Porschia: [00:00:00] Today we are talking about communication 101, how to be a better communicator with Monique Russell. Monique Russell is the global communications advisor you want on your team. She teaches leaders and teams how to keep their top talent engaged so their competitive advantage Doesn’t walk out the door.
Organizations like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, the Centers for Disease Control, Verizon, Intel, Equifax, and Atlanta’s Hartsville Jackson International Airport Trust, Monique, to guide them in implementing communication strategies that foster connection community. creativity and courage. You can too. Monique has 20 years of experience in the science of communications and leads Clear Communication Solutions, an international training, coaching, [00:01:00] and consulting firm that focuses on confidently communicating from the inside out.
She is the author of The Ultimate Speaker’s Guide,
Monique: the book, Intentional Motherhood, Who Said It Would Be
Porschia: Easy, and host of the Bridge to You podcast. Hi Monique, how are you?
Monique: Hi, Parsha, I’m excited to be here.
Porschia: Great. Great. Well, we are excited to have you with us to discuss communication 101, how to be a better communicator.
But first we want to know a little bit more about you. So tell me about seven year old Monique.
Monique: Okay. Seven year old Monique was an educator. She was instructing her students to make sure that, you know, they pay attention, that they were good educate, uh, good students, learning their lesson, going outside, swinging in the swing set.
[00:02:00] Um, and they also got punished when they were talking too much. And that was because I was teaching my dolls. When I was. When I was seven years old, I had Vanessa, who was the beautiful Black doll that I had, loved her so much. I had Wooly, who was a stuffed animal. I had Telerina, and they were my students, so I was teaching them all the time.
We had breaks, they got them engaged. And then I was gearing up for my first speaking engagement at the age of eight, in front of a hundred people. So that’s what seven year old Monique was doing. Oh, wow. So tell
Porschia: us about this first speaking engagement at the age of eight, Monique. You started super early with this
Monique: career.
I’m telling you, let me tell you, my mom is amazing because she recognized that I had a gift and a talent and I started in church. I started speaking in church and I, you know, had my opportunity to go in front of all these people [00:03:00] and read, reading from scriptures, reading from messages, and then over the years it just continued throughout my elementary school, my high school, where I was selected for debate teams, participating in UN mock debates, and representing my island.
Because I grew up in the beautiful islands of the Bahamas.
Love
Porschia: it. Love it. So Monique, tell us what was your first job?
Monique: Russell Construction, which was my grandfather’s construction company, so I was the receptionist, answering the phone, taking messages, greeting people that came into the office with a beautiful smile, letting them know like, hey, Cap is not here, he’s out in the field, you know, pretty much.
The things that any 12 year old receptionist would do. Uh huh.
Porschia: I love it. I love it. So you were, you were speaking early. You were a receptionist [00:04:00] early. You’ve got a lot of great work experience that I’m sure most people don’t even know about, Monique. Let me tell you,
Monique: it was so amazing because, you know, on the construction site, there are people coming in, they’re looking to know when they’re going to be placed or, or whatever have you.
But a lot, all I can remember is a lot of times the phone was ringing nonstop where people were trying to get a hold of my grandfather and I was just happy to take those messages and give him, give him, uh, what they were saying. Well, they were looking for him.
Porschia: Okay, it sounds like communication very early as well.
So, Monique, tell us about some highlights or pivotal moments that you had in your career before you
Monique: started your business. My business was actually started alongside me working in a corporate setting. So before I would say I officially started or began that journey, when I graduated from college, I left with three degrees.
[00:05:00] One in broadcast journalism, one in public relations, and one in advertising. And it was kind of difficult for me to get started in my dream job because I had just had my first kid, I was riddled with student loan debt, and I was like, I’m not trying to take the thing that is requiring me to pretty much live off of nothing in order to get started.
So a highlight of what I did is I just got started working in executive support. And before I started doing that, I worked in academic advising in one of the universities. So I would say… In that space, we had a competitive advantage because we were offering a doctorate program that was unique and it was a niche.
But what we ended up doing was identifying what would make the program in the school competitive. So I was put in charge of that. And I had to go and sort of like, you know, those mystery shoppers or a secret shoppers to kind of find out, okay, [00:06:00] we got to find out what the, what the other folks are doing.
So I pretended to be a student at some of the other competitors and we saw how long it took for them to get back to us, how long it took for them to respond. And then just through talking to the folks that were coming in through our school to see why they chose to go with us versus the other one. So from the results of that.
