The Look & Sound of Leadership
by Essential Communications - Tom Henschel
Is this your podcast?Tom Henschel is the voice behind Essential Communications, known for his expertise in executive coaching and leadership development. With a focus on enhancing workplace perception, he draws upon two decades of experience to guide profession…
Insights from recent episode analysis
Audience Interest
Podcast Focus
Publishing Consistency
Platform Reach
Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
Most discussed topics
Brands & references
Total monthly reach
Estimated from 44 chart positions in 44 markets.
By chart position
- 🇬🇧GB · Management#26100K to 300K
- 🇨🇦CA · Management#38100K to 300K
- 🇺🇸US · Management#41100K to 300K
- 🇦🇺AU · Management#5730K to 100K
- 🇮🇳IN · Management#12100K to 300K
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
429K to 1.3M🎙 Weekly cadence·270 episodes·Last published 1w ago - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
857K to 2.7M🇬🇧11%🇨🇦11%🇺🇸11%+41 more - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
343K to 1.1M
Market Insights
Platform Distribution
Reach across major podcast platforms, updated hourly
Total Followers
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Total Plays
—
Total Reviews
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* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
On the show
From 11 epsHost
Recent guests
Recent episodes
Managing Emotions
Jun 4, 2026
17m 05s
Getting Your Voice Heard
May 7, 2026
19m 47s
Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office
Apr 2, 2026
25m 53s
How to Conquer Nervousness
Mar 5, 2026
23m 49s
Humility as Strength
Feb 5, 2026
25m 02s
Social Links & Contact
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Official Website
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/4/26 | Managing Emotions | A chief officer finds himself repeatedly triggered by a peer. Afraid he’s going to say or do something he’ll regret, he asks his coach for tools. Three categories of self-regulation tools: PhysicalInternalExternal A visual tool with specific tools in each category is in our Tool bin. Ready for coaching? Reach out to Tom here. There are always more resources in our monthly email. Hear Tom’s most recent conversation on the Beyond Potential podcast here. Related Libra... | 17m 05s | ||||||
| 5/7/26 | Getting Your Voice Heard✨ | leadershipcommunication+3 | — | — | — | voiceleadership+5 | — | 19m 47s | |
| 4/2/26 | Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office✨ | women in the workplacecareer advice+3 | Dr. Lois Frankel | ICF Los AngelesNice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office | — | womenleadership+3 | — | 25m 53s | |
| 3/5/26 | How to Conquer Nervousness✨ | nervousnesspublic speaking+3 | — | — | — | nervousnesspublic speaking+4 | — | 23m 49s | |
| 2/5/26 | Humility as Strength✨ | humilityleadership+3 | — | — | — | humilityleadership+5 | — | 25m 02s | |
| 1/8/26 | Leading When Ego at the Top Is Unchecked✨ | leadershipego management+3 | — | Essential Communications | — | leadershipego+3 | — | 23m 25s | |
| 12/11/25 | How to Grow Your People✨ | professional developmentleadership+3 | — | Essential Communications | — | development planThree Conversations+3 | — | 23m 19s | |
| 11/6/25 | How to Motivate and Inspire✨ | motivationinspiration+3 | — | — | — | motivationinspiration+5 | — | 20m 47s | |
| 10/2/25 | How to Guarantee Psychological Safety✨ | psychological safetyleadership+4 | — | — | — | psychological safetytoxic boss+4 | — | 22m 44s | |
| 9/11/25 | How to Supercharge Introversion✨ | introversioncoaching+4 | corporate vice president | Myers Briggs Type Indicator | — | introversioncoaching+4 | — | 23m 50s | |
Want analysis for the episodes below?Free for Pro Submit a request, we'll have your selected episodes analyzed within an hour. Free, at no cost to you, for Pro users. | |||||||||
| 8/7/25 | How to Manage Defensive People✨ | defensive behaviorleadership+3 | — | The Four Agreements | — | defensive peopleleadership tools+3 | — | 28m 24s | |
