How Self-Awareness Shapes the Way You Communicate and Lead, with Michael DeLisser | #546

Are your communication habits secretly sabotaging your leadership potential and personal relationships?

In today's fast-paced, distraction-filled world, mastering communication isn't just a nice-to-have — it's essential for thriving at work and home. If you’ve ever felt misunderstood, emotionally reactive, or disconnected despite professional success, this episode reveals how self-awareness is the linchpin to improving how you connect, lead, and relate.

• Discover the three key areas of self-awareness that can radically transform your communication and deepen trust in any relationship.
• Learn the most common bad habits that hurt your communication, and what to do instead for connection and credibility.
• Hear practical tools and real-life strategies for staying emotionally grounded and present in even the most stressful conversations.

Tune in now to learn how developing communication mastery through self-awareness can elevate every area of your life and leadership.

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KEY POINTS AND TIMESTAMPS:

02:19 - Practical Communication Improvement Strategies

04:13 - Understanding Self-Awareness in Communication

08:58 - Communication Habits that Help and Hinder

14:43 - Managing Emotional Triggers and Maintaining Self-Awareness

19:11 - Personal Background: Influence of Father's Coaching Work

24:01 - Reconnecting with Purpose and Fulfillment through Communication

27:32 - Book and Resources Introduction

29:33 - Personal Development Philosophy

35:44 - Closing Insights

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MEMORABLE QUOTE:

"Seek out diverse perspectives and stay open to feedback that challenges your assumptions."

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VALUABLE RESOURCES:

Michael's website: https://www.delisserconsulting.com/

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Coaching with Agi: https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/mentor

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🎙️ Want to be a guest on the podcast?

Message Agi on PodMatch: https://www.podmatch.com/member/personaldevelopmentmastery

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Personal development interviews exploring key principles of personal development, self improvement, self mastery, personal growth, self-discipline, and personal improvement — all supporting a life of purpose and fulfilment.

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Transcript

Agi Keramidas: 0:00

The hidden link between self awareness and effective communication. Discover how self awareness shapes the way you communicate and lead welcome to Personal Development mastery. The podcast for intelligent, busy professionals who have achieved success but feel something is missing and are seeking clarity, purpose and fulfilment. Each episode helps you grow by inspiring aligned action through practical insights you can actually use. I am your host, Agi Keramidas, join us every Monday for an insightful conversation with a guest, and each Thursday for a shorter episode where I reflect and share with you. This is episode 546, if you are looking to improve your communication and strengthen your self awareness, the following conversation explores how small conscious changes can elevate every area of your life, personal relationships, professional success and leadership. Before we start, if you resonate with the topics we discuss on the podcast and you are navigating a transition, or perhaps feeling called to a next chapter that is more purposeful and intentional. I offer one to one coaching and mentoring to help you get clear, reconnect with what truly matters and move ahead with confidence to explore what that could look like for you. Visit personal development mastery podcast.com/mentor, or just tap the link in the show notes. Now let's get started. My guest today is Michael de Lisa. Michael You are a leadership coach, author, speaker and communication expert, you are passionate about helping leaders worldwide accelerate their success by building self awareness, unlearning poor habits and mastering communication in the age of AI, Michael is a pleasure to have you to the show.

Michael DeLisser: 2:19

Welcome. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm

Agi Keramidas: 2:23

looking forward to exploring with you, mastering our communication and also enhance our self awareness and the connection between these two. What I would like to start I'm going to start straight dive in, and I will ask you for a busy, professional listening right now, what's one practical change they can implement today that can instantly change their communication make it more effective?

