Ep 08: How to be a dynamic communicator with Jill Schiefelbein
/
Get tons of insights and ideas from this conversation between The TalentGrow Show host, Halelly Azulay, and The Dynamic Communicator, Jill Schiefelbein, for how to improve your workplace communication skills as a leader and team member. Jill shares her own journey from teen motivational speaker to university instructor, to media coach, to keynoting and her current role helping businesses solve problems through dynamic communications. Jill and Halelly discuss ways to build trust, increase credibility, and avoid damaging your credibility unintentionally. Jill describes how you can create commitment on your team by communicating in a way that is supportive, proactive, authentic, genuine, and transparent. She diminishes the fear many leaders have around being vulnerable and sharing credit. Jill also shares the counter-intuitive secret to getting promoted and the key technique she used to teach athletes to prep them for media interviews that can help corporate leaders create team commitment and generate better results. Take a listen!
What you’ll learn:
- How Jill teaches clients to build trust
- The gutsy and creative story about how Jill landed her first corporate client after being in academia
- What you should do if you’re concerned that something about your first impression is a potential liability to trust and credibility (like looking young, for example)
- How reciprocity is extremely helpful to building trust and credibility (but why you should be careful not to expect too much too soon)
- What Jill means by ‘dynamic communication’
- Ways to build (or destroy) trust and credibility through stories and indirect suggestion (or omission)
- How transparency and authenticity lead to greater connection and better relationships – but also create vulnerability – and why you really don’t need to be too worried about it
- What’s Jill’s connection to the famous influence expert, Dr. Robert Cialdini
- The importance of public praise for building support and commitment on your team
- How to build credibility without seeming like a braggart
- What mistake you should avoid making that can destroy your audience’s trust in you (even if you make it unintentionally)
- The counter-intuitive way to get promoted
- How Jill’s love of sports led her to coach athletes for media interviews, and the ways she parlays those same lessons to coaching leaders in the corporate world, and
- How to hug people with your words (no, really!)
Your turn: What’s one thing you’re going to do to improve your own leadership and communication skills as a result of listening to this episode? Leave it in the comments!
About Jill Schiefelbein
Enthusiastic. Driven. Passionate. Creative. Sharp. Dynamic.
Combine an entrepreneurial thinker, a college professor, a professional speaker and a communication expert, and you get Jill Schiefelbein.
With eight years of business-building, ten years of university teaching, sixteen years of speaking experience and a desire to help businesses reach their goals, Jill is uniquely positioned to help you and your business utilize dynamic communication to accelerate results.
Her first self-owned business, Impromptu Guru, received the 2012 “Rookie of the Year” award and the 2014 “Volunteer of the Year” award from the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce in Gilbert, Arizona—one of CNN/Money Magazine’s most livable cities. She went on to launch a national talk radio show, facilitate training and media coaching for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and the NFL’s Players Networking Event at SuperBowls XLVII and XLVIII, and launched an educational video campaign on public speaking and communication skills that continues to reach thousands of viewers each week around the world.
Prior to Impromptu Guru, Jill worked as the Communication Manager for a national franchise, was a faculty member at Arizona State University, and established a nationally-recognized presence in the online education community, by starting up two major online education offices at the largest university in the country, increasing online tuition revenue by nearly a million dollars in her first eight months. She is still called on by universities and publishers to consult on the digitization of education and effective online communication practices.
She is the author of two books, Business and Professional Communication in the Global Workplace (Cengage-Wadsworth, 2009) and The Athlete’s Media Playbook (Impromptu Guru, 2013), is quoted in multiple articles and book chapters, and is no stranger to the physical and virtual speaking stage.
In August 2014, Jill relocated to New York City to expand her practice and, in November of 2014 launched The Dynamic Communicator. This business combines her three best skills–entrepreneurial thinking, problem solving, and communication–and focuses on helping businesses achieve accelerated results through dynamic communication practices.
A sampling of past and current clients includes Charles Schwab, Safelite Auto Glass, University of Nebraska Online Worldwide, the Global Institute of Sustainability, the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, Cengage-Wadsworth, and Progressive Business Publications.