Activity and exercise. We realized a couple of things. People chose to go to the school, one of the schools that responded to them first, that gave them their admissions acceptance first. And so that became when I presented it to my, um, managers and my supervisors. That actually became a new metric point for us.
So we were now trying to see if we can get these acceptance out within 7 days or less within 1 week in terms of as long as we had all the necessary information, like the transcripts, the full application, the payment fee, we [00:07:00] reassess the process and said, okay, if we get. Uh, one reference in, we don’t need to wait for the second one, because it was two, two reference letters were required at the time, but we made that decision that we don’t need a second reference letter in order to give them that admissions acceptance.
So with that new metric, we were able to really increase the admissions acceptance, the numbers, um, simply from doing that exercise. And I would say that was a pivotal moment for me. It was fun. It was engaging. It was like, you know, let’s go. See what they’re up to. Let’s implement something better. And we got great results.
From that, I was also asked to give the entire department training on customer service and training on communications. And I will never forget it because it’s almost like this thing continued to follow me every single where, every single where I went. So that was one of the pivotal moments that I’ll actually never forget.[00:08:00]
Porschia: Wow. A lot of, a lot of interesting work you were doing there. What would you say were some of your biggest career challenges before starting your
Monique: business? Absolutely. So after I left the academic advising role, I moved out to California, Silicon Valley, and I started working in executive support. So I was behind the scenes helping them to make decisions, facilitate their decision making process.
I saw, you know, what worked when they were in front of their team and what worked behind the team. I really got to go behind the curtain, behind the scenes and see how things really work. What made leaders tick, what made them not tick. Uh, what made them gain respect and vice versa. And to be honest, one of the challenges for me during that time was that I became bored.
I got in there because remember, this was not my dream job. It was not something that I signed up to do. It was something that I needed to do to get in there and start making money and pay these bills. [00:09:00] Pay these bills. So I got bored. I got bored. And I would say that was one of the biggest challenges for me.
And it would continue to be a challenge for me because if I’m not able to begin to problem solve or to find new things that would keep me engaged, I don’t wait for anyone to motivate me. I’m already driven by things that I enjoy doing. So the beautiful thing about that was I was given the leeway To cross over into departments, to get on projects, to volunteer and help, you know, with other areas.
And that helped me to build that engagement and stay motivated. And then I relocated to Georgia. And, you know, some of the same things sort of continued. And I connected with a women’s organization outside of my corporate career. And then that started turning a new set of wheels. So the challenge is, yeah, the challenge mainly [00:10:00] was around boredom, but I found a way to solve it.
Yeah. So
Porschia: what made you decide to start your own business? Maybe that’s where you were
Monique: headed. Yeah. That’s, that’s exactly it. When I, when I relocated and I got into this woman’s group called Watts Women Aspiring Together to Succeed, I was exposed to women who were running their own businesses who were, you know, thinking outside the box, doing things differently.
And yes, I have. Fulfilling my dream or getting fulfillment was through starting my own business. And I started that through freelancing while I was still working in the corporate sector. So yeah, that’s pretty much how it got started.
Porschia: So we’ve heard this communication theme kind of throughout what you’ve been saying in terms of your background.
But I want to know when you were starting your business, what made you choose to focus on communication out of all of the other
Monique: skills that you have. Because it’s something I love to do. Um, I [00:11:00] started And communications since I was a young girl, so I think it chose me. I really don’t think I chose it. I think it chose me.
And because it was my path when I went to college, I was very clear about what I wanted to do. I wanted to be this international broadcast journalist, covering stories on air. And during the time when I was in the corporate setting, in, in those moments of boredom, where I’m looking for my next… Problem to solve, I would literally see things in that workspace and I would go back to my desk, Portia, I would go back to my desk and I would literally start writing out training programs.
I would start writing out trainings or things that I observed that people would need or do better in and I look at some of those things now and I’m like, Oh my God, the, the funny thing is a lot of it is still similar. [00:12:00] That was pretty much the impetus. It was something that I felt that I was great at.
Like I said, my mom, she exposed me to a lot of different things early on. And I am also a mother. I have two boys. And I always encourage people to try multiple things. See what your kids are good at. See where their strengths lie. And she allowed me to do that and saw that it was a gift. So I tend, I tended to gravitate towards doing more of that.
