Karen Hansen: 00:23
Hello everyone, and welcome to today’s webinar. We’ll get started with do you hear me now saying what you mean and meaning what you say? Authentic communication for professional and personal well-being. In about one minute while you’re waiting, be sure to register for upcoming webinars at ada.org. Tomorrow, June 12th, join Sakana for food, the biggest influencer of Sakana Deep Dive, which is rebroadcast of part two of their quarterly series exploring how ideas six guiding trends are manifesting themselves in retail and beyond.
Next week we’re back with a whole new set of live webinars on Tuesday, June 18th. Join us for the Love of Mustard, a virtual tour of the National Mustard Museum. Nestled in the heart of Middleton, Wisconsin, the Mustard Museum’s collection has grown to house over 6000 jars from across all 50 states and more than 70 countries since its founding in 1992. Join Barry Levinson, museum curator, for a virtual tour of this one of a kind Wisconsin attraction on Wednesday, June 19th. Join the IDDBA education team for a recap of what’s in store live at Ida 2024, in Houston for an insider review of highlights, insights, and key takeaways, don’t miss this opportunity to catch up on what happened at what’s in store.
Live and learn how your company can get involved and what’s in store. Live. Ida 2025 New Orleans on Thursday, June 20th, join Joanna Parker, Principal of Fresh Foods at Sakana and Jack Entz, Education Coordinator at Ida, for an insightful discussion of the latest dairy, deli and bakery trends. We look forward to you joining us at an upcoming Webinar Series event. You can find out more information and register on the IDDBA app or at our website.
Deli associates, Cheesemongers and enthusiasts. Get your study caps on. Registration is open for the second in-person Charcuterie Professional certification exam this year. The first was at the Ida Show in Houston, Texas, and the second will take place at the American Cheese Society Conference in Buffalo, New York on July 10th. Exciting news.
The Ida is teaming up once again with the University of Wisconsin School of Business for the 2024 Leadership Program. This program is tailored for mid-level leaders. Join us September 17th through 19th. You can register now at Iddba.Org under the Personal Resources tab.
Select Leadership Certificate program. Reach out to education at for more information. This webinar was pre-recorded, so we’ll go ahead and get started with that now. Thank you again for joining us. Welcome everyone.
My name is Karen Hansen, education assistant at IDDBA. Thank you for joining us for today’s webinar. Do you hear me now saying what you mean and meaning what you say? Authentic communication for professional and personal well-being. A couple of reminders before we get started.
This is a recording, so the Q&A will not be live, but you are welcome to contact our speaker after if you have any questions. And the recording of this webinar will be available to members to view on ada.org. Now I’d like to introduce today’s presenter, Odette D’Aniello. With over 25 years of experience in the specialty food industry, she’s the founder and CEO of Celebrity Gourmet Ventures, incorporated under the brand Celebrity Cake Studio and Dragonfly Cakes. It’s a company that makes delicious, beautifully designed desserts for various occasions and markets.
She’s also the host of Celebrity Gourmet Podcasts, a show that features inspiring stories and insights from successful entrepreneurs and leaders in the bakery and specialty food industry. Odette, thank you for joining us today.
Odette D’Aniello: 04:04
I’m having technical issues with the arrows. Hi, everybody. Can you hear me?
Karen Hansen: 04:12
I can, yes.
Odette D’Aniello: 04:13
Go ahead. Okay. Thank you everybody, for being here. This is a recording. So for our June webinar we have Authentic Communication, which is the direct follow up of our last webinar which is around boundaries.
So the title is do you hear me now saying what you mean and meaning what you say. Authentic communication for professional and personal well-being. To begin, I wanted to introduce myself. For those of you who are new, my name is Odette D’Aniello. I am the CEO and the founder of Celebrity Gourmet Ventures.
I run a business with my family. My sister Marianne is my partner and has been my partner for 25 years. And there’s my husband and my two adult children along with our cousin Wallace. So we have been in this business for, like I said, all our lives. But, you know, for Celebrity Gourmet has been around for 25 years.
So this webinar is really coming from somebody who’s in the trenches. We are producers and manufacturers. We also are artists and creatives, and we are here to just share our experience with you, to contribute to your well-being in the and also to contribute to the industry that has given us great experiences and a great life together. So today I wanted to talk about communication and I like this quote. It’s by William Shakespeare, to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night, the day.
