Gerald Parsons - Bridging the Communication Gap to Maximize Business Value (#27)

On this week’s Maximize Business Value Podcast, Tom Bronson welcomes Gerald Parsons, CEO, and Rich Russo, VP of Corporate Development from Life Languages. They discuss Life Languages and the vital role communication plays in the effectiveness, profitability, and value of companies. Life Languages cracks the code to effective communication. The Life Languages Communication IQ system is a key indicator that will predict where inconsistent, inaccurate internal, and external messaging exists at every level in an organization. We all want to be seen, heard, and understood. Most relationships fail and most management problems are due to miscommunication and misunderstanding. Life Languages helps recognize and resolve conflict, reduce the cost of onboarding, build relationship equity, and increase the return on individual investment hands down. Find out more by visiting Life Languages website or checking out Gerald's book, Ties And T-Shirts here. 

Gerald R. Parsons is a forward-thinking strategic builder dedicated to character-driven communication as a core value. He has been affiliated with Life Languages International / Communication IQ for over 30 years and was appointed CEO in 2016. In his current role, Gerald strives each day to make a difference in the lives of his team and colleagues by creating equity within their relationships and the company. Gerald is a firm believer that when people learn their communication styles they learn how to speak and listen so more people will hear and understand them. Personal and professional development that involves improving himself as a leader worth following both in his family and organization are his top priorities. Living in constant reminder of how special his life is, Gerald is married to his wife of 42 years and enjoys spending time with his children and grandchildren.

Rich Russo is VP of Corporate Business Development and Managing Director of Build Connect, LLC. Much of his day includes helping teams create practical solutions to complex problems and then transitioning that solution into a sustainable operating model. He has a passion for enhancing Communication IQ at organizations of all sizes and he regularly volunteers and donates t

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Tom Bronson is a serial entrepreneur and business owner. He is currently the founder and President of Mastery Partners, Mastery Mergers & Acquisitions, and the Business Transition Summit. All three companies empower business owners to maximize business value and serve business owners in different capacities to help them achieve their dream exit. As a business owner, Tom has been in your situation a hundred times and knows what it takes to craft the right strategy. Bronson is passionate about helping business owners and has the experience to do it. Tom has two books to help business owners on their journey to a dream exit: "Maximize Business Value Playbook," (2023), and "Maximize Business Value, Begin with the EXIT in Mind," (2020). Both are available on Amazon.
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Transcript

Announcer (5s):
Welcome to the Maximize Business Value Podcast this podcast is brought to you by Mastery Partners where our mission is to equip business owners to Maximize Business Value so they can transition their business on their terms. Our mission was born from the lessons we have learned from over 100 business transactions, which feels our desire to share our experiences and wisdom So you can succeed. Now here's your host, the CEO of Mastery Partners Tom

Tom Bronson (36s):
Tom Bronson and welcome to Maximize Business Value Podcast for business owners who are passionate about building long term sustainable value in their businesses. In this episode, I'm still excited to welcome our guest Gerald Parsons who is CEO and Rich Russo is VP of corporate development with Life Languages today. We are going to talk about Communication in the workforce. A and I'm very excited about that. The things that you're going to learn today, I've known both rich and Gerald through business and navigators.

Tom Bronson (1m 11s):
If your, a long time listener to this podcast, you know, I bring on folks from business navigators. It's a wonderful organization based here in Dallas. It's an organization dedicated to the principles of servant leadership. So these two guys are definitely servant leaders. Gerald his new book. Ties And, T, Shirts bridging the communication gap and America's new workforce was released last Friday from the, from when this podcast goes out. Or I can tell you that, ah, that you should go get a copy of the book.

Gerald Parsons (1m 44s):
And I'm going to tell you how to do that by the time we get to the end of it. So welcome to Maximize. Business Value guys. It's good to have you with us today. Good morning, Tom. Glad to be here, man. Good to see what your listeners Tom awesome. So Gerald why don't we start with you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and tell us about Life Languages thank you, sir. We'll listen. And then I'm married to the same woman for 42 years, you know, have two grown kids, six grandkids, the love of my life, and a, you know, I've been affiliated with Life Languages for about 30 years since it was founded and in several different roles from a board standpoint, or as, as somebody that's used the tool in different, you know, business positions that I've had or companies that I've owned.

