Unleash Communication Pro Moves for Lasting Impact with Michelle Gladieux

Have you ever heard these myths about becoming a better communicator? Myth #1: Good communication is all about being a smooth talker. Myth #2: Communication skills are something you're either born with or without. Myth #3: The more you talk, the better communicator you are. In this episode, our guest Michelle Gladieux will reveal the truth behind these myths and share strategies to unleash better communication through pro moves. Show Notes | Transcript "In hiding from risk, we don't stand up. We don't use our voice, we don't use the power of our pen to communicate or through email when we could and we could advocate perhaps for ourselves or others' ideas." - Michelle Gladieux Michelle Gladieux joins us to share valuable insights on how to uplevel your personal and professional communication skills. The President of Gladieux Consulting, Michelle is a seasoned communication specialist and author of the book, Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome the Four Hidden Challenges. Her strategic intuition in business psychology blends seamlessly into her work, leading her to create the concept of 'pro moves' that aims to empower stronger communicators. Whether she is writing engaging birthday cards, crafting thoughtful emails, or actively facilitating strategic planning with her impressive client roster, Michelle's commitment to harnessing the power of effective communication is truly remarkable. In this episode, you will be able to: Acknowledge the crucial role effective communication takes up in both personal and professional circles. Unearth hidden barriers which might be affecting your communication efficiency and delivery. Learn pro-level strategies to transform you into a master communicator. Recognize the importance of self-talk and introspection in enhancing communication skills. Value the ongoing learning process as the stepping stone to improved communication. Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy: Creating Meaningful Relationships: Gavin Frye’s Guide to Intimacy Embracing Empathy with Kristen Donnelly How Vulnerability Empowers You for Success with Jessi Shuraleff Resources: Connect with Michelle here Get Michelle's book, "Communicate with Courage" here Join the Soulful Women's Network here Send me a message here ☕ Support the podcast here ❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here Connect with Gloria: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 - Gloria Grace Rand Namaste. I am Gloria Grace, the Light Messenger and creator of The L.O.V.E. Method, and women entrepreneurs hire me to clear the inner blocks, keeping you stuck so you can put yourself first for a change and live the life you want now. And I am so delighted to be with you to bring you an awesome guest. I know. Or at least I'm sure she's going to be awesome because I've already learned about her and had a chance to talk about her. But she has written an excellent book called Communicate with Courage -Taking Risks to Overcome the Four Hidden Challenges. And she is the president of Gladieux Consulting, a Midwest boy. I can't talk today. I apologize. A Midwest based team known for top notch design and presentation of seminars in communication and leadership topics around the U.S. That must be why we're talking about communication. It's getting me tongue tied. Very strange. Oh, well, she provides executive coaching and facilitates strategic planning for clients in diverse industries, in governments, nonprofits, and in academia. So without further ado, I want to welcome Michelle Gladieux to live, love, engage. 00:01:18 - Michelle Gladieux Hello. Thanks for having me, Gloria. 00:01:20 - Gloria Grace Rand Well, I'm so happy to have you. And despite my tongue tiedness there at the beginning, I decided I could have stopped and started over again. Hey, you know, we're talking about communicating today, so what the heck, let's let's know that sometimes things don't always come out of our mouths the way we intend. But before we get to talking about your book, which I loved, by the way, I would love to know what got you interested in communication and leadership that you are involved with. 00:01:49 - Michelle Gladieux Well, I don't know how anyone can't be, to be honest, Gloria. I just think it's the makings. If you get good at communication, it's the makings of a healthy, happy life. And then with our communication strength and prowess and using pro moves and gaining courage, we can help improve others’ lives as well. So it gives me a reason to get up in the morning. And I know that we're all making a few thousand decisions, big and small, every day, and so many of those are about communication that I think is a topic that we should all be interested in studying. I don't know, maybe I'm biased, but I'm definitely always analyzing my email, my texts, my birthday cards I write, my presentations. I just think that the intention, as you do in communication and energy and skill really matters. 