Thou canst not be false to any man. Give yourself a second to think about that. So the power of authentic communication, genuine and transparent communication. It builds trust and fosters stronger connections with customers, suppliers and team members and your family and your children. And authentic communication also impacts your brand reputation and customer loyalty within the bakery and specialty food business.
I must tell you, we wouldn’t be in business for 25 years if we didn’t communicate with our with our, you know, between ourselves, our family, you know, who we also work together, our team and our customers and our vendors. We have to have good systems so we understand each other and that we have clear connections, and we’re not stepping on each other’s toes. So these are the reasons for Or the why you want to focus on authentic communication. Authentic communication. It builds trust and connection.
When you communicate, you express your true self, thoughts and feelings. This honesty fosters trust and allows deeper connections to form with others. People appreciate genuineness and are more likely to be receptive to your message. So Doctor Brene Brown, she writes a lot about this, that people are just looking for connections. And when we’re true and we’re real when we’re talking to other people, people can easily connect with us.
Because when we speak with our heart, then people have access to that, right? So a lot of people may not understand your perspective and your brain, but your heart. It’s like this vibration that when you emit, you know good, positive and truthful intentions and thoughts. People really feel it and they don’t necessarily have to understand, but they feel it. Authentic communication also increases clarity and understanding.
Authentic communication involves clear and concise, concise expression. When you’re direct and you avoid ambiguity, you ensure your message is understood as intended. This reduces misunderstandings and leads to a more productive interaction. We want to be clear and concise when we’re communicating because you know what? You don’t want to waste your time, right?
You want to make sure that people just you get your point across and people get their point across. You don’t want to go around the bend and still be confused at the end. It makes for efficiencies in the way we live and the way we interact with each other. So that’s why we want to be clearly communicative. It also empowers and inspires.
When you speak your truth with confidence, you inspire others to do the same. Authentic communication allows you to share your unique perspective and ideas and potentially sparking creativity and positive change, especially in the in our bakery business and a specialty food business. You want people to be fully themselves, and when you speak truthfully and with confidence with yourself, you know between your peers and your leadership team and your vendors and your customers, people are more comfortable talking to you, and maybe they’re more comfortable being themselves and sharing their own creativity and their own perspective. And that just enhances your own life, right? Like each other’s lives.
So it’s authentic communication empowers and inspires. And that’s super important. and there are some action steps when we’re communicating. We want to we want to be able to listen first, right? To truly listen, to understand another person’s perspective.
Before formulating your response, you ask clarifying questions and pay attention to nonverbal cues. And this shows respect and creates a safe space for open communication. You don’t want to be you know, you know, there’s sometimes when we’re so excited and people are telling us something and then you’re just interjecting like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, what about my vacation? You know, they’re telling you about their awesome vacation. They’re like, well, I went there and they have never they haven’t finished what they said yet.
They actually had a point in telling you this, because maybe it’s an employee who’s telling you, I had a great vacation and you’re like, oh, I had a vacation. And their intention was to quit. And then you didn’t read the room, that they were actually uncomfortable telling you this? Well, and they just wanted to start with that. So you have to just listen first and then interject.
And then also like it’s really important to acknowledge and validate what people say. So deep listening means that you acknowledge what people are saying. You, you. These are really important ways to acknowledge somebody when they’re telling you something, you’re like, okay, what you’re saying is that you had a great vacation. And let me see if I understood you.
You had a great vacation, but now you want to quit your job because that’s all you want to do is be vacating. I mean, be on vacation, you know, it’s it you basically have you want to tell people that you have some sort of like you’re in this same pathway and roadway with them. You’re you’re walking the same path and you’re understanding them each and every way, each and every step while they’re speaking. And then you can also say, like, what you’re telling me is that you’re unhappy because you know, of this and that, you know, or, or you could say, in other words, you are. And so if you’re if you heard it wrong, then they can say, no, that’s not what I said.
But if it is, then you can validate it. You say you have the right to feel this way because, you know, yeah, I would be tired too if I was working that much, or it’s understandable that you’d be upset that, you know, so and so said this about, you know, the situation without telling you first or you say you feel unheard, you feel unheard, or, you know, kind of dismissed. No wonder why you feel this way. So this opens up a conversation around, okay, what is really the cause of this particular feeling that we need to clarify? What is the cause of, you know, this drama or this situation in the workplace or in your family?