Gerald Parsons (2m 31s):
And about three years ago, it was time for me to make a decision kind of what the next season holds for me and a, the people that founded the company for a man and a Kindle came to me and said, we'd really like you to consider taking over as CEO and helping us kind of get the company where we've always thought it could be. So, so yeah, about three years ago, I took over as the CEO and started building and rebuilding Dustin, Everything often kind of seeing what worked and what didn't work

Tom Bronson (3m 4s):
well, that's exCiting to have someone asking you to come in and step in. Are they still involved in the week?

Gerald Parsons (3m 10s):
Yeah. To some degree they're kind of retired, but you know, they're the, they're the science couple and the, and the influencer couples ones or ones kind of the scientists'. The other one is kind of the influencer. So their input to MI is critical because are I rely on him a lot of times because they're, it was their baby. I can ask them all the questions that a, you know, maybe a little bit hard to answer about how things started, where it was going and what they intended.

Tom Bronson (3m 40s):
Wow. That's a, that is awesome. What an interesting exit strategy a for them, of course, we'd talk about exit strategy, a lot with our, with our clients on this podcast. And so that's a way that is an interesting story and what a, I can't think of a better steward of their asset, their baby, as you call it in the business. So a glad to have you with us. Rich why don't you tell us your background and why you joined Gerald at lifeline?

Rich Russo (4m 7s):
Hey, Tom well, thanks for having us on, you know, I've known Gerald through business navigators for the last couple of years, you know, Gerald knew about me than I than an army officer, and I'd spent many years in management consulting him. So he says, Hey, you know, I'd like you to take a look at this, this assessment, this methodology, and tell me what you think. And so I took the assessment and I was just so intrigued about what it told me about me. I also quickly realized that if I look back at it at every client interaction I had, or every team that I took over, every consulting engagement I was pulled into communication was often at the heart of the issue.

Rich Russo (4m 47s):
Now, I, I used to install SAP for a, for a living and you'd assume that my background would point me to technical solutions, but the truth is most of the time when teams were having issues, it was always the communication between the individuals. Of course, the challenge was how, how did you fix that? So Gerald said to me, Hey, I want you to take this profile and I'll tell you a little bit about you. And then I'll tell you a little bit about how to interact with other people. And so I was just fascinated with the opportunity to bring this product to corporate America, because I know a lot of businesses are struggling with getting teams to operate efficiently, getting individuals and teams to play nicely together.

Rich Russo (5m 32s):
And, you know, this is something that every business needs to run and, and achieve. It's a strategy. And so it was just great. When, ah, when Gerald said, Hey, I love you to love for you to spend a little bit more time with us. And let's take this, take this to the next evolution. A and B really take a look at applying this with corporate America. That's it

Tom Bronson (5m 53s):
Awesome. So, Hey, thank you for your service. A really appreciate went to West point. Then, then you're not a dummy either. So a, you know, that that is a special, ah, that is a special a school that I know, lots of folks who went there. So that's awesome now. So I think about Communication as a, I want to borrow from a story that I, Gerald, I think I shared with you when I, when I took the, the, the assessment and, and we met over a coffee, gosh, it's been uhh, probably over a year ago, but, but we met over a coffee.

Tom Bronson (6m 29s):
I think I shared this story with you is something that I learned. You know, you mentioned you had been married 42 years. My bride has always right over my shoulder here watching what we're doing, but a we've been together. We've been together for 33 years. We've been married for, for 30 years. And one of the things that I learned during the pre marriage counseling, my parents were very passionate about a buying us a pre-marriage counseling package from a, a pair of psychologist. One of 'em was a pastor and the other one was a psychologist, but they were both of our, a psychologist.

Tom Bronson (7m 2s):
And one of the things that we learned there was that communication is the thermostat have every relationship. A and so when things get all hot, you need to go to the thermostat and turn it down, right. He had turned the temperature down, or if it takes us to get called, you've go to the thermostat and turn it up. And so that's what I really love about this, a communication tool. I know so much about the way I want to be communicated with, but I am post that on other people. And so I'm excited to, you know, but the reality is is that we all communicate a little differently.

Tom Bronson (7m 34s):
So I'm so excited to dive into this Communication is really the heart of nearly every business issue we face today. So how does companies know if they have a communication issue?

Gerald Parsons (7m 49s):
Well, if they're open for business, that's it, that's the bottom line. If their open for business, they probably have a communication problem, but maybe not even know about it. And, and that's part of the biggest issue is that Communication eventually it's because the kinds of shows up as poor performance in some negative metric, a and I've always found, and this is very much like what you've just described Tom is that when we assume that, umm, we are communicating well where generally wrong.