Resources:
Jill’s business website, The Dynamic Communicator
Jill Schiefelbein on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter (@dynamicjill)
Jill’s Impromptu Guru YouTube videos where you can get tons of free resources for improving your communication skills (and your team’s)
EXCITING NEWS! Jill is now an official Entrepreneur Network Partner and contributor to Entrepreneur! You can now see all her 52 Impromptu Guru videos on the Entrepreneur channel on YouTube (released once a week), and Jill will be recording 52 more starting next month! So cool!
The blog post we discussed were Jill described the credibility-crushing mistake the presenter made
Learn about Robert Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Influence through this cool animation video
Intro/outro music for The TalentGrow Show: "Why-Y" by Esta - a great band of exquisitely talented musicians, and good friends of mine.
TRANSCRIPT
Announcer: Welcome to the TalentGrow Show, where you can get actionable results-oriented insight and advice on how to take your leadership, communication and people skills to the next level and become the kind of leader people want to follow. And now, your host and leadership development strategist, Halelly Azulay.
Halelly: Hey, welcome back to the TalentGrow Show. I’m Halelly Azulay, your leadership development strategist with another amazing episode for you. This time my guest is the very dynamic Jill Schiefelbein, owner of The Dynamic Communicator. Jill has on her bio, on her website, six words to describe herself, and they are so right on – enthusiastic, driven, passionate, creative, sharp, dynamic. And I think you’re going to love this episode in which Jill and I talk about this whole concept of being a dynamic communicator, how to build trust even when there is potentially things that might become barriers to trust, and how to overcome those and making sure that you’re protecting your credibility and building your credibility but not becoming a braggart or allowing things to kind of go unsaid and cause people to lose credibility or to lose trust in your credibility. We also talk about being trustworthy, authentic, honest, transparent and genuine, and how to get other people to reciprocate that, and that’s a really great way to build a connection with people, and to build credibility. Jill uses stories and talks about using stories to make a connection, and she also discusses with me how important it is for leaders of all kinds to give credit and positive reinforcement, and not to be worried about that getting in their way of promotion, because in fact that’s something that’s going to cause them to be recognized as a leader and to move ahead. And finally, we talk about the connection between how she trained athletes for media training and the connection to what she does today when she helps organizations solve business problems through dynamic communication. Jill Schiefelbein is a powerhouse and I can’t wait for you to hear this interview. Check it out.
Hello, and welcome once again. I am so happy to be here with you, and I am really excited to introduce Jill Schiefelbein. She is a person that if you’ve never met her, I know that when you go visit her website and her YouTube and all of the stuff I’m going to share with you throughout this podcast and afterwards in the show notes, you’re going to see this is a woman who just oozes energy. And positivity. I came across Jill when we were both attending a National Speaker’s Association convention in Philadelphia a couple of years ago. And this woman made such an impression on me, I have to tell you. She’s like a ball of fire. And she’s so driven, but she’s so positive. She’s not one of those, “I’m driven and I’m going to drive right over your dead body to get there,” but she’s the kind of person who helps you as she’s pushing forward and driving and doing really good stuff. She focuses on communication in the workplace and she has a really interesting background. She’s a speaker, she’s an author, she’s a communication expert, she’s a trainer, and she has a lot of expertise in how people can communicate more effectively to get their message across. So, Jill, welcome to the podcast and thank you for joining me today.
Jill: Thank you so much for having me and for that amazing introduction. That was so thoughtful.
Halelly: Well, you’re welcome. It was heartfelt! So I want to have a little bit more background about you, but I thought it would be good to hear your own words. If you could just describe a little bit about your journey, because you’ve had a little bit of an interesting journey, I think. Well, everybody has an interesting journey and everybody has a very different journey, which is I think what makes every person uniquely intriguing. So how did you come to where you are now, working with organizations and helping them improve their business through dynamic communication, and where you started? Walk us through the short version of your journey.
Jill: Sure. I’m a big believer in people needing to understand, a lens where people are coming from too, so this is a great question so everyone listening really understands my perspective that I’m bringing to the table. Kind of funny story – I actually started speaking and really understanding the power of words when I was in high school, so I was fortunate enough to have some statewide and an international leadership role for a nonprofit community service organization, and was able to get on stage and run workshops and found out that, holy cow, I can open my mouth and say things and because of this, people act! And I thought it was really neat, and let me be honest – as a 17, 18 year old, 16, 17, 18, I was intoxicated by it. I don’t know many who wouldn’t be. I mean, heck, I’m intoxicated by it now, let me not lie. And so when I figured out that, wow, I can do this and make positive change in the world, I was jazzed and I went to school at Arizona State University and the Hugh Downs School because I wanted to study communication. It was one of the top ranked schools at the time – I believe it still is today – and I was like, “Great, I’m going to go and major in communication, I’m going to minor in Spanish and I’m going to be a motivational speaker and leadership conference facilitator for Spanish speaking third world country youth.” If that’s not a mouthful, I don’t know what is!