This is really important with especially with raising kids. And this is what I learned as a mom, because now my kids are older and, you know, to acknowledge what they say. Yeah, I understand, totally understand why you didn’t do your homework. You know, because, you know, you had a game to finish and your Minecraft need, you know, city needed to be built. And I would be upset too, if I had a minecraft city that needed to be built.
And I had homework, you know, but and then I just go into other things like, you know, in the end, you know, what is your goal actually? Is it to be the best Minecraft person? I’m just giving you some parenting tips just because I thought it’s been really helpful for me as a parent to use these deep listening and communication skills with my kids too. Other than, you know, in the workplace. So it’s very applicable.
And when you’re communicating. Here’s another action step is when you want to express yourself clearly and honestly. Be mindful of your tone and your body language, and ensure your words align with your emotions and what you truly want to convey. Like I for years like we’ve been in business for so long, like 25 years. For years I did not have the self-awareness that when I am in a focused mode and I want to get things done, like I want to just reach from A to B, I can be like literally a gorilla in the bakery.
Like I could just go in and start in mid-sentence saying, da da da da da da. This needs to be done and no one understands. Like they were just going about their day, you know, having a time of their lives, you know, just relax. And then I walk in, and I just. I’m a gorilla.
You know, I’m just saying that this needs to be done, but they don’t have the context of where I’m coming from. You know, it’s like, oh, maybe the context is, is that there’s a big order that is coming in and we need to get it done yesterday, because a customer has called me and told me that they were unhappy or, you know, but we need to make sure that we are aligning our words and our emotions. Because if your your emotions and I always create are my emotions like from 1 to 10. If your emotions are, you know, from 1 to 10 and you’re, you know, the situation, like if it’s a ten and the situation maybe is a five, it’s not in alignment. You’ve overreacted.
And I can say that because I’ve been there like, you know, you maybe it’s not that dire and nobody really understands why you’re so concerned because it’s not that dire. But you are now at a ten upset and pissed, and your team is at a five of like, that’s not necessarily a problem. So a lot of miscommunication happens there when we’re not aligned in our response in the situation and the energetics of that we put into our responses. And also when our body language and our tone is condescending, which is very, very easy to miss when we’re condescending to other people, when we’re thinking that they’re lower than us or they’re dumb, or you slowly speak because you think that they don’t understand English, so you speak it louder. So, you know, be very careful about like, really how you put yourself out there.
And it really requires a lot of self-awareness that I’m I too am just learning. You know, I’m just learning too. That I have to be very self-aware of how I show up and what what the impact that what I’m saying and how I’m saying it, and the tone that I’m saying it is having on the people that’s receiving it. And here’s one thing, too when you’re communicating, avoid sarcasm and assuming people understand what what you mean to say. English is my second language, and a lot of times, you know, I’ve although I’ve spoken it since I was ten, I’m very fluent.
I also speak to other different languages. So when a lot of times when people are sarcastic, they think that it’s funny. It’s not funny because you are basically opening the door for miscommunication, you know, fiasco. People don’t necessarily understand that you’re being sarcastic to be funny. You just you just need to be clear, Like what you’re saying.
Because sarcasm is. Is a way of like, diminishing. It’s a very diminishing way to talk to somebody. So just be aware of that and also ask to affirm understanding. Just say to my understanding, is this what you said?
Like this is what I’m hearing you say. Is this truly what you mean? So that’s really important when we’re communicating, especially as a team, right. Because everybody is coming in to the bakery or to the deli or to, you know, wherever the workplace with, you know, a lot of baggage from home. And we want to make sure that we understand each other in the context that, you know, what we’re hearing comes from or what we’re saying comes from.
And when we’re communicating, we want to embrace vulnerability, right? It’s when Vulnerability according to Brene Brown. It sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness. But vulnerability means that we are putting ourselves out there and are basically opening ourselves up to be hurt or criticized or demeaned in some ways, or not validated.
But when we’re vulnerable, it also opens up the possibility of a connection, authentic connection with another person. Because when we’re sharing our authentic self, even our vulnerabilities, it can be powerful. And it also allows others to connect with us on a deeper level because it fosters empathy within our relationships. You know, once you talk to somebody about, yeah, you know what? It’s not that easy to run a business.
It’s a lot of people, you know, we, my family and I run this business. They think it’s so fun and easy and that, you know, we somehow lucked into it, but we didn’t. It was just really hard. And I like to say that it has been a big challenge and it has not been an easy road. And when you say that, people are like, yeah, you know what?
