Guest: Dr. Roland Mitchell, Dean, LSU College of Human Sciences & Education
Host: Dr. Lacy Dicharry, Senior Director & Executive Coach, LSU Leadership Development Institute
Published: November 10, 2026
Run time: 36:23
People get promoted because they are good at the work. Dean Roland Mitchell spent his career studying what happens next, and he draws the parallel to a brand new faculty member moving from the smartest student in the class to the person responsible for the learning in it.
He leads the LSU College of Human Sciences & Education, five academic units whose graduates serve people from six weeks old through the end of a career. In the Season 1 finale he talks with Dr. Lacy Dicharry about reading a room, the question he asked in a dean interview that changed how he describes the college, the note cards he collected after every class, and why he still signs his emails in lowercase.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and may contain errors.
Transcript
Dean Roland Mitchell: You become a leader because you were dedicated, you worked hard. You may very well be gifted in that particular area, in that field. But just because you're gifted does not mean that you know how to support other people in it. Sometimes it's hard for them to transition from being the smartest student in the class to being the one responsible for leading the learning in the class.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: [introduction] Welcome 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 we have Dr. Roland Mitchell, who is the Dean of the College of Human Sciences & Education at LSU. He joined the faculty in 2005 and rose through the ranks to Associate Dean and then Dean. His research looks at how history and community shape higher education, and he is the author of seven books.
He [received] the LSU Distinguished Faculty Award, was named a [Jo Ellen Levy Yates] Professor, and was selected as an [SEC] Academic [Leadership] Development fellow. Alongside his work at LSU, he serves the Baton Rouge community, including the youth coalition that recognized him for meeting the educational needs of local students.
I am excited that the Dean has agreed to come on to talk to us today about what it is like to lead one of the largest colleges at LSU, one that reflects the diversity of our entire state. He's going to share with us a lot of leadership lessons that he's gained along the way.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: Thank you so much for coming to join us today. Excited to talk to you, because we've been through this whole first season of Teams That Win. I want to start with an easy question for you. When I say teams that win, what does that mean to you?
Dean Roland Mitchell: Teams that win are teams that are clear about the objectives and the [priorities] that they're trying to achieve, all working together collectively to achieve a particular set of outcomes.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: What excites me, because right here, the Dean of the College of Human Sciences & Education, for anybody that doesn't know, we have so many amazing teams under this college. You are in charge of, what is it, like [nine or eleven]? There are a lot of teams that you oversee.
But all of those teams, we're kind of a microcosm of Louisiana. You talk about this a lot. Do you want to give a brief overview of the teams that you lead in college? Because there's a lot of people out there in Louisiana who may not understand how impactful our college is.
Dean Roland Mitchell: Sure. I love to say that, despite the fact that we're [viewed] as [one college] on the university campus, the students that we provide service to, six weeks to career and beyond. I'd even argue that the fact that our information studies specialists study archives and work with archives, [even once] you're gone, we're still studying. So literally, across the lifespan.
There are five primary academic units, and I love to say that any one of them individually drives outcomes, [creates] possibilities and solves problems for people well beyond the gates of our campus. But collectively they do things that are amazing.
I'm giving an example. We have a school of education. We know for a fact that if you're in a community in crisis, a community trying to grow strong teachers, school counselors, [allied] professionals, they can truly change the trajectory of that community. But we also have kinesiology, so think about it, wellness. We have better education, a healthier community. We have social workers. So if you think about access to stronger families, stronger communities, resources in the state to create comprehensive[ly] well families and communities. Our human resource leadership development experts, stronger jobs, better access to information, better understanding of the ways the jobs and healthy workspaces. And also, our information specialists.
You look at each one of those. Social workers, educators, information specialists, workforce, wellness people. You bring us all together collectively, and we can improve the overall trajectory, [the] wellness of that community across the board, comprehensively.
And like I said, the fact that we have an early childhood education institute as well as a preschool means that even prenatal, even an earlier population, we're already providing that service and working with those communities.