Gerald Parsons (8m 21s):
And, and so people, people that the first step up to me and miscommunication is assuming that we're communicating well. And so I don't know whether it's good or bad or a or whatever does the first indicator to me have a communication issue is whether or not things are moving in the right direction, whether people are engaged properly, whether there's, I mean, we, we, we have a lot of point of need solutions, but most companies are not, or not super critical when it comes to analyzing their own communication within our, without.

Gerald Parsons (9m 0s):
And so yeah, its a, its a a, it's a problem with an organizations that they don't sometimes even realize that they have a communication problem. That's that's the work that we do. We help them understand that,

Tom Bronson (9m 13s):
You know, you got in my own worklife is as you guys know that our listeners know and they have bought or sold a hundred businesses in my career. A and I can tell you that, that I could be speaking to a crowd of 5,000 employees or 200 employees are five employees. And I walk off thinking, man, I nailed that. And then I give feedback later realizing that, that the message was not as clear as I thought it was because I was communicating in the way I communicate, not in the way necessarily that that people want to be communicated with a and so, so it Communication is, is clear.

Tom Bronson (9m 58s):
So in what ways does it show up kind of in terms of employee behaviors?

Gerald Parsons (10m 4s):
Yeah. Well, typically I ask these questions, do you know your engagement numbers? Do you know your conflict resolution numbers? Do you, do you measure those kinds of things? Do you know how your customer support is, is being viewed within and without the, you know, what your productivity now do, you know, you're Communication IQ numbers. And when I, when we asked those kinds of questions, what we find most of the time is that they don't really measure those things within, they don't look at those, those metrics. And that's just as important as their bottom line or are their ROI because you, no, we have a, we have a term that we call the ROI, which is a return on individual investment because unless you have an ROI, your ROI is not going to be nearly as a substantial So.

Gerald Parsons (10m 55s):
So it shows up and a lot of different ways. And so we want to go in and we ask all the questions, you know, and that, that their, maybe a little bit inhibited to, to ask themselves. And of course it just like any good consulting firm, they just point to the consultant and say, it's his fault, right?

Tom Bronson (11m 17s):
I like that. Yes. So I loved that term, a return on an individual investment. And you know, I'm an, I'm a huge ROI or a guy, you know, as far as the long running joke was at my last company that I saw them about two and a half years ago, if I couldn't articulate the RI the return on investment from buying toilet paper, we would not have provided it. And the good news is I can articulate a, the ROI for that. It's a very inefficient to be sending people down into what a burger are all day to make it to the restroom.

Tom Bronson (11m 51s):
So, but I know I'm a big fan of ROI. I want everybody, you know, We, I don't, I don't spend money on anything I invest in add. And so I love on it. In fact, I don't know that I'd heard that ROI from you before, because return on individual investment that is impactful. And so that is exciting, but you know, this is sort of that intangible thing. It's a, you know, we, we, a lot of times there's on this podcast will give, get nuts and bolts. Things are things that you can do, structures and things that you do to improve that business value.

Tom Bronson (12m 25s):
But this is one of those intangible. So, so how can a lack of good communication impact the bottom line? Rich you want to take that?

Rich Russo (12m 36s):
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think leaders feel that it could be an issue. The question is how do you measure it and how can you get some, some science behind it? And so a couple of ways that you can do that is to take a look at some of the metrics that Gerald's already spoken about, but also just look at your company from the outside in, right, when you see a customer complaints or vendors that don't give you a good price or work with you when you need their help, those our indicators take a trip down to your HR department, right?

Rich Russo (13m 11s):
Listen to the exit interviews. What you'll often hear is they don't pay me enough to put up with this. What they're really saying is somewhere along the way, I wasn't appreciated my contribution wasn't considered. And a lot of times that goes back to a communication issue could be up. It could be down that we can help you kind of figure out where are the pain points? Is it between leader's is it between teams or departments is within or without the company with your vendors and you're and your customers.

Rich Russo (13m 45s):
So you'll see this popup again and again, and even know, you know, companies tend to think that it's easy to find good employees. Once you get them in the door. If you found a good employee, you've really got to get them to unlock that a discretionary energy, that, that passion, that drive, that causes them to go above and beyond. And for folks that are feeling like they are being heard and that they can communicate with others, you're gonna see improve the employee engagement.

