Start With A Win - The Best Leaders Are VULNERABLE And Here's Why

Starting point is 00:00:00 You don't have to be right. You just have to get it right. So stop putting the pressure on yourself and show who you are. Because if you show a little bit of vulnerability and then you show that you wanna take risks, people will show you who they are. Welcome to Start With A Win,

Starting point is 00:00:13 where we unpack franchising, leadership, and business growth. Let's go. Curious about what it takes to drive innovation across some of the most cutting edge industries? Today, we talk about that on Start With a Win. We're sitting down with Blair LaCourte, a man whose leadership has left a transformative mark on sectors from aviation to AI. Blair's journey includes leading companies

Starting point is 00:00:35 like Lumos Technologies and XOJet, from startup to IPO, all while mastering the art of team motivation and operational excellence. With a Dartmouth MBA and hands-on experience across multiple industries, Blair brings a unique blend of strategic insight and real-world know-how. Get ready to be inspired by a leader who's not just talked about innovation, he's lived it. Blair, welcome to Start With A Win. Yeah, great to see you as well. I'm a big fan of the show, Adam. Hey, thanks a lot. I'll tell you, this is really a fascinating interview for me

Starting point is 00:01:11 because you've done so much in business, but you've also done so much interpersonally for people and coaching, longevity, things like that. So all of those things obviously play together. I want to unpack some of those different directions there. But ultimately, I want to start with this. You've been CEO of different companies across different industries. I mean, stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with each other. You know, there's leadership and then there's people. How do these things work together that allowed you to do that? Yeah, well, you know, actually, thank you for that question. You know, as a marketer, you know, you try to make your background look, you know, that it looks like it makes sense. But in reality, I think that my skillset, you know, comes from my childhood.

Starting point is 00:02:01 And, you know, as everyone says, from your childhood and from your trauma, right? Which is, you know, I had two entrepreneur parents who were divorced, so two different businesses. I had eight brothers and sisters. And so I became very, look, at the end of the day, that's what makes me feel good is to find industries where I can learn about and be curious, but I can also elevate the people. So the answer to your question is, you know, I learned to find a way not to be right, but to get it right, which means going into a company and figuring out what's going on by listening to people before I started to tell them what to do. That said, you know, it would be nice that, you know, every once in a while, I think to myself, I wish I had been in one place for 25 years because I would know everyone. On the other hand, it's not who I am. Right. I mean, it's obviously building trust is a big part

Starting point is 00:02:59 of walking in the door as a leader. How did you overcome that challenge? Because, you know, you walk into a new boardroom or a new executive meeting and everybody's sitting there going, this guy doesn't come from our space or we don't know who he is. How did you start building those bridges with the other people in the businesses? Yeah, it's, you know, it's a great question. And I really think it starts with yourself because we all try to fit a persona, right? We all try to go in and say, okay, this is the way I'm supposed to act. This is what I'm supposed to do.

Starting point is 00:03:32 And at some point, you know, my dad gave me a great gift. That quote I just used, you don't have to be right. You just have to get it right. So stop putting the pressure on yourself and show who you are. Because if you show a little bit of vulnerability and then you show that you want to take risks, people will show you who they are. So my attitude was there's one company I won't name. My first board meeting, I invited my dad.

Starting point is 00:03:56 You can imagine how horrified people were. Why is your dad here? Right. I said, because I'd like to have him see what I do. That's who I am. I mean, you know, we only get a certain amount of time. And that set the tone because at that point, people said this guy is a family guy and he's a guy that cares about people. When I took over the airline, I remember the first day I walked in. And again, I was that one that I was a little nervous about because my stepfather and my mother had run an airline when I was younger and it was a rocky road. And so when I came in, I thought, oh, this is, you know, oh my God's fate. Here I am. I'm going to run this airline. And the first thing that happened was the chief pilot came up to me, went to shake my hand. He's a good looking guy. He's tall and shakes my hand. And I said, I'm Blair LaCourte because, you know, you want to be a little bit humble. Like I obviously knows who I am. He said, I know who you are.

