Rise and Stride

Ep. 11: Mindset of Learning

February 06, 2023 CalCPA Season 1 Episode 11
Rise and Stride
Ep. 11: Mindset of Learning
Show Notes Transcript

There are a lot of characteristics that go into being a good leader that go beyond knowledge and expertise, including things like empathy, taking the questions and giving before you get. Listen as Michelle Russo, chief communications officer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, discusses strategies organizations can take to keep their workforce informed and engaged. 

We've all just been in such a hunker down, like get through the pandemic mindset that I want to kind of help everyone break open out of that and ask why not more? Why don't we try it this way? What will we learn? It's okay to fail a little bit. It's just not okay to not learn from failure. Welcome to Rise and Stride where we empower you to take your next step in an ever changing business landscape. Here's your host, Denise Leduc from president and CEO of the California Society of CPAs. Hello and welcome to another episode of Rise and Stride. With me today is Michelle Russo, chief communications officer for the US Chamber of Commerce. Since joining the Chamber in 2019, Michelle has transformed and modernize the communications function to develop integrated strategies and data driven campaigns to spotlight issues important to the business community. Prior to joining the chamber, Michelle spent nearly 15 years at media company Discovery Inc holding various executive positions, including executive vice president of Global Communications, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Communications and Vice President of Corporate Communications. Michelle also worked as a media consultant on two presidential campaigns and served as the primary spokesperson on media issues at the Federal Communications Commission. Michelle, that is an impressive background. Wow. Thank you. We are we are very fortunate to have you with us today. Thanks so much. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited, too, because I had the the honor of having you on a panel at the Women's Leadership Forum last April. And it was so much fun to hear your insights and to talk with you. So I am extremely excited to be able to talk with you today. So let's maybe start out with we all probably have visibility and have communications with our local chambers of commerce, but you represent the national the U.S. Chamber of Commerce much bigger. So maybe you can tell us just what initiatives are top of mind to you and what you're focusing on this next year? Well, thanks for the opening question, Denise. It's I love telling the story of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because it's a wonderful story. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was actually founded by the local chambers across the country in 1912. So we have been doing this for this year, will celebrate 111 years. And you mention you interacting with the state and local chamber in California. And it's always really important to us to remind ourselves who we serve. They founded us and they are on the front lines of the American economy and American business. So that's who we're fighting for. That's who we represent. Because we inherently believe in the ability of American businesses to improve lives, solve problems, and strengthen society and the local chambers in 1912 said they needed a stronger voice for the business community in Washington. And since then, we've evolved as their ally and champion with the White House and the administration on Capitol Hill, in the courts and in statehouses and markets around the world. So it's a it's a noble mission to work for this organization and serve everyone in your audience, the American business community. It's fascinating. And what were the three things, though, you said improves lives, solve problems and and strengthen society? I love that. It's kind of like with CPAs do as well to write up the business community, help the businesses. So I love that. So you said, you know, fighting fighting for the business community. With that, there are probably no shortage of legislation affecting businesses both on the state and federal levels. So what are some issues on the horizon in that business leaders should keep an eye out for? There's probably numerous ones, but what are those that we that are more on the top of mind for all of us? Sure. Well, we've been hyper focused on overregulation that has been coming out of the current administration, most recently an issue that you've probably seen coverage of, media coverage of and felt in your own businesses. Is the FTC proposal on banning non-compete agreements that would have disastrous consequences for American competition and innovation. The Chamber CEO, my boss, wrote a op ed in the Wall Street Journal last Monday about this proposed FTC rule. We are getting a ton of calls from our members and across the business community. People really alarmed that if the FTC can start to regulate something like that's really how businesses do their business. What next could be on the agenda? And a lot of times people think of the Chamber as we were talking about a little bit in our origin story around, you know, the big lobbyists in Washington and certainly lobbying on Capitol Hill is one of a big tools in our toolbox. But we have many others. We're constantly engaged in the different agencies, the regulatory agencies. We have deep experience and and