Halelly: It’s really actually amazing how specific your vision was at that early age.
Jill: It’s kind of funny, and people looked at me weird, and people still do, let’s be honest. It’s okay. But I quickly learned that four years of high school Spanish in this small town in Kansas where I grew up meant nothing by the time I moved to Arizona and I wasn’t as good in that language as I thought. So that happened. And then I also took a business class and really got jazzed about learning about organizational psychology and theory and how management operates and how communication changes things in the workplace. So, the very fast-forward story from there is I ended up going to graduate school in organizational and strategic communication, started playing with technology and online education. Because of my experience, started teaching at the university when I was relatively young – and I know if people are looking at my picture they’re probably wondering, “She’s been teaching at a university for 11 years?” Yeah, I started early. I started teaching like speaking, but fast-forwarded through all of that, loved the teaching experience, realized that I also loved the corporate experience, and so about three and a half years ago I cut the full-time cord and started my own business. And I do communication training, keynotes, corporate consulting and help businesses solve problems through dynamic communication.
Halelly: Very cool And when you’re working with businesses in solving dynamic communication, solving problems through dynamic communication, I know that one of the problems that I run into a lot that businesses experience and people – businesses don’t experience problems, people in businesses experience a problem – is building trust, right? And I saw that you had recently, you’ve blogged about this subject, and I know this is one of the core pillars of good communication that you have to build and maintain trust with folks. Is this something that you come across as a need also, and how do you teach people to build trust?
Jill: That’s a really good question, and it’s interested. And I alluded to this a little bit in my career path, but when I first started doing corporate consulting, it was actually 10 years ago, so I was let’s see, 23 at the time I got my first corporate client, and it was an issue, because in the corporate world at the time – and I was very sensitive to this based on some experiences I had had early on – I got called up and a VP at a financial firm said, “I need presentation coaching. Are you able to help me? I see you teach public speaking at a university.” And I said, “Absolutely, I’m able to help you, but here are some things that you need to be aware of. I am a 23-year-old, I’m technically a graduate student.” By that time, I had spoken in front of audiences of 5,000 people and had been very well versed in communication and public speaking, that type of thing, but from past experiences where people haven’t trusted me because of my age or because of my younger appearance, I knew that I had to do something. So I told this man, “Listen, I think it’s really important that we have the right fit in terms of the coaching relationship, so why don’t you come to my class? I teach a public speaking class at night. Come and give a five-minute, 10-minute presentation about the importance of public speaking in the business environment. I’ll break the class, I’ll give you a 15-minute consultation on the spot. If you like my style, let’s figure out how we’ll work together.” And sure enough, he came, he did that, loved my style, loved the evaluation, and for three years until corporate cut the cord on all contractors, we had a great working relationship. And it really taught me that sometimes, when it comes back to trust, sometimes if you are aware of potential weaknesses or potential – I don’t even want to say liabilities because I don’t feel my age is a liability – but things that could cause questioning, to bring those to the surface right away and address them and nip them in the bud, so you can move on in demonstrating your expertise, demonstrating what you’re good at and showing people what’s really important as they interact with you.
Halelly: That’s a great story, Jill, and I think that’s really good advice, because something that a lot of people tend to do in that kind of a situation maybe intuitively is to kind of not talk about it, right? It’s like a white elephant in the room. They try to dance around it or pretend it’s not there, or just kind of hope for the best. And your suggestion of addressing it up front and outwardly is a much better and much more forthright kind of approach, and it helps people just get over that hump and move forward. You demonstrated your competence rather than talk about it. So rather than giving your list of bullets of why you are an expert and he can trust you, you actually brought him to a place where he could experience it firsthand.