Any one of those areas is important, but collectively we can improve the quality of life for an entire community across the life span. And when we're really doing the job well, it's not just those [6,500] students that we're serving in our college, but it impacts the citizens across the entire state. Every parish should be impacted by our teachers, our social workers, and information specialists. I love the idea that we can comprehensively solve problems that matter beyond the gates of our campus.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: We as a college have such an impact across the state. In my experience, I get inspired every time we have our kickoff at the beginning of the semester and getting to see everyone who is a part of these teams. There is so much passion and inspiration.
Dean Roland Mitchell: I'd even argue that the value of the university, and particularly of our college, but the entire university, is our brand matters and people trust the brand.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: That's what I'm excited about with this podcast, and the support to launch this over the year. What is one thing about leading CHSE that excites you to get up every day?
Dean Roland Mitchell: The collective impact. To think that if we can create the situation where people outside of the campus, they don't necessarily care about our department or our class, but they can see that whatever it is that's happening in that space that we're collectively building has a real-world impact on a problem.
When I say that I'm in kinesiology and I study human movement, that's one thing as a researcher. But if I'm in a state that has chronic health conditions, and I can show you how your recovery from cancer is impacted by an active lifestyle, that's not just a set of conversations about research, about data. That's changing people's lives.
And the [beauty] of it is; the researcher could very well produce whatever the data is, collect data and generate [it]. But we also have the [practitioners] who take that research and translate it into actual action, a set of practices that people use to impact the way that they experience cancer and outcomes after cancer.
You don't have to have a PhD in kinesiology or in social work to understand that. But you do very well know. I mean, my dad died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. I understood what it was like [to hear the terminology] when I talked to the doctors. But I also knew that the [thing] that really mattered to me wasn't the way that the cancer responded to whatever treatment. [It was] the impact on the day-to-day life and quality of life for my dad. As a leader, what excites me is having the opportunity to impact both sides of that equation in meaningful ways.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: Thank you for sharing that. It affects our lives every day. People across Louisiana may not understand all of the research and everything that happens in the back end of taking an idea, getting funding, getting the research. But they sure understand when it shows up in their day to day. And what does that look like?
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: I personally am a big believer that if you have humans involved, we need leadership development. My belief is that if companies can outperform their peers 13 times by investing in leadership development, we could do the same thing for Louisiana. Why can't we leverage leadership development as a lever to help with poverty, to help with obesity, to help with literacy, all of these challenges that Louisiana continues to work hard to level up? Is that a piece that's missing?
Dean Roland Mitchell: I think it's absolutely a piece missing. And just hearing you say that, again, this is what gets me excited about the job. You provided a metric, that 13 times return on investment. That took it out of a conversation about hypotheticals and moved it. Make it concrete in such a way that it's a motivation. I'm active.
In a lot of cases, and this is a critique not of LSU, but I'd say higher education, we haven't always made that leap, the value-added leap that you just provided. So, it's critically important.
It's great to have the [forty] thousand students that are on the main campus get a great education. But what you're describing means beyond those forty thousand students, and has implications well across the state, the region, the globe.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: When we think about leadership development, talking to leaders across all of these different sectors, what are some of the things that you see in common that are challenges they're facing that we could help with?
Dean Roland Mitchell: I want to give a plug to one of our world class professors, Dr. Tyree Mitchell, in your area, in HR. It just so happened that his first doctoral student was my younger brother, who is now Dr. [Roman] Mitchell.
The training that he received in that program is a prime example of exactly what you describe, and what makes [the LSU] experience unique. But also, I'd argue, a competitive edge that we need to figure out how more leaders get access to. [Roman's] trajectory took him from his studies at LSU directly into work with Deloitte.
It's not uncommon for our graduates to go into industry and do well. But what makes us unique, and I think this is the sweet spot for LSU, as we've talked to leaders in other industries, when they've compared LSU graduates to graduates from other institutions, the one thing that they say, the fact that they tend to move up in leadership rapidly, is their ability to build teams. They work well within teams, meaning that they're able to [lead] and they're also [able to follow].