relationships with with the agency staff. So we try to help them make policies that are not going to get in the way of American competition and innovation. And we stop things in its tracks when it's going to be bad for for the business community. And so we say in that op ed that we're not afraid of taking this to court. The chamber has a litigation center that basically is focused on reining in government over boundaries, stepping over regulation and stepping out of bounds. And we have an 80% success rate before the Supreme Court. So when we say we're going to sue you, you should think twice about about the rule you're about to pass. We currently have lawsuits pending between the CIA at this against the CFP and the SCC as well. So that's that's a big issue. Top of mind is reining in overregulation so that it's government is not getting in the way of American innovation. Other issues that are not just top of mind for us were being felt deeply and widely across American businesses. Of course, the workforce shortage, which was underway before the pandemic and only accelerated in the wake of the pandemic. And of course, we're all battling historic inflation. And, you know, it's subsided a little bit recently, but we all shouldn't be excited about 6%. So we are continuing to advocate for policies that will start to rein in the runaway inflation in the workforce shortages. Definitely. You know, all of us feel that impact. Right. And sometimes I wonder, where did they all go? I know it was was happening before, but you wonder where did everybody go that was working before? And there was just so many shifts in the marketplace, I think, because of COVID and movement to different industries that, you know, now we're just seeing the impact of that and it's not going to go away anytime soon. It's certainly is not. And that's why, you know, one of the things that we have been advocating for and we're going to step up our efforts even stronger this year is reforming legal immigration in our country. We don't have enough workers to fill the open jobs, period. Full stop and that separate from our advocacy for border security, those are two very important issues and one does not have to happen at the expense of the other America as a great nation. It can do great things and we can do both. Absolutely. Absolutely. So how would you advise our members, our listeners, to work with their chambers? Is there a some tip you have in general who they can communicate with or how they can get engaged, where they can be most effective? I would say just pick up the phone, reach out, send an email. Really chambers in and of themselves don't have the power and the stories we need, the business community. We need to be constantly engaged with the business community to hear about the problems so that we can do storytelling in our advocacy about what the real impacts are of bad policy and really bring it to life. Right? It's not just for the economy and for business businesses on people. And when there's bad policies coming out of Washington or coming out of state houses, there's real consequences at the local community and individual people level. And so, you know, just getting started, getting involved with your local chamber, getting involved with the U.S. Chamber, we have we represent the ecosystem of business. Yes. A lot of people are a lot of businesses are members of their state and local chamber as well as the U.S. chamber, because they are the policies that are coming out of Washington impact their business as much as the policies that are happening at the state and local level. So we're always wanting to set a bigger table and hear from more American businesses about the challenges that they're confronting. Mm hmm. I think what you said there is, you know, tell your story because there's just so many individual stories that practitioners have that really brings to life, as you said, really what's happening out there. And I you know, I looked at your link and I love your message on there because if you don't mind if I can read it, we go to Spectacular. It says, your mission is to help people and organizations find their voice. So that's their story, express their best selves. And unleash their superpowers to serve stakeholders, customers and society. And I think to me, that is so powerful. And I would just advocate and encourage all our listeners to really get your story out. You can't tell enough of really what you do and the impact you have on the business community. Thank you. Thank you for helping me carry that message forward, Denise. I appreciate it. Oh, my gosh. I think that's so powerful. So with along with that, you know, maybe you can talk a little bit to us about how you view communications and what leaders can do to keep their staff informed and engaged, especially in the day where we have all remote and hybrid and there's, you know, telephone game in many different varieties. So you're an expert. What tips could you give us? Well, I don't know that anyone anyone who says that they're an expert in communications. I've done it for a long time. But communications is a journey, not a destination. Just like leadership is a journey and not a destination. So if I was a great leader yesterday, that doesn't mean I'm going to be a great leader tomorrow. So I'm constantly challenging myself when something is going wrong. And I call it when I'm pointing the finger at the problem. There's three fingers pointing back at me. And what am I doing to solve