Rich Russo (14m 19s):
And that is going to show up in sales numbers, in your company, culture and other. And frankly, it's good to see your good to see a big decrease in turnover and in a workplace conflict that tends to distract us from our main, a strategic mission as well

Tom Bronson (14m 34s):
Is an organization. Wow. Do you guys are loved me up with new terms today? I, this has gotta be a West point thing that I'm a military thing, discretionary energy. That is, wow. This is a mouthful because people choose right how they use their energy and in a, in a situation where the communication is not great, then, then they can choose to expend less energy.

Tom Bronson (15m 3s):
A and that will have a massive impact on the bottom line of the business. If people are going through the motions are just doing, you know, the minimum acceptable work. So what I'm going to steal that discretionary energy. I really liked that term. So the, the, the company then your company is focused on solving all these issues with a product you call it Communication IQ.

Tom Bronson (15m 36s):
In fact, the company has a book by the same title. Communication IQ I, can you tell us more about Communication IQ methodology and give us kind of the big picture of how it can help both individuals and organizations.

Gerald Parsons (15m 53s):
Sure. And here's another term for you that you probably heard this one before, but, but everything that we do Tom is pointed to building relationship equity, relationship equity is the result of our methodology. And, and I'll get to that in a second, but, but the way it starts is that everybody speaks through three levels of intelligences, either kinetic, emotive, or cognitive, OK. Either act, feel, or do we all act, feel in, think what we'll do it in the same order like me, I, I shoot and then aim, right?

Tom Bronson (16m 34s):
You were a lot alike.

Gerald Parsons (16m 36s):
So I shoot and aim, soo I'm not really worried about a, you know, from a fire and a warning shot anymore. It was so, so anyway, so we all, we all speak all three of those intelligence, but, but we also break those down into seven styles are preferred communication styles. And so each one of those is measured through our, through our assessment in 33 different areas. And then what the, the individual gets is a profile that shows they're preferred communications styles, all of them in a descending order with intensity and range and Gap and lots of other things that we go to explain.

Gerald Parsons (17m 15s):
But what the beautiful thing is that not only do you have this profile of how you prefer to communicate, we go a step further. Then, you know, everybody gets thrown in the psychometric bucket tool, write to Ben right? Every day, you know, it's a psychometric tool say I'll go into the same bucket. That the difference is that most of those are descriptive only, okay, I'm going to tell you about you and you can do with, at what you will, you know, whether when you, you can pick all the ones out there, the, the, the most popular they will, they will do a good and I, and certainly are worthy of use, but then they will do a good job of telling you kind of the description of whatever they measure.

Gerald Parsons (17m 59s):
However, we go a step further. We are not our, we are not only be descriptive, but we are prescriptive or so. So we just tell you what you are. We tell you how you can be with others and other situations and other circumstances and other roles that you might play throughout your business journey. And so that becomes critical because not everybody acts the same way all the time, right? We, we, and so we found that Communication A is the common denominator for all of these predictable behavior styles and whatever you can predict you can fix, right.

Gerald Parsons (18m 37s):
If I can predict it, I can fix it. And so we teach people the art of communication from understanding their profile and how to interact with others and their profile. So that becomes the methodology of communication. IQ that, that teaches us how to be smarter with are communication styles, how we offer things and it, within whatever setting it's applied and it, and its codes true from the C-suite down to the lowest contributor in any organization. So when you do this, you'll actually a deploy it throughout the organization so that you can have a clear picture, all the different communication styles.

Gerald Parsons (19m 16s):
So is that correct? Yeah. The rich, you may want to speak to this, but, but the way we start Tom is we start with whatever business sector they choose for us to go in. And then we have a point of needs solution that we work with that group on, based on a pre-survey and a lot of other things that measure engagement and these other point of need kinds of things, and then the CEO or the team, or the CA kind of a point of center directions to apply that that are our Communication IQ solution.

Tom Bronson (19m 51s):
So, so we might work with the whole group if it's, if it's a small team, but we might just work with the sales team, for example, sales enablement. We might train them how to be more supportive in their conversations with clients and things like that. So, so you really could Rich, you can deploy this a company wide, but, but I'm, is that how you find that clients typically launch a program or do you typically recommend they, you zero in on where a specific problem areas are

Rich Russo (20m 25s):
Tom with us, we'd love it. If companies would adopt this across their whole organization, but the truth is change takes time. A So most companies do is start with one area. Maybe it's a pain point for the CEO. Maybe it's an opportunity. We tried to help companies figure that out. So let me give you an example. Maybe you're a CEO who is trying to develop your next of leaders and you've, you've put together a, the basics of a, a high potential development program. That would be a perfect place to start with.