What's unique about that? I have a strong opinion about this, and this is my faculty hat. As a faculty member, I study education. I would say that one of the reasons that the College of Human Sciences & Education is one of the university leaders in retention is because we're one of the few areas as a discipline that studies pedagogy and andragogy.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: What is pedagogy, and what is andragogy? What is that?
Dean Roland Mitchell: Pedagogy is, you study the art of teaching. It's not just that you're a subject matter expert, but you know how to communicate with whatever your subject matter expertise is. That is the challenge.
We can talk about it in sports, or we can talk about it when we have a faculty [moment], and I'll put my faculty hat on. You ever heard the joke that if you're talking to a student, the advice is, never take a class from a person [who wrote] the book?
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: Oh, no. I haven't heard that.
Dean Roland Mitchell: Go with me. I'll take it to another level for sports. [A coach] is a much better basketball coach than Michael Jordan. I'd argue it's the exact same thing. Michael Jordan had [the ability to] do things that only the good Lord made possible for him to do. [He] didn't have to think about it. [The coach] did not, so that translated to him being able to better describe the technique for things that Mike took for granted [as] a subject matter expert.
In a lot of cases, faculty members at research institutions, we know a lot about our subject matter area. But because we know so much about it, we have not often thought about how to communicate our materials. What that means is, when we become teachers, we spend time teaching by trial and error. We pick up the things that we appreciated as we were going through and move forward with them, and the things we didn't, we leave alone.
There's nothing wrong with that, but the challenge is there is nothing systematic about it. It's not the same thing as studying how to build the strongest pedagogical or educational relationship to communicate your subject materials.
I'd argue that in some cases leaders are in the exact same situation. You become a leader because you were dedicated, you worked hard. You may very well be gifted in that particular area, in that field. But just because you're gifted does not mean that you know how to support other people in it.
A brand-new faculty member, and I've watched this, studied this. Sometimes it's hard for them to transition from being the smartest student in the class to being the one responsible for leading the learning in the class. And when that happens, then you could sometimes be too confrontational, too combative, because you've proven that you know, the alpha person, I know it all.
In some cases, as a leader, and I [had the same] as a teacher: what a good teacher does is create an environment. They put the pieces in place. They also understand the students in the room well enough and have a strong pedagogical relationship. They understand certain students need different things.
Dean Roland Mitchell: You've heard me do this before. I'll walk in a room and I start to make assumptions about the way the classroom is set up based on where students sit.
I make an argument that the students who sit at the very front of the classroom the very first day, no matter what you do, they're locked in, they're ready to go. They want your attention. The students who sit in the back of the classroom, [they need] prompting, and in some cases not. Keep in mind this is a generalization.
We joke about it, like in law school, you can [bank] the class, meaning they've already got this figured out. I've got it, I'm just here to check the box, I don't need a lot of support. People that sit to the left or the right of the front are locked in there, but they don't necessarily want the direct attention. But they're there.
So I'm looking at the middle of the room. The middle of the room, and this is a joke [I] used to say, if you could see their computers, you can tell that they're [screen shopping]. They're looking at what the sales are at the Gap, watching Twitter.
As a teacher, and I'd say leaders are the same thing, the number one problem that you run into is apathy. When you've lost them, they're not interested, they're gone. If you lose them in the first ten minutes of a class, you're toast.
[So I'm] watching that middle to figure out where they are. If I've got the middle, then I know for a fact the front, no matter what I do, they're locked in. The back may have already checked out. The middle is telling me, as a little test, am I doing my job well or [not], and [once] I have them and they're engaged, [that shapes] the different ways that I go about that.
But at the end of the day, keep in mind, that's a classroom. Even as a student, I tell this to students as well. I want to tell students that very first day when they walk in, this is your time to make your impression. This is not the time to be too cool for school. This is not the time to step back. You present yourself in a powerful way. So you are being read, and also you're reading the room, and you are being read [by the] room.
