Rony Delgarde Speaks of the Earthquake in Haiti

In his native tongue of Haitian Creole, Rony Delgard gives a heartful message asking for help in the aftermath of the tragic earthquake in Haiti. To find out how you can help, visit www.atlantacares.org

My latest book review is on "Your Next Move"

I am reading a book called Your Next Move: The Leader's Guide to Successfully Navigating Major Career Transitions written by Michael Watkins. The book is very appropriate for my current circumstances. I am very blessed to live my current life but I’m still considering what my next move will be.

Michael Watkins is also the author of The 1st 90 Days. Although I don't use his exact system, I have implemented a variation of that in everything I do.

The 1st 90 Days talks about 7 elements of successful transitions.

1. Organize to Learn. - Figure out what you most need to learn, from whom, and how you can best learn it. Focus on the right mix of technical, cultural, and political learning. This one is not a problem for me. If anything, I likely enjoy learning so much that I can spend too much time in it rather than doing.

2. Establish A-list priorities. Identify a few vital goals and pursue them relentlessly. Think early about what you need to accomplish by the end of year one in the new position.

3. Define strategic intent Develop and communicate a compelling mission and vision for what the organization will become. Outline a clear strategy for achieving the mission and realizing the vision.

4. Build the leadership team - Define your assessment criteria and evaluate the team you inherited. Move deftly to make the necessary changes; find the optimal balance between bringing in outside talent and promoting high-potential leaders within the organization.

5. Lay the organizational foundation for success. Identify the most important supporting changes you need to make in the structure, processes, and key talent bases of the organization. Put a plan in place for addressing the most pressing organizational weaknesses.

6. Secure early wins. Build personal credibility and energize people by identifying "centers of gravity" where you can get some early successes. Organize the right set of initiatives to secure early wins.

7. Create supportive alliances. Identify how the organization really works and who has influence. Understand who needs to champion your success and create key alliances in support of your initiatives."

Your next move talks about

1. The Promotion Challenge - Understanding what "success" looks like at a higher level in the hierarchy. Adjusting your focus and approach to delegation. Developing new leadership competencies and cultivating "presence."

2. The Leading-Former-Peers Challenge - Being promoted to manage people who were formerly your peers. Deftly establishing your authority in the new role. Reengineering existing relationships. Dealing with problematic former peers.

3. The Corporate Diplomacy Challenge - Moving from a position of authority to one in which strong influence skills are critical for getting things done. Mapping the influence landscape. Building supportive alliances.

4. The Onboarding Challenge - Joining an organization and adapting to a new culture. The pillars of effective on-boarding. Building the right political "wiring." Aligning expectations up, down and sideways.

5. The International Move Challenge - Moving to a new country and leading people in an unfamiliar culture. Moving one's family and rebuilding the support system. Preparing for entry. Beginning to engage with the team and the business.

6. The Turnaround challenge - Taking over an organization that is in very deep trouble and figuring out how to save it from destruction. Diagnosing the situation, designing the business model, driving alignment, and dynamically adapting. This is my favorite area but I need to coach myself a bit.

7. The Realignment challenge - Confronting an organization that is in
denial about the need for change. Creating a sense of urgency before emerging problems erupt in a crisis. Adjusting your leadership style to match the situation.

I think the book is very appropriate if you know what your next move is going to be. I particularly like the propensity for action and keeping the action periods short, demanding meaningful results in relatively short period of time, things like early winds.

I was expecting from the title that it would be more applicable to my personal situation and helping me decide what to do next.

It's still a great book.

I think you would like it..Thanks for reading my blog…

Rony Delgarde

"New Year's Resolutions"

I love New Year's, because I love setting New Year's Resolutions. I credit much of my success in life to setting goals and New Year's Resolutions are really not much more than setting goals.


For me, they fall into two categories.


1. Some resolutions would be habits that I want to develop (or stop). I'm a big believer that much of success has to do with us being the habits of what we repeatedly do.


2. Some of my resolutions are actual goals or things that I want to accomplish.


I have long practiced goal setting using my goal setting exercise 30 Minutes to Clear Goals.

This year will be no different - I will set goals. I will review how I did compared to what I thought last year. I will try to learn and refine my systems.

Have a great New Year 2010.