Starting point is 00:04:45 And then I thought, okay, there's the exchange. He goes, your management. And I thought, yeah, he knows I'm in charge. No, I'm a pilot, your management. We're two different companies. And, you know, again, I had to actually decide, was I going to tell him that he worked for me or was I going to sit down and ask him,

Starting point is 00:05:02 you know, what does that mean to you? And I decided to take the latter. So, you know, what does that mean to you? And I decided to take the latter. So I think that when you're dealing in an environment where people know more than you do, if you don't figure out a way to learn from them, you're at a disadvantage and ultimately you'll probably lose. So that's my advice is that it's not really the company that's the challenge. It's will you be competent enough to actually figure things out and be humble enough not to take the bait and worry about what people think. I love it. Yeah, there's always that gotcha moment where somebody's

Starting point is 00:05:39 involved up front or they want to make a statement or something like that. But I mean, you, you know, you talk with a lot of humility, you mentioned humility. Um, I mean, it seems super important to be that, that, um, you know, that olive branch that you offer out to people as you walk in a new room, because you've walked in a lot of new rooms, a lot of new companies and move things along. Um, you know, you, There's this fixing something versus growing something mindset that you have. Explain that to us. How do you identify that for each of these companies and then carry that forward? And again, it's funny because when people, we all have to put things in boxes and compare it so that we can normalize it in our mind. So when a lot of people will meet me and they say, oh, it looks like you've been involved in a lot of companies.

Starting point is 00:06:30 They're either restructurings or they're growth companies. And they're very, very different. How do you deal with that? And my answer is they're exactly the same. It's restructuring is all about people and patterns. Something's not working and you have to figure it out. And a growth company is all about these guys patterns. Something's not working, and you have to figure it out. And a growth company is all about, these guys have done unbelievably well,

Starting point is 00:06:49 but they need to double, and they have to figure it out. They have to change. When you do a restructuring, I think the average is you're going to replace 40% to 60% of your exec staff in that restructuring. Not because they're all horrible people, but because, you know, maybe the wrong person in the wrong seat, or they may be burnt out.

Starting point is 00:07:04 In a growth company, guess what? You replace 40 to 60% of the people. And why? Because they're probably not in the right place. They got the company to a certain place, and now you need someone who can actually scale it, which is a different set and a different mindset, right? So, you know, to me, it's all the same. You're always dealing with how much change you want to have. And so, you know, and change always comes back down to, you know, and we can talk about what strategy is, but, you know, it always comes down to, you know, brainstorming is about yes, strategy is about no, and really businesses function on a business model. That's all that matters is, you know is how the people ask for money

Starting point is 00:07:45 and how they provide value. So at the end of the day, anyone who thinks that they're going to win because they have the best idea, it happens, but it's not a good probability shot from the outside. Yeah. I mean, you see a lot of givers and takers start to separate in these businesses as you roll in and begin applying different pressures or stress. And I'm a firm believer that pressure is a good thing. It moves things forward, but it also demonstrates where the weaknesses and the gaps are that are ripe for growth. But how do you, how do you start to separate where you're at with the givers and the takers in these businesses as you roll in, in order to maximize the capabilities that they might have? Because some people are just so scared they're protecting and they're, you know, they're, they're not giving at that moment, but maybe they are givers. Who knows? I mean, explain that a little bit to me if you can. Yeah, you know, look, again, I come in with, you know, models in my head.

Starting point is 00:08:53 And then I, you know, like you have to solve one equation before you can solve another. And so I come in with models and then I watch. And I see if my model is right or wrong and what I'm predicting. But I'll tell you one of the things that, you know, really bums me out. And, you know, that's not a business term. But it is that you walk into a company that needs help. And a lot of people think these guys, these people are idiots. That's why I'm here.

Starting point is 00:09:12 I'm here to save them. I'm their idiots. And the reality is 10% of almost any population are probably not good people. And, you know, I would dare to say, you know, depending on your value set, they're evil people, right? They're out for themselves and they don't care about what happens good people. And, you know, I would dare to say, you know, depending on your value set, they're evil people, right? They're out for themselves and they don't care about what happens to people. But when you look at the rest of those people, you know, the other 90% of people, there's probably a big percentage of them that are really, really smart, but they don't know how to actually apply that to helping the business. There's a big percentage of them that are really smart,

Starting point is 00:09:46 but the skillset they have is not right for you right now. And there's a bunch of people that are really smart and they're influencing things, but they don't have enough power to actually move it across. And so your goal is to both learn and to figure out who should stay on the bus, to use a cliche, right? You know, I had this thing I developed over the years where if I fired anybody, a direct report or a direct report of a direct report,