Jill: Yeah, and it’s really interesting because, at the time, let me be honest – that was my first corporate client, my first request for a quote, my first everything. So if I’m completely transparent here, I have no idea where, that idea just came out. Afterwards I kind of patted myself on the back thinking, “Man, there’s a big lesson in that. Go me!” But that same philosophy, moving forward, because like you said, when there’s an elephant in the room, people are going to be focused on it. And we all need to be aware of how we’re perceived. Because perception is important. Whether or not it’s accurate does not matter. The fact that it exists is really important to recognize, and if you’re trying to communicate and be trustworthy, it’s kind of like giving your audience – whether it’s an audience of one or an audience of thousands – giving them some information up front that’s honest and authentic and genuine, so that then they can reciprocate and open their minds up to listen to you in a different way.
Halelly: Yeah. I agree. So, would you also suggest based on what you just said that honesty, that transparency up front, do you ever even maybe even name it, like say something like, “Hey, you probably think I’m too young to know this, or judging by how I look I bet you don’t think that I am credible, but here’s why I am,” or something like this?
Jill: You know, it’s a really good question. And I have done earlier on, so in my early 20s, I did do that a few times. And then I had a very, very wise person tell me, “If you do that, you’re selling yourself short and you’re putting words in other people’s heads.” And I thought that was really interesting, because this person, he wasn’t worried about me because of my age, at all. In fact, I came to find out later he was worried because it was an academic setting and I didn’t have the letters PhD behind my name. That was the judgment there, which is a whole other can of worms. But it was interesting to me, so I thought, “How can I let people know of my expertise if I haven’t had a chance to demonstrate it yet, but don’t want to go through this whole bulleted list,” as you mentioned, of accolades and whatnot. So what I started doing, and I think this is really good, and I’m going to tie back into the name of my company is The Dynamic Communicator. People ask me, “Jill, what do you mean by dynamic communication?” And the story I told earlier is a perfect example of it – dynamic communication, when it’s able to, it’s proactive. I mean, sometimes it has to be responsive, but it’s proactive, it’s change-inducing, it’s thought-provoking. It’s something that moves people to action and increases motion. And whether that’s motion in activity or mental motion in terms of getting people to think about something differently, that’s what I try to do. And so when it came to demonstrating expertise, it’s really about putting things in a little more incipiently than normal. So if they ask a question, say, “You know what? There’s this theory called XYZ and I talk about it in my book, whatever. I’d be happy to give you a copy if you want to understand it better.” It’s not saying, “Hey, I have a book,” it’s, “Let me give you this book in a way that can help you with something you identified as a need.”
Halelly: That’s really clever. Wrapping it into the conversation, into the context, to maybe even, it’s almost like you’re subliminally setting up your credibility as part of the ongoing communication.
Jill: Yes. And you have to pepper that throughout, and I know a lot of professional speakers will do this, a lot of trainers will do it, but people learn by story. And that’s why I wanted to share my story initially of what I did when I was just starting and didn’t have a clue where to go. It is really about learning through shared experiences and I’ll go back to being authentic and being genuine really communicates and builds trust with people, even if it makes you a little vulnerable on the onset. The right people, the people who are going to help you out in the long run, are going to accept that and appreciate that about you. And be able to move forward with you instead of wondering, “How can I talk about this person or share this person with other people?” Well, now they know. You have a real story, just tie that in.
Halelly: I also find that people really, that it really resonates with people when you are willing to be authentic and that you kind of allow your guard to be down. Which of course makes you vulnerable, so I find it challenging sometimes when I’m working with people in corporate jobs who are either already in a leadership position or maybe they’re moving and becoming prepared to become leaders, a lot of times people are worried about other people taking advantage of that vulnerability. And so there are bad apples in every cart, and there are some people out there who are psychopaths or something is wrong with them, and they do probably take advantage of people they perceive as vulnerable, but in my experience, that’s not the majority of people and in fact, if you’re showing a willingness to be vulnerable, it actually encourages a reciprocation. I know you work, you’re familiar with Cialdini’s Rules of Influence, and that whole reciprocity thing is pretty big. Have you found that that works more so to overcome those fears with folks, or what do you do to help them, to assuage those fears about being taken advantage of?