Rich Russo (20m 56s):
You've got a receptive audience of folks that are, you're trying to train to be your next generation of leaders. And this skill can really help them work well with each other and take it back to their business. You that's right. So you kind of begin to spread it around the organization. Jerry mentioned a sales team, certainly, you know, and in today's environment, when companies merge often the sales team has asked to represent a bunch of products from a different organization to new customers and do some cross selling again, another opportunity to apply this inside and outside of the company.

Rich Russo (21m 35s):
Excuse me, another place you can apply. This is you can have a drink of water. Thank you. I think I'll do a double. I think I'll join. You might as well. Another, another great place to apply. This is a with your first line leaders, oftentimes as a management team, right? We put together a lot of plans. We put together policy's we want to get that message out.

Rich Russo (22m 7s):
The truth is it's your first line leaders who have to deal with the employees who are going to ask questions, right? So as the CEO, let's say you put out a new policy, not every line employee is going to come in and ask you their questions, but they're gonna ask their first line supervisor those questions. And so that's often a great place to enable better. Communication is right there. What kind of the rubber meets the road between an individual contributor and their supervisor? A and so that's another place where we see companies realize that they need to shore up the training and the Development.

Rich Russo (22m 44s):
They give their first line supervisors.

Tom Bronson (22m 47s):
Awesome. Awesome. Alright, so we needed to it. We're up in the break. We are talking with Gerald Parsons and Rich Russo with Life Languages let's take a quick break back in 30 seconds.

Announcer (22m 60s):
Every business will eventually transition some intimate, two employees and managers, and some externally to third party buyers. Mastery Partners equips business owners to Maximize Business Value so they can transition their business's on their terms. Using our four step process. We start with a snapshot of where you're business is today. Then we help you understand the way you want to be and design a custom strategy to get you there. Next, we help you execute that strategy with your systems of our amazing resource network.

Announcer (23m 30s):
And ultimately it will be able to transition your business on your terms. What are you waiting for more time, more revenue, if you want to maximize your business value, it takes time. Now, is that time get started today by checking this out at www.masterypartners.comoremailusatinfoatmasterypartners.com to then drill Parsons Richard Russo,

Tom Bronson (23m 57s):
You know, with Life languages. And we're talking about communications in the workforce. You know, as, as, as our listeners know, I work with a lot of clients and frequently I hear now the number one problem in their company is communications. And, and that is just a very common theme. You know, I experienced that myself when I was a CEO of, of a number of different businesses or working in other businesses. Everybody always complains. The communication is the number one issue.

Tom Bronson (24m 28s):
And we're talking about ways that you can solve that. Now, I'd imagine that in today's workforce, given that there are many generations kind of working together that too could introduce some additional communication issues in your new book. Ties And, T, Shirts, I provide some great insight into this. Now that was particularly amused by your story of miscommunication between millennial mic and baby boomer. Bobby, I really enjoyed that regarding an update on a project and how they differ in their communications styles.

Tom Bronson (25m 2s):
So, so Gerald R what can you share with us about the book?

Gerald Parsons (25m 6s):
Well, first of all, thank you for mentioning Tom Ties And T Shirts was something I was kind of sitting around in my office and experiencing exactly what boomer Bobby was experiencing. I had turned my phone on silent and I was staring at my screen, not expecting a, the millennials that worked for me to be able to, to contact me any other way than through an email, right? I mean, really what, what other form is their right, or if I'm gone. So, so that was, that became the, that become kind of a centric too, to what I'm, you know, I want to get across in the book, you know, the, the boomer generation is already 45% retired and they're retiring at about 10,000 people a week.

Gerald Parsons (25m 51s):
And so in the next couple of years, the, the millennial generation is going to be the folks that are running, running the companies on the, a lot of 'em are already, but that the challenge is for traditional business. People like myself or boomers that have grown up with traditional business of techniques and methodologies, that's just not the way they operate and it's not the way they communicate. And I can tell you that very quickly, there's going to be some, a big vacuum in the marketplace with regard to how companies are manage, manage their communication, because they don't know, we don't know how to reach across and build a bridge, you know, leadership.