this problem, or what am I doing unintentionally that creates the problem, right, in terms of inspiring the team. And so so that's, you know, that's my tactical answer. But my favorite philosophy around leadership communications is called the each philosophy, which is treating employees as adults, consumers and humans. So employees as adults, consumers and humans. And I can break that down a little bit. Adults means they're adults. People that are working for us are adults. And sometimes leaders try to hide bad news from people. Certainly you have to deliver bad news. And I'm not just talking about a lot of the recent bad news we're hearing with layoffs or anything, but just bad news if things aren't going so well at the company or this goal we had, we didn't achieve it. These are adult adults that want to be engaged and want to be part of the solutions to the problem. So treat them like adults. Give them the information about what's going right, what's going wrong, and how they can engage in the process. Consumers means that most organizations under leverage their own employees as ambassadors for their service or product. And if your own employees people who have already self-selected, you know, according to your purpose or your product, if you can't get them being an ambitious and active ambassador for your product, then you're you're under leveraging that massive asset that you have and all the networks of people that they touch in their lives so care very much about how they're perceiving your product or service. Make sure you're in touch with how your employees are feeling about it. So that they're then recommending it to their friends and families and other networks and then humans. We all learn this lesson. If we didn't already know it during the pandemic, you never know what somebody has going on in their, you know, backpack or back office. There's lots of metaphors for it, but it's really the empathy that really the empathy and leadership that was always needed but really ascended as a leadership skill during the pandemic because people were juggling so much. Now that we're out of the pandemic, we still need to hold on to that leadership attribute. Mm hmm. Now, the empathy is is so important. And one thing you set well, you said so much there, that was great. But though the item I remember during the pandemic and even now is everybody's in a different place. And I think before we tended to bucket or have one solution and you can't anymore. You have to have individual solutions because we're in different places at different times. It's just the way the world is. So it requires a different type of leadership. It does. It does. And we've seen traditional leadership attributes kind of on the descent. Yes. You have to know the business and, yes, you have to understand how to how a panel works. And you have to have those basic business fundamentals. But the CEOs, there's been studies on this. The CEOs who were the most successful at getting their organization through the pandemic had these other leadership attributes, and empathy was one of them. So I loved your each employees as adults, consumers and humans. That's. It's great. Thank you. I stole it from someone else, so you may steal it from me. I'm going to because it's spectacular. Let's flip maybe to you did a recent interview on Notable Leaders Radio podcast and there you talked about asking questions against the power of asking questions and taking risks as part of your career grow growth. So and you also asked, you know, why not instead of saying why, why not? And has opened opportunities for you when you've asked that question. So can you give us just more details of your thinking around that? Because I think it's really powerful because we always say, ask why, but why not? Is something different that's a different mindset, right? It's a little bit more fun. It's a little bit more geared towards experimentation. And that's how you said a lot of nice things about my career and my titles, but I would characterize my career as a journey of pursuing curiosity and passions, things that I thought I would have fun doing and learning a lot along the way. I appreciate you listening to that podcast. Someone else who listened to the podcast said to me, My takeaway from what you said, Michel, was that education as a professional begins after your formal education. And so each step in my career when I stand here now in my role at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, this role is literally the intersection of business policy and politics. I had no idea when I was starting my career that I just thought it would be fun to work on a political campaign, on a presidential campaign. And I figured I would learn something from working on a presidential campaign. And I had studied policy in grad school. And so when I had the opportunity to be the spokesperson at the Federal Communications Commission, that was policy. And I got to understand policy better and and how policy is made. And, you know, the the behind the scenes inner workings of government and then and then I worked at Discovery, which was absolutely joyful of a career. And so each step, I had no idea that I would be good at it. And there was a little bit of fear, but I wouldn't want to take a job that didn't have a little bit of fear, because that means I'm not going to be pushing myself out of my comfort zone. And we've been talking a lot about this on my team. Thinking about 2023 and planning for this