Guest: Dave Lombardo, Assistant Director, LSU Leadership Development Institute
Host: Lacy Dicharry, Senior Director & Executive Coach, LSU Leadership Development Institute
Published: September 29, 2026
Run time: 31:52
In the military, everyone signed a piece of paper agreeing to go into harm’s way for a greater purpose. Dave Lombardo spent twenty-four years leading inside that arrangement. Then he retired and had to work out what motivates people in a completely different field of work.
He joined LDI as Assistant Director after a career as an Army armor officer and an instructor at the Command and General Staff College. He talks with Lacy Dicharry about reading a culture before trying to change it, the difference between positional and personal power, and the question he used to put to a room full of experienced officers about whether they were good followers.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and may contain errors.
Transcript
Dave Lombardo: Take a moment and think about what you stand for as an individual. What are your values? How you interact with people. Are you kind to the [cashier]? How do you handle your kids? How do you handle stress? What are your values? What do you stand for? Then really assess: is that where I want to be?
Lacy Dicharry: [introduction] Welcome back to Teams That Win, a podcast from the Leadership Development Institute at Louisiana State University, 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, Senior Director of LDI.
Today I am excited to have our guest. Well, not really a guest. Dave Lombardo is our new Assistant Director at the Leadership Development Institute. Welcome, Dave.
Dave Lombardo: Thank you.
Lacy: We are excited to have you. Not just here in the studio, but here at LDI. I would love for you to do a brief introduction. Tell our audience, tell everybody who you are. And how did you come to us?
Dave: I spent twenty four years in the Army as an armor officer. Specialized in [reconnaissance] and loved every minute of it. I would do it again in a [heartbeat].
Recently retired, found myself for a short time in the construction industry here in Louisiana, and said, I want to get into [education] again, and I want to get into leadership studies. Luckily, you had a job. Found my way to your doorstep, and I'm happy you opened the door to me.
Lacy Dicharry: We're glad that you chose us and that you're here. All of the people that we work with, our clients, are going to benefit greatly from all of Dave's expertise.
Lacy Dicharry: I am curious, because we talk a lot about transitions in leadership. You've gone through a pretty significant transition.
Dave Lombardo: Right. Still going.
Lacy: I've got a lot of friends in the military, either [current] or [former], who talk about this as a major challenge. We sign up for a specific thing in the military. We go, we serve. And then once it's done, what do we do next? And what transfers? What doesn't? It is a transition.
You've got some solid ground. And then you've got this, what is happening, until you find yourself on solid ground on the other side. Tell me a little bit about what that transition has been like for you from the context of leadership.
Dave Lombardo: Eventually you start coming to [terms] with, I need some relatable skills in the workforce. Many of us are [pointed in the] direction of project management. I went that [route] and [aligned] it with education.
I had a job where I was doing Director of Operations type of stuff with project management, and realized I can give back more. In the military, everything you do is serving a higher purpose, and that becomes you. And then you move into the civilian world. What is my higher purpose? What am I serving? Am I serving my country? Serving my community?
[Locally] in my military career, I participated in adult education. Whether it was teaching Army [captains], and then eventually teaching at the Command and General Staff College, which is mid level managers of all the joint services attend that.
I smile when I get to be in front of people and pull information out of them in terms of: who are you? What do you stand for? How can you align teams of individuals to a purpose, and achieve success, whether it's a technical mission or strategic mission? My wife has to hear about it all the time, as do my kids.
That is where I started looking more into leadership consulting, or consulting in general. Then I learned the majority of consulting is financial or management consulting, but not leadership development. And a little Google again led me to you and LSU.
The transition, as you can tell, developed over [time]. There's different steps to help me figure out who I am and what I want to do, as well as what can I afford versus income? Which is another thing we struggle with. How hard do I want to work? And eventually figuring out, if I can do what I'm loving, I will bend over backwards to do what I love.
Lacy Dicharry: And you did get to teach leadership courses when you were at the Army college, right? Tell us a little bit about that.