Communications training was just my natural, um, tendency to follow my passion and things that I was good at. Yeah, so
Porschia: many executives and professionals hear that they should work on their communication skills. But from your perspective, what are the benefits to being a clear
Monique: communicator? So, I would also say effective, because clear, clear communication is one thing, and everyone has so many different, [00:13:00] uh, interpretations of what that would mean.
But if you are being effective, it means that you are having a positive mutual exchange, or you are able to have what you intend to be received, received, and vice versa. Or if it’s not being received in the way you intended, you have the ability and the skill to course correct and gain insight in order to get to that mutual understanding the biggest gaps.
I think people have is not realizing and understanding that communication on the on its face is. riddled with misunderstanding. And so when those things happen or those issues happen, they tend to feel like, Oh my God, I am not communicating effectively, or I’m, I’m, I’m making all these mistakes, not realizing that mistakes is actually a part of the process.
So you get to be. More respected when you have the ability to be, uh, effective or be [00:14:00] clear in your messaging, people tend to want to follow someone who’s clear. They want to be around someone who’s clear, not someone who beats around the bush, who plays on the fence, who’s fluffy. They, they want to connect to.
To who that person is, and even in your personal life or your family life, when you’re much more clear, the benefit is, is astronomical because your health is better. People lose sleep over not communicating and connecting clearly and effectively with those that they interact with on a daily basis. Yeah.
Yeah. You’re, you’re
Porschia: absolutely right. And I love how you brought in the personal kind of health aspects to communication as well, because I think a lot of people forget about that and, you know, to piggyback on what you were saying, I think some of the goals that our clients have, you know, with that clear and effective communication, it really could support them in that.
So whether they want to get promoted [00:15:00] or they want to, you know, Land the job that, you know, is their dream job that they’ve been thinking about or, you know, anything like that. Communication is so important, um, when it comes to actually reaching that goal. So thank you for sharing. Uh, I think you’re so welcome.
I think he started, you know, answering my next question a little bit, but I want to know, like, what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see executives and professionals make with their communication?
Monique: Not really taking the time to invest in themselves and to really go into that aspect of self awareness because communication is personal.
Everything about it is personal. The way you deliver your message, the way you perceive a message, the way you, um, address conflict, it all comes from our own lens, our own experiences and our own views. So I think that executives tend to not [00:16:00] really make that connection to see how it is something that is personal from them and they make may think, Oh, my team member is doing something that’s incorrect, or the blame game tends to happen.
Not really taking time to invest more in themselves from a self awareness or a coaching perspective is one mistake that I see made very, very often. The other mistake is just assuming that Communication is effective when there’s no disagreement. So it’s like, okay, because there’s a disagreement or because you don’t agree or see my, my point, it means that the communication is bad and it’s not working, which is absolutely not the case.
So. Two big opportunities for growth and perspective shifting. Yeah. Yeah. I love
Porschia: that. I love that. And I think, and I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this too, because I’ve had to talk to some of our clients about this, especially if they are leaders, um, you know, the [00:17:00] silence doesn’t necessarily mean that the communication is effective either.
Right. So there could be, to your point of self awareness, there could be something about you as to why people don’t speak up and let you know their real feelings You know, propose alternative ideas either. And so sometimes I think people think, well, there’s there’s no communication. No, there’s no feedback right on what I said.
So everyone must agree with it, or it must be the right way to go. Um, so I think, you know, that’s another kind of missed opportunity sometimes, um, that executives
Monique: have. I’ll, I’ll add to that too, Portia, because this is a big one, and I know you see it a lot, and I see it a lot too, and I often say, in fact, I was working with someone the other day, and this topic came up again, and it was like, well, I, I asked for feedback, and I got crickets, and nobody is engaging, but when we really dive down deep, and we say, okay, [00:18:00] well, How did you ask for the feedback?
What was the environment that you requested the feedback? A lot of times people are so busy. It’s not that they don’t want to provide feedback for you. It’s that you haven’t given them what you’re looking for and they have to think too much for it. So for example, Let’s just say you are submitting a document for review and you’re submitting this PowerPoint presentation or you’re submitting, you know, an email that’s going to be sent out to your customer.