It's not the exact same thing, but I'd argue a leader [is similar]. Once people have lost interest, trouble. Where are your pockets? Where are the places where you can determine your [litmus test], if your message is being received?
You know it's going well when eventually the students start to [give] you back the narrative that you're actually [sending] to them. With students, that's one thing, because you [have] assessment. But also, when your supervisor starts to use the language that you're providing, you know your message is working. It's not the same thing, but I think there are things that connect.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: There's a lot of parallels, though, because humans are humans and human motivation is human motivation. I love the parallels that you're drawing, because we talk to every industry and they think that this is a unique problem that they face. They have these really great technical people, and then they get promoted to supervisor, or leading the class, or leading the team, and then turnover increases. They may not even stay themselves, because they [haven't] been given, like you said, the skill sets to know how do I lead people. It happens in every industry. So you're not alone, is the good news.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: I love where you're going with this apathy thing, because once you've lost them, you've lost them. Talk to me about what advice you would give to leaders, or what are some lessons that you've learned over the years, if either in the classroom with students or team members who may have fallen a little bit down in their motivation. What are some strategies or tips that you've found helpful to help people counteract that apathy that we all may experience at some point or another?
Dean Roland Mitchell: The first thing that I think a leader has to do is know yourself. You have to know your skill set.
It's very clear to me. I've never introduced myself as Dean anything. I don't introduce myself as Doctor anything. And generally, if I'm signing my name on an email, it's with a small [r]. That's part of the way that I engage, because in my mind, I'm more comfortable with people when I think we're just people. My mom didn't name me Doctor anything. If you have to depend on the title, if you have to depend on that, you're already making a statement in certain ways. My opinion is, the ideas or the nature of the relationship should be the thing that draws you in.
As an assistant professor, as an associate professor, as a full professor and associate dean, [that] worked really well. It built community at work. But then there was a shift when I became the Dean. I never changed my name, I never changed the way I engage. People engage me differently, especially when I was much younger.
To make that determination to identify in that way, there's a thing that I'm doing there, that I have to understand that people are reading the title and the position differently. If you have significant ego needs, and the title provides those [ego] needs or addresses whatever that is, then you need to think about what that means to the people you're trying to connect with.
But then the flip side of it is, if you sit in a room and you're hearing about [Dean] Jones and your role, how do you manage that? That's an internal conversation that you need [to have]. How do you present yourself? And then also, how does the way that you present yourself impact your team?
Dean Roland Mitchell: I can tell you this. I've been [Dean] since 2017, and I remember when I was an internal candidate, so I already had relationships with [the other deans].
I thought, okay, I'm being interviewed [by] the other [deans], because I'd already been colleagues with them for a while. But they were sitting in more established [positions] and I was an associate [dean] becoming an interim, so I'm brand new. I thought, okay, I kind of know the room, and I wanted to have a soft pitch question to set the stage, to get myself going.
So I said, what is your perception of the College of Human Sciences & Education? I thought that was an easy question.
Well, one of the deans, who was very seasoned, [isn't here] anymore, very seasoned and so I trusted and respected [him], actually did not give me an answer. He gave me [a stance]. He said, I feel like you are an aardvark. I can't get my head around exactly. You have teachers, you have social workers. What are you?
In that moment, I switched from job interview mode, and neophyte trying to be part of a club. And it [hit] me, this isn't the time for that. You have to lead now.
Part of what I took from that conversation was a couple of things. That narrative that we discussed at the very beginning, where we work across the life span. We provide services well beyond the gates. The language you start to hear us use now was translation, meaning that we translate all of the good stuff that happens at the university to solve the problems beyond the gates.
I'm not interested in whether you know what a [logistics] archivist or a social worker is. I'm interested in you understanding that if you have a community suffering from cognitive disabilities, if they [have] low literacy rates, [we're] the place at LSU where you can have those problems solved comprehensively.