Michael DeLisser: 2:58

Yeah, and I'm glad you opened by talking about the connection between self awareness and communication skills, because the number one thing that will allow you to improve your communication skills is developing very high self awareness and that that happens when you get feedback from others, when you start to take the time to reflect on communication and see what went well and where you could have done differently. So but the number one thing when I'm teaching communication is I always start with self awareness. And as you mentioned in the introduction, part of what I do with a lot of people is helping them unlearn ineffective communication habits and and they have to be self aware to make that happen. And once you make people self aware, they actually can make really good progress on improving or eliminating those habits that are holding them back, either in their personal relationships or at work. So the most important thing overall they can do is really start to ask questions, get feedback from people. The book I just released has a number of self assessments in it, but if you could do anything to increase your self awareness, then you can target the one or two things that will have the biggest overall positive impact on your success at work and in your relationships at home.

Agi Keramidas: 4:13

Tell me when you say, Now, self awareness in this context, what shall because for someone listening, this might be a bit abstract, self awareness, nice expression, but what does it mean, especially in this context?

Michael DeLisser: 4:31

So the areas that I usually focus on, there's three of them, one is emotional intelligence and emotional intelligence, one of the four areas of emotional intelligence is self awareness, right? And in that context, it includes, are you aware of what triggers you emotionally? What are the things that cause you to react emotionally, as opposed to rationally? In situations with others? And we've all been in situations where we maybe get angry or start to. React and end up saying things that we didn't intend to say, or comes across in a way that's ineffective. So number one would be being aware of what triggers you and and starting to develop a higher awareness of how you react in certain situations and finding ways to proactively prevent yourself from doing so. So that's one the second area of self awareness that's really key is, what are your current communication habits, and how do they help you or hurt you in your relationships and your effectiveness at work? So for example, a lot of us develop communication habits at a very young age, and it's from part of our family communication I call them culturally learned communication behaviours or habits. And for example, let's say you grew up in a large family, and there's six kids around the table, and you're all competing for attention, you know, with your parents at the dinner table, a lot of people bring that habit of interrupting others to try to get attention into the workplace, but in the workplace, it doesn't work, or they bring it into their relationships, you know, and they as adults, they end up interrupting people a lot, and if you're not aware that you're interrupting people, then you end up potentially hurting trust or hurting the relationship that whoever you're speaking with. So developing a very high awareness of any communication habits you have that are holding you back is also important. And then if you have any communications that are really effective, leveraging those using them more often, that's also a good thing. For example, if you are a really good listener, really make taking a moment to be 100% present and listening really well to the person and responding in ways to prove that you heard them. So that would be the second area. The third area, I would say, self awareness is around how your personality needs impact how you come across to others. And so I work with a number of different personality tools, but more often than not, our personalities dictate how we come across to others and where we're strong and where we're not so strong in our relationships with others. For example, if you're a very structured or results driven person, you may be very task focused, but you may not be as you may not show as much empathy towards others. Similarly, if you're very more of a people person, and you're very you know, you show empathy and you're very good in that regard, you may not be very structured or results driven, and and you may end up not getting to outcomes, because, you know, you're not as focused on the results. So there's, there's all these little elements of personality as well. But if you could be become really aware of how your personality helps your personal relationships and where it might hinder them, if you can really be good at understanding what triggers you emotionally and controlling that, and if you can manage your interpersonal habits, any communication habits, and eliminate the ones that are hurting trust, those are the three things I would think would have the biggest impact.

Agi Keramidas: 7:52

This is great and very multifaceted like that. I will focus out of you know, as as important as the first thing you mentioned about being aware of what triggers you emotionally, that's, I think that deserves a whole other conversation to go through. So I will stick with the second thing you said about the being aware of our communication habits, you said, and also, you know, the listening skills. Can you give some examples of these kinds of habits, of communication habits, perhaps an example of something that hurts our communication sure people do it, you know, without even realising, and perhaps something that improves. Or the communication, again, some people might be doing it without knowing. So, so we can have a little bit of two different ones.