Gerald Parsons (26m 37s):
And my estimation is not focusing on the Gap, but focusing on the bridge. Right? And so, so what my book tries to do is try to explain how we can take this methodology that we call Life Languages and apply it a, and build those bridges with the different generations that are coming. It's not just millennials, obviously gen Z or gen Xers in all of those folks, but they all communicate differently. And if you assume that that your communication is going to be received and understood a certain way, then you're probably going to be wrong.

Gerald Parsons (27m 13s):
I don't know about you, but I've had this happen to me. Tom where somebody out or I'll be talking to a group or, or some of my employees or whatever. And, and they'll come back to me the next day and says, I really enjoyed it when you said this. And I said, I don't never say in that. And its not because I have dementia. Its just because I don't think I said that. And so the truth is that we have to be, we have to practice Communication you know, we practice everything else, right?

Gerald Parsons (27m 44s):
We practice our skills to be, if we're the lawyers, we learned how to practice law. If we were athletes, we practice our sport. Whatever you want to apply it to. If you're a businessman, you practice the principles of good Business the best practices. But most of us don't practice good communication because we don't understand it. We don't take those principles of good, a good communication and apply it in our daily lives, which is absolutely critical if we're going to move forward and have the kind of successes that we all want.

Tom Bronson (28m 16s):
That's it Awesome. The I heard a couple of years ago I speak it. A lot of conferences. I was speaking at a conference, gosh, I'd probably say four or five years ago where the The a speaker was talking about kinda different styles of, of baby boomers versus a millennials. I was all the rage. That of course I think, I think if I rent, I think I read this in your book that right now the millennials is the largest piece of our workforce.

Tom Bronson (28m 46s):
Right? Is it, is that right? Did I see that there?

Gerald Parsons (28m 51s):
But it was growing by leaps and bounds. Well, yeah

Tom Bronson (28m 54s):
I am the last baby boomer when I clicked, came through the baby boomer Dore in 1964, closed in a locked it right behind me. And so then the next generation was coming behind that. But one interesting thing that the, that the keynote I'm at that conference that I happened to be at, he was speaking about kinda of different styles. He said, you know what, you baby boomers who think that these millennials don't get it and aren't working and they're not loyal. That's exactly what the great generation thought about you guys eight years ago.

Tom Bronson (29m 26s):
A and so, so the things, you know, it always comes back because I promise you a, the, the millennials out there that there'll be, you know, two generations behind you, you're going to be complaining about them a lot. A and so it's kinda of all I'll go set and big circles. So there are lots of programs out. I just thought I'd share that story with you. There are lots of programs out there that helped business owners communicate with a multigenerational workforce. What sets Communication IQ apart from other programs and assessments and things like that.

Gerald Parsons (30m 2s):
Yeah. Thank you for asking that. Because one of the, one of the things that we think is key is the, is the differentiator between the description of, of your profile and The and the application of that profile. We think that's key now, you know, let me tell you a little story. I had, I had hired a marketing director and a millennial marketing director and I would walk by her office every afternoon and she'd be staring out the window and I'm like, you know, I be like, I'm paying her a lot of money to stare out the window.

Gerald Parsons (30m 40s):
I've got that mindset. Like you what's my what's my ROI here. All right. And, and, but yet when we go into a meeting, she was the most brilliant one in the meeting. Okay. And so it became aware. I became very aware that her style of processing Communication and processing a, the thing's in her life, one of the Languages that we call contemplator. So she's going to think first about everything.

Gerald Parsons (31m 10s):
And in that particular language, they're not going to their, their, probably the smartest person in the room, but their not always gonna tell you what you want to know. You we'll have to ask for it. And so if you don't know these subtleties about some of these communication styles, then you can, you can do what I did. And that is just assume that you're paying somebody a lot of money to stare out the window. But what I really found out was I had a, I had a contributor that was brilliant and didn't want to say anything until she knew she was right.

Gerald Parsons (31m 44s):
And so that's a value. That's a valuable asset when you have somebody on your team like that. But unless you know how to manage them, unless you know how to, how to draw that gold out of them, then, then you could miss the boat completely R. You can don't do something stupid, like get rid of 'em and, and not have I not have understood that you really had So. So our two is different and that we teach you how to find the gold. We have a deal called a Communication map. And what that does is when we go in and work with clients, we, we take the, all of the information that we gathered from a pre-survey to the assessment's.