Jill: You know, when people are scared, when we really get down to the root of if we decide to be vulnerable or not, that decision in many cases is based on fear, and our deep rooted concerns, even in organizations whether or not we decide to act or do something is based on fear. If I do this, am I going to get reprimanded or fired? If I do this, what are the consequences going to be? And we just have this fight or flight, essentially, engrained in us. And so when you’re giving to someone, the tendency and the human desire is to reciprocate or give back to that, but only up to a certain level. And one of the things that I’ve found in working with people, and they look at this idea of reciprocity and you mentioned Cialdini whose book I think I shared with you earlier – not in this show, but outside of it – that they were one of my first clients in terms of getting their content put into a digital environment, and it was a fantastic group of people. The theories, the science behind it, it’s brilliant and accurate. Really appreciate what he’s contributed and what that organization does. But, it’s really important to accept people for what they give back, because at that time, that may be all they’re willing to reciprocate because they’re still building up that trust with you, and you need to accept that people build up trust in you at different rates. And we all come to the table with different experiences. I mean, to make an analogy with relationships – when you’re starting out dating someone, communication styles, you try to start blending them together, but based on two people’s past experiences, one person maybe has been lied to a lot and the other person just had their heart broken – you’re going to come at things in two different ways. And we bring those experiences, our diverse cultural and corporate experiences into the workplace, so what I find a lot of people, leaders and managers too, they think, “Oh, I’m going to disclose and give all this information to my team, or I’m going to open myself up and be vulnerable,” and they immediately expect that to come back to them. But there’s a communication history there, not just with that leader or manager, but with all the other people in positions of power in that person’s life, and you’re contending with all of that, and that’s important to remain cognizant of.
Halelly: Yeah, it’s really good. So you help leaders know that it’s not about you. If you’re doing the right thing and the person doesn’t immediately reciprocate as if they came out of a textbook, it’s not that you’re necessarily doing it wrong, it s that you have to do it a little more time.
Jill: Exactly. And I see with leaders and managers, I’ve worked with a lot that will say, “Jill, we decided to have this,” and I’m going to use a very cliché, now past term, “Open door policy, but no one is taking advantage of it,” and I’m like, “It’s because you haven’t built up the trust in order for them to feel like they can come to you without having a reprimand or repercussion or some type of action from you. You need to demonstrate through people and you need to maybe get one case of someone who came to you with an idea that wasn’t so good but you thank them for it publicly and you say, “You know what, Jill came to me last week and had this idea that she wanted to share, and we talked about how it doesn’t really fit with the higher company vision, but I encourage her to come back with more ideas because that type of thinking is what’s going to push our group and our team ahead in this organization and help this company thrive in the long run.” That type of public display builds that trust up.
Halelly: Yes. Oh, I love that. That’s really good advice. So I looked at your blog and you had this really great story – by the way, I really like how you wrap up your daily experiences and pull out the communication lessons from them, like you went and saw Matisse’s display in the museum and you connected it to training. So you went and saw this one speaker who used someone as a model in her main point and in her power point, and didn’t give credit, and that really broke down that person’s credibility in your mind and shut you down from listening to them. And I thought that was such a good example of how we indirectly sometimes send those messages, just like you did earlier like, “Oh, I wrote about this in my book, I’d love to give you a copy.” We indirectly send messages about being credible, and we can unintentionally sometimes send messages about lack of credibility and we have to be careful with that. So, what would be a couple of tips that you would give to someone who is maybe just in a corporate job and is trying to get ahead, and to promote themselves and to create that credibility without seeming like they’re brown-nosing or self accolading all the time? But to build credibility or to avoid breaking it?
Jill: That’s a really great question, and to reference this blog post, a woman was giving a speech and she started talking about a model that originated in the late 1890s, and really became popularized in the 60s, and never gave a citation and never mentioned in any way that this was not her own model. And I asked a couple of people in the room, like, did I miss it, did she give a citation? “Oh, no, I assumed it was hers.” It may not have been intentional on her part to take credit for that, but from my perspective, as someone who knows about the model, number one lesson is you never know who is in your audience and what experience they have, so not citing something is a definite risk. And I don’t need detailed information on where this model originated. I just need, “Hey, there’s a popular model in the persuasive messaging in advertising field that talks about …” I don’t need any specifics, but just a recognition that this wasn’t all her idea. And to translate that into a corporate environment, so many times people are so cut throat and trying to get ahead that they don’t give credit where credit is due. And they think that if I try to take all the credit for it, I’m going to be the one who is going to get promoted. Well, with the right team, the right leadership, the right company, people who give credit to other people and recognize their role in the bigger system are the ones who are going to get promoted and see long-term success. Because anyone in an organization knows, especially once you’ve ascended to some management or leadership role, you know that you got there not solely on your own merit. If it weren’t for people in your team supporting you, even if you did a really awesome job leading them, if they weren’t there to do that work, you wouldn’t have gotten to where you are. And to not give that credibility, to give that thank you, to give the public praise like I mentioned earlier, or even recognition that, “You know what, this is a fantastic idea and without a conversation I had with Bob I doubt this idea would have ever come to the surface, so thanks, Bob, for having that conversation with me.” That type of behavior is something that a lot of people, you know, the cut throat corporate environment they fear, but really in the long run you are going to help yourself more by helping other people, by building people up, and then people are going to see that you’re not in it all for yourself. Because a lot of people will actually not get promoted if the upper management, if the upper management, if the C-Suite sees them as being so driven that they’ve actually damaged things in the process. Because organizations, as I said, they don’t operate in a vacuum, and if you make one team mad, that affects the entire intra-office productivity.