That conversation moved from neo engaging to our own. If you're going to be a dean of an area, you've got to create a narrative with the rest of the university understanding who you are and respecting it. That's one thing that I think is critically important. Know who you are, understand the role that you're in, and how do you present yourself. But it gets to a point [where] you present yourself, you're representing the entire group that you are leading.
Dean Roland Mitchell: The other thing is, you have to have leaders around you that support you, that can tell you the honest to goodness truth. That's not always the most comfortable position, but you have to have people that can say, okay, this is Roland and Lacy talking, this is what's going on, and have you thought [about this]. If you don't have a situation where people can work with you and tell you exactly what you need, then it's hard to do the job.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: That is something that people experience challenges with every day. There's a lot of leaders out there thinking, hey, I'm doing a great job, and your team may not say the same thing, because they may not feel safe enough to give you feedback as the boss. It does come down sometimes to that person's relationship with power itself.
But there is a lot that leaders can do to make sure that they're creating that space, and the conditions in their relationship, so that there's enough trust, enough safety, that that person can give that feedback. I ask for feedback all the time from my team. Do they give it to me? Do they give it to me honestly? I don't know. I think so. Some of them probably more than others.
But we've got to be able to trust that feedback, and it is our job as a leader to create that space, or the mechanisms, for people to be able to give that feedback. Because guess what, if we can't support them with honest answers, then we're not going to win.
Dean Roland Mitchell: There are two things that I picked up. I did this as a professor. I used to have this thing that I called [gets] and needs. It was a note card that we would take after every class. [Gets] on one side, needs on the other. Anonymous. So you don't know. After every class, then I asked, what did you get? Tell me what you got and what you need.
I wanted it to be anonymous for that very reason. But also, I worried that if you wait until the end of the year, then it's really too late. It's like [an autopsy]. The body is already gone, you can't do anything about it.
And it also creates, even if they don't necessarily take the time to provide a lot of thoughtful feedback, it creates a culture overall where the people you're working with know you value their opinion. That's critically important.
The other thing that I was most impressed with, leaders that I've worked with, one in particular did an annual evaluation of themselves, individually, from their leadership team. This is separate from whatever the university's expectations were. They developed [their own] instrument, and they made it a point that they did an annual evaluation of themselves.
I love it. The feedback was incredible. And again, it made me respect that person, to know that they understood very clearly, even though I thought they were phenomenal, [we] all have areas we need to grow.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: I don't think there's ever a place where a leader truly arrives. They're like, I have all of the skills necessary for all the things. Development and growth is constant. We can never stop, or we just get stale.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: You talked about so many things in there. Some of the skill sets that leaders can take. One, self leadership, knowing yourself, understanding your own values. A little bit of brand identity, but from the aspect of, this is who I am at my core, this is how I lead, these are the values that I'm going to lead with, in a way that is vulnerable, transparent, and humble. Being able to meet people where they are, providing that space, that safety, asking for feedback. Welcoming feedback. Getting to know and understand your team. What drives them? What motivates them? What excites them when they get up?
I'm wondering if you could give some advice to somebody listening who is a new leader. They're stepping into leading a team and it's like, that's a lot of things. They're in this mindset, there seem to be so many things that I don't know yet, and I don't even know what I don't know yet. If you were to give some lessons, or reflect on some of the things that you've learned over the years about leading a team, what would you say to somebody who is leading a team for the first time?
Dean Roland Mitchell: I'd say the first thing, know yourself. Building a team, just being intentional about building a team.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: Say what that looks like. How do I go about building a team?
Dean Roland Mitchell: The first thing is, assess the people that are around you. Because rarely do you get the opportunity to walk into a room and [hear], we've got five positions open, just go find [them]. That's not it. Generally there are people that are around. So assess the talent, the skills, the interests and the passions of the people that are around. It's critically important that you understand what each skill set is.
The other thing that you've got to be crystal clear about, and this is what I've grown in and what I'm spending the most time thinking about: I'm truly a faculty member at heart, I am a thinker, I am a middle child. So I see good in everybody. I'm literally the person, we know you do this and you can do that. That allows me to have a high level of patience, flexibility, and the desire to think that we're working towards something.