Michael DeLisser: 8:58

Sure, there's, I actually have a self assessment that I use that includes the, probably the 15 most common habits that people have that hurt, trust with others and and I could, I could give you a few of the ones right off of that list, but one of them would be not being present, right? So day, you know, daydreaming, thinking of other things, multitasking, those kind of things. And look in today's world, we are being bombarded by so much information, and our phone pings at us, and we get text alerts and all these things. And when you're in a conversation with someone and you're sitting there looking at those instead of focusing on them and giving them your attention, the message you're sending to them is, you're not important enough for my full attention. And that's a really bad message, and it hurts trust. So one habit is being 100% present and and giving the other person your full attention and not allowing distractions to interfere. Another one would be reacting emotionally in case situation. Conversations asking like sometimes based on our personality, we will, we will do most of it talking in a conversation, and not give the other person enough time to speak. That's another one. So if you have an extroverted personality type, frequently, people will dominate conversations in meetings, dominate conversations at home and the other person will end up feeling like you're not interested in what they have to say. So that's another potential one that I work on with people interrupting others. Is a common one, perhaps giving too much information instead of staying focused. You know, people sometimes their minds wander. But there's, there's a whole bunch of them that I could, I could rattle off judging people mentally while they're speaking, is another one. You know, we end up hearing things and we may disagree with what they say, and because of that, we end up stopping listening and being more judgmental in our brains. So there's, there's quite a few, and what I do is I work with individuals on whichever one, I help them increase their self awareness about which one they use the most or which is having the most damage. And then I help them reduce the use of that.

Agi Keramidas: 11:10

It's great. It is indeed a matter of self awareness. So can you give us also a few of the other side of the spectrum, some of the good communication habits that, especially some that people might be doing, you know, naturally or because without, I mean, unconsciously, without paying attention to it.

Michael DeLisser: 11:38

Yeah, I can tell you. I'll give you one for me. Example. This is a lesson I learned very early in life. My my mother would not let me lie, right? I mean, she would, she would be. She would always hold me accountable for the things that I didn't, that I did, right? And so sometimes we go into workplace setting and or even at home, I did this in, you know, in high school, you know, I'd be honest if I did something wrong, I would just say, Yes, I did that. You know, I owned up to it right away. But when, when you do that, I mean, I've had people later say, I appreciate the fact you're willing to just be honest with me about that, you know. So sometimes we learn our values drive our behaviours. If your value is honesty and integrity and being straightforward with what you're saying. You will tend to do that in your conversations. Some other things. Sometimes we naturally have learned the art of listening from our family members, you know, so giving someone their full attention, making them feel valued. Sometimes, those are things we learn early in life as well, and we don't even realise we're doing it. We're just being a good listener. And someone will say, Hey, you're a great listener, and you don't even know why, because you just you had good role models that influenced you and in developing those listening skills, not interrupting. You know that the opposite of the other one I mentioned even the the ability to ask good questions. You know, sometimes people inherently are just better at doing that because they're genuinely interested in what the other person is saying. And that, again, could be a habit learned early in life.

Agi Keramidas: 13:13

Thank you. That's it's I personally find it always fascinating when I hear about, you know, things like this that can improve or hurt the communication, and often people do them without realising. And actually, let's, let's stick to the we've mentioned, self awareness so many times already. And as you know, Michael, it's another thing. It's one thing to talk about how nice it is to be self aware, and it's another thing in the, let's say, the heat of a conversation, or if there is an argument that is about to happen, or something that is stressful. You know, the situations can be either in personal or professional setting, sure, but when emotions or these kinds of intense thoughts start coming, maintaining that level of self awareness can be a bit more challenging. I will say it like that. So can you offer some practical advice that one can heighten their self awareness in situations that you know, there is stress, there is which is actually when you need this self awareness the most,

