Haitian Creole Legal Language Specialist, storyteller, and community builder helping you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and create meaningful impact.
I attended a recent lecture presented by Spirit Airlines President and CEO Ben Baldanza at the Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Nova SouthEastern University in Davie, Florida.
Roosevelt Jean-Francois and Ben Baldanza at Nova University
Baldanza shared his business acumen and day to day experience at Spirit Airlines with hungry listeners composed mostly with Nova business students and professors, some Spirit Airlines employees, and a few guests including myself.
Preston Jones, D.B.A. (doctorate in business administration), dean of Nova Southeastern University called Baldanza ¨Professor, Professor Baldanza¨ because he was eloquent, fluent, inspiring, and expressive on a various of topics including culture, business, leadership, strategy, and education.
His prepared power-point presentation included content, data, and pictures about Spirit Airlines which, he said, is one of the leading ultra low-cost carriers in the United States.
Headquartered in Miramar, Florida. Spirit operates scheduled flights throughout the U.S. as well as Latin America, the Caribbean, and Haiti where I’m originally from.
I travel regularly back and forth to Haiti and the Caribbean for my consulting and leadership education business. And most of the time, Spirit Air is my carrier. It fits well my needs.
I buy my tickets on line, preferably 15-22 days in advance searching the least cost as possible. I travel light with my heavy backpack, no carry on, no bag unless my wife urges me to bring stuff to our loved ones back home and to come here with her homeland food. I make sure I pay online and I always have some empty space in my backpack in case of my bag is over 40 pounds.
But, every time I’m at the Fort-Lauderdale counter airport for an early flight to Port-au-Prince, it’s always a nightmare. A very difficult situation to see some old Haitian ladies and sometimes some younger men as well who only speak Creole to be in emotional discussions with cool headed Spirit Air ticketing agents who only speak English pleading for fees for an unchecked carry on, or a bag which would go up to U$100 a piece.
Lecture
I asked Baldanza an open question about his company diversity culture in general and Haitian Creole cultural competence in particular, he responded that there are upcoming initiatives to educate his customers, including Haitians, at the counter about the services. He also mentioned that Spirit ‘s presence on the market has brought more competitive choices for Haitians to travel.
I totally agree with this. This is good. Nonetheless, I’ll be more confortable to see ¨Professor, Professor Baldanza”, and Spirit Airlines move “from good to great”, by providing culturally competent and related educational customer services to the Haitian community.
This will be coming, he said, announcing some marketing initiatives. That’s some good news and I’ll witness it with my very next trip back to Haiti.
I love Life Leadership and the compensated community we are building around it. We are a FUN Club, making money, striving for excellence, bonding together to make a difference, and helping people to live the life they’ve always wanted. We market information around 8F’s: Faith, Family, Finance, Friends, Freedom, Fitness, Following, and Fun. And we are excited about it. Fired up!
Club 180 partWe just had our very first Club 180 party in Fort-Lauderdale Florida. It was fun, inspiring.
It was fun to have what best author Orrin Woodward called “Great conversations”. It was also inspiring to listen to some stories our friends were telling to themselves.
We shared some jokes, and humorous stories about ourselves eating Chinese and Spanish omelettes, pancakes, coffee, juice etc… Good food. very good food.
But, the food I loved the most, in our breakfast Club 180 party, this morning was some “food for thought”. It was moving from “good to great”.
Luc & Nathalie, Centurions power players, casted the vision to have South East Florida, and its affiliated regions on the Life Leadership map.
I was amazed to see Yolaine and Jon driving more than 2 hours from Fort-Myers to Fort Lauderdale. She told us “I wanted to be with you. And I do not regret to do it”.
Yolaine also said that “people at work complimented me for my upbeat attitude. The information made a difference. I am more patient, I feel less stressed”.
Linda was not happy with her husband Frank prior to the meeting. “I know we were going to church, and he decided to come here without telling me. I was unhappy. But, now I feel a lot better listening to you. What you do, putting people together in our community matters”, said Linda with a “sorry honey” to her husband who replied with a big smile.
