Audrey:
We have to ensure that our message is being received. Oftentimes, we might come to the table with a great idea, you're pumped up, you deliver the pitch, and it's crickets and you're dumbfounded. How is this possible?
James Robert:
Greetings and hello, I am James Robert Lay, and welcome to episode 272 of the Banking on Digital Growth podcast. Today's episode is part of the Behind the Cover series where today we are going to be taking you, dear listener, behind the cover of No-Fail Communication by Michael Hyatt. Joining me for today's conversation is a Audrey Cannata, operations lead here at the Digital Growth Institute and fellow reader who will be providing some perspective into the biggest challenges that we all face when it comes to communication, especially communication in a digital world, along with how you can overcome those communication challenges that might be holding you back. They might be holding your team back. They might be holding your organization back so that you can all continue to move forward and make progress along your own journey of growth at your bank, at your credit union, or at your FinTech. Welcome to the show, Audrey. It is always good to go behind the cover together with you.
Audrey:
Yes, thank you James Robert, excited to be back. We took a little bit of time off from recording the series, but here we are back and ready to bring some more books into 2023.
James Robert:
And I think we have a lot of books that we'll be reading, discussing and sharing together to help guide financial brands and FinTechs and their marketing, sales and leadership teams along their journeys of growth. But before we get into talking about No-Fail Communication, what is good for you right now, personally or professionally? What is positive in your world?
Audrey:
I'm just really excited for 2023. I have a really great feeling about this year. 2022 was full of a lot of ups and downs, but also a lot of growth opportunities. So I'm just looking forward to taking those lessons and cruising into 2023 stronger than ever, just personally and professionally.
James Robert:
Well, I think that's goes to show we are here in this experience that we call life. It can be the greatest classroom. A lot of it is how we perceive things, how we receive things. I think one of the things that stands out to me is from a previous conversation that you and I had. It's not happening to me. Things are not happening to me because, and that's why I always start these conversations off on a positive note because we can choose how we react or respond to our environment, to the world around us. And you said, "Things are not happening to me. They're happening for me." It's simple saying, but it really is a transformative mindset shift. Why is that important to consider? When we just look at 2023, we read some of the headlines. We listen to some of the negativity going on, economic uncertainty, and it is real, but we can react or we can respond. We look at all of the layoffs that are going on in Silicon Valley right now. Things are not happening to me. Things are happening for me. What's your take on that?
Audrey:
I think it all has to do with mindset and perception. When we think about reacting, that's emotional, that's quick. Responding, that's a little bit more logical. So if we think about some of the situations that were put in and the lessons, I mean, we can say, "Okay, that sucked. Poor me." We can cry about it, whine about it. Let it get us down. Or we can look at and say, "Okay, well what lesson can be learned here? How can I be better and stronger?" That way whatever it is, the situation that you were in, it wasn't all for nothing. You've got something out of it. So you really kind of have to flip the script and make those situations work for you rather than against you.
James Robert:
Well, that idea of how you handle challenging times, how you handle tough times, it also comes down to communication. We know that communication is often one of the biggest challenges within organizations internally, but we also know communication is one of the biggest challenges externally when it comes to marketing and sales "conversations". And the antithesis of clarity is confusion. And when you're repeatedly stuck in a cycle of confusion, you are going to feel conflict. And when you feel that conflict over and over again, it's going to feel like you're just in a world full of chaos. And so to get out of that chaos, to get out of that conflict, all comes down to gaining clarity. And clarity can be found through No-Fail Communication, which is what we're going to be talking about today. The book by Michael Hyatt, New York Times bestselling author. And inside the book there are 13 workplace communication problems that Michael Hyatt has identified.
We have seen some of these as well through the education and coaching that we do with financial brands on their journeys of growth. Let's dive into this. Why is it important to think about communication in a digital first world that does feel increasingly confusing and chaotic?