Michael DeLisser: 14:43

yes, yes. And what's interesting is, you know, to be able to catch yourself in the moment, you have to develop that self awareness. It's kind of a prerequisite. You have to know what triggers you, or you have to know what changes are occurring in your body at that moment. Uh, you know, do you feel your blood pressure going up? Are you starting to, you know, when you when you feel those moments? Can you catch yourself and be aware that that's happening at that exact moment? I mean, that's the biggest thing. So knowing what triggers you, we talked about that earlier, but a lot of times, the people that you spend the most time with can tell you exactly what triggers you, or they can tell you they can tell when you're starting to get emotional, because they've been around you enough. Around you enough to see it. So having some trusting relationships people you really know will give you honest feedback and helping them, inviting them to give you the feedback when it's happening, at the moment it's happening, or even advance. Say, Hey, in these situations, this is when I see you becoming reactive. Then, of course, once you've gotten good at knowing or detecting when it's going to happen or catching yourself in the moment, you have to have an alternative behaviour to replace it with right? And that's the big challenges. Is, once you know what the issue is or what triggers you, how do you get yourself to calm down again? There's, there's many techniques for doing this. You know, the one that I like to use. I call it, don't take the bait. And I literally, I think of, I think of a fish looking at a fish hook with with bait on it, you know. And I am the fish, right? And so I have to when, as I look at this, I have to recognise something in this conversation is baiting me. It's making me want to bite on that hook, and if you bite on it, you get reeled into a very big argument, you know, or you get into a big you know. So my if I can feel myself getting triggered, the first thing I say to myself is, Don't take the bait. Don't get pulled into an argument. Another thing that I might do in that situation is I might stop and say, You know what, I'm starting to feel a little emotional right now, and I don't want to say or do anything that is going to hurt our relationship or our outcomes, so I'm going to take a moment and step away. Some people will just take a moment to breathe. But you you have to understand yourself well enough to know what technique is going to work for you in those exact situations. And look, if you don't handle the situation Great. One of the best things you could do is go back to the person after you've had time to calm down and think about it and say, Hey, I really am not proud of the way I behaved a little bit earlier. I allowed myself to get emotional, and I'd like to pick up that conversation again, because it's important for me to have a good relationship with you, and I feel like that. Last conversation didn't help with that. So would you mind talking about it now that I'm not feeling as emotional? So there's a number of different ways to do that, but but the key is knowing and knowing how your body reacts, and being able to react in that moment to catch yourself having an emotional reaction, and then you can choose the different techniques that work the best for you,

Agi Keramidas: 17:42

this is very useful. And you know, you mentioned some practical things, like the breathing I liked very much, the approach that you had to directly explain to the other person that look right now because of this, or I'm getting emotional, or whatever other else, real reason there is there I'd rather not have this right now. I think this explanation and this honesty really builds the, you know, avoiding an escalation or something, or at least taking it or postpone it, perhaps, yeah, because you're still going to have the conversation at some point. But I liked very much.

Michael DeLisser: 18:34

Yes, I was just gonna add one other thought, one other thing you could do if you are going into a conversation and you happen to know that there's a chance it could become emotional, or there's a chance the other person might not react well, doing some visualisations in your own brain about how this conversation might go and what you might do if you feel triggered, or what might trigger the other person you know, mentally preparing yourself And visualising a good outcome and visualising yourself staying calm. That's a proactive way of preparing for those kind of conversations. If you happen to know that there's a chance it could become emotional.

Agi Keramidas: 19:11

Thank you for that. That's it's always great to add that in a toolbox of communication, especially before a conversation, that it is useful to practice it, and now that you said it, it serves, also personally for me, as a good reminder. So thank you also for that. I want to go, Michael back for a little bit. I will digress for a bit, and we'll come back and to the communication. But there was, you know, from when I was reading your story, I got fascinated by the fact that, you know, when you were a teenager, I. You sat with your father, who was a coach, and he was coaching fortune, 100 executives that you know were had communication problems and they were laid off, or something like that. So I wanted to hear a bit about because after all this time, this A and this event, or this series of events, influenced you into your work and your, you know, passion and mission. So I wanted to hear a bit about how it shaped you at that time, yeah, and then we'll come back to what we were saying,