It was a great joy listening to Luna about her learning experience through the CD’s and the open meetings.”I thought I would be by myself, I discover I have a new family. I like it”, she said.
Smith was also outstanding about the compensated model and the message we are sharing. “I feel more confident, I gave out Cd’s, and I like when people are calling me for more, and I invite them to have their owns”, Smith said.
Jon is reading RASCAL from best selling author Chris Brady. He told us :”I want to make a difference by becoming an original character”.
We left with some goals, some commitments to build our Open Meeting numbers in Fort-Lauderdale . We also dream to have Fort-Lauderdale on the monthly Live Life Event map, and to reach thousands and thousands of people in SouthEast Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin-America.
I enjoyed the moment building and bonding with our friends in our Life leadership compensated community. This is definitely our “best shot to live the life we’ve always wanted”.
My most pleasurable moments are when I have conversations with friends I just met. I enjoy asking questions, nodding to their answers, smiling to their jokes, sharing their successes, and empathizing with their challenges to discover and connect with the human being I have in front of me.
This is very rewarding. Having conversations is my continuing education, my lifelong learning experience. I learn from anyone, anywhere. And I also teach to anyone, anywhere. It’s a never ending process.
I also learn to grow myself and develop others from handling confrontations trough crucial conversations. Although, I have a tendency to avoid difficult conversations, I find them very gratifying when they are well prepared emotionally.
I think private speaking is a lot more difficult and challenging than public speaking.
I will concentrate on serious conversations for this post. Let me share with you some general rules applied to serious, playful, and social conversations I pick from Mortimer J. Adler’s book “How to speak, how to listen”.
I understand from Adler’s teaching that conversations should be pleasure and profitable if we apply the following rules:
1- Pick the right place and occasion for a conversation. “There are times for small talks and times, so to speak, for big talk”, he said.
2.- Know in advance what kind of conversation you are trying to have.
3.- Select the right people with whom to have it. He advised: “Never engage in the discussion of a problem with someone you know in advance has a closed mind on that subject”.
4.- A conversation is not an interrogation. Don’t ask one question after another without any connection between the questions asked in sequence.
5.- Don’t be rude by engaging in a side conversation while someone to whom you should be listening is talking.
6.- Don’t be too polite. If you think you have something to say, say it.
I also learn that a conversation should be organized with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning should set the stage for the conversation by focussing on the subject to be discussed. The middle should be devoted to the development of the theme being discussed. The end is the conclusion.
Best-selling author Chris Brady just released a talk on the importance of reading to succeed in life. I am glad to share the content of his talk with you which is available through our Life Leadership program, a community of self-directed students on leadership, community building, and foundational issues of life such as: faith, family, finances, following, fitness, freedom, and fun.
Reading is the basic foundation to bring success, significance, and legacy. It’s the shortcut to excellence in knowledge economy. Books can be as nearly as important as oxygen, Brady said.
J W. Marriott, Chairman of Marriott International, said he started living when he found books. He manages by asking people, ‘ What do you think?…, a lesson he learned from President Eisenhower for whom, the four most important words in the English language are, ‘What do you think?
Marriott has a reading development program for its employees to help them teach themselves and be ready to think on their own two feet.
Abraham Lincoln, born in a one roomed cabin and his formal schooling added up to a year, was a voracious reader. He read and reread Aesop’s fable many times. He gave himself a first-rate college degree by reading. He understood that reading was the best tool of advancing in the world.
Harry Truman never attended college but said,” Not every reader is a leader, but every leader must be a reader.
Napoleon Bonaparte called people ¨fools” if they slept more than 3 hours at night because they could have been reading.
Teddy Roosevelt read at every type of condition.
Thomas Jefferson said if he has any money he buys book and if there is any left he will buy food.
Oprah Winfrey was only allowed one hour of TV per day by her grandmother.
How to read
Make reading a habit. Read many genres as once. Highlight, underline as you read. Make notations. Write in the margins. Argue with the author.
Outline, and Summarize the book. Read all the underlines and highlights. Keep your books organized for future references. Discuss them with others.