Audrey:
We've heard the old adage, communication is key, and this might be an unpopular opinion, but it's kind of become cliche. It's lost a little bit of its luster. We know it's key. We say that it's key, but are we really investing the time and the intentionality to really understand what that looks like and apply it? I mean, I think it's just real easy to put this topic on the back burner. Communication is so vital. I mean, it is the foundation to any relationship, personal or professional, and relationships of all degrees to that matter. And like you said, communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity. It has the power to really exponentially increase productivity and team morale and culture and poor communication or lack of communication or unclear communication can cripple an organization or cripple a relationship.
So you can pull together the most talented and skilled team or the most compatible people. But if there's breakdowns in communication, none of that matters. And we work with a lot of organizations and you know this, we'll be on coaching calls and someone might have a frustration or a problem. And when we start peeling back the layers, so many times it boils down to poor communication.
James Robert:
As you're sharing that, I think about a conversation I recently had with Greg Palmer on the podcast, and we were talking about EQ, emotional intelligence and how that is a bit of a growth area for many financial brand and FinTech leaders who are very smart. They're very logical, left brain driven leaders. But when it comes to the emotive right side of the brain, there's an opportunity to be even better and to build these skill sets. And if you think about EQ, emotional intelligence, communication is smacked dab in the middle of that modality of relationship. And as you're talking through relationship, I think about the pyramid of human relationships that I wrote about in Banking on Digital Growth. And at the foundation of every positive relationship is respect. At the pinnacle of every positive relationship is love. And I look at love as really informed by some of the writings of the ancient Greeks and Thomas Aquinas where he looked at love as willing the good of another person.
But to bridge the gap between respect and love, it comes down to trust. And trust is built on two things, what you say and what you do and what you say that is communication. I'm going to roll this back because I think you said something that I don't want to move over too quickly. The challenges, the art, the lost art, if you will, of communication. Where have we fallen short in this art form of communication?
Audrey:
I think to be fair, it's not always intentional. It's not coming from a place of malice, poor communication or lack of communication. I think it's just simply a lack of awareness, not taking the time to critically think about or analyze or become self-aware with what you're saying, how you're saying, how it's being received, how the other person prefers to be communicated with. We're not taking that time to understand that, and it's just getting simply overlooked. I don't think it's because we don't think it's important, we just don't know.
James Robert:
What you're saying, how you're saying and I would take that even to the deeper realm of why you are saying or communicating the way that you are communicating. And perhaps your communication style is rooted in your family of origin. It is rooted in your environmental upbringing as a child through school in early professional years because there is a corporate "communication cadence". And depending upon the world that you "grew up in", your communication style will be greatly impacted by that. But when we look at the research around things like EQ, emotional intelligence, it can be taught. EQ can be taught, it can be learned, it can be trained, it can be grown. Same thing with communication. And I want some clarity here, first and foremost for myself. But then secondly, and even more importantly probably than myself, I would say for the dear listener. What is communication today? Because I think when we think about communication, it's what you and I are doing. It's having a conversation, it's having a dialogue, a discussion, a discourse, it's talking. But communication in a digital world is far more than that, right?
Audrey:
Absolutely. I think communication in the digital world is more important than ever. We're living on Zoom. And so you've got your non-verbal communication, your body language, your facial expressions, a lot of that. People are perceiving that, people are watching that. And it's a challenge I think, to keep that in mind, the way you're carrying yourself, the different expressions on your face. And I know for me personally, I can be a very expressive person. And that's been a little bit of a challenge for me to keep that in mind because a lot of times you're so focused on what you're saying that you're not really thinking about the way... Your appearance. And so for us, we record a lot of our coaching calls. And while it can be cringey, no doubt, it is very helpful to watch yourself and how you're carrying yourself the way your body language is, your facial expression.
So it is helpful. And I think more than that, and probably more often than that is our written communication, our emails, our texts, the tone that we're using. I think this might be the biggest area that I see a lot of misunderstandings and assumptions is how people read, pun intended, what is written. It all depends on your experience and your mindset. I used to do this exercise with my writing students and we would take one sentence and we would say it with five different tones of voice or use different punctuation. And each way it's expressed differently. So you have the exact same sentence, but it's being interpreted five different ways. So you really have to think about that and be intentional and consider how you are communicating your written language.
