Lee Kirby, Salute Co-Founder and retired Army Colonel, interviewed Fabrice Vaisset, a Marine Veteran and current Account Director for Salute.
Before we get started, our readers would love to learn a little about you. Can you share some details about your childhood “backstory”?
I was born in the South of France in a small medieval village where everyone knew everyone. The village is 20 minutes from the sea and 20 minutes from the mountains. I had a very happy childhood and raised by my grandparents whom lived in a domain which is winemaker’s grand house. I had a very strict upbringing by both my parents and grandparents on both sides where manners, discipline, family, respect and loyalty were at the centre of everything we did.
And what are you doing now?
I am now an Account Director working on the Data4 Account.
Can you tell us about your military background?
I served for 8 years in the Marines in France based in Lorient, North of France and trained in various bases across the world.
Would you mind sharing the most interesting story from your military career? What “takeaway” did you learn from that experience?
During a “life size” exercise in North Africa, the Team Leader had very little experience in leading from the front and used tactics that were completely outdated, ruled by fear with little regards for the Team and the outcome of the projected outcome of the exercise. The exercise which should have ended in a “second” Team rescue, ended in total failure with pretend mass casualties on both sides. The Section Commander re-evaluated the situation through debrief and replay and quickly realised that the Leadership wasn’t on point and the team were confused due to lack of proper instruction but also reluctant to engage as they knew the consequences if they got it wrong. The Commander put in Lead role and restarted the exercise with a 5 minutes briefing prior to reshape and restart. Not because I was the best Leader there is but because I communicated effectively, calmly and with brief and concise instructions, I was able to lead to completion with successful rescue and no fatality or casualties on either sides.
A true and good leader leads from the front, treats people with respect, communicates effectively and has a level of compassion that is equal at home with family than it is at work with the team but, is also able to make hard decisions as and when necessary.
Do you believe your military experience helped prepare you for business or leadership? If so, how?
Absolutely, I try to be the best leader possible and be humble about it. Its never easy to deal with humans as everyone is an individual and should be treated as such. I have learnt not to be complacent in dealing with team as everyone reacts in different ways through different situations. What this training helped me with dealing with teams, also helps me dealing with clients as they also look for a partnership through leadership that also helps their teams through communication and effective work management and collaborative working.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person you're grateful to who helped you reach where you are today? Would you mind sharing a story?
The person I would like to say thanks to is Mike Jones. When I started in the company, the EMEA platform didn’t exist, we worked collaboratively with the US Team and my line manager at the time was Mike. Mike has always supported me, coached me albeit he probably didn’t realised he was doing it and that was an inspiration. I know I could always speak to Mike and ask for advise and nothing was ever too much and always very supportive.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the greatest number of people, what would it be? - You never know what your idea might spark.
This is the movement that would bring the most good to a lot of people:
The Three Pillars of Radical Nuance
- Intellectual Humility: The normalization of saying, “I don’t know enough about this to have a firm opinion yet.” We treat changing one’s mind not as a defeat, but as an upgrade.
- The “Steel Man” Protocol: Before you can disagree with someone, you must be able to explain their position so well that they say, “Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.” This replaces the “Straw Man” (attacking a weak version of an argument) with a pursuit of truth.
- Systemic Empathy: Recognizing that most people are doing the best they can with the information and incentives they have. We move away from blaming individuals and toward fixing the systems that pit us against each other.
How can our readers follow you online?
I am not on many platforms as privacy is key but LinkedIn is one to follow.