Gerald Parsons (32m 22s):
We put it on a map and we say, okay, this is what's going on. And is this what you want to go on? Typically it's not. And how do we move forward by using your tool? And so that's where some of these point of need things come in, but we create that Communication map. Here's the, here's two of the things that are really critical when we look on that is that by category of employee, whether it C-suite people or operational folks or sales people, they're pluses and minuses.

Gerald Parsons (32m 52s):
If we know what those pluses and minuses are, what can we do? Obviously we can show her up the minuses to bring out some gold and we can add to the pluses to make things speed up and B and be more productive. So that, I think that's kind of how the difference in what we do.

Tom Bronson (33m 8s):
What would you do? A in the marketplace? Awesome. Mmm. That's a, that's a great differentiator. I'm by the way, I think that that marketing person works for me too. So Yeah. Did you fire him or I might have Maybe, maybe that's when she came to work for you and you realized how bright she was now that, you know, I mean, everybody communicates different and I'm a big fan of thinking time.

Tom Bronson (33m 40s):
You know, when I see somebody just sitting there that's, that doesn't bother me because I actually schedule in my calendar thinking time, when do I want to be thinking? And so somebody can just as easily walk by my desk and go, what are you doing? Right. I think I'm thinking, and by the way, you just interrupted me. So I would typically close the door. So, so one last a business question in a, and I'll toss this up to either, or both of you, this podcast is of course is about maximizing business value.

Tom Bronson (34m 17s):
So a in your opinion, what is the one most important thing you would recommend business owners do to build business value? Right?

Gerald Parsons (34m 27s):
Well, rich, you want, and you go first in, I'll close it up. Tell him, I don't know

Rich Russo (34m 34s):
Who came up with this saying, but a, if you wanna make a fast decision, get everybody on the room who thinks this day, you want to make the right decision. You need diversity, you need to bring in different opinions. And so part of what attracted me to the Communication IQ methodology is that it enables a leader to appreciate each of the strengths everyone has, or to recognize among a team. Gosh, you know what, we're missing a perspective here. A I'm a shaper.

Rich Russo (35m 5s):
And if I'm in a room with 10 shapers, boy, things happen fast, but we have a set of blinders on a, because we may not be seeing the, the full picture. So, you know, in terms of maximizing business value, I would say its worth the extra time, ah, to bring a diverse group together and its worth the extra time to figure out how do you unlock the key character strengths that each person brings to the table.

Tom Bronson (35m 34s):
This is easy as, as bringing them all onto a room. Think that that second part their is the key is how do you unlock that? Communication Gerald how about you? How did that? How does Business owners Maximize Business Value

Gerald Parsons (35m 45s):
So I think of something that I said earlier in the, in the broadcast Tom and that is that if you have, if you have invested in your employees and it a business's is, is only as good, obviously as its employees and how they perform at how they feel connected. It's very difficult for owners today to create an intrinsic value in their, in their employees. But that's why we call it ROI return on individual investment. So what are we doing to maximize our values based on what we're putting into the lives of our, of our employees and investing in them.

Gerald Parsons (36m 24s):
That's why so many D and I folks and learning officers and CHRs are out there beating the bushes for technologies and methodologies like what we have so that they can bring it into the lives of these people. What happens to that is that their team becomes a more cohesive, more and more productive and they are, and things like turnover starts to dissipate. Let me tell you a quick story. Before, before we get off, and that is, we were called into a large insurance company over in Fort worth because they were experienced experiencing a 40% turnover, which is huge.

Gerald Parsons (37m 1s):
And he was sent, the CEO said, just bring everybody across my desk for 15 minutes and tell me, let him tell him that I want to hear their solution. So we got involved, we got invited for our 15 minutes, our 15 minutes turned it into two and a half hours and a three year engagement. And here's why, because we showed the CEO that he was doing exactly what Rich was describing. He put everybody in the room that was just like him. And, and so the, the, the value of the, of the business segments down below them, or like nobody cares about what we think are and what we say or what we do is just my way or the highway and get, get out if you don't.

Gerald Parsons (37m 42s):
And so people don't react well to those kinds of things. So we go in and we help a business owners understand the value of great communication within the organization. Right?