James Robert:
Something that is just popping into my head, this exercise. I think about being a watchdog at my kids' school over the past couple of weeks and reading. I had an opportunity to read to a classroom full of fourth graders, and I was very mindful of the words I was reading on the page from this book to get into character as much as possible. But let's take that one sentence. So for example, if you read the sentence, Jack runs quickly to School. Well, that's a statement. Jack runs quickly to school? Question. And so even just with that simple perspective, and then you can Jack runs quickly to school. So maybe that's an italicized perspective right there. So I want to dive into both of these points of view, we'll call it nonverbal body language in a digital world. And then there's the written email and I think even more challenging text, but there's also social media, there's social media posts, there's social media comments, nonverbal and there's that whole essence of video communication.
There is of course Zoom, but then there is the ability, I think to build a skillset as a leader, as a lender, as an advisor, as an associate to build your video communication capability. And to do that, you must build your video capability confidence, because talking into a camera can feel very intimidating. It can feel very overwhelming, but I have found that there's no better way to communicate digitally than through camera. And the complexity of that has exponentially decreased. Of course, Zoom adoption exponentially increased, but then there are other platforms like Loom and video BombBomb that you literally can flip on a camera on your phone. Even I think LinkedIn now has a video integration to where you can record an asynchronous video. Why is this important and how have you built this skillset up over time?
Audrey:
Definitely. It's wild because like you said, I can communicate in front of a room full of people, but sitting by myself recording a Loom video, why is that so challenging? And I think for one, you're not used to it. It's something new. And two, I think we tend to overthink our video communication. Me especially, I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. If I make an error or if I stumble on my words, I'm going to want to record it. I'll never forget, James Robert, the first time you said, "Hey, send me over a Loom this afternoon and tell me..." I forget what we were talking about. And I probably recorded it seven times. Just wasn't happy with either one of them. And this was definitely a learning curve for me to take away this idea of perfectionism, being polished all the time. In college, I did a lot of news reporting classes. And so I was used to that way of speaking, but that's not natural.
I'm not talking to you as a news reporter, I'm talking to you as me, Audrey, colleague. And I think we just need to get comfortable and know that what you see and the criticisms that you have for yourself, I guarantee you the other person is not thinking about it. We care more than the receiver on how we feel like we're being perceived. So practice, number one and I think two, it's so important... There are so many times where video communication is so much more effective. I know if I start typing an email out and it's more than four or five, six sentences and I'm trying to explain something, delete, hop on Loom and explain it that way, especially when I need to show different documents. It is so much more effective because if you think about email, how many back and forth do we have when we're talking about something and we're trying to schedule something or make something happen? And it's just back and forth, back and forth, and that may take a day or two to get something accomplished when you could just hop on a quick Loom and be done.
James Robert:
A couple of additional resources for you, the dear listener, to dive deeper into this subject around video communication. Check out episode 183, Connecting Through Cameras. It's about the visual sale with Marcus Sheratan. And then also check out episode 219, Video Communication, Give Them a Reason to Care with Ethan Butte from Video BombBomb. We really, really explore these topics in depth. And I think what you just shared, Audrey, is so important because it's a point of awareness. When do I need to transform my communication style to communicate even that much more effectively? To go from email to video. And I know that through a lot of the education and coaching that we've done since 2020, we've been making recommendations for leaders specifically to start communicating internally through video.
There's no better way to practice than to practice internally first, build that capability and then begin to bring that video communication externally. So I think there's a lot of practicality from your experience here that you, the dear listener, can put into practice going forward. So let's transition from this point of how communication has transformed from just having a conversation in person or over the phone. But it is now... There's video. And one last point too on video, because it's nonverbal. Your background, the environment around you says enormous. It communicates an enormous amount without you saying a word, right?
Audrey:
Absolutely. I have my backdrop here, and I don't even think... Even though I'm remote and I can move this laptop anywhere, I don't know that I ever have a video or call without it anymore. It's just become such a part of my identity. And it's really a great, I think, a nice presence. And it says a lot about, I think, how much you're caring or you're putting into that perception and wanting to be perceived in a certain manner. I'm putting forth the effort.
James Robert:
And I'm not a fan of the virtual background because it does communicate, it's kind of half-ass, right? It's jaggedly sometimes, sometimes you can't see the person clearly. There's a whole thing around that that inherently bothers me because...