Halelly: And your reputation. That’s something that takes a while to build and it’s hard to live down, so it all adds up. I know you’re a busy lady, and I want to make sure that we have time for a couple of more tips before we wrap up, Jill. And something that I wanted to help bring out, if you don’t mind, in your journey, I actually am not sure if you mentioned it, but I think that one thing that is really unique about you and your experience is the fact that for a while, you also worked with professional athletes? And helped them be more dynamic communicators, especially to prep them for media interviews. And I know that that’s something that you’re not actively pursuing at the moment, but I think that is such a unique skillset that you have and I would love to hear what similarities and differences, or what links, if any, have you found between some of the things that you would tell these professional athletes, or these college athletes, to help them present themselves well in the media and the things that you’re now telling your corporate clients to help them succeed through communication? Maybe two or three connections that you can make about things that are really similar or maybe significantly different?
Jill: You know, thank you for sharing that story. No, I didn’t mention it. It was for a couple of years. I decided, “I’m doing all of this presentation and public speaking stuff,” and I made a connection. I love sports. I was born and raised in a small town in Kansas. Sports were my blood. I played, I was a total tomboy and I’m thinking, “Wow, this is an area where I can make a difference. These people are seen as role models or at least public figures and maybe I can make a positive change in there.” I’m not saying I did, and I think I did to some extent, but it’s really interesting. I worked with a couple of WNBA players, a WNBA team, did some work at the Super Bowl for the past couple of years with player networking, and it’s been a fun journey. But when it comes down to it, whether you’re an athlete, whether you’re a celebrity, whether you’re in the C-suite or whether you’re just starting out, in the end we are all human. And sometimes we forget that when communicating that we all have the same base needs, we all have the same tendencies. We all have insecurities, no matter who you are and where you’ve ascended to, in terms of social, cultural status, it doesn’t matter. We all have some of the same root needs.
And when it came to working with athletes, what was really interesting is because they had been told many times in their career what they shouldn’t say – don’t say this, don’t say that, don’t say this, you can talk along these lines but don’t do XYZ – and by the time they get on media they’re so worried about, “Oh my gosh, am I going to say something I’m not supposed to say?” that they come across stale and uninteresting and sometimes a little bit as passive, just kind of, “I’m talking because I have to.” And let me be clear – for some athletes that is accurate. But for so many of them who have never really just been given the permission to be themselves, it’s very different. And one of the phrases I like to use, and it really resonated with a lot of athletes, was when you’re out there talking to the media, you want to hug people with your words. You want for them to feel a virtual embrace from you based on what you’re saying. And in order to do that, you have to share. You have to be vulnerable. You have to be authentic. If something worries you, let that worry you and talk about it. Of course there are certain things like, “I’m really worried about my team’s inter-locker room dynamics,” no, you don’t want to spread dirty laundry! But if something is worrying you personally, say, “You know what? My jump shot percentage isn’t where it used to be and I know that, and I need to work on that.” Admitting that publicly, people are like, “Oh my gosh, my jump shot percentage or my passing percentage or my closing percentage in sales is not where it used to be either and I need to work on that too.” And that’s a very simplistic example, but you want to make people feel a connection with you.