Where to read
EVERYWHERE. If we’re prepared, you can always redeem the time. Have your books everywhere to redeem the time. Always, carry a book with you.
When to read a book
ALWAYS. Every now and then set some time apart and read.Develop a habitual time to read. The habits in your life determines what your life is.
What to read
ONLY READ THE BEST THINGS. You don’t have to read a bad book.Only put good books in front of your eyes.
Choose wisely of what to read. Read wide, strong, and deep.The choice of books like that of friends is a serious duty. We are as responsible of what we read as what we do.
Andrew Carnegie said,” A man’s reading program should be as carefully planned as his daily diet.”
Get the top 5 books we recommend in the website. Go through different subscriptions we offer. (email me for details)
As you read, so will you lead your life. Make it a good foundation so you can make it a great life.
Brady and his wife Terri have a Great Conversation on how to develop kids who love to read. This is a must listened audio available on RASCAL Radio. You can listen to this content and more now by having a Life Leadership Library subscription. Just leave me a comment below and I’ll help you get tuned and live the life you’ve always wanted.
Here’s the new Leadership Factory radio show. I enjoyed listening to Orrin Woodward and Tony Cannuli interviewing Holger Spiewak. Holger is LIFE Leadership’s brand new Policy Council member. Here are some real life lessons on leadership, trust, courage, conviction, growth, change, and determination. As best-selling author Orrin Woodward wrote on his blog, “a person cannot lead others until he has proven he can lead himself.¨
New-York Times best-selling author Chris Brady, just released a talk in the LIFE Series on leadership, authenticity, and your personal brand which is your uniqueness, your God-given calling to LIFE, your purpose, your raison d’etre.
With humor, passion, and great speaking ability, Brady calls upon us to dig deep in ourselves to detect our uniqueness.
“No one else has your story. Nobody experiences the world as the same way as you”, Chris Brady said in an audio CD available in the LIFE Library.
This concept of “uniqueness” to life is a preamble to what Brady calls your “personal brand”.
He defines your personal brand (PB) as “whatever you bring to the world which is uniquely yours”.
“The more you stick to what is uniquely yours”, he said, “the more authentic you are, and the more interesting it is, the more it is marketable to others”.
Brady singled out Robert Redford’s outstanding movie “The legend of the bagger vance” which describes a down-and-out golfer attempts to recover his game and his life with help from a mystical caddy challenging him to find his “authentic swing”.
“It’s time to move on, and to drop the baggage of the past, and find your authentic swing”, Brady reported from this movie which, he said, is not about sport, but a real application to leadership, and success.
“We meet people who have been in some wars in their lives and who have their heads messed up. Sometimes, we can’t make our heads clear about the past and feel responsible for damages in our lives and picture ourselves of not worthy accomplishing anything”, Brady commented adding “it’s like we’re already die and waiting to make it official”.
And there’s also the negative messages the world is sending to us: “don’t try too hard”, “don’t waste time achieving anything”, “don’t get your hopes up”.
“Our negative self-talk gets mixed with popular saying dragging us to mediocrity, insignificance, and unhappiness” Brady said.
We spend days of insignificance and misalignment away from our purpose chasing lesser things for immediate satisfaction and at the moment pleasure.
It’s time to find our authentic swing, that thing we were born to do, that thing that makes us come alive.
Are you ready for your own personal development round the clock radio station. Rascal Radio is Live June 1st for leadership content and non-stop information to help you live the LIFE you’ve always wanted. Inbox me for tune in.
J’ai eu une conversation avec Marcus Garcia sur les leçons de leadership à apprendre du tremblement de terre qui a emporté son épouse Joceline et des centaines de milliers d’autres vers la mort.
“Face à une catastrophe d’une telle ampleur, le pays devait se réunir atour d’un TEAM, d’un LEADERSHIP qui n’est pas nécessairement une personne mais aussi des groupes de personnes, des institutions qui s’offrent enmodèle pour faire face à la crise”. (Marcus).