But I also recognize that that creates a high level of stress when you have to make hard decisions and get things done and move in a particular way. It's critically important, even as your team is learning [what] your qualities are, be clear about your expectations.
Everything that I just described about humanity, humbleness, just connecting, all of that is great. But it's disingenuous in my opinion and naive to assume that just because you made a determination that you want to present yourself in that way, you want to be humble, then in some way you're not [going to] evaluate those people and you're not going to be responsible for holding [them] accountable. It is [a mistake] for a leader to act like, oh, we're flat, when the university is not flat.
You've got to be clear about, these are the things that we're trying to achieve. Part of the whole narrative about improving quality of life across the life span is so important to me, because I want to be able to say who we are. And ultimately I'm laser focused right now on every set of activities that we're involved in solving a particular problem for the citizens of the state of Louisiana.
We do a lot of different things that are important, but I'd love for my leadership team to understand that if we're looking at priorities: if it impacts [literacy], we care about it. If it impacts coastal conservation, we care about it. If it's leadership and healthy workplaces, we care about it. They should understand.
I want to do this so much better, and this is the thing that I really have focused on. When you walk in the building, I want you to understand why we're doing what we're doing. I think it goes back to solving critical problems that we're uniquely [positioned] to address.
And I told you, I'm the middle child, so I have to [check] myself. I [surround] myself [with] people that tell me, okay Roland, that's great, but this is where we need to go, and this is what we agreed upon.
The flip side of that also is, the hard part about being a leader that [people see] as being highly relational is, you're going to get a lot of unsolicited advice. People read relational and [humble] as, at times, the ability to move things in directions that [are] outside of the priorities that have been set. So you've got to be able to hear the advice, understand it, but then also recognize, okay, but I'm the one that's being held accountable. I [hold] you accountable in these ways. That balance between flexibility and humanity, relational, but also accountability, structure, achieving priorities.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: That's right. We talk about the task versus relationship continuum. There are some leaders who are naturally inclined to be more social, more relational. They care about the people, the motivation. And then there are some leaders who focus on, it is all about performing the task. Did we achieve our objectives? Did we get it done? What do you need to get it done? Do you need support getting it done?
What the research shows, and there's a lot of research on this, is the best leaders have a combination of both. They develop the skills to flex one to the other if they don't have it, and they find the right balance. And kind of situational leadership as well. They flex that balance based on who they're talking to in the moment.
You've got to understand how to do both. People who are super friendly, I'm sure you've experienced at some point in your career, when it comes time to deadlines, it can make it harder. But with relational cohesion theory, this is one of the theories that we use in our practice, it means the more positive emotions you experience in your relationship with your leader, the more motivated, the more engaged, the more excited you are to do the work. The more likely you are to do something when they ask. So there is a benefit to it. But you've got to be able to name and hold people accountable.
I do a lot of Dare to Lead work with clients, and Brené uses this all the time in our work: you can't hold people accountable to what you don't name. You've got to name those expectations, name that clarity.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: Any other last thoughts or advice that you would have for new leaders?
Dean Roland Mitchell: [One thing] that's critically important, and it's interesting because I have watched amongst leaders, especially in the current paradigm. I have a strong, strong commitment to: where do you find your strength? Not just, how do you [recharge], but even when you're in a difficult situation, a difficult season, [where] is the place that you [go]?
How do you take care [of yourself]? We talked about the whole health and fitness thing. I know you have a serious regimen. I have a serious regimen. How do you find the spaces? I have a morning set of activities that I am [selfish about]. They are not negotiable. Even if they have to be at four. There's a set of things that I do every morning. [They] make me much easier to work with, a better leader. [They] just make me a better person.
You've got to have a core that is beyond whatever the work situation is. And the work situation works better when it aligns with that core. As I was talking about the problems that [are] critical conditions for the state of Louisiana, I have a passion for them. Even if I weren't in this role I would care about them. There's a deep spiritual commitment to improving, and I don't mean quality of life like a slogan, but I mean a depth of valuing people and community.
