In this episode of Transform Your Workplace, host Brandon Laws sits down with Michelle Gladieux, author of Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome the Four Hidden Challenges. Michelle shares her insights on the power of bravery in communication and breaks down the four hidden challenges that hold us back from authentic connection. Through personal stories and actionable advice, Michelle encourages listeners to embrace vulnerability, strive for meaningful relationships, and leave a legacy of impactful communication. You don’t want to miss this inspiring conversation.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Michelle Gladieux is the author of Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome the Four Hidden Challenges and president of Gladieux Consulting. With over 18 years of university teaching experience and a passion for helping individuals grow, Michelle leads communication seminars, strategic planning, and executive coaching for clients across industries nationwide.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
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🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
COURAGE IS KEY
Michelle Gladieux’s Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome the Four Hidden Challenges is more than a book — it’s a bravery manual for anyone looking to communicate with impact and authenticity. Michelle emphasizes that courage is the key to effective communication. Without it, we risk holding back when we could stand up for ourselves, defend others, or make meaningful changes. The book explores how summoning bravery allows us to avoid the regret of missed opportunities and ensures we let our unique light shine through every interaction.
At the heart of the book are the Four Hidden Challenges that hold us back as communicators. First, Hiding from Risk stems from the fear of exposing our vulnerabilities — real or imagined — and stops us from embracing growth. Second, Defining to Be Right highlights how clinging to our assumptions can close us off from learning through others’ perspectives. Third, Rationalizing the Negative calls out the tendency toward pessimism and invites us to choose optimism, which colors not only our communication but our entire lives. Finally, Settling for Good Enough reminds us not to stop at mediocrity when it matters most, urging us to aim higher in moments that align with our values.
Through relatable stories, practical advice, and thought-provoking insights, Communicate with Courage empowers readers to face these challenges head-on. Whether you’re advocating for yourself, standing up for others, or striving for deeper connections, this book offers the tools to make courageous and strategic communication a daily habit.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Balancing Vulnerability and Authority
“Thinking about how much you want to let others see, it’s really an art and a science, and it will depend on the audience or the person you’re dealing with. But it’s a good idea to make sure you humanize yourself the more positional power you have because you’ve already got that sort of advantage as a communicator. Then, let us see some of the slings and arrows. Your hopes, your dreams, your disappointments, and your worries are all great things to share in a reasonable measure so that the receiver of your sharing isn’t burdened with emotions they then have to deal with. So we want people to understand that you go through it too, that we all go through difficult times in life, and then use an appropriate measure of vulnerability in that you’re not adding a burden to their life.”
Pressing Pause
“We’ve worked with mental health counselors, social workers, nurses, police, firefighters, 911 call takers. We’ve taught stress and change management to those groups and leadership skills to those groups. And what I end up learning about them is burnout is ever-present in those fields and many fields because you are having to use your emotional intelligence and try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and ideally feel what they’re feeling if you really want to connect. So we all have to be able to disconnect sometimes from what we do for work and from our family obligations. And remember that we are neither our careers nor our roles in our homes and with our families and allow ourselves some joy and some time to reset.”
Sharing Your Goal
“When you choose your communication goal, […] be sure that you advertise it to the humans around you because we’ve all got you figured out. So, Brandon, if you’re going to be more assertive and share how you feel more openly, or you’re going to be less assertive and work on being a better listener who makes eye contact and fully registers what the other person is saying, whatever your goal is, tell the people around you. Because we’ve already got you all figured out and filed away, and you may never sort of get credit or be seen differently if you’re not vulnerable enough to share that you have a goal.”
Being Receptive to Feedback
“It’s never helped me when people say, […] ‘It’s just business.’ Well, not to me. Not if you put your heart and soul into your work, it’s not just work. However, I am strong, I am brave. I check my self-talk, and I remember I do want to ask people what they see. Otherwise, how will I know? Because I’m in here looking out at you. You are a much better judge of how I perform today as a podcast guest than I ever could be. I can have a sense of it, but the brave part of me needs to ask you: ‘What could I have done better? Would you consider having me on a second time? If so, what would you like me to do differently?’”
Leaving a Legacy
“When the day comes for us to depart this earth, and our loved ones and colleagues gather to remember us, they are going to be talking about how we listened, how we spoke, and how we wrote. And so while we’re here, I think we should take advantage of as many decisions per day about communication as we can to try to do our best with those, especially communication decisions that align with our values. So we’re creating our legacy daily. […] We’re never static. We’re always either evolving or devolving as communicators. Let’s just try to get a leg up, be courageous, use some pro moves, and take baby steps daily toward what we want people to be saying about us when we’re on to the great gig in the sky.”
Communicating Like a Pro
“Watch your self-talk. You are going to speak to yourself more than you speak to any other human. Even if you’re married to your best friend for 75 years, you still have more conversations with yourself. So why don’t you begin, when you’re driving, when you’re falling asleep, when you’re waking up, to just notice from a detached observer standpoint what you’re saying to yourself? A lot of those messages are about how others see you move through the world. Just be willing to try a second voice sometimes that might debate the first voice you hear, because we can’t always rely on our self-talk to be accurate or kind.”
LEARN MORE
Grab a copy of Michelle Gladieux’s book, Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome the Four Hidden Challenges. You can also connect with her through social media or her website, https://gladieuxconsulting.com/.