Dave Lombardo: I wasn't necessarily [teaching] specific leadership [doctrine]. We have a whole team for that. But I was Army tactics, so [the theory of] it is organizational leadership. It's the planning of the execution of it, as we call it, command and control of it, or mission command for those military types listening.
But it was a lot of identifying what we want to get out of the course. Sometimes it was the team building portion of technical leadership. I said, okay, I have a lot of experience doing it the wrong way, seeing it done wrong. But also seeing it done right. And so I tried to impart all that wisdom to these military young officers, so they don't have to make all the mistakes I had.
I feel like I grew as a person through that opportunity. Because for as much as I shared with them, they were sharing with me. You're never too old to learn. These [young officers] were teaching me a lot.
It's just, I want to continue to do that. I want to continue to help people see themselves and grow as individual leaders, but also as team leaders.
Lacy Dicharry: We talk a lot about leadership development here, and now talking about the science behind teams that win. I'm curious, in your experience, because you've been with us for a couple months now.
We have a very research informed academic side of the house. We partner with the School of Leadership & Human Resource Development, and we really look at academic journals, peer reviewed journals, that have a high threshold and rigor of study. We take those and put them into practice with people who may have never read an academic journal article at all. We have to translate leadership into practice.
You're almost doing a similar thing coming out of the military. For leaders out there who might have transferred from a different career, or translated from the military, and you're trying to figure out a new way of leading, a new way of leading teams. Walk us through what that process has been for you. What are the things that you can still use from the military, and what are the things you noticed that you had to shift?
Dave Lombardo: I think the first thing is, you have to [recognize] that every organization is [unique] and there's different levels of culture. There's the grand scheme of organizational culture, the one that gets put on paper from the CEO and they try to [push it] down. But then within every department there's a culture, and within every team there's a culture. You have subcultures.
As I move into a new organization, the way in the military, we recognize the amount of change you face, whether it's moving to a new location, a new organization every three years. You become very perceptive to who's who in the zoo. Who has sway? Who are the hard workers? Who is not? But also, what's the culture of this particular organization?
Again, it's a bunch of individuals that together build something that is recognizable in terms of culture. The first thing I try to do is just assess, what is the culture? Because you can't go in and be like, we're doing it differently now. You're going to rub people the wrong way. So identify the culture. See where you personally as an individual fit into it. And then you have to start building trust.
Say you assess the culture is not good and it needs work, and you're the designated leader, so it is your responsibility to make organizational change [occur]. Then you find a way to gain trust. Live the example you expect of others. And then you can start transforming an organization, whether it's discipline, whether it's motivation.
What I learned from the military, moving [so often]: assess, and be careful of judgment. Because maybe it actually works there. Maybe it's you who has to change a little bit. But leadership traits, nonetheless: be genuine, be comfortable in your own skin. Which is, oh my God, difficult for so many of us. Because some of us don't have natural charisma or that EQ or social ability, and get nervous when we have to talk to others or talk in front of people.
[What I've] found is, if you're authentic, be like, I have to have a tough conversation, team, and I'm uncomfortable, but I owe it to you to be direct. [Lay] things out with clarity. Communicate with clarity. And then we can make change, or we can all align and move forward in a common direction.
Lacy Dicharry: I'm hearing a process that you laid out, which is one of the things that I got excited about with your skill set, and just how your brain operates. It's process oriented. What needs to happen? What are the steps we need to get there? What do we need at each [step]? What are the [tasks] that are needed? What are the resources needed? And then what do people need to be able to align and understand with that process?
That process, even though the environment in the military is different than maybe in a company or in a school system, the process can be applied.
Dave Lombardo: Absolutely. People are people everywhere. People are naturally [driven], and they're always seeking leadership, I think. Are you going to [facilitate] that? See what makes them [tick] as individuals, as a group. And utilize that when you can identify it, to drive success.