You send it to your colleague and you say, you know, let me know what you think. Well, let me know what you think is so vague and in, and, and the person who’s receiving it has 15 emails they need to get to. So guess what they’re going to say. Looks great. Mm hmm. Good. Yep. Awesome. And so you’re back to ground zero and you’re getting absolutely nothing, but if you want to know, well, if you’re focusing on your fonts, should I use this font?
You know, when you send that [00:19:00] message to say, can you give me feedback? Can you tell me if the font is too big or too small? Does this, does this content, um, connect with what we’re trying to get across? Does it make sense? Is it coming off? Across clear. What else am I missing? What’s not present? So when you give people some structure in the communication exchange of feedback, you’re going to have a higher chance of getting something that’s actually going to be useful and helpful for you more than just It’s great.
Mm hmm.
Porschia: Yeah. Yeah. And providing that context and, and, you know, topics that you want the feedback on, I think is, it’s definitely a gem. Thank you for sharing that, Monique. So what are some tips that you can tell us to help someone be a better
Monique: communicator? Well, that’s definitely tip number one. Make sure that you are clear, make sure that you are clear in the feedback that you are seeking [00:20:00] and in the feedback that you want to receive from your peers.
The next tip is for you to slow down. So many people are moving at this And as we know, the chance for misunderstanding with communication is just a part, it’s just a part of the process. It’s like running a marathon. You’re gonna run, you’re gonna sweat, you’re gonna get tired. You’re not gonna be surprised because you know and you understand that Sweating and getting tired is a part of the marathon process.
You’re running, you’re not going to be like, Oh my god, I’m sweating, what’s, what’s, what’s, what’s, it’s not working. No. So, simply understanding the process, that misunderstanding is going to happen. Conflict is going to happen. That, that is another tip that will help you to begin to approach and not have so much of A negative focus on yourself as you’re not actually doing a great job or putting blame on someone else.
Just realizing that, hey, okay, here’s a misunderstanding. What can [00:21:00] I do to get to a clearer connection or a clearer misunderstanding is, is the second tip. The third tip I will say is certainly take time to invest in yourself. Investing in yourself is a game changer. It doesn’t matter how much skill you know, if you’re not able to connect and people don’t have a pleasant experience around you, ain’t nobody giving you no promotion.
You not going nowhere. So seriously thinking about how to build relationships. And it’s really simple. Think about treating people with basic kindness, with basic respect, not having, you know, these judging thoughts around them. Think about how you would want to be treated or how you would want to treat another friend.
Now I’m going to get into some practical, tactical pieces here. Increase your vocabulary. You know, figure out multiple ways to say the same thing. [00:22:00] Because when we’re working with people all over the world and we have multiple cultures in our spaces, Simply saying it one way may not actually help you to get the point across.
So if you want to become more effective in communicating your message, think about increasing your vocabulary and identifying multiple ways to say the same thing. The other one is storytelling. Make sure that you are increasing your ability to tell stories, to make mental connections, so that people can now get a visual picture of that message that you’re trying to convey.
I think that’s five. So six, I will say I love it. I will say timeliness, timeliness, responsiveness in the workplace. So many things can be avoided simply by acknowledging a message, acknowledging receipts, responding in a timely manner. This also allows you to be perceived as someone who’s [00:23:00] clear and effective.
If you’re taking seven days or two weeks to respond to something, all those stories in that recipient’s head might start to loom. So, it’s like, oh, maybe they haven’t seen the email. Maybe they’re overwhelmed and swamped, so they have time management issues. Maybe they saw it and they chose not to respond.
Maybe they saw it and they just don’t know what to do. Now, the way you are coming across and the way you are perceived, simply because you’re taking so long to acknowledge, Uh, it’s, it’s impacting the way you communicate and connect with people in the workplace. So even if you don’t know the answer, simply acknowledging, receipt, saying that I’ll get back to you in a few days or so, that can go a very long way.
So I’ll pause right there. Oh, I
Porschia: love it. I love it. I’m keeping track for everyone. You know, the clear feedback, uh, that you’re seeking, um, slowing down, investing in yourself, increasing your vocabulary, using storytelling and [00:24:00] timeliness. Five gems that Monique just gave us. And one that I think I will add Monique that, um, I would guess that you see also is I encourage, especially our executive, um, clients to consider other points of view, right?
So they think, well, I said this, and this is what I meant. Now, after you send an email or you have a meeting. What are some other perspectives that people in that meeting or people that receive that email might have, right? Because I think the looking at the context and looking at other interpretations is so important because I liked what you said about people making up stories in their mind if they don’t hear back, you know, from someone.