Rony Delgarde

"If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" Lyrics

"If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out" is a popular song by Cat Stevens. It first appeared in the 1971 film, Harold and Maude. Stevens wrote all the songs in Harold and Maude in 1970-1971, when he was writing and recording his Tea for the Tillerman album. However, "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" and two other songs from that period were not released as singles nor placed on any album at that time. No official soundtrack was released from the film at that time. The song was finally released later on Stevens' 1984 album. ---------------------------------------- 

“If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out"

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are

And if you want to be high, be high
And if you want to be low, be low
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

You know it's up to you
Anything you can do
And if you find a new way
Well, you can do it today
Well, you can make it all true
And you can make it undo
You see, ah-ah-ah, it's easy, ah-ah-ah
You only need to know

And if you want to be her, be her
And if you want to be you, be you
'Cause there's a million things to do
You know that there are

And if you want to say yes, say yes
And if you want to say no, say no
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

You know it's up to you, anything you can do
And if you find a new way
Well, you can do it today
Well, you can make it all true
And you can make it undo
You see, ah-ah-ah, it's easy, ah-ah-ah
You only need to know

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are

And if you want to be high, be high
And if you want to be low, be low
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are
You know that there are

As leaders or future leaders of the world, we might one day sing this song together, each and everyone of us, in real-time through satellite hook-up, and our world and our planet can know true liberation. And I am betting Oprah is going to have something to do with it, as am I... Love to all, We are all together in beautiful spirit. Rainy Delgarde

"100 Ways to Motivate Others"

My latest book review is on "100 Ways to Motivate Others” - How Great Leaders can produce insane results without driving people crazy by Steve Chadeler and Scott Richardson. OMG! Great book!!

The book is more about gaining commitment than what the strategy to motivate others should be. Motivate others has always been one of my greatest strengths. And of course to make it work, I always need buy in.

The gist of the message is sell people in the organization to be committed. We all know that many people are not fully engaged, this book talks about how to get them engaged. Clearly a laudable goal. I did not need the chapter on why it is important.

Some Quotes:

"Discipline is remembering your commitment to trump compliance". "Most leaders confuse Compliance and commitment". So true. And the cost of having police is not only their cost but the reduction in speed it can create for an organization.

"The only thing harder than gaining trust is losing it and trying to regain it". The book talks about the need for trust and how to gain it (mostly just old fashioned walk the walk, integrity, fairness, consistency).

"There is only one boss: The Customer"- you really have no choice here...

" Your strategies to motivate must be bold enough to make the organization more effective". I have seen this first hand. Bold strategy does involve some discomfort and change. This is where the people need to be inspired.

Interesting aside. I did not know where the phrase stake in the ground came from. Aztec warriors used to tie their ankle to a stake so they could not retreat from their position. It was win or else...

I loved the short stories and the tools in the book and could see a definite practical use for them. They would be perfect for someone who is a leader or manager with more than a few people.

Have a great day!


Rony Delgarde

"How to Make Things Happen"

How to make things happen: This presentation was about Change management, leadership and motivation by Patrick Dixon, conference keynote speaker to audience of nurses, doctors, public sector workers, local government, fire service, waste, water and utilities, social workers and social services, politicians and members of Parliament.


It's a great video, very inspiring and motivating, really interesting, and very catchy.
Good Luck....

Rony Delgarde

Strength Of Facing Change - Inspirational Story

What do you do when you face any change in your life? Are you anxious about a new job, a new responsibility, a house move or some other life-changing event? Relax! New adventures make everyone nervous. When you reach beyond your comfort zone, away from what’s familiar and comfortable, anxious feelings are inevitable.

At such times, remember, fear is connected with joy.

We need new experiences to keep our minds fresh. We need new opportunities to feed the creativity of our souls. We need new adventures for personal growth.

Recognize that, through these experiences, you discover new parts of yourself. You might just reveal strength, courage and resilience you didn't know you had, and how great is that?

A leader should always have strength to face difficulties of life and rather changing himself, he should have enough courage to change the problem.

This management development / inspirational presentation was given by Mr. Zeeshan Sajwani in one of his training presentations. Take a good and look and reach past your fear and celebrate what your new adventures may bring. This can also be downloaded and used for team building and team motivation.

Strength Of Facing Change - Inspirational Story

View more presentations from Princess Estine.

Rony Delgarde