[People] joke, it's like, I get it, you've got a heart for the people. There's a thing that I have really connected [to]. I want good things to happen for people. And I think the work that we're doing makes that happen.
Connect to something bigger than the job. There's got to be a bigger thing that guides your practices. And you have to have a set of activities that when you feel like you're [running low], [replenish] you, that you can go to at any point. [Whatever is] going on with the job, where is your base? That's the one thing that I think is critically important as a leader.
And the other thing as a leader, and I've said it on numerous occasions but I'll say it again, know yourself. Because part of what leading does is it teaches you even more about who you are. You learn so much every day. I guarantee you, I've been in this particular role for nine years, and you would think after nine years, and the shelf life for a dean is generally three to five years, so at nine years you would think, okay, [Roland], you should have this figured out. I do not have it figured out. I am still learning about myself in the job every day, and I find great joy in that opportunity. That is not the same thing as [wash], rinse, repeat.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: Shelly Mullenix was on the season earlier, and she did this incredible episode about, you can't lead if you're not well. If we don't take care of our wellbeing first. Talking about that core and making sure that we are centered, we are ready.
I have a morning routine, and I can tell a huge difference in how I lead with my team if I do it really well, or if I skip it, or I'm late.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: Thank you so much for being [here] to anchor and wrap up season one. I want to do a little teaser for season two.
LSU is Teams That Win, [in] Louisiana for the world. Everybody wants to be part of a winning team. But what does that mean? What does it mean to have a team that wins? How do you make a team that wins? That's what we're going to be exploring in season two. You mentioned Dr. Tyree Mitchell. A little teaser, he's our first guest to kick it off in the new year.
I want to do a quick rapid fire with you, if you're open to it. I'm having all the guests on season two do this so we can all learn a little bit more about teams. Don't overthink it, just go with your gut.
Teams fail when.
Dean Roland Mitchell: Teams fail when they don't talk.
Dr. Dicharry: The best leaders always.
Dean Mitchell: Care about people.
Dr. Dicharry: Trust is built by.
Dean Mitchell: Consistency. Consistency [and clarity]. If you can do what you say, and be clear about saying what you're going to do, that does it. That builds it for me, at least.
Dr. Dicharry: Biggest mistake leaders make with teams is.
Dean Mitchell: Locking into a certain set of practices. There are not too many non-negotiables. It has to be this way, [and that] eventually limits possibilities. And as it limits possibilities, then you start to find people to disengage, and in some cases become rageful. You've got to have all of the tools, possibilities and skills at the table to address challenges that we don't even know are down the road.
Dr. Dicharry: And the best teams I've ever been on had blank in common.
Dean Mitchell: They spend time together. In particular, they travel together. I'm thinking about when we would attend the American Educational Research Association national conference. We thought we were going to present a paper, but it turned into something so much more. Time together, travel together, a general set of activities that we're trying to achieve, but more trying to connect with each other and what we build [together]. I'm still riding with a lot of those same people from 20 years ago.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: I think I learned some of my best life lessons when I've been traveling with colleagues or supervisors. Thank you so much for coming on. We're really looking forward to next season of Teams That Win, digging into the science of winning teams, being able to bring you a lot more hands on research based information that you can take and apply every day.
Anything else you want to say, or where should people find out more information about the work that you're doing and leading?
Dean Roland Mitchell: Thank you. You're doing incredible work on the podcast, and thank you for all that you're doing for the college, the university, the community. I appreciate that.
Look, if you want to know about what I'm doing, go directly to the College of Human Sciences & Education website.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: Well, thank you again. And that wraps us up for season one of Teams That Win. Thanks for joining.
Dr. Lacy Dicharry: [close] To learn more about the LSU Leadership Development Institute, and how we support leaders, teams, and organizations through coaching, strategic development, and facilitation, please visit us at lsu.edu/ldi and connect with us at @LSU_LDI. Thank you for listening to Teams That Win.