Audrey:
Distracting sometimes.
James Robert:
It can be very distracting. I think the other thing that can be very distracting too is in a group setting Zoom conversation is when you are not fully present. If you were having that conversation with a team in the physical real world, you would not be doing a million other things. At least I hope that you wouldn't. And we've talked about the idea of multitasking on the podcast and how challenging that can be, but it does take intentionality. It does take, I think, maybe even more focus because you're like, "Ah, I'm going to slack off here." Where's the challenge with that when it comes to non-verbal communication?
Audrey:
And what about cameras off? That's one of our housekeeping notes that we share a lot is I've had a couple very odd conversations, one-on-one conversations with people on Zoom when their camera is off, my camera is on, and it just makes me feel a little uncomfortable. There's a little bit of breakdown in that communication, that relationship. I don't feel as connected to that person. So that is definitely one thing that we've talked a lot about is just that camera on, we want to see your happy, smiling faces.
James Robert:
But I would rather share my camera to provide that level of vulnerability, even if someone else has a camera off. I would rather share my camera to provide that level of vulnerability so that you can read my body language. And that's where I want to transition the conversation here. And let's get into a couple of key points from the book so that you, the dear listener, can go away with even that many more practical steps to take forward to ensure you have no fail communication. As I mentioned to start this conversation, there are 13 problems that we can address, and we're not going to get into all of them, but we might have already danced around this first one here just a bit when it comes to video communication, but I think it's even more than just video communication. It's just communication in general. Why does this have to be so hard? Why is that, Audrey? Why does this thing, communication, why does it have to be so hard?
Audrey:
I think the biggest challenge is, like we said before, the lack of awareness. And we need to become self-aware the way we communicate and the way others communicate, and we need to figure out a way to bridge that gap. And the most effective way and the best way that I have found personally is through the Kolbe assessment, and that's something that you and I are both passionate about. As a consultant, I definitely am extremely passionate about this and love bringing awareness to others because I know how powerful it can be and how effective it can be to understand your Kolbe. I did not realize the way I communicated before, and I did not realize that we all communicate so differently. And that's okay. It's not so much a right and a wrong. James Robert, you and I, we communicate very differently and there's nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But because we do work so closely together, we have invested the time and the intentionality to really understand our different communication styles and then respect those styles and then use those styles that we're able to really have such a more effective and positive relationship. We can create that much more value because we are shaping our styles to make sure that other person, we're kind of setting each other up for success. I know how to speak to you and vice versa.
James Robert:
Well, I think it boils down to one thing, and I'm only going to speak for myself here because that's part of communication. I can't read your mind, which we're going to get into in just a bit. But it's because I care. I genuinely care. I care about your success, and I know that your success is only going to be as good as my communication. I think the other thing too, and this is almost a real-time example of, and it came from... It's a lot of trust, what you say, what you do. When we were talking the other day, and we were going through some ways that I could be even better, and this comes down to Kolbe and I know how I naturally initiate, take action. I just like to quick start things. You on the other hand want to fact find and follow through.
That's your... And that's great. That's why I think there's a positive perspective here. But we have this upcoming orientation happening for the Digital Growth University, and I was like, "Oh, we'll just figure it out that morning. And I saw, I read your body language through Zoom, and I saw that made you feel... You didn't say anything. But then I took a step back and I was like, you know what? Let's invest the 30 minutes or so to talk through that agenda now so that whenever Wednesday morning rolls around, you're going to be in that much of a better place, right?
Audrey:
Absolutely. It takes intentionality and you have to keep remembering each other's differences and working with them. And I know James Robert, for you, if I hit you with a five paragraph email, you are going to shut down. You're probably not even going to read it. You might skim it for a second. That is not the way to communicate with you, and I know that. So I'm very intentional. I am very short and to the point. I give you just the high levels, none of the little, nitty-gritty details because that's what works best for you.