Michael DeLisser: 20:38

No. And you know, the experience of watching my father coach fired executives really changed my life. I mean, it gave me purpose. It helped me understand the importance of strong communication skills. Because nearly every one of these executives he was coaching, they did not get fired based on their technical skills. They got fired based on their lack of communication skills or communication mistakes, and I'll give you an example of how this happens to all of us. You know, when you think about it, in jobs, people get promoted based on their technical skills, but the higher you go in an organisation, the more important it becomes to have community strong communication skills. So what was happening is these individuals were getting promotions, and they were moving up the ladder without getting adequate communication skills training, and because of that, that's what ended up holding them back in their careers, is their lack of effective communication. And so for me to see these very high level executives struggling with basic communication skills that I took for granted because my dad taught them in our house, you know, it made me realise that that, you know, many times companies inadvertently set up people for for failure by not giving them that kind of training and and then I even realised that all of the things that these, these executives are working on are just as relevant in our personal lives. You know, they that, you know, when they're constantly interrupting or they're saying things that are making other people angry, or whatever it might be doing at work, the bad habit that got them fired, these are the same things that hurt our personal relationships. So I started to realise that if I can really help people improve their communication, I can improve their lives at home, I can help them improve their relationships with their spouses and their kids and their families and I can also help them be better leaders in the workplace. So I started to realise that this is a incredibly powerful thing and and with the age of AI coming and technical skills being replaced by more and more artificial intelligence, it becomes even more important, because the things that will make people stand out is their human and people skills, because they need to get things done through others and and technical skills are going to become less and less critical as you get higher in an organisation. So everything about that experience and watching it just made me realise there's a strong need in this world for to help people communicate more effectively, both at work and at home,

Agi Keramidas: 23:01

absolutely 100% Thank you, Michael, let me ask you. I'm going to come back to the communication, but I want to ask something specific, or rather, for a specific kind of person that is probably listening right now, and the person I'm talking about is someone who is, you know, successful, has achieved external success in life, but finds themselves, you Know, unfulfilled or disconnected to some level. For that person, how can improving their communication skills help them, you know, perhaps reconnect with that meaning or within their work, in their fulfilment? I hope my question makes sense?

Michael DeLisser: 24:01

Yeah, no, it does make sense. And I think more often than not, people forget that how we communicate with ourselves is just as important as how we communicate with others and and the whole conversation going on in your head about not feeling fulfilled, maybe making judgments about yourself that are negative judgments, you know, sometimes those are learned behaviours, you know, those those things where we have a negative conversation, where we're criticising ourselves, but to really be able to get beyond that, it helps if you take the time to really become clear on kind of your purpose or your values and reconnecting with those things. Because when someone is is not feeling fulfilled more often than not, it's because they're not, and if it's work related, they're not doing work that allows them to feel like they're contributing and making a difference to the greater good. If it's in a personal life, it might be, you know, that they're they're lacking, you know, the closeness of relationships and things like that that that make them feel Agi. Isolated or lonely. So ultimately, the thing that I do, and I've done this a lot with people both transitioning to a new career, or people who are just graduating college, and I worked a lot with MBA students who were trying to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives, you know, they got this education, but they don't know what to do it. And I focus them very clearly on what are the things that you feel most passionate about, you know, and and it doesn't necessarily have to be just work related things. It could be things in a personal line. And then what are the things you're best at? And then you if you could find a career that allows you to do what you're passionate about and what you're best at, it puts you in a position to want to get up every day and go to work because you're excited, because you're making a difference in doing what you love and doing what you're good at, similarly, and just life in general. If you can find ways, if you're clear on what your values are, find ways to live those values, it could be volunteering. It could be becoming part of something bigger than you that is making a difference in the world, but but more often than not, people in their lives never stop to reflect on those things that are important to them. They don't take the time to think about what you know. What is my purpose? What are the things I love to do? What are the things that would make me feel fulfilled? And when the day is over, I will feel like I did something worthwhile today, and I felt like I made a difference, and I could feel good about myself. People don't take the time to do that, and when you do, take the time to do that, and then intentionally, daily, try to find ways to do that. Even if your work doesn't allow you to do it, you can find ways outside of work to contribute and make you feel like you're hitting on that purpose. So overall, I think that getting in touch with your values and living them will do more to help you and taking the time to figure out what your values are if you haven't already done that, that'll do more to help you be able to focus your energy in ways that allow you to feel better about yourself and your direction and The difference you're making.