year is that we've all just been in such a hunker down, like get through the pandemic mindset that I want to kind of help everyone break open out of that and ask why not more? Why don't we try it this way? What will we learn? It's okay to fail a little bit. It's just not okay to not learn from failure. And so that's that's been my so it there's studies on this about women that look at a job description and men that look at a job description. If women don't think they already know how to do that job, they won't apply. And men, you know, if they can do most of the job or think they'd be good at it. I don't like gender stereotypes overall because that's if I don't think I'm going to get something new, some new learning. I mean, I've said this to recruiters before. I understand why you want me, because I've done this before. But what's new about this for for me, I don't say it like that, but, you know, like, I need to be stretching myself in some way. And I always figured, why not? Because the worst that can happen is I'm terrible at that job. But that will have been a learning that I never want to do a job like that again. So it's a mindset of learning. It is powerful. I always said if I'm once I'm comfortable, I need to go because you you've figured it out. You've worked, you understand, and it's time for something new where you can grow again because then someone else comes in with a different lens and provides a next level, right? And so that's the beauty of kind of the movement and challenging yourself. It's true you're not doing yourself any favors or the organization because your thinking has become entrenched or stuck. Perhaps if you don't think you can learn and grow in a position anymore, then you're not helping that organization learn and grow. Yeah, absolutely. I have a just a question for you, because someone said this to me a long maybe ten years ago and I done it, which has helped me to take those risks, because sometimes it's hard to take risks. But I they said, you know, pull together a board in your mind, who would be that five person board that are those confidants that you talk to to help you take those risks and to help you realize where you need to improve what you're doing. Maybe well, but really to be that 364 you view. So do you do something like that? Do you have that confident that group? I, I have it in different ways very recently a group of women who have the same profession as I have reached out to me a small group and asked me to be part of a group that we have a monthly conversation now and it's wonderful. It's so supportive of. But I've also just informally done done that in in workplaces at Discovery. I was there for so long and the the two people that were my closest friends in the organization were also my closest peers. So they might have been the ones the three of us would be at each other's throat trying to get ahead or jockey against each other. Quite the opposite. We really bonded together and made each other stronger and together we all rose through that organization. It's a great group to have. Yeah, and I think you just have to kind of be the change you want to see in the world, right? I never bought into this. Oh, women are their own worst enemy. Or, you know, you have to all jockey for position like no stronger together and let's rise together. And that's that's my philosophy. It's much more fun that way. Yeah, absolutely. It's a great mindset, you know, along with that. So kind of moving forward is what has been your experience as a woman navigating going to the corporate world because you've been there, the political world, the corporate world kind of back to, you know, the the being a female piece in that world. What advice would you give? You know, I don't know what it's like to not be a female, so I don't know what to compare it to. But it just goes back to the confidence building, a support network giving before you get really I mean, how are you going to get somebody to help you while you don't do this in a transactional way, but you offer your support when you think somebody could use it. You know, you're an advocate for someone else. You offer them support, you offer them a shoulder if you need to. And so I've just always workplaces are social places and so I've leaned into the social part of it for trying to be there, be a good colleague, you know, everything we learned in kindergarten and treat others like you want to be treated and that doesn't mean I didn't have my own ambition and goals that I was working to achieve, but I really tried to make sure I wasn't doing it at the expense of anyone else, especially another woman. And on the woman thing, I would just say, you know, encouraging encouraging them to not be afraid. And and instead of that, instead of sitting in a meeting and being frustrated with, oh, the men are getting the attention, or the men are, you know, dominating the conversation because those are refrains you sometimes hear in in women's groups. Then what is what is it about their behavior that they're doing that you can learn from? Right. If you can't beat them, join them. Absolutely right. And also, women shouldn't just look at other women as mentors. They should ask men to be their mentors. We talked about that at your conference. Yes. Yes, yeah. Some of the best mentors I've had that have helped me have been men that have said, what do you need? I'll help you. Here's you know, here's another position. I think you'd be great at it. So I've had I've