Tom Bronson (37m 52s):
That is awesome. I would tell you, you know, of course, as everybody, every business owner knows the largest investment they make is in their human capital, right? I mean, that's almost every business across the board that is, but you have to think about it as an investment. And, and I love that. Being able to communicate better, you know, as, as a CEO have a business, when I was hiring and bringing on executives to work in our C suite, you know, I always look for people who think differently.

Tom Bronson (38m 27s):
I want them to share my values, but, but I want people to think differently because you know, I, I would, if people agreed with me all the time, I Would say, you're worthless. Why am I paying you? I don't need you. If you, if you think exactly the way I do, I want people who will challenge my thought process, make this a better company so that those are some snow days or some great, great solution's. So everybody who is Our who normally watches this or listening to this podcast knows that you always get a bonus questions.

Tom Bronson (39m 2s):
So I'm going to toss to this one, a out first to Gerald and then to Ridge. The bonus question is what personality trait has gotten you into the most trouble throughout the years. So at first Gerald dinner as well.

Gerald Parsons (39m 19s):
See, my wife will tell you one thing, I would tell you another thing, right? My wife would give a list. She said, I can get one. When did the one? My I'll tell you. I sabotage myself sometimes with my mover Life language, because my mover Life Languages want's to get down the road so far change, innovate, do all of these things. But then I, all I see behind me as a clouded dust, there's nobody following him because they can't find me because I, because I've gone too far without me.

Gerald Parsons (39m 52s):
Right.

Rich Russo (39m 52s):
For sure. The team is with, that's gotten me and more trouble than eye care to admit a lot of that. Rich how about you as well? It's funny. Tom when you ask that question, I started thinking about all my old performance reviews and one of the, one of the things that Communication IQ We we help folks understand here are the strengths they have, but also the things to work on. And sure enough, what my boss would consider a strength.

Rich Russo (40m 23s):
It was very easy for him to pick out the, a, the, the challenge of things. So I'm a shaper and by nature, we like to work on strategy and, and, and, and large picture planing. The challenge though, is one, a shaper is under distress. You see the challenge come out of all right, these guys don't get the plan. They are not moving fast enough. I'll just take it over. And so Gerald has been really kind. And And taught me a little bit about how I'm wired as a shaper.

Rich Russo (40m 53s):
And he says, you know, when you start to see this, this idea that you're frustrated, and you're just gonna grab the plan and take over, that's a son that a, that things that are off track. And sure enough, as I looked back through an old performance reviews, I took on a lot of extra projects when I was in that, that stressed mode. So that one is still a, is stuff that I can continue to work on. You need to come to the Tom Bronson school of just say, no.

Tom Bronson (41m 25s):
Well, this has been fun. Guys has been fascinating to learn all of this. How can our listeners and viewers get a chance to their primary Communication language or a speak with someone about Communication IQ methodology?

Gerald Parsons (41m 41s):
Well, they can do a couple of things. Tom The. They can go to our website, which is very easily www.life languages.com. They can take the assessment on there, there to there two options. You could take a personal assessment, our professional, once you take the professional, Want it gives you a little bit bigger, a little bit more robust report regarding kind of how you are in the marketplace and in your business workplace. And if you take the Personal one, you get your, get all of your Languages, but you get a little, a little bit less information about how you might act under in leadership roles and different things like that.

Gerald Parsons (42m 18s):
So, yeah. www.life languages.com.

Tom Bronson (42m 22s):
Awesome. Gerald Rich thank you for being our guests today. This has been a lot of fun. You can find both of them@lifelanguages.com or on LinkedIn, and as always, you can always reach out to us here at Mastery Partners because we are always happy to make connections. This is the Maximize Business Value. Podcast where we give practical advice to business owners who are passionate about building a longterm sustainable value in their businesses, and be sure to tune in each week and follow us wherever you found this podcast.

Tom Bronson (42m 58s):
Be sure to comment. We love comments and will respond too. So until next time I'm Tom Bronson you don't mind, you had to work on those communication skills while you Maximize Business.

Announcer (43m 16s):
Thank you for tuning in to the Maximize Business Value Podcast with Tom Bronson. This podcast is brought to you by Mastery Partners where our mission is to equip business owners to Maximize Business Value so they can transition on their terms and more on how to build long term sustainable business value and get free value building tools. Why visiting our website, www.masterypartners.com that's Mastery with a why Mastery partners.com or check it out.

Tom Bronson (44m 2s):
That was perfect. I wouldn't make any changes on that.