Welcome back to the Look and Sound of Leadership, an ongoing series of executive

coaching tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you want

to be perceived. I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today

we're talking about facilitating open dialogue. Soraya leads a team of programmers who work at client sites for weeks at a time.

When her Vice President asked for feedback from the clients, Soraya only had a few anecdotes.

He wanted hard data.

Soraya and her team decided to create focus groups.

The goal would be to bring the clients together and get them to talk openly about their experiences.

When all the major clients agreed to attend the focus group... to talk openly about their experiences.

When all the major clients agreed to attend the focus groups, she was delighted.

Then her heart sank.

She realized no one on her team, including herself,

had a clue how to get people to talk openly

with other people present,

especially if there might be some negative feedback.

Clint's situation was similar but with a twist. back. Over the course of several months, many of them had come to him privately to express displeasure with this process or that procedure.

In an attempt to build the team support for each other, Clint created a meeting dedicated

to shared problem solving.

He set out ground rules and made it clear he wasn't interested in blame or fault finding.

He just wanted the team to work together to make things better.

The result?

People sat through the meetings squirming in their seats and avoiding eye contact. No matter what he tried, all those problems that he

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