The Look & Sound of Leadership

Building Consensus – Savvy or Sin?


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A leader, surrounded by people she knows and trusts, can’t seem to get traction with them. In conversation with her coach, she discovers an unexpected cause.

Tools for teams abound in this episode. 


The four tools Tom suggests as first steps for helping your team openly discuss ideas are:

  • Say ‘thank you’ when people offer an idea;
  • Be curious; don’t dismiss ideas or people;
  • Don’t take differences personally; it’s not about you;
  • Develop your comfort with disagreement.


The Gradients of Agreement tool supports the ideas in this episode. Download it for free from our Essential Tools bin along with other communication tools like Sorting & Labeling.

Additional tools for team growth mentioned in this episode are the classic Crucial Conversations and Tom’s conversation on The cATalyzing Podcast.


This episode is in our podcast library in three categories:

Communication Skills

Leading Teams

Management Skills

Specific episodes that will help you develop your team are:

Facilitating Open Dialogue

How Teams Fight

Leadership Behavior in Meetings

Power Tools for Teams: Plus/Delta

Questions as Leadership

Taming Meetings 

Our monthly Essential News email provides links to even more resources. You can sign up here.


To those of you who post reviews, thank you so much for supporting the show.


Let us know how we can support you.


Until next month, from Tom and everyone at The Look & Sound of Leadership, be well! And thanks!

#podcast #TeamDecisionMaking #Teamwork #Leadership #ConsensusBuilding    #EffectiveTeams  #TeamCommunication #TeamLeadership   

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The Look & Sound of LeadershipBy Essential Communications - Tom Henschel

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