James Robert:
And all of this comes down to Kolbe and for you, the dear listener, who is wondering what the heck are they talking about? What is this Kolbe? Check out episode 124, Empowering the Growth Potential of Teams with Kolbe. It was another conversation that Audrey and I had. And if you'd like to learn a little bit more about that, send me an email jrwlay@digitalgrowth.com or send Audrey an email, audrey@digitalgrowth.com. And we can talk about this methodology and where it provides clarity when it comes to communication, no fail communication, because it does back to the point that Audrey is making really from the beginning. This is about just awareness, which gets into another challenge here is I can't read your mind. I'm not a mind reader. Maybe we'll get there with advances in technology once we're all connected to the cloud. Although there's this whole philosophical debate I want to have about that, which we're not going to have today, but I can't read your mind right now. Where's the challenge and how do we work around that?
Audrey:
So this one's really hard because a lot of times we assume... Especially the closer you are to a person, you start to assume that they know what you're trying to say. You know what you mean? I shouldn't have to tell that person that. They should already know that but we cannot operate that way. We have to still be responsible for communicating what we want, what we need, what has to happen. We cannot just assume that people know that. That's on us at that point. If we don't communicate, if we don't say, if we're not direct, then we can't expect the other person to read our mind. Now, I think it's hard. It's like the curse of knowledge. A lot of times, it's hard for us when we know something. It's hard to remember that not everybody else does. And that kind of goes right into one of the next points that Michael Hyatt talks about. The phrase is, "I don't get it."
We have to ensure that our message is being received. Oftentimes, we might come to the table with a great idea, you're pumped up, you deliver the pitch, and it's crickets and you're dumbfounded. How is this possible? And maybe on the other end, the receiver, they might be feeling like inadequate or insecure. "Oh my gosh, I didn't understand that. Where's the breakdown?" And I think we see this a lot with experts in a particular field. The language and the terminology or the technical terms that they use, there's a breakdown there. We talk about [inaudible 00:31:50] a lot. We have to communicate in a way that the other person will understand or dumb it down, if you will. And that can be a challenge when you're a true expert in your field.
James Robert:
I will be the first one to fall on my sword here. I understand, and you have helped tremendously create some awareness. And I think almost a bit of a filter too. That I do think at a very high level, and there are new thoughts, new ideas, is just how I naturally initiate, take action. Coming back to Kolbe, I am an entrepreneur. I see things differently than a lot of other people do, particularly within financial services. And so when communicating and you get that blank stare, you get the crickets. And I think the best thing, honestly, is when someone says, "I don't get it. I don't understand." I would rather someone share that with me than to be silent and think, "Oh, well, if I say I don't get it though, then that much mean that I'm dumb. I'm an idiot."
No, that's not the case. That comes back on me, I have failed you in communicating whatever it is that I'm trying to communicate. So I do see this a lot within organizations around the subject of digital growth or AI. No one wants to raise their hand and say, "I don't get it." But I think when you have the courage to raise your hand and say, I don't get it, you are doing so much good, not just for yourself, the receiver, but also for the one who is trying to communicate to you.
Audrey:
And I think even more, and I believe he gives some of these tips in the book, but if you're that person who doesn't get it, you don't necessarily have to raise your hand and say, I don't get it. There's definitely a way that you could phrase it. You can ask clarifying questions so that you can maybe take a little bit of that self-doubt off of your shoulders, because at that point, you are just simply curious. You want to find out more and understand versus the I don't get it. I think sometimes that might be taken a little bit negatively.
James Robert:
Exactly. And the point of clarifying questions too, I think as a communicator, a person trying to communicate to an individual, to a team, to an organization, instead of providing definitive statements about something, communicate through questions. There's a whole Socratic methodology of asking really good questions to help someone see or perceive a point of view differently than how they saw it before. And so clarifying questions can go both ways. And that clarity is about helping someone navigate and journey out of the dark into the light, which is another point here that Michael Hyatt makes in the book of a challenge, don't leave me in the dark. No one wants to be left in the dark. The dark is scary. There's a lot of human psychology that goes back to our very early days of civilization. Even our childhood, the dark was not a good place to be.
