Building Consensus

Building Consensus is one of the areas that a leader must do each and every day. The question to think about is how do you do this effectively if you are meeting with so many personalities each and every day? Well this is what becomes very tricky and you have to be able to make people think critically and come to the conclusions you are looking for on their own. If someone owns the idea regardless if you pushed them in the direction they will have 100% buy in in the direction the business is going. I would call this Imagination Penetration because you are penetrating peoples mind to think the way you think. This is an outstanding approach if you are going to be delivering a tough message or a new innovative idea. The main reason this is effective is most people would rather hear ideas from their peers rather than their boss. If they hear ideas from their peers they will likely adopt the idea quickly as they feel the person is trying to do something that will directly impact their role in a positive manor. Although this is tough in some regards it can help make a business operate very successfully to an extent.

This approach should only be used in the initial forms of leadership development and tough decision making as if it continues the team is really beginning to experience group think. This will then lead to lack of new ideas a culture that is wrapped up in current process and not willing to change. If a company is not willing to change they will likely fail in the upcoming years.

In order to build consensus effectively make sure you are engaged in conversation with the key players before the meeting or presentation. Make sure they are on your side and you have buy in before the meeting even takes place. From a political standpoint this will cause less distractions and the flow of the meeting will be very effective. Make sure to always conclude the presentation on a positive note and lead people to the vision ahead.