But I think that same thing can happen, you know, just with other points of
Monique: view. Mm hmm. Yeah. You mean, you mean not including other points of view? Yes.
Porschia: Yes. In terms of how you, how other people might think [00:25:00] about your communication, what you said.
Monique: Yeah. I’m trying to, I’m trying to make sure I understand what you’re, what you’re saying here.
So, in terms of them getting feedback on how, what they put out, Well, not necessarily
Porschia: the feedback, but just, um, being, understanding of how other people might take your message, right? Yes. So, you can say something one way and it means something very specific to you, but understanding that other people might take what you said in
Monique: another way.
Got it. Now I got it. Thank you for that. Yeah, I definitely agree with that too, because that goes into the category of limited self awareness. So when you are able to expand your area of awareness, then it makes it easier for you to see like, well, my perspective is just my perspective and not really acknowledging or recognizing that others may find your perspective confusing or they may not even understand your perspective.
[00:26:00] So surely I am in alignment with that. Great. Great. Well, tell
Porschia: us more about your business, clear communication
Monique: solutions. Yeah. So I, I was that board person, right? I was that board person who needed to find ways to solve problems in the organization that I was. I didn’t need to find someone to motivate me or inspire.
And so I find it very fitting that what I do today in my company is to help individuals and help leaders and teams to keep their top talent engaged. This is a group of people I feel are often overlooked because. Quite frankly, it looks like you’re doing okay, but right now things have changed. Our work culture has shifted, customers are changing, and with the recent pandemic, well not recent, a few years, a lot of folks have been re evaluating what work really means for them.
For top performers, it’s never about money. [00:27:00] It’s, it’s always about maximizing potential and getting fulfillment. So what we do is we focus on helping leaders and teams to find ways to keep them engaged, to increase the effectiveness of communications through leadership development, training and coaching and group coaching within the organization as well.
Great, great.
Porschia: So, um, we will be providing a link to your website and your other social channels in our show notes so that people can find you online. But from your perspective, Monique, what’s the best way for someone to get in touch
Monique: with you? Yep, you can definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. I love connecting with folks on LinkedIn.
Monique Russell, Clear Communication Coach. And as you’ve said, you know, Clear Communication Solutions, MoniqueRussell. com, or you can do a Google search, Monique Russell, Clear Communication, and you’ll be led to one of the ways to reach me as well. I love
Porschia: it. So I’ve got a couple of other questions for you, Monique.
I’m [00:28:00] interested to know what is your definition of career
Monique: success? Yes, if I can work doing things that I love at least 70 to 80 percent of the time and, and, and, and, and, and if I can be in a continuous state of learning. Then I am extremely successful in my career. So that’s how I define success because working in your strengths, it gives you an opportunity to really give the world and people that you work with the best of your potential.
So if I could get to do that, and that keeps me fulfilled. And if I can continue to learn because I’m always in a state of learning and learn something new and step outside the box, but not challenge myself so much that I’m falling over my toes, then I’m successful. I love it. I love it.
Porschia: So how do you think [00:29:00] executives or professionals can get an edge, a positive edge at that in
Monique: their career?
Woo woo! Positive meaning that everything is relationships. Everything is related to your communications effectiveness. I think you can always get an edge if you’re an executive by keeping in line with the trends. A lot of folks that I’m working with right now, they are so busy. So smart, so brilliant, and so busy that they do not have time to upskill, to reskill, to even find out what’s happening in their own industries.
So if you can stay or have a pulse on what’s happening, not just in your industry, Or if you can find out what’s happening in other industries, you give yourself a competitive advantage because now you’ve widened your perspective, you’ve widened your lens into how you can solve problems, and you also make yourself more interesting when you’re networking because you can go deeper [00:30:00] into a variety of conversations.
That one little simple thing will help you gain a competitive advantage or a competitive edge in addition to, of course, strengthening the way that you present your information. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, if you cannot present what you want to convey in a way that people can understand, they will never buy into you and they won’t buy into your project or your mission.
So. Get those skills going, and you will maximize your potential to the fullest. Well, Monique, you have
Porschia: shared a lot of wisdom with us today, and I’m sure that our listeners can use it to be more confident in their careers.
Monique: We appreciate you being with us. It is a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me today.
Thank you, Monique.[00:31:00]