00:02:40 - Gloria Grace Rand Well, were you like this as a kid, too? 00:02:44 - Michelle Gladieux Like this as a kid? I was a little kid who would go tap the teacher on the shoulder and whisper that what that teacher was trying with the student might not work as well as something else, a different method that they could try for interacting with that student. So I think I was destined for that psychology degree, and then I found organizational psychology in college and thought, oh, my gosh, the marriage of business and the study of human behavior. I'm in. 00:03:12 - Gloria Grace Rand Yeah, I was always interested in I think I took at least one psychology course when I was in school as well, and I think it was while I was majoring in communications, now that I think about it, because I had originally started as a business administration major, and calculus and economics did not agree with me at the time. So I like that you did that. And we have a few other things that got maybe we'll get into that. 00:03:35 - Michelle Gladieux Later, but for now, we have happy and sad in common. 00:03:39 - Gloria Grace Rand Yeah. And it's what makes us who we are today. So it's all good. So let's get into talking about the book. Actually, I'm going to ask you first, why did you decide to write a book about communication? 00:03:51 - Michelle Gladieux I had had thousands of executive coaching and training clients and got to know them personally and deeply. And I think through all those deep connections and conversations, I kept seeing over the last 20 years or so a pattern of challenges that seemed to be just kind of peripheral vision. Folks weren't really able to name them and thus couldn't work on them. So I wanted to put some of my best strategies for communication on paper from my heart and also illustrate these four hidden challenges that trip us up. 00:04:26 - Gloria Grace Rand Well, I love how you incorporated not only this excellent advice about how to communicate, but you also weaved in some personal examples as well. But I think my favorite is the pro moves and then the homework. Well, not exactly homework. Yeah, I guess homework at the end of each chapter for people to try. So share with us a little bit about what you mean by well, what you mean by, I guess these four hidden challenges, what they are and how we can overcome them. 00:04:59 - Michelle Gladieux Sure, there are four, and I guess I would invite the listeners today to just lovingly think through whether any of these obstacles are prohibiting you from getting to your best place, your potential as a communicator. So I see four hidden challenges. They are separate but related, and I'm dealing with one or more of these every day. So I don't think we ever graduate and completely get rid of one. Once I tackle one, another will raise its head, and I just keep trying to be real with myself about my strengths and limitations and expand my courage as a communicator. Here they are. The first hidden challenge is hiding from risk. And when we're hiding from risk, we are afraid that we might expose one of our weaknesses. A real or a supposed weakness could be something you believe about yourself as a weakness that is true. Or it could be negative self-talk that's not factual. But in hiding from risk, we don't stand up. We don't use our voice, we don't use the power of our pen to communicate or through email when we could and we could advocate perhaps for ourselves or others ideas. The second hidden challenge is defining to be right. And when you're defining to be right, you're just so darn sure. And you're probably relying on assumptions quite a bit. Now, you may be very smart, you may be very emotionally intelligent, have a lot of good strengths in that area. But when we are defining to be right, we're putting too much stock into our assumption. And that doesn't let others’ ideas come in. And it can get in the way of being an inclusive leader, as I hope we're all striving to be as communicators. So the third challenge is I call it rationalizing the negative. And you might know it as pessimism, because it is when we shield ourselves from taking chances, maybe the chance to say the hard thing or to address a conflict or negotiate, apologize, ask for help, summoning one's courage and finding the faith that something positive could happen, even though there are potential negative consequences as well. That's weighing risk intelligently. And when you stop rationalizing the negative, you start to have faith in positive possibilities, which I think will carry us far as communicators. So that one I like to work with clients on overcoming pessimistic thinking and mindsets, and I like to work on my own mind. I'd always look for the gift. 00:07:24 - Gloria Grace Rand Yeah, absolutely. 00:07:25 - Michelle Gladieux ...