Agi Keramidas: 27:00

That's, I believe, always a good reminder to you know, take the time to reflect and understand our values and what's important to us. Michael, you mentioned your book earlier. I wanted to ask you, where would you like to direct the listener of this conversation that has found this? What you have said very useful so far. What's the next place to go?

Michael DeLisser: 27:32

So the name of the book is leadership accelerators, and the subtitle is high impact communication skills that that strengthen results and relationships, and the book is the purpose of the book is to help people work on their self awareness and the communication skills would be most valuable for them. So I basically focus on I give them self assessments. I give them activities they can do they can immediately turn around and apply the their increased self awareness and find ways to improve their skills in the areas that are most important. So the book itself is available on Amazon. You can go to my website if you wanted to actually see the or get the link there. But my website is my last name.com, delicr.com, and if you D, E, L, i, s, s, 2s, s, e, r.com, and you could go and check out the book. The whole purpose of the book was to give people the tools to be able to help themselves. Improving communication. It's great to hone relationships. It's great at work. It is geared towards leaders. But, you know, my personal feeling is we are all leaders in our in our personal lives as well. You know, if you're leading your family, if you're in your community, there's all sorts of ways, but the communication skills that I cover, the self awareness I cover, are the same at work and at home, and they're just as valuable in most situations. Absolutely.

Agi Keramidas: 28:57

And I'm glad you mentioned the self leadership, because it is something that often, when one looks at, let's say, a book about leadership, they might miss that element of self leadership, of leadership that applies to all. Michael, I have some questions that as we start to wrap up this conversation today, I have some conversations I always ask my guest, and the first one is, what does personal development mean to you?

Michael DeLisser: 29:33

For me, it's about understanding yourself better and learning to have a good relationship with yourself in a way that allows you to to show up to others and make a difference externally, you know. So, you know, I mean the introduction you talked about me being an expert. I rarely will describe myself as an expert, because I feel like, for me, I'm constantly thriving to be better at. What I do. And expert, sounds like a destination, but it's really a journey, right? And we have to keep, keep trying. So personal development is about being clear on where you are really making a difference in leveraging that and finding a way to be better, family member, better, you know, leader at work, whatever it might be, but it's about focusing on those few things that have the biggest positive impact for you, personally and the people around you, you know, applying what the 8020 rule, that whole 20% of your time should be spent on the things that are going to have 80% of the impact. And so to me, it's about being really clear on on where you can make the biggest difference, what's holding you back, and then finding ways to over, you know, limit the minimise the weaknesses and literally leverage, learn to leverage your strengths.

Agi Keramidas: 30:55

May, May I add to that, because you said that I use the word the term expert, and you said that expert implies a destination rather than the journey which I understand what you mean. And I realised when you were saying that my podcast is personal development mastery, if I if I think of mastery as something to be achieved, self mastery, I think I'm setting up myself for failure if I see it as an end result. Because the idea of that I have in what a self mastery is, I mean as a destination. So instead, I have chosen, and I choose to see it as a process, as a journey. Yes, that I will never arrive to self mastery. What I can strive to do is to keep growing towards the ideal that I have of what self mastery is. Yeah, and that's