Nous avions parlé de la reconstruction, de la réponse du gouvernement et de l’administration, de la presse, de la diaspora, et de la culture.
S’agissant du moment d’avoir une nouvèle ère: “Je ne suis pas de ceux qui pensent que le pays entre dans une nouvelle ère. Nous avons des défauts durs à déraciciner”. (Marcus)
J’aime Marcus. J’ai eu l’occasion de collaborer avec lui de près. Il peut parler et parler. Et je peux écouter et écouter.
C’est ce que j’ai fait le 13 janvier 2010 dans la salle de presse de Mélodie FM. Je vous invite à faire de même.
Bonne écoute.
Learn to “Be yourself,” and understand “You are a child of the universe,no less than the trees and the stars;you have a right to be here.And whether or not it is clear to you,no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”
The editor notes this poem is a list of things desirable in life.
Suite à la publication de mes commentaires sur le dernier film de Raoul Peck (à voir absolument), un ami sur Facebook a recommandé d’initier la réflexion sur le leadership en temps de crise.
Kesner Pharel avait organisé une session sur le sujet il y’a quelques années et je viens de lire un texte de John Maxwell, auteur célèbre du leadership, qui traite du sujet de leadership en temps de crise.
Nous ne pouvons pas échapper à des situations de crise. Que ce soit au niveau personnel, familial, communautaire, national, global, ces situations naturelles ou imposées nous dictent la réalité. Bien qu’incapable de les éviter, nous pouvons apprendre à les controller pour apporter de meilleures réponses et conduire les gens de notre communauté à mieux répondre eux-mêmes.
Par nature, une crise exige une attention urgente, et pourtant il peut être difficile de savoir comment réagir face à l’adversité soudaine.
Maxwell propose 7 étapes pour faire face à une situation de crise :
1) Découvrir et définir le vrai problème
Comme Max De Pree a noté, «la première responsabilité d’un leader est de définir la réalité.” Les dirigeants doivent patauger dans la boue afin de savoir précisément ce qui s’est passé et de donner un sens à la situation actuelle. Se render sur les lieux. Le meilleur exemple est Rudy Giuliani, l’ancien maire de New York; (A lire son livre Leadership)
2) Agir rapidement
3) Rassurer
La place pour gérer une crise n’est pas derrière un bureau mais devant le peuple. La présence visible d’un leader en temps de crise inspire confiance et donne aux autres un sentiment de sécurité. Certes, la capacité des dirigeants à contrôler leurs propres émotions est aussi primordiale. En outre, la préparation est la clé. Évidemment, certaines crises sont totalement imprévisibles. Pourtant, les entreprises peuvent établir des plans stratégiques en prévision d’une urgence. Les entreprises avec un plan d’urgence en place sont bien mieux placées pour gérer une crise soudaine que celles dans lesquelles les dirigeants doivent fonctionner à la volée.
4) Simplifier la situation
En temps de crise les émotions sont fortes et les circonstances accablantes. Pour prendre des décisions lucides, un leader doit identifier les principaux enjeux, mobiliser son équipe, recueillir leurs commentaires.
5) Mobiliser l’appui de personnes influentes
Dans toute organisation, un petit groupe de personnes détient la majorité de l’influence. Lors d’une crise, il faut consacrer une attention particulière à s’assurer que les influenceurs clés sont à bord avec votre plan pour gérer la crise.
6) Décider de prendre des mesures d’une étape à la fois
En temps de crise, les conditions sont dans un état de flux. Pour cette raison, les plans à long terme sont vouées à l’échec. Confronté à une situation qui évolue rapidement, il est sage de se concentrer sur le court terme. Concentrer sur la prise de la prochaine étape, laisser retomber la poussière, puis réévaluer la situation.
7) Faites ce qui est juste et non pas ce qui est plus facile
Les problèmes difficiles ont rarement des solutions simples. Il faut éviter de passer outre des valeurs et normes éthiques pour rendre la situation plus facile. Au lieu de cela, Maxwell propose de s’en tenir à ses convictions et de mettre les besoins de la communauté en avant de son confort personnel.