You’re right. I feel the same way too. And then from there you have a connection. So when we’re talking, we want to set clear expectations and boundaries. I know what happened to the rest.
Oh, there it is. Set clear expectations and boundaries. And what does that mean? Like when we when, you know, this is really important for me. And we did we did have this entire webinar.
So I’m not going to go over it again. So if you want to, you know listen to the boundaries webinar. It was last last month. But I run this business with my family and my husband David and I. There’s a photo of us.
This is years ago, maybe ten years ago with our old logo. It is really important that we set boundaries and our expectations because, you know, then we know how to walk and where to walk and when. Everybody understands the roles and responsibilities and what’s expected of them, there’s less room for confusion and frustration. Clear expectations eliminates the guesswork, allowing individuals to focus their energy and avoid wasted effort. So between me and my husband said this, running this business with my husband and my family has been such an interesting exercise because, gosh, we’ve had to be very clear about our roles and responsibilities.
Like for example, my, you know, my husband and I, we have a relationship. That’s our marriage. We have a relationship as business partners. We have a relationship that’s parent. We’re parents, we’re friends, we’re dance partners, we’re best friends.
We’re lovers. We are, you know, and all of those have certain boundaries around them. We don’t talk about the bakery, for example, when we’re having a marital row, right? We’re having a discussion about our own, you know, our family that’s you know, that’s not that’s it. We have clear boundaries around how we speak and when we’re speaking it and what role we’re playing at that moment.
And it has helped us a lot. We’ve been together for 32 years and it also improves accountability. Clearly defined boundaries sets the parameter for professional interactions. This fosters accountability as everyone is aware of their limitations and what they can realistically achieve. It also helps avoid micromanagement and empowers individuals to take ownership of their work.
So I my family, my sister is my partner and we have a system called EOS. It’s entrepreneur operating system that we run our business with. I am the visionary, so I basically am the, you know, overarching person that looks at the overall scope and strategy of the business. And my sister is the integrator, so she’s the one that does the day to day work. So we have defined boundaries and what we do and where we are.
So I am not going to go into the bakery and just like tell everybody what to do, right? Because that’s my sister’s responsibility. It we’re accountable for what? For our roles. And we’re very clear about that.
So we’re not stepping on each other’s foot. My sister and I have been in business together for 25 years, so obviously we communicate really well together and we don’t necessarily we try to avoid, you know, stepping on each other’s foot. And we are very clear about what’s going to go, you know, who does what, who’s accountable for whom. And that is all on a, you know, either a thread of our text or an email chain. And we need to, you know, we’re constantly working on it.
And it’s not just a one time deal. We’re constantly working it on it every day. So if you want to get into business or into work, relationship with family and friends, you know your family. It it can work. I, I can attest to that.
And also open and vulnerable communication enhances collaboration. When expectations and boundaries are transparent, teamwork becomes smoother. Individuals can collaborate more effectively by understanding each other’s strengths and limitations, and fosters a more respectful and supportive work environment, leading to better problem solving and innovation. This picture is a bit old, so this is our team at that point at that time doing a Thanksgiving dinner. And we still offer Thanksgiving dinner years, you know, even now.
So I just couldn’t find a photo of a recent team, but this was many, many years ago. So we we have a system for making sure we are understanding who and what are the roles are of everyone in the team. And you know what? If they belong in the team, they stay. And you know, we want to make sure that everybody who wants to be in the team stays and who don’t, who doesn’t needs to go to their next best opportunity.
So we’re very open to that and open communication. We you know, we have open communication through a system through called EOS, like I said. And we have regular discussions with our, you know, with ourselves, our leadership team and our managers. And it clearly defined expectations. And we have project deadlines.
And we want to make sure that everybody has and understands our communication style. It encourages open dialogue to address any concerns or questions promptly. A lot of times it’s sometimes can be very, very charged. And you know what? I think, just in my opinion, if your team is too nice and you don’t have conflicts, it’s not that functional because ultimately we thrive in being clear and we’re not necessarily going to be aligned.
So it’s important to have conflict and it’s important to have disagreements. And you can’t have a disagreement if you don’t have open communication. And it’s okay to say, look, I don’t think that’s right. And, you know, we get called out all the time by, you know, our each other, by our team to say, look, that’s not that’s not good. Just it’s because it’s, it’s a fact check of your own perspective.
And it’s really important. We have monthly actually. We have weekly leadership meetings. We have managers meetings and then we have department meetings. And all of that is also supported by end of day notes.