Lacy Dicharry: That's one of the things that we use a lot of CliftonStrengths for, to identify some of those strengths and skills that teams have, or the talents that people can lean towards, so that we can leverage them. Because people are happy, they're more productive, they've got more engagement, they've got more passion. They stay longer, if we recognize their strengths and apply that.
I'm curious. Have you experienced any differences in transition, from leading a team or an individual in the military to leading in the [civilian] world? I'm assuming, and we've talked a little bit about this, in the military part of what you sign up for is, I'm going to serve and do what I'm told to do. That is not necessarily the case in the civilian world. I can leave. If I don't like what you tell me, I can leave today.
Talk to us about that. Have you had any challenges in that? Have you seen anything in coaching other leaders that they have struggled with in that?
Dave Lombardo: This is an active learning process for me. We talked about mentorship in this, and as many military leaders figure out: when you're in the military, everybody signs their name on a piece of paper saying, I'm willing to go in harm's way for a greater purpose.
Lacy Dicharry: Right. And we thank them for that.
Dave Lombardo: I thank you for it also.
But in the civilian role, how do I motivate and inspire a group of civilians? They're all individuals from different backgrounds, but so is the military. What are they coming to work every day for? In the military, [it's simple], you're told so, and you signed a contract.
It's not the same [in this] role. You sign a contract as an individual. But is that person motivated by their paycheck every month? The vacation that they have coming up? The success of the organization? I [don't] know. I've been driven to have to dig deeper into individuals to try to pull out what their motivation is. Because in the military, I just assume everybody's rowing in the same direction. That is the organizational mission. There's no second guessing it. It's not the revenue stats that drive us.
I am still trying to understand what it looks like.
Lacy Dicharry: I think you're not alone. Every time we have a new team member come on, every time we have a new direction we have to go, every time we take a new job at a new company, we all have to figure it out again. Because every human is not the same.
What motivates some, it might be they want the job and the paycheck. That's okay. That's a reasonable contract to have with a company. Some people want to have a good working relationship where they [enjoy] the people that they spend time with. They don't care what the job is, they want happiness in their environment.
And some people, and we're seeing this more and more now, especially after COVID and with some of the younger generations coming in, but systemically across the world, people are having higher expectations. I want my job to align with my fulfillment and my purpose in life. That is an even higher threshold to try to understand.
You're not alone trying to figure out, okay, what is the motivation of each person? What does that look like? For leaders listening, I'm sure you experience this every day. You have a new team member, you have new people coming on, like, what's going to motivate this person? And what motivates them during a certain time of year might be different than another time of year.
Lacy Dicharry: And you mentioned something important: trust. Trust matters in [all] environments. Especially in environments where you have to do the thing that you're told to do, and more so when I don't have to do the thing that you tell me to do. Talk to me a little bit about trust, and how trust plays a role in influencing people to be motivated toward a goal.
Dave Lombardo: I personally believe trust is [everything]. Trust in what is the question. I think it's trust that a leader is not going to waste an individual's time, is not going to waste organizational resources, is going to provide psychological safety in the workplace.
I desire to earn the trust of my employees, thinking that if I can earn their trust, then they know I'm not going to [waste] their time. I'm going to keep them safe. I'm going to use resources properly.
If you can trust me, then I am given the opportunity to [exert] discipline when necessary, to give goals, to set timelines, and look somebody in the eye and be like, all right, we're short on time, this must get done, I need you to do that. You got that? Do you have any issues with that? Tell me your resource constraints, whatever, and I as the leader will help manage that, so you can get back to work.
Only then, I think, will you have people that will go the extra mile. Now, they don't get paid for the extra mile. Let's be honest. So if you need them to go the extra mile, how are you going to do it? You're not going to get far if you don't have their trust.
Lacy Dicharry: That's right. And something in research and academic terms, you can plug your ears if you don't like the academic side of things, but relational cohesion theory is something that we talk about.
Dave Lombardo: I was going to say that. I figured you had that locked and loaded.
