ReLeader: Dave Long, CEO of Orangetheory Fitness
Dave is an innovator. Passion for his team shows in the success that has boosted Orangetheory into one of the best fitness brands in the country (and beyond). We were lucky enough to have Dave be a part of our Digital Consumer Summit late last year. In this ReLeader interview, he shares his views on leadership, constant learning and how culture is the bedrock to any org's success.
MH: What’s the best leadership lesson self taught?
Dave: That you cannot go at it alone. While one might be able to get a startup firm off the ground, for the company to continue its growth, the Leader must be able to surround him/herself with strong, confident teammates, each with specific skillsets but all who understand the big picture and where the company is going. It is the Leader’s role to be the conductor – managing each part of the business. A true Leader shines when s/he can get each of the parts working together in unison, seemingly effortless. I was once told that ‘anyone can look good in practice. It is only in a real game, with real obstacles and unexpected situations where the true Leaders stand out’.
MH: How do you continually learn?
Dave: Read, read, read. Mainly business books. I enjoy learning from strong, successful business leaders – especially those who went about to break a mold and were successful in doing so. Some recent reads were the book about Elon Musk and also Richard Branson. They have done some extraordinary things.
MH: What would you tell your 30 year old self?
Dave: I would sit myself down and quote Winston Churchill who said: “Success is never final and failure never fatal. It's courage that counts.”. The reason I like this is due to the fact that many young professionals are still short-sighted; They see a good week or month or even quarter as the state of their future. Same with rocky times. Rather, business and life is full of peaks and valleys. Don’t get too cocky with a win and don’t get too down on yourself when something did not go as planned. The goal is to keep pushing forward – learn from both your wins and your losses.
MH: How do you embrace failure or a setback and learn to recover?
Dave: By breaking it down and attempting to determine the root cause of the inability to succeed. Look at every aspect: the skills of the individuals involved, the orchestration of the team, the resources used, the timeline, outside influences, and the like. Find out which of the many parts of the puzzle should have been done differently. Re-work the gameplan and move forward . By the way – I cannot stand the word failure. It is one that you will rarely, if ever hear me say. No situation is a complete failure. One can, if they look hard enough, learn from every situation in their lives. Take Elon Musk and his SpaceX program as an example. His initial rocket launches were unsuccessful. For different reasons. But after each one, he didn’t hang his head. Rather, he gathered his team and looked at every step of the process; every part, every system, every procedure. They determined where they could have done something differently and focused on correcting that aspect of the project. And, as a result, they know so much more today than they did a few short years ago – and they have shown huge success as a result.
MH: How do you set up a culture of success?
Dave: Great question. I will try not to make my answer sound directly out of the Management 101 book. But, the answer is fairly simple on paper – but much more difficult to see through to fruition. Step 1: Have to have the right people. You need to have smart, creative, courageous people. Step 2: Ensure that those leaders have strong EQ. IQ helps, but I am a very strong believer that if your key people are lacking in EQ, you will never succeed. Reason: they will not work for the greater good of the company and the employees. They will be in it for themselves – to reach the corner office, to get paid more than their associate. Whatever it might be. On the contrary, a culture where you have people working together, through success and adversity, through the many situations of conflict which arise, but with a mutual respect and a ‘we are in it together’ attitude, will allow your company to achieve things they never through possible.
MH: What is your release, hobbies or adventure?
Dave: I’m a pretty avid extreme sports type person. I do a lot of snowboarding, surfing, and mountain biking. I truly believe in the ‘work hard, play hard’ school of thought. And, as such, I will force myself to disengage and get away – whether to Costa Rica, the mountains, the beach. Each trip must have an adventure component. I like to push myself, to see how my body responds. And, unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t respond the way I wish it had! I have had my share of injuries, but every one was worth the risk. It is my release, and something that I and my family truly looks forward to. I guess I am building a small group of extreme adventurers in my daughters.
MH: What are you most proud of?
Dave: Wow. That is a tough one. I will have to say the success I have seen those around me achieve. I would like to think that I had something to do with it, but to see many of my friends, partners, associates, employees be able to grow both as human beings and as businesspersons is quite humbling. And to have many of them turn to me and thank me for whatever it is that I might have done to help them climb that proverbial mountain is something that I use to fortify me when I question myself from time to time.
My personal thanks to Dave and his team at Orangetheory for participating in our ReLeader platform!
About ReLeader - ReLeader is emids' mentoring platform to share views on leadership, career journey, and lessons on life from executives across the healthcare continuum. These Q/A sessions are a public mentoring platform for our readers, highlighting things that matter beyond just stock price and policy shifts. We welcome inputs on questions you'd like addressed from our upcoming ReLeader guests.