And we have a WhatsApp, and we have all kinds of ways to talk to each other so that we understand what is going on in the workplace and within our individual circles, right? Be it our family, be it our, our, our team, because we have different teams and our departments and also the organization as a whole. And you want to reinforce communications by putting expectations in writing. This could be project plans, contract job descriptions, or even a simple email follow up summarizing key points. Documentation serves as a reference point and reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings later.
So then you know, every time we have an event, every single time we have, you know, initiative, we have like, okay, this is our plan, this is how it worked or did not work, and why and how we can improve later. We have very clear contracts with our customers. We tell them, look, this, this is a custom job. It’s non-refundable. We want to make sure you know our partners, our distributors, our brokers understand what we do and what our capacities are when it comes to production, because we have a retail and wholesale business.
We want to make sure that people know where we’re going and how we make decisions, so that they’re not surprised or disappointed that we can or can’t or can’t do things. But when you know, the most important thing is that when we do say we’re going to do something, we actually do it to the best of our ability. And other than that, we say no. And a lot of times we say no. And we also maintain respectful boundaries when, you know, when we’re.
And to be mindful, we were mindful of our own and another’s time and workload. We respect deadlines and communication channels. You know, we’re not you know, we have buoyed at all costs. Texting late because people are on their breaks or not breaks, but on their appointments or their vacations. Right.
So we don’t necessarily cross boundaries like that. And when we if we anticipate exceeding your capacity or need adjustments to deadlines, communicate proactively and avoid causing delays for others. We wouldn’t be in business for this long if we were lackadaisical about, you know, meeting deadlines or doing what we say we’re going to do. We’re very, very particular about that. And we, you know, we project out like, okay, we can or can’t do this.
We make sure customers know if things are in progress and if they, you know, if we’re on the right track or not. We’re super particular about that, and we’re also super particular about each other’s time and workload, so that when we’re doing something, you’re not doing it half, you know, half willingly or half the effort. Because when you’re doing it, half the effort, you know, if you have the time to do it half assed, then you have the time to redo it. I like that. So anyway.
But that is that is basically what we, you know, as a, as an organization, just do it right the first time. And because if you don’t do it right, you’re gonna have to redo it again anyway. And that’s how we deal with customers too. And let’s see what’s next here. And the last and I always, you know, really important is to focus on self-care.
When you’re expressing oneself authentically, it’s vital to maintain personal well-being and fulfillment both within and outside the professional realm. You want to prioritize self-care because when we’re not feeling good, then we’re less patient and we’re more reactive to situations than people around us. I, for one, can attest to that. So it’s important to to make sure that you are bodily, mentally, mentally and physically well cared for before you can expect yourself to be at your best with others. You know, prioritize rest and relaxation.
Practice mindfulness or meditation. Maintain healthy boundaries with people. Say no when you can’t do something. You know, be clear about what you’re you know you’re available to do or not. Don’t say yes when you don’t mean it.
Just really take care of yourself. Nourish your body and your mind. Make sure that you know you’re not Overtaxing yourself and then expecting you know that you can be really a good boss or a good, you know, team member when you’re just plain old tired. You know, take care and you know, love yourself and rest. And also surround yourself with supportive relationships.
People who care about you, people who believe in you and, you know, be conscious about those toxic environments. You know, of people who constantly make you feel a little bit shaved down or a little bit diminished and be be very, very conscious of that and limit the exposure to them, because you know what? The more we expose ourselves to people who are positive and who believe in us, the more we believe in ourselves, and the more you know we can believe in other people. And it is this, you know, virtuous cycle of, you know, support and, and authentic, connections with other people. And that just, you know, makes life a little bit more joyful when we live it that way.
And so here’s some action steps. For authentic communication, you know, conduct your self assessment of your current communication style and identify areas of improvement. This is really important. Self-awareness is important but so is self-correction. So being aware of how you are and how you show up is great.
But if you don’t self-correct what’s the point. So self-correct. And you know it’s it’s it’s requires humility. But self-correction is also a very important practice. Active listening techniques during, you know, customer interactions and team meetings and also family meetings and your, you know, with your contacts, with your family, with your husband and children and focus on understanding others perspectives without judgment.