Lacy: Relational cohesion theory basically just means that if I trust my leader, and I have a good relationship with them, and they make me feel positive emotions about that relationship, then I am willing to do what they ask. I am willing to go for the team. I'm going to have higher performance, have higher intrinsic motivation. I'm going to stay, have higher organizational commitment, meaning loyalty to the company. And I'm also going to have a higher commitment to the job, to stay longer, and not even think about leaving, because I'm going to be more engaged.
Some of what you're talking about, that trust is a basic building block, to then build on those positive emotions and that positive relationship, that does actually help people go above and beyond.
Dave Lombardo: And they're going to trust if you're present. Presence is key. Imagine a principal of a school that never leaves their office, and you have a huge amount of faculty and staff that are like, I know what I should be doing, but I don't know what they're doing.
In the military, we pride ourselves on being a soldier's soldier. Meaning, I'm willing to grab a shovel. I told you to dig, but I'm going to be with you and get my hands dirty. That builds camaraderie, which to me is the number one thing I miss in the military, is the camaraderie.
I think that's absolutely vital to the trust. You've got to be present. You have to be there doing the work with them.
Lacy Dicharry: One of the things that we've talked about is the difference in positional power and influence. You have to have the trust. You've got to have a clear mission. You've got to have the right people in the right seats. But when you don't have positional power, what does it take to influence other people to align to that goal?
Tell us a little bit about, what is the difference in positional power versus influence power and personal power?
Dave Lombardo: As a leader, you are given authority to hire, to fire, to [set] goals, to assign tasks. That is positional power. That is your authority. Everybody knows it. You don't have to [flaunt] it.
So how can you take that? And does that alone really motivate and inspire people? No. For anybody listening, the military is not all positional power. I don't know what the military was like prior to when I joined. But we all strive to get on the personal power side, the influence side.
And that is done, very frequently, and I can't speak for all military leaders across the board, but we are in the service industry as leaders. You have to understand and accept that you serve them. You give them direction, you resource them, and you empower them. But they're the ones doing the work. [They] get credit, and you better get the credit back to them, because they are the ones doing the work. Now, hopefully you're there present with them doing the work as well.
That's where you're going to gain that personal power. That trust, being there with them, inspiring and motivating through personal connection. And there's a level there of being too close versus too far away, and a lot of us struggle at times. Twenty four years, I didn't do everything right. In fact, the vast majority is probably not right. But I learned through that majority and experienced what right looks like for me. And that may be different for you, for them.
Be comfortable in your skin. Then you can finally [exert] that personal power, so that when you look somebody in the eye again and say, we're going to have to dig deeper, we're going to have to go further, and we have less to do it with. Are you on board with me? [They say], I trust you, I'm on board, let's do it. Okay, go. Not going to like it, but I'm here with you. Here with you. Not for you.
Lacy Dicharry: That's one of the things that we talk about with teams, in team dynamics. How are decisions made? It can be through consensus or it can be through commitment.
What you're talking about is when you have that higher trust, when you've earned the right to show up and say, hey, this is what we're doing and I need you to trust me. Then you can have that commitment based trust, where people are like, I might not agree with you, and it might not be the idea that I had, but I'm willing to do it because I trust you. And I don't know all the answers. I don't have everything that you have in your mind, but I'm willing to do it anyway, because we've built that trust and that teamwork, and I see the vision and I believe in it.
Versus the consensus method, which a lot of organizations are kind of moving toward, like a more flat hierarchical, shared leadership model in some ways, is more consensus driven. It's just a different way of making decisions, but everybody has input, we want to talk about it and sort out all the ideas until everybody agrees, and then you move forward. There's value to both, but it takes a lot more time to do the consensus.
I would almost wonder if there's a difference in how trust shows up in consensus decision making versus commitment decision making. I don't know the answer.