been so lucky in my life to have a number of male and female mentors, but you're reminding me of something else, which is it could be that some people, not just women, are afraid to ask for help. Right. I was early in my career for sure. You know, I was raised by a single mom who in my young eyes did everything on her own. She didn't need any help, but of course she had help. Of course she had a network of support. Of course, she had sponsors at work that were helping look out for her and give her coaching. But for my young eyes, I thought she did everything on her own. So then I felt like I had to do everything on my own. But when I quickly figured out the power of having the network of champions that you build for yourself and you give to other people, it's so much more powerful. To ask is hard. I always had a hard time when asking and then when someone said, Do you need help? Even saying yes, because I felt like I was weak, right? So I've learned that, no, you have to and people are happy to help. But it's it's it's a really a sign of strength more than from the weakness. That's right. And it's a gift to help someone. It feels great that I can help you. So ask me to help you now. Absolutely right. That comes with wisdom, I guess, with age. If there's some good things that come with age. But still, there's a lot. Absolutely. So, you know, we're rounding out our time here. But I just wanted to ask you from a communications standpoint, because I think that's one skill set that's really missing out there, because I would say seven times seven ways you have to communicate what would be your one or two tips that you would give our listeners regarding just the importance or how they should make sure they facilitate communication with their in their organizations or with colleagues. I think it goes back to one of the leadership. A leadership fallacy is that you have to have all the answers. This goes back to asking for help. And so good leaders ask more questions than give orders, right? And so just not being afraid. I had some tough days in my career where we did not have the answer, but I coach the leadership team. We need to take the questions. We just need to hear what their stress is, what their feelings are, what their opinions are. And we don't have to all have all the answers, but we just have to have like an open mind and an open mindset. So and communications back to my initial point, it's a journey. I never go home feeling like I communicated perfectly today. It just never happens. And so you can't have a career in communication if you're too much of a perfectionist or you just want to like figure like fait accompli. I'm done. So it's just constantly challenging your own assumptions about things and goes back to the the finger pointing and one finger pointing out and three fingers pointing in is there was a story of discovery. I won't go into details, but it was something where a pretty senior person didn't understand, like we were reporting earnings or we were doing something really important at the company. And I thought, you know, my first instinct was what we've been talking about this for a week. I can't believe you haven't seen it. Like, what are you doing? You know, I was a little bit, like, judgmental for the first 30 seconds in my head, and then I thought, he is not getting the message. What are we doing wrong to get that message to him? And so we think we're doing it all these different ways. And leaders feel, like I said, this 100 times, but nobody's listening. Well, you got to find a different way to say it. Perhaps, you know, or tested on a few trusted people, like, what do you think? And so just communicate is just a constant journey, constant iteration, constant. We're trying to meet people where they are and what they're willing to pay attention to because everybody's too busy at work. We get too many emails, we get too many, you know, too much. I don't know anyone who thinks they don't have enough volume at work. And so, you know, there's a lot of distractions for employees. And so really making sure that you're using the power of you as a leader to really rinse and repeat what's most important to the organization and what they really need to hear and what, more importantly, you need to hear from them. And sometimes I feel like I'm on so many different devices to answer teams on the phone, something on the computer or something else. It's it's a lot coming at you. And I am I really appreciate just all your comments. I, I have I wrote down a few notes, but I just I'm going to repeat a couple that I thought there's so much good there. But, you know, giving before you get I think that is really powerful taking the questions sometimes we're afraid. But to the transparency you talked about and I'm be the change that you want to see. I think such a powerful and communications is a journey. I love that. It really is. I love that. Well, this has been fabulous. Again, so good to talk to you. So many good insights and nuggets to unpack here. But thank you, Michelle, for taking the time. I know it's 530, I think in Eastern Time, so we really appreciate your time today and your insights. Well, no problem. I appreciate being asked and keep up the good work representing your members and get involved with your local chamber, the U.S. Chamber. We'd love to have more people to hear from. Thank you. Rise and Stride is produced by the California Society of Certified Public Accountants to learn more. visit cal CPA dot org.