Starting point is 00:10:14 I would want to know. They're not going to fire anyone without telling me, okay? And we'd sit down and talk about it for an hour. And then I would tell them, I am going to meet with every person that you fired because now I know why we decided to make that decision and I'm gonna spend an hour with them and I'm gonna tell them what our logic was. Now, sometimes it was just shock and awe that I was gonna sit down and talk to them

Starting point is 00:10:37 because they had just been fired. A lot of times it was anger that they had to get out, but I always stuck by, if I can't tell them why I'm making the decision, I'm not going to change my mind at that point, but they can either make me better or I can make them better afterwards. And what you found is that a year later, people would come back to me and say, thank you. I was in the wrong job. I was screwed. Right. But I didn't. I was afraid I had a mortgage and I wasn't going to get out of it. And you explained to me that it wasn't a bad thing because again, firing isn't the end. It should be

Starting point is 00:11:10 just like coaching. I'm moving you off the field because you're not appropriate for this, but that doesn't mean you can't play in another team and that doesn't play. You can't, you can't play another position that you go find. And so I think that you have an obligation as a leader to give a shit about people. And again, come in and assume they're not all idiots, figure out which people should be on the bus and help them move to the place they should be. And they will be loyal to you. Because at the end of the day, you know, I know you mentioned longevity. I mean, I'm spending a bunch of time on longevity right now. Human connection is the superpower. It is the superpower. Now, I would also say, just like Yin and Yang, part of the superpower is knowing when they're evil or they're bad for you,

Starting point is 00:11:58 and that means setting a boundary. So it goes both ways. How do you both come in to help, but how do you know where you draw the line? Because you can't help everybody. As my dad would say, if you help too much, they can't stand on their own two legs. And therefore, you're not doing them a favor. Incredible. I hear a lot of coaching coming from you. And you mentioned the word coaching.

Starting point is 00:12:23 Tell us where the crossover of coaching and leadership is. Is it extreme or is it, I mean, because we, we don't see a lot of leaders come in and lend a lot of coaching into what they do a lot of times. It seems more that they're managing, whereas that influence. I'd love to, you know, I'd love to tell you there, you know, there was one way to do things. I mean, I think that you have to sit down and ask yourself, who are you? What's your authentic skill set? And the second is what applies to the situation. Now, what I say to people is be very careful to pick situations that apply to who you are.

Starting point is 00:12:59 If you look at it, I went back to Stanford to take some graduate courses because as I started to get into when I was in investing, we hired a lot of people. You buy a company, you got to hire some people, right? And so I spent a lot of time doing what we call human capital. We had bought Burger King and Neiman Marcus and IBM and a lot of big companies. And we bought a lot of small companies. And it's a very, you know, who you pick determines whether you make money off that company. It turns out that interviewing has a 1% correlation. It's 1% correlation. And it's a very, you know, who you pick determines whether you make money off that company. It turns out that interviewing has a 1% correlation. It's 1% correlation. And the reason is, is because you're selling your job because, you know, someone put this person in front of you, a recruiter, and they're selling themselves. So this whole idea of self

Starting point is 00:13:38 awareness, you can't make the candidate self-aware because you're selling and he doesn't want to be, you know, make you self-aware of who he is because he's selling. And so part of the trick, I think, is first deciding who you are and then deciding what position would be good for you. So I came down to a thing where I would spend two hours with key candidates and I would, you know, this was in some ways I'm giving my secret. It was a little bit of a setup. I would say, hey, listen, I am going to tell you everything that sucks about this company and this job, something you'll know a month in. Because a month into a company, you know this. So I'm just going to tell you, you already know the good things. And by the way, I've read your resume, the recruiter sent you, I already know you're good. So let's just assume, stipulate, you're

Starting point is 00:14:23 really good. And this company is a great opportunity. So now I'm going to tell you the things that you would find out. And then I also want to take you through your background. I don't want to hear about one achievement. I just want to talk about every decision you made from your first girlfriend to where you went to college, to what sports you played and why. I want to know how you think. We can start either place. They'd always pick, oh, why don't you tell me about the company? Because they're still in that mode of the more information I have, the better I can sell myself. But if I do a good job and I'm authentic and I'm humble and I'm honest about it

