Teams That Win Podcast
Leadership shapes the people around you every day. Teams That Win explores what it takes to build trust, navigate hard conversations, lead through change, and hold a team together when things get difficult. From psychological safety and managing conflict to transitioning into leadership roles, each episode dives into the questions leaders live with every day.
Hosted by Lacy Dicharry, Senior Director of the LSU Leadership Development Institute, the show draws on more than twenty years of work with teams across states, territories, and countries. New episodes arrive every three weeks on YouTube and Spotify.
Podcast Episodes
Why Change is Physically Painful (And What to Do About It) | May 5th, 2026
Leadership development works differently than most organizations think. Research shows that 10% of how leaders grow comes from training, 20% from the coaching that makes it stick, and 70% from the real work itself. When that middle 20% is missing, even strong training rarely changes behavior back on the job.
Lacy Dicharry, LDI Senior Director, shares the story of a hospital executive whose technical skills were strong, but whose team was on the verge of walking out.
Topics covered:
- Why the feedback sandwich produces the opposite of what you intend
- The training-to-performance gap and why athletic teams get this right
- The human side of change management and why people resist it
- What it means to make leadership research accessible outside a university
- What LDI does for leaders and organizations across Louisiana
What 33 Years of Leadership Will Teach You | May 26th, 2026
Becoming the boss of people who used to be your peers is one of the hardest shifts in any career. Jerry Monier spent 33 years in public safety working through what that transition actually requires, and what it means to lead people well on the other side of it.
Topics covered:
- The buddy-to-boss transition and why it trips up even strong individual contributors
- Capacity vs. capability: what the difference means for how you lead
- Why new managers feel pressure to prove themselves and what it costs them
- Strengths-based leadership and how CliftonStrengths changes how you see your team
- How to build a leadership network that actually works
How to Support Your Team Through Hard Times | June 16th, 2026
Leading well starts with being well, both physically and emotionally. That is true for athletes, leaders, team members, and anyone working to thrive and succeed.
Shelly Mullenix, Senior Associate Athletic Director for Health & Wellness at LSU Athletics, has built her career around that idea. She started as an athletic trainer, then earned a degree in social work so she could support the whole person, and she shares what it takes to care for student-athletes and teams through everyday pressure and the hardest moments they face.
Topics covered:
- Why prioritizing mental health matters when you work on a team
- How rest and creating mindful spaces can help people perform better
- How vulnerability helps leaders build trust with their teams
- How to lead with influence from any role on a team
- Strategies to support team members when they are experiencing challenges
Why the Smartest Teams Don't Always Work | July 7th, 2026
What makes a team great comes down to how the people on it work together. Google studied more than 100 of its own teams and found the difference was psychological safety.
Natasha Simoneaux, Business & Operations Manager at LSU's Leadership Development Institute, has spent decades leading retail, service, and operations teams. She and host Lacy Dicharry get into the science of how strong teams are built, where trust begins, and how safety and accountability work together to bring out a team's best work.
Topics covered:
- What psychological safety means and why it shapes how a team performs
- The four stages of safety that let people speak up and contribute
- How safety and accountability work together to bring out a team's best work
- How to tell whether your team feels safe, and how strong teams avoid groupthink
- Why inviting your team to challenge you makes you a more effective leader
Two Rules for Seeing Potential in Anyone | July 28th, 2026
How do you help someone find work that actually fits them? It starts earlier than you would think, and with two rules.
Dr. Jennifer Curry is a faculty member in the Counselor Education Program at LSU's College of Human Sciences & Education, and a lead expert consultant on the PBS Kids series Skillsville. She and host Lacy Dicharry get into how we come to see ourselves in a career, why so much of it traces back to identity, and what it takes to help anyone find their way toward work that fits.
Topics covered:
- Why career readiness starts with identity, your interests, your values, and what motivates you
- The first rule: don't be the dream squasher who tells people what they can't do
- The second rule: be an excellent interviewer who asks good questions
- Why burnout often comes from a role that no longer fits the person in it
- What Curry means when she calls all of us career chameleons
- Why neurodivergent thinkers are an asset to any team, and what that means for how we hire