And I give that same advice to leaders. If your team doesn’t feel somewhat of a connection with you, and feel bought into your story, to your process, to your success, they don’t have that relationship, they’re not going to support you. Just like when athletes get in the media and there’s been a crisis, you’ll have people on both sides saying, “Oh, he or she never should have done that,” and then, “Oh, why is the media making a big deal?” Because people have bought into that athlete, their story, and they support them, you’ll see people on all sides of the equation. And as a leader in a company, you want to do the same thing so that if something happens, you don’t automatically have people believing the worst. You have people who are supporting you, who are on your side, who are trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, and see past information and sometimes it may end up being in the wrong, and sometimes it ends up being in the right. But if you haven’t cultivated those relationships, you’re never going to have that chance in the first place.
Halelly: So true! Oh my gosh, so true. I love that. So, at the core, we’re back to just, we’re human! And whether you are at work or at home in your personal relationship, in your professional relationships, relationships are based on some basic human needs. And as long as you tend to those, you’re probably going to be A-Okay. I love it. So Jill, thank you so much for spending time on the podcast show today. I really, really appreciate your insight and so I’d love for you to tell people where they can find more information about you and the Dynamic Communicator, and then I think we’ll wrap things up.
Jill: Thank you so, so much for having me. I really enjoyed the conversation, and for those of you who may want to learn more or see updates and blog posts, I’d love to have you visit my site. It is thedynamiccommunicator.com. And I try to post weekly or bi-weekly, just about, like you mentioned, tips that I’m observing or something that I see happen in life that really pertains to organizational experience and success. And if I may shamelessly, the Dynamic Communicator launched just this November. Before that, I was focused in – as you mentioned – more of the public speaking and the media side of it, and I still have some content out there under Impromptu Guru, and if you go to Impromptu Guru on YouTube, you’ll actually get 52 free videos that are short, sweet and to the point that help you improve your general business presentation and communication skills and give you a lot of hints for eradicating filler words and being nervous before presentations and things like that. So for many of you who lead teams where you need to give resources for support, let me offer that. I’m biased, of course, but I think it’s a great resource where you can go and have information to distribute to your team. So www.impromptuguru.com for that and my business, www.thedynamiccommunicator.com.
Halelly: Awesome. And I’ll put links to it in the show notes. Let me tell you, that’s a treasure trove right there, that YouTube channel. I’ve looked at it. And I really agree, they’re really short, they’re easy to watch – you’re obviously a very dynamic communicator yourself – and such good tips. So I do hope people check that out. Jill, thank you again. I appreciate your time. I always love talking with you. You energize me and I hope that others who have listened are also energized to become more dynamic communicators, authentic, build trust and credibility. Thank you for tuning in and check you in the next show.
That was so much fun. I just love Jill. I think she’s the kind of person who is going places and has an amazingly bright future ahead of her. So I recorded this interview with Jill early on in my podcasting, which I haven’t been doing for all that long, and that was before I created the habit of asking each guest to say, “What’s one actionable thing that listeners can do to implement right away to improve their leadership skills?” And I didn’t ask Jill that because I hadn’t created that habit yet. But I’d like to hear from you what’s one thing that you’re going to do, as a result of listening to this episode, that you think will ratchet up your leadership and communication skills? I’d love to hear that. You can put that in the comments or you can send me a note on Twitter, @HalellyAzulay is my Twitter handle, or you can write me an email, halelly@talentgrow.com. It would make me so happy to hear from you.
Other than that, everything that we discussed – all of the links to Jill’s website and her amazing Impromptu Guru YouTube channel – are all on the show notes page, which is www.talentgrow.com/podcast/episode8. And if you want to leave me a review for this podcast – not just this episode – on iTunes, I would really appreciate that. I recently created a tutorial for how to do that, very visual and easy. I think it’ll take you less than four minutes. Please go do that today and I would be eternally grateful to you. And I can even shout out to you on one of the next episodes as my thanks. So, make today great and be a dynamic communicator and thank you for tuning into the TalentGrow Show. I’m Halelly Azulay, your leadership development strategist. Take care.
Announcer: Thanks for listening to the TalentGrow Show, where we help you develop your talent to become the kind of leader that people want to follow. For more information, visit TalentGrow.com.
--------------------------
Don't forget to LEAVE A RATING/REVIEW ON iTUNES! It’s easy to do (here’s how to do it in 4 easy steps). Thank you!!
Get my free guide, "10 Mistakes Leaders Make and How to Avoid Them" and receive my weekly newsletter full of actionable tips, links and ideas for taking your leadership and communication skills to the next level!