Audrey:
Right, this is so important, I think, especially for leaders, and especially when communicating change. Whether it's a new vision, a new product, maybe layoffs, because we know how scary and uncomfortable change can be. And we have to be empathetic and do our best to communicate and reassure those in our organization that things are going to be okay, or there's a plan in place. Like we talked about in the Four Agreements, we naturally crave answers to things we don't know. It's simply human nature, and we're not necessarily doing it to be malicious, but that's kind of how rumors get started. If people don't have answers, they're going to make up their own story and draw their own conclusions. And so Michael Hyatt says that secrecy breeds suspicion while transparency builds trust. And so when people feel included, they feel respected, they now have a positive feeling. They're going to work better, they're going to work harder. I just finished Tony Hsieh's book Delivering Happiness, and he was radically honest with his organization.
He was down to the last dollar. Zappos was going to go under, on the brink of bankruptcy, and he kept his employees in the loop at all time. And because of that, he had so many advocates and so many dedicated employees.
James Robert:
Well, that comes back to another book that I'm looking forward to sharing. I know we're going to get into Tony's book, but then there's also radical candor. There're all of these interconnected points, and when it comes to communication, that inclusivity makes people feel like they're a part of something bigger than just themselves. I think about the Digital Growth University and where historically we had worked with just marketing teams, and that's great. Marketing teams were gaining perspective, they were gaining clarity, they were growing, but everyone else in the organization was stuck from where they... It's just a matter of perception and knowledge. Then we started working with marketing and sales teams, and then we saw the same pattern. Marketing and sales teams were progressing, but then others say within leadership or other areas of the organization, were not having the same understanding. And that was creating conflict.
Well, then we were like, you know what? Let's just take marketing, sales, leadership, ops, IT, kind of all the leaders through these different areas through the Digital Growth University. And it was the inclusive nature of this approach that has provided the greatest amount of clarity, that has created the greatest amount of value. And we've heard this multiple times from members, we're learning a common language and a common language is key to no fail communication. However, what are the challenges though, that I often see when it comes to learning and growing together as a team, as an organization? Nah, nah, I don't think so. Which is something that Michael Hyatt writes about in the book right here. All of that boils down to a lack of buy-in, right?
Audrey:
We see this all the time, this lack of buy-in, and it's frustrating when you have the awareness of something, you have the knowledge, but there's a gap. There's an understanding gap. You can be a great communicator, but you still have to be persuasive in this case. And I think it's important to really make it about the other person. Show that other person how this is going to be valuable to them, not necessarily to you. Show them that value and really, really help them to understand. And it depends on who you're working with. We talk a lot about growth mindset. It's quite possible that person's just not going to get on board. That is a possibility. But I think too, that's why we talk a lot about the importance of culture and making sure your teams are full of growth-minded people, because that one person might be a roadblock, and you don't want to have that. I know you have a great phrase for this, the champagne bottle.
James Robert:
You're right, Audrey. It's not mine. It's actually, Dick Kennedy gets the credit for this. And we had a conversation back in episode 228 where he shared, and I'm going to paraphrase here, but it just takes one drop of poop in the champagne bottle to ruin the entire thing. And you're right, when it comes to roadblocks, it can just be one person, and that person, in fact, could be very influential and lead and steer people in the wrong direction. And then you're getting this whole political battle. And I think it all comes down to something you shared. You got to remember What's In It For Them? Which is a fantastic brand new book from Joe Polish. It's almost like a modern day, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. If you just focus on what's in it for you, you're going to struggle, I think a lot with communication because you're just going to be thinking about yourself. And that is where EQ and empathy come back into play with communication capability. And that's another challenge as we start to wrap up here. They talk too much.
We probably don't need to say much about this. I think even about this conversation, it has been just that. It has been a conversation. It has been a mental fencing match. It has been a talking tennis. We've batted ideas back and forth, and I think maybe this right here could be one of the greatest opportunities for growth in a digital world. Because when we think about social media, who's the only one talking? Who's it about? It's that narcissistic perspective. It's all about me, but it can't be. It has to come down to really, I think, learning the skillset of the three D's, dialogue, discourse, and discussion. What's your take on this, Audrey?