And really, you know, practice that deep listening of of affirming and validating, acknowledging and validating, you know, what you hear and develop a communication protocol for your bakery or specialty food business. Outline clear expectations for internal and external communications, be it you know, your weekly, monthly, quarterly meetings, maybe at end of day notes, be it, you know, WhatsApp, chat with your team, make sure that you have this protocol so people understand what’s going on within your organization and also with your customers. You know, we have a lot of communication with our customers so that they have a way to give us feedback on what we do right or what we do wrong, and then implement regular feedback sessions with your team members to encourage open dialogue and constructive criticism. You know, my sister’s really good at this because she runs the bakery. I don’t necessarily this is not my department in our organization, but my sister has been is really good at, you know, having good feedback sessions with our team members so that we understand what’s going on.
And then I go back in and talk to our leadership team and the managers when I’m when I’m at the bakery so that I can understand what is going on in the plant. And also, this is super duper important. Dedicate time each day for self reflection and mindfulness practices, such as meditation and journaling, to nurture your personal well-being and enhance your communication skills. This I spend, you know, 95% of my time on because as a leader, the only thing that is going to be the most impactful thing is to work on yourself. And you can go work externally and, you know, to work with your team.
But if you’re a mess inside, it just shows up on the outside. So it’s really important the self-reflection and self-care and mindfulness practices, and having the self-awareness and nurturing yourself. You know, becomes a priority because when you do that, then the way you show up in the world is clearer and much more joyful and also enhances your interactions and your connections and your communication skills. So with that, I always end my webinars with this choice. To live in joy is the choice to love yourself.
Thank you. And my name again is Odette Dinello. To have you to get copies of this deck. You can email me at Odette at Celebrity gourmet.com or connect with me on LinkedIn. Odette Dinello.
Or you can listen to my podcast under Celebrity Gourmet Comm. It is on YouTube, Spotify and all the podcast platforms. Thanks so much for listening and thank you.
Karen Hansen: 35:57
Thank you Odette. We’ve got some questions here to ask. What are some ways to enhance communication with your team members?
Odette D’Aniello: 36:06
I like to do it in the break room. So hang around in the break room and just talking to the team. I also we also have a lot of team bonding, you know, things like. Yes, two nights ago we were at a baseball game together. And you know, casual interactions just help with, you know, casual communication with the team.
But then we have formal communications where we have end of day notes. We have department management, management and leadership team meetings that that happen on a regular cadence. And then we just follow up and follow through from there.
Karen Hansen: 36:47
Okay. And see what else we have here. How is communication different with a family business versus a non-family business.
Odette D’Aniello: 36:59
So I think the non-family business might be a little bit easier in some ways. And that, you know, there’s no baggage in the background of, you know, I was your big sister. I was a little sister. This is what you did to me when I was in second grade. You know, which can happen.
You know, I’m this is speaking from experience. My sister and I are ten years apart, so we have to have a bit of layered communication so that we’re like, okay, I’m talking to you as your partner here, not your as your big sister or like as your little sister because, you know, my my sister and I are very close and we maintain our close relationship by just having, you know, we’re talking business here. We’re not talking about anything else. So we’re we’re you know, we’re very clear about what how the business I mean, how this, this conversation starts. And then with my husband and me, the same thing.
We’re you know, we’re very it has taken years, but we’re so clear at the onset of what this, you know, conversation is about and where it’s heading and what the goal is, and then we can go from there. So if the goal is to get this thing resolved with the business, well, that’s the that’s the communication that we’re doing. And maybe my tone maybe a little bit more businesslike because I talk, you know, I talk very differently as a CEO of a business than as a mom or as a wife, because I’m a way 100% sillier in my non-business life than in the in my as my role as CEO, especially since, you know, sometimes my humor might be misunderstood. So then, you know, I, I’m very clear about, you know, what what role I’m playing at that moment. And same with my children.
They work for me. And actually they’re not they don’t work under me specifically, except my daughter might, you know, in small in some. She will be coming in and working for me or with me. We say with but we are very clear about look, I’m your mom and I’m your boss, so. But this is business and that has been very helpful.
And I don’t think you need to do that. You know, when it’s a it’s non-family, you don’t have to say, you know, you could just say, look, I’m your boss, but I’m also your friend, but I’m speaking to you as your boss or I’m speaking to you as a friend. So just clear to know what role you’re speaking from. And also speak with heart. That’s really super important.
Karen Hansen: 39:32
Thank you. Can you give an example of when there was a communication breakdown with someone in your team and how you fixed it?