Michael DeLisser: 31:57

that's one of the most important things leaders forget, is you don't suddenly reach a stage where you're a great leader, because something can happen the very next day that causes you to step backwards in your greatness, you know. So it's important for us to control our egos and recognise that that every day is an opportunity to learn something new, and every day you could make a mistake that could cause you to have a setback, but do you, you know, do you learn from that setback, and do you help it? Do you take that setback and use it as a tool to help you continually improve? And if your mindset is, I'm on a journey, and I'm constantly trying to improve, and I'm trying to, you know, increase my personal mastery, or whatever it is that you may be working on, if you if you never let yourself forget that you'll constantly be learning and looking to learn in every experience you have, which is really what makes, what sets apart great, great leaders from you know, average ones is they really never stop trying to learn and get better, just as a leader and as a person.

Agi Keramidas: 32:57

Indeed, I also have a quick hypothetical question, if you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self, what's one piece of advice you would give him?

Michael DeLisser: 33:12

Probably I would have advised to let go of ego much sooner. You know, when I was early in my career, I was so sure that the training I was creating was great, you know, that I sometimes didn't hear feedback from others. And the truth of matter is, you know, when I look back at the training I did way back then, or the coaching I did, it was not nearly as good as the training I'm doing now, you know, and sometimes our egos get in the way, because we wrap up our identities and our work. And I think if I could give my 18 year old self advice, I'd say, let go of thinking your ideas are the best and go out and speak to people who think differently from you, because we all have blinders in the way we see the world. And when you talk to someone with very different backgrounds, you become more effective because you now see the world broader, and you can make better decisions and be better at what you do. Even in writing this book, I deliberately went out and found reviewers that thought very differently from me, people that are very structured and very results driven, and they really helped me. I mean that I cut back on how much was in the book. I became more structured in the way I laid it out, and that was because I allowed, I was able to suppress my ego to the point that I could go out and really want feedback from people that were going to say things that I didn't want to hear, but ultimately made the book better. So,

Agi Keramidas: 34:39

Michael, I want to thank you very much for this conversation we had today, which I believe it was very useful, both in terms of communication, which, you know, the the practical things that you shared was were many, but. So Ali also appreciated all those references to the self awareness element and that you gave throughout the conversation. I want to wish you all the very best with your mission and carrying on, you know, helping leaders communicate more effectively. I will leave it to you for parting words and perhaps something actionable for the listener of this conversation after listening to us for half an hour now, what is the message that you would like to leave them with,

Michael DeLisser: 35:44

I would just suggest that they recognise that we all have our imperfections, but ultimately, all feedback from others is good feedback, if you do something with it to help yourself improve and and one quote that I'd love to use that I think is particularly valuable for everyone to remember is we're all very different from other people, right? And so if you really want to improve your relationship with anybody, just let go of wishing they were different from who they are. And it's so critical, because we go through our lives wishing people they were more like us, or we hire people around us that are like us, but we become more effective when we surround ourselves with people who think differently from us and so, but that also creates situations where we kind of wish someone was different from who they are, because they're not like me. And so if you can let go of trying to change others and accept them from who they are, you can instantly improve their relationship, because now, instead of listening to them and wishing they were going to be different, you expect different, you expect that behaviour, and you can learn to be okay with it. And thank you for having me on. I really appreciate the opportunity. You know my my goal in life in general, is to do everything I can to help the world communicate more effectively. We live in a very negative world with a lot of negative messaging out there, and anything I can do to create a little bit more positive and create better interaction. Better interactions. That's what drives me and that's what makes me excited about what I do.

Agi Keramidas: 37:12

Thank you for listening to this conversation with Michael de Lisa. I hope it has given you a fresh perspective on how self awareness is the gateway to more effective communication and deeper connection. If this conversation inspired you or gave you something meaningful, consider supporting the show. It's like buying me a coffee in return for the value you received. Visit personal development mastery podcast.com/support dot com, slash support, or just tap the link in the until next time. Stand out don't fit in.