Audrey:
Absolutely. It's a dialogue, not a monologue. I think especially for leaders of an organization or those higher ups where there is a lot of just one way, it's me talking, I'm giving the orders. I want you to hear what I have to say. And that can lead to a lot of frustration and resentment to others. Because look, we want want to be heard. Everybody wants to be heard, everybody wants to be listened to, and we have to remember that. And engage, really take the time, especially on social media, you cannot just put out your posts and what you have to say. You've got to take the time to engage in others, ask questions, ask to hear what people think. Do you have any ideas to add to this? Or can I make myself... Or can I clarify this for you? People want to be heard. They want a voice, and we really can't forget that. But I think especially for those leadership positions to remember and to give your employees the respect of letting them have their voice be heard.
James Robert:
And that is where I think about the Digital Growth University. It's not just me or you communicating to the members. It is a facilitation. It is as much their involvement, their ideas, their perspective of what they share, not just with us, but others in their cohorts. There's a lot to learn through asking good questions and listening. And I like that idea of it's a dialogue, not a monologue, which is one of the reasons why, and once again, I'll be completely vulnerable here. I never really enjoyed doing the solo shows. It's why we haven't had a solo show in a very long time. I prefer this, for me personally, way more because I'm learning just as much as I am teaching, sharing and guiding. I think that is where, as a leader, some technology can come back into play. Because if you think about the traditional command and control style of communication, it is the one to many.
That is mass communication. That is "mass marketing", where now in this digital world, it is more dynamic, it is more fluid, and that's where things like open strategy come into play, to where you can gain the perspective, gain the voices of others within your team, others within your organization. If nothing more, so that they feel heard. And it can't be fake. It has to be genuine. But when we look at technology, I think of a recent conversation that I had with Pete Caputa over at Databox, and he sent me a summary of the call, and we had facilitated the call. He facilitated the call on Zoom, but then it showed a breakdown of who had the floor, and it was really 52 to 48%. It was a very balanced dialogue and discussion, which I thought was very fascinating to look at how technology can provide perspective into communication patterns, communication styles, and who is really... Is it a monologue or is it a dialogue? So let's wrap up here.
As always, get real practical for you, the dear listener, Audrey. What's one thing that the dear listener can do to put some of these ideas and insights from Michael Hyatt's book, No-Fail Communication into practice so that they can make progress on their own journeys of growth going forward. One thing that they can do next.
Audrey:
Send a Loom video, send a short Loom video to somebody on your team or send it to a family member just saying, "Hi, checking in." 30 seconds a minute. Get comfortable recording those videos. Someone on your team, someone in your family, doesn't have to be anything difficult, whatever topic or whatever you're comfortable talking about to make it a little bit easier at first. And don't make seven takes, like I did. Just do one take and send it.
James Robert:
A message of gratitude as well. And if you're not comfortable sending that to a team member or even a family member for whatever reason, I also want to just extend an invitation. Send that to Audrey, audrey@digitalgrowth.com or send it to me, jrwlay@digitalgrowth.com. We'll take a look at what you send. We're not going to judge you, and we'll provide you with a bit of perspective of where you were communicating with clarity and where you could be even better to grow this capability because it is such an important capability when it comes to communicating, not just in the physical real world, but also in the digital world as well. That's a great recommendation, Audrey, thank you so much as always, for the conversation. You have one other thing that you'd like to add to this.
Audrey:
I just wanted to make a note that please note that you're not alone. We are all on this improving communication journey, and especially on the video side. So you're not alone. Many, many, many, I would venture to say a majority of people out here are not comfortable with video communication, so please keep that in mind and give yourself some grace.
James Robert:
That's a great point. You're not alone. It is a practice. It is a habit. It does take time to establish it, number one, and then number two, to grow it and get even better going forward into the future. As this conversation has been about communication, what is the best way for someone to reach out, say hello, and continue the conversation that we've started here today, Audrey? How can they connect with you?
Audrey:
Absolutely. Please reach out to me on LinkedIn, Audrey Kanata, would love to communicate and have a dialogue with all of you.
James Robert:
Connect with Audrey, learn with Audrey, grow with Audrey. Audrey, I'm looking forward to our next Behind the Cover conversation very, very soon. Until then, and as always, be well, do good, make your bed.
