you can take to your everyday workplace?
Juan Vélez Court: And I think the most beautiful thing with the podcast is, for everybody listening, you may be driving to work, you may be taking that shower, you may be making that coffee, asking myself, do I make a change? What do I not know? Where do I go? Because now we've gone from maybe lack of information online to an abundance of information, and it can be difficult to find something that speaks to me, that speaks to you.
We invite everybody to check out Teams That Win, to enjoy this beautiful, emotional, strategic, educational journey. Because if we remain curious about listening to those whose story we don't know, when we find out, it makes so much sense to figure out what they do. And you get to be the host of that.
Lacy Dicharry: That's right. And powerful. I want to add, some of the guests that we have coming on are just these powerhouses, and their stories are, I mean, it makes me tear up. Just the power behind some of these people who have been leaders from behind, or from the side, and they are the thing that makes the team win. And so I'm so excited for everybody to join us.
Can't wait to have you on future episodes of Teams That Win. Thank you for listening. If you want to partner with us, send us an email at ldi@lsu.edu. Now, geaux lead.