Odette D’Aniello: 39:40
Yeah. So there’s a lot of some, especially when what things are allowed or not allowed, we always have like I, you know, had a team member. She was, you know, who had a baby and I was babysitting and I would bring the baby up to my office. Her baby was the cutest little one. And I would, since I’m just in my office doing paperwork, I would have her baby in in the crib in my office.
It’s separate from the plant, so it’s not like there was no, there was no. The baby is not inside a dangerous place because my my office is upstairs. But then. This was the expectation that I would do that all the time. But then, you know, at some point there were no children allowed.
We had to we had to declare that no children were allowed in any part of the plant because of third party audits. And that had to that expectation had to be corrected. And, you know, it had to be a very heartfelt conversation. Look, I can’t do that anymore. And, you know, you’ll have to find childcare elsewhere.
Although I really enjoyed it. I know that’s a that’s kind of a this is what happens when you have a family business, right. So that’s you know, it was a bit disappointing for, you know, for all of us involved. But what we do is we remediate and we when we’re we’ve misunderstood our expectations are not met. We have one on one conversations and say, this is my expectation.
And or I know that this was the expectation I led you to believe or that it was going to be consistent. But things have changed and this is what’s happening. So that is important. And also when people are, you know, the organization itself changes like we had managers and departments before. And then we decided we’re going to come into a different model of management.
So everybody had to, you know, be alerted. Like, look, you’re you’re no longer have this particular role. It’s now, you know, rolling up or down and, you know, people just need to understand that things change. And sometimes we miss, you know, we’re not maybe not communicative enough, but if we have a way to self-correct and be self-aware, then communication comes back in line. It really is about self-awareness, not just as an individual, but also as an organization.
Self-awareness and self-correction is super duper important when you know you want to come back in line into full understanding and you know, full connection with each other as people and also as a team and an organization.
Karen Hansen: 42:31
Okay. And how is that different than can you give an example where you’ve had this communication problem with a customer and have repaired that miscommunication?
Odette D’Aniello: 42:40
Oh, 10 million times? There’s so many, especially since, you know, we do a lot of custom work. And, you know, some customers think that, you know. Oh, I don’t even know where to start. There’s just so many, so many ways that you can misunderstand, you know, a particular color, for example.
You know, pink is not just pink. There’s Pepto-Bismol pink, there’s baby pink. There’s all kinds of pink. And, you know, there’s there are so many ways to misunderstand a particular design or a particular, you know, product. And when we do that and it happens a lot, no matter how robust the system is, there’s just so many ways to misunderstand because people really believe what they believe or understand what they understand and stick to that, even if it’s in writing.
So we have very clear descriptions, and we also make sure that we repeat ourselves over and over and over again. I mean, to give an example, I don’t know where to start. Let me think. There’s just so many and I don’t want to have a particular situation because it would be familiar to the people involved. But like I said, there’s just many different ways to misunderstand, you know, intentions, like, but we have a clear way of self-correcting and having self-awareness of how you’ve communicated and your role in the miscommunication, then you can correct it and hopefully to the to the satisfaction of the people involved.
Karen Hansen: 44:35
All right.
Odette D’Aniello: 44:35
I hope I answered your question, unless you want me to give you, like specific examples.
Karen Hansen: 44:41
If you have specific examples that you’re comfortable giving, that would be great, but if you want to preserve that for your clients, that’s okay too.
Odette D’Aniello: 44:51
Oh yeah, I think I want to preserve that.
Karen Hansen: 44:55
All right.
Odette D’Aniello: 44:55
Sounds good. Go on and on. And it’s it can it’s some of them are just hilarious. But I don’t necessarily want to say just because it’s it will be familiar to the people involved.
Karen Hansen: 45:10
Fair enough, fair enough. Well, I don’t have any other questions for you at this time. So go ahead and wrap up on behalf of the IDDBA, I’d like to thank Odette D’Aniello for today’s insightful and informative session. If you’re interested in presenting or sponsoring an Ida webinar, please contact us at webinars at or visit our webinars page at. Under the Trends Center tab.
Thanks everyone for attending and for your continued support of the IDDBA. Have a great rest of your day.
Elizabeth Yerecic: 45:52
As a company. Your label has found great value in being a member of IDDBA, not only with the show, but with the opportunity to contribute in committees. It provides great connection with a lot of these other companies, and opportunity to be able to not only showcase our product, but talk about some of their challenges and how we can help them achieve success in their areas.
Outro: 46:25
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