Monthly Archives: July 2019

Nicolás Delgado – No Short Cuts

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Anthony sits down with Nicolás Delgado, the regional corporate and sales leader for Marsh Latin America and Caribbean, and Nicolás shares multiple gems of wisdom for both personal and professional development and his story builds out a perfect platform for a personal strategic plan.

As a lifetime learner, Nicolás’ schooling began in a very unique way. Growing up in Colombia, his parents wanted what was best for him and enrolled him into a very competitive landscape studying under Benedictine monks. The school’s motto was “ora et labora” which means “pray and work”. There were no shortcuts and he learned you must work really hard to make things happen. This drive was imbedded in the way he was raised. Looking back, Nicolás realized the Benedictine monks, along with his parents, were responsible in planting the little seeds inside him to make him the person he is today.

During his summers off of school, Nicolás’ father would send him to the US to stay with family and attend summer school. Nicolás dreamed of getting a fulltime educational experience in the US. Before high school started, he asked his father if he could attend high school in the US and his father said no. Then, when it was time to apply for his undergraduate, he applied to schools in the US, but his father influenced him to stay in Colombia. When it came time to enroll for his MBA, promotions and added responsibilities at work kept pushing Nicolás’ dream of education backwards. Once he was ready to apply, the school told him he was now too old and too seasoned to enroll in the graduate program. Nicolás did not let these setbacks stop him from perusing his dreams, instead, he found a program at Northwestern University for executive type graduate students and finally was able to continue his learning journey. Although it was not what he had originally envisioned, Nicolás would not let his dream fail.

Nicolás advises others to always have an end goal in mind, and although the plan will get altered, to never give up on the dream. Remember your dreams and ultimately your decisions will affect all of those around you. Be as responsible as possible, but also remember to have fun and enjoy every stage of life while you are in it. As a leader of 11 countries, Nicolás has found although there are many differences in each geographical location, there are commonalities which help us come together. We are all going through this journey of life together. It is important not to forget we are more basic than we think. We have common goals and aspirations and we need to find the purpose of life that motivates us to do things which will be self-satisfying and also deliver for the greater good of the community.

Nicolás is a one of a kind leader whose personal story has lead him to success. He is excited for the future, to keep learning and growing and to keep driving forward to leave his mark on the universe.

There is No Right or Wrong – Dr. Laura Gallaher

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:14 — 18.5MB)

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Dr. Laura Gallaher is an organizational psychologist who is obsessed with the idea of building cultures and organizations from the inside out. She is a speaker, facilitator and executive coach.

At 24 Dr. Gallaher had the opportunity to work at NASA. After the Columbia tragedy, there was an investigation into what went wrong and why lives were lost in the incident. Although much of the report had to do with the technicalities of the incident, there was a large portion of the report which cited the company culture at NASA during the time. Factors in the report stated how the company was designed and how emerging culture faltered to provide an environment where colleagues felt like they could voice their opinions or make suggestions. After a year and a half of identifying key leadership behaviors NASA thought was important, Dr. Gallaher was part of the team hired to help transform the culture and develop leaders to create psychological safety to ensure the best possible decisions were being made for the organization.

Dr. Gallaher currently runs her own company, Gallaher Edge, which is a consultancy that works with small businesses. They primarily work with executive teams to help the team members become more self-aware and practice more self- accountability so executives can truly align, build trust, and collaborate. By helping the leaders of an organization improve, the goal is to have the results cascade through the organization to help improve the overall culture of the organization. She attributes much of her success to those she has surrounded herself with throughout her career. Learning different techniques and skills from her peers and colleagues, Dr. Gallaher has developed a unique skill set which is instrumental in her work and success.

Dr. Gallaher explains how accountability starts are the self-level. Each individual in any given situation or scenario should be asking themselves what have I done to contribute to the situation and what can I do now to create the solution I want. Accountability should always be future focused. Dr. Gallaher has seen many people in organizations think accountability means knowing who to blame when something goes wrong. In an organization where culture creates highly productive, motivated, inspired and engaged employees, accountability cannot become a blaming game where you take a powerless stance. It is natural to have a victim mentality when it comes to accountability because subconsciously we are trying to protect our self-concept. Dr. Gallaher challenges listeners to not think about right and wrong. During situations where you see what someone else is doing and find it fearful to confront them, think in terms of your own experience and what you see and believe and the other person’s experience and what they see and believe. Using self-accountable communication to create and design something together will likely result in the most effective way to solve the problem.

To learn more about Dr. Laura Gallaher and Gallaher’s Edge, visit her website: www.gallaheredge.com.