Dave Lombardo: Through a staff process of military planning, do we use consensus? Well, I have different subject matter experts for personnel, logistics, IT, legal. And I'm taking input from all of them, because they are the experts in their field. They analyze and assess the situation on this particular terrain, whatever the situation is. They look at it through their lens. I am not the subject matter expert [in] those things, but I have to trust them to give me the appropriate feedback and be like, we can't go left there. That bridge is not going to hold us. That's a bad business decision, boss. Finances won't survive that.
And then [I] have the ability to use my expertise, my experience, my knowledge. Everybody gets a chance. Actually, we do what we call a course of action analysis, where we [war] game the plan and [see if] it's going to work, and people are still adding input. And then we even red team the plan, so we try to find the holes in the plan.
Lacy Dicharry: I want to ask a little bit more about this idea of followership. We don't use that language necessarily in practice. But leaders can't exist without followers. And followers are who power movements. If Steve Jobs didn't have somebody else coming along and being like, yes, that's a good idea, let's do that, we wouldn't have iPhones.
You have to have, and especially that first follower is really important, but the second, the third, and then the majority of followers. Followers are powerful, and we don't give enough credit, and we don't talk about it as much as we should. But what makes a good follower?
Dave Lombardo: I think it's [incumbent] on the follower to pay attention to what works and what doesn't work. [To] see that as professional and personal development, and learn what you want to emulate and what you want to discard from the leaders that you're watching. But a good follower also [has to be] a standard bearer for the organization.
[Something] I liked doing back when I was an instructor was to take a dry erase board and take a bunch of [markers] and say, all right, everybody grab a marker and write down all the characteristics of the perfect leader. And all these people have years of experience in the military at that point, and you come up with a lot of great things. You've seen all this stuff before. They're accountable. They're empathetic. They listen. They [speak] with clarity. They motivate and inspire.
And I say, okay. And I say, what is a good follower? The same question you asked. And guess what, it's kind of the same exact attribute. And then you follow on, be like, well, are you a good follower? Don't answer [it]. Sit there in your seat and think about it. And then, are you that leader? All these attributes? And if not, that's on you. Go home, think about it, [ruminate] on it. Reflect.
And do you have the energy and desire to become that person? The same person you want leading you. Are you willing to become that person for your followers? And once you do, boom, other leaders are watching and will be like, that person, they're on the path to success. Somebody I want to promote.
Lacy Dicharry: We have a little bit different definition of a leader in the Dare to Lead framework. It's anybody who has the potential to develop people and processes, and then takes the courage to develop that potential. Anybody who's responsible for people or processes. In that definition, everybody has the opportunity to lead.
That's another way of thinking about this: formal positional leadership, that's by title or by position, and influence. Because you can be one of the most fantastic leaders and be an entry level worker or an individual contributor. It's all about who influences whom to do what toward the common goal.
There's different terms about that, informal leadership, or non-positional leadership, or influence. Like you said, you can be a leader even without the title. You can have max impact and influence those around you, for better or worse.
Dave Lombardo: No matter where you are, whether you're at [a retail store] or you are in the Marine Corps or you're an airline pilot. It's all about motivating, inspiring success, and getting people to come together and achieve together toward a [common] goal.
I love the quote, leadership is a contact sport. I think it was Marshall Goldsmith in one of his books. And I say General Paul Funk, who is one of my leaders in the past, used to say that with a [grin]. The point is, leadership is an interactive activity. You're going to have to get out of your skin a little bit sometimes and interact. Then can you exercise that level of direction that is required to achieve big things?
Lacy Dicharry: I want to give you just a couple of minutes to share any other thoughts that you want to make sure to share with the audience, or any advice you have for new leaders who are maybe leading a new team or moving up into a new position. What else do you want to share?
Dave Lombardo: You've got to be values driven. And I say that because it was put on me as an Army officer. The Army has values, and it's funny, it spells LEADERSHIP. LDRSHIP.