Starting point is 00:14:54 and I explain to them why, they end up saying, this is different. I'm going to tell you the truth about myself and I'm going to learn something. 50% of the guys I interviewed for CEO actually turned down the job because they realized this was the wrong industry or they didn't want to be a CEO again. Because again, you have to be self-aware enough. And anyone who thinks they're going to interview someone and figure them out, you need that person to tell you who they are. And so back to your initial question, which I, you know, I'm Italian. I went on for an hour. You know, you have to first decide who you are to decide whether this is the right place for you to be. And once you decide the right place for you to be, then you decide the strategy.

Starting point is 00:15:35 So it turns out that I'm a coach. I've always been a coach. So if you don't need a coach, it's probably the wrong job for me. It doesn't mean that there aren't companies out there that said, hey, these people don't need coaching. It's about metrics. It's about driving these numbers. It's about distributed leadership and let them go. It's a transaction model and pay for play and eat what you kill. Those wouldn't be a good job for me, right? But I have to tell someone that, like that that won't be, I'll get bored.

Starting point is 00:16:09 Not that we can't do anything. You can do anything. So you go out there, you take a job and you go, I can do that. At the end of the day, if it's a short-term thing you have to do to get you to where you need to be, that's fine. But any job you take that you're doing something that isn't your authentic self, you're either going to get bored or you're going to get frustrated and you're going to fail. So pick things that make sense and you will be successful.

Starting point is 00:16:31 Every job isn't a win. I love that. That's awesome. It's fascinating because as we're going through this process with people, you start unpacking their people skills and you're clearly identifying different people skills. What do you think are the necessary people skills to be a key leader in an organization that people aren't working on, that they should be reflective about and working on? Right. So, you know, there's a bunch of studies that have been done on strength based management that after 40 years old and after a certain level that you should be working on your strengths, not your weaknesses. OK, because, again, this whole idea that a player is going to walk out in the field and he's going to be able to play every position equally well.

Starting point is 00:17:16 He has to understand every position. But more importantly, he has to understand that if he's playing a position, what are the other people doing and how am I helping or not helping them? So what I would say is the first thing, again, about self-awareness is understanding what you're good at, then understanding what you're not good at, okay, and then finding people who can actually complement that. But there are some basic skills that everyone has to hit a minimum level or you're not going to be successful over the longer term. I think one of them is pattern recognition. I think that you have to be able to pull information in and summarize it. I summarize it in models. I summarize it in stories. I tell myself stories and I try to break the story. The other is being able to evaluate people very quickly to know who they

Starting point is 00:18:07 are and to get them to talk to you. Because, you know, the bigger the organization, you're dealing with eight direct reports, who's then dealing with, you know, people that report to them or report down. If you can't get to know the people that are in your first circle, you're never going to understand the people that are in the second, third, and fourth circle, right? And so I do think both pattern recognition and people skills are things you have to have. The other thing that I would say is that when you look at the studies on entrepreneurs, they do two things extremely well when they're growing a business. One is that they're a quick start, that they're willing to learn and ask questions and be curious and figure out very quickly

Starting point is 00:18:48 whether they're on the right track or not. And the second is backfinder. They don't go out of business, which means if you don't have any basic understanding of finance or how a business works, or you're not managing your cashflow, no matter how smart you are, you're probably gonna go out of business

Starting point is 00:19:02 and you can't outsource that. So think about when you get a president in a company and you have a CEO, they always have the HR person and the CFO report to the CEO. Why? Because you can't outsource people and finance. You can't give it to a president. If that, then that's not a president, that guy's running the company, right? And so, you know, it's not that you have to, I'm not the best finance person in the world, but when I graduated University of Maine, the Black Bears, I went and thought to myself, what's my weakest place?

Starting point is 00:19:35 And it was in finance. So I went to the hardest finance program in the world at that time was GE. And it was really hard, but I don't have to do finance anymore, but I know that I can communicate about finance with the best people. And that's what I need. And today's episode is actually a two part piece. So this is part one of two. We talked about business. We talked about leadership. We're going to get into longevity, hardcore on part two. We'll see you

Starting point is 00:20:04 next episode.

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Start With A Win - The Best Leaders Are VULNERABLE And Here's Why

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