But for anybody anywhere, take a moment and think about what you stand for as an individual. What are your values? Because if you think about it, that's how you operate on the daily. How you interact with people. Are you kind to the [cashier] at Walmart? How do you handle your kids? How do you handle stress? What are your values? What do you stand for? Then really assess: is that where I want to be?
I never did that. I had them [given] to me, and I said, those are pretty darn good. And they became me, to this day. Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage. That's who I am. Can I change? Sure, absolutely. But I think they're pretty good. I'm sticking to them.
Now, [loyalty] can be dangerous in the civilian [world]. Too much loyalty when things are not good, I don't know, to be determined. But in the end, I think those are great. I think everybody needs to figure out what their personal values are, and then stand by them and let them drive you.
Lacy Dicharry: Values are core. Who we are is how we lead. The old way of thinking is that, oh, I can be this person at work and this different person at home. And what we know is, humans are humans. Even if you only show part of yourself at work, the core of who you are doesn't change from place to place.
You named a whole bunch of values, but I'm curious. What is one that really stands out to you that you're excited to be able to bring in [here] with the LDI team and our teams that we work with?
Dave Lombardo: Well, I'm loyal to the [cause]. This is a just cause, developing leaders across Louisiana and the country. I will carry this [flag] on for you. I'm proud to be part of the team.
I would have to [take] the LDRSHIP from the Army. The Marine Corps has [their own], also great. The Marine Corps and the Army leadership manuals are obviously the doctrine that I followed, versus a leadership textbook.
I think respect of people is one that, if I'm talking to a healthcare leader, if I'm talking to [oil] and gas, any industry: who are you if you can't have mutual respect for an employee? Now, [some say] people have got to earn respect. [I] give it to them until they lose it. There's a struggle there. But if we base all of our interactions on respect, because we're all different. If you can respect people and gain trust, [everything] rises.
Lacy Dicharry: I'm excited to have you on our team. I think we're a team that wins, because we do have that heart of service at our core. We want to solve complex problems for people in Louisiana through leadership development. That's what we are here for.
Dave Lombardo: I am a [Cajun] [descendant]. My father [was from] Lafayette. I know how to build a [roux]. I married a New Orleans girl with an LSU background. She was very gracious in following me through my career, and at the end of it I said, I don't know what to do with my hands. And she said, we're going to Louisiana. I said, yes, ma'am. You're the boss now.
Lacy Dicharry: I'm excited for our clients and anybody that we're going to be working with. Dave is just [a great] team player, and he can help keep me organized, which is like a next level task. I think it would take a twenty four year person in the military to [rein] in all of these ideas that I want to do for the state and get them focused and organized.
Last thing. You specialized in several skills. What are a couple of the training that you've gone through that you're bringing into companies [across] Louisiana?
Dave Lombardo: Well, I understand the big picture of organizational management. In the military we start small, and you grow to manage operations of thousands of people. Planning and organizational leadership in terms of aligning to a greater [cause].
Change management. I'm trained and certified in that, and have a [wealth] of experience. Because as I said before, we move so often, and every time you move within the military you're joining a new team, you're putting on a different jersey. Well, that team has its own culture. They have traditions. They have a history, a lineage. And you become part of it. I know I've joined the LSU family and I will bleed purple and gold.
Lacy Dicharry: I love that. How do you engage the individual to become a team? I love that. And intentional change management. Most of our clients are challenged with that right now. [Change] is happening, and it's happening to a lot of companies. It could be happening for companies if they were able to stop and actually plan, like you talked about, and be intentional about change management processes.
That's something that we're definitely getting more requests for and seeing on a regular basis: how do we help manage the human side of change? That's something we can probably talk about deeply in another episode.
Thank you for doing the podcast, and thank you for working on our team, and looking forward to really helping your teams win.
Lacy Dicharry: [close] To learn more about the Leadership Development Institute, and how we support leaders in organizations through coaching and facilitation, please visit us at [lsu.edu]/ldi and connect with us at @LSU_LDI on Instagram. Now, geaux lead.