| 7/10/25 | How to Own Healthy Assertion✨ | assertionemotional intelligence+3 | — | — | — | healthy assertionemotional intelligence+5 | — | 22m 13s | |
| 6/5/25 | How to Create Engagement Online | Convinced that participants need to engage in order to learn, a leader is discouraged after the cheerless rollout of her online learning program. She turns to her coach for help facilitating virtual groups. Tools in this episode: Tone-setting at the opening: Get people engaged by using the chat to think together;Get people engaged by thinking about how they will show up (ground rules);Ask: “How engaged do you want to be?” Rank 1 – 7 in chat. (#3 came from Michael Bungay Stanier who wrote... | 20m 36s | ||||||
| 5/6/25 | How to Deepen Relationships at Work | Knowing she’s never been good with people, a leader seeks coaching to her deepen relationships in ways she can tolerate. Two ways to deepen workplace relationships: Matching & Curiosity 4 Ways to Match: Match Purpose Match Energy Match Conversations Match Vulnerability Express Curiosity by Asking Deep Questions Make sure your questions are open-endedInvite reflectionKeep the other person talking Answering questions powerfully is another way to deepen relationships... | 26m 33s | ||||||
| 4/3/25 | How to Talk so People Understand You | A leader is losing credibility with her senior leaders. Her boss thinks she can turn it around by learning the sorting tool that transformed him as a communicator, so he brings in the coach who taught him. Sorting & Labeling! The grandaddy of all communication tools. If you can sort and label you will sound like a leader. The four steps in Sorting & Labeling: Use a headlineUse a numberLabel each numberTransition with clarity See it all for yourself in our free Sorting & Label... | 23m 07s | ||||||
| 3/6/25 | How to Answer Questions Powerfully | A leader was given one goal for his coaching: improve how he answered questions. Knowing he struggled with this not only at work, but at home, he asked his coach for tools. Our free PDF shows the two scripts: one for closed-ended questions, one for open-ended. Download it here. Don’t assume you know why people ask what they ask. You don’t. Ever. The closed-ended script: Answer what’s askedMatch LengthCheck for understandingThen add your detailsNo mattress stuffing! I... | 22m 54s | ||||||
| 2/6/25 | How to Build Self-Esteem | A leader suddenly hears how harshly she speaks to herself. Wanting help, she turns to her coach who gives her tools to build a practice of self-esteem. The three self-esteem practices are: Self-Acceptance: Practice being FOR yourselfSelf-Worth & Happiness: Practice saying, “I am worthy of being happy”Live in Reality: Practice acknowledging what is and what is not. Download our free Feeling Words Grid. The Tools bin with other free resources is here. Four ways to... | 24m 04s | ||||||
| 1/9/25 | How to Build an Executive | A coaching client wonders what elements need to be present for someone to appear ‘executive.’ Two executive coaches ponder this question and come up with five elements they deem essential. Categories in the archive to explore: Developing New Behaviors Executive Presence Perception – How You’re Perceived Six episodes to dive into: 189 - Don’t Take Anything Personally 178 - Executive Presence – Three Pillars 168 - Influence 108 - Shouldering the Burden of Leadership 23 - Speed of Thought ... | 26m 12s | ||||||
| 12/5/24 | How to Answer “Tell Us About Yourself” | A senior leader, upset about having flubbed her reply to ‘Tell us about yourself’ during a high-stakes interview, talks with her coach about how to prepare for what she considers to be an incredibly stupid question. Categories in the archive to explore: Communication Skills Executive Presence Presentation Skills Six episodes to dive into: 34 - Keeping Repeated Materials Fresh 77 - The Power of Rehearsal 65 - Sorting & Labeling 180 - Becoming Expert 114 - Gravitas 124 - Personal ... | 20m 41s | ||||||
| 11/7/24 | How to Tackle Overtalking | A chief officer had known for years he was an over talker. His CEO, desperate for improvement, gave him a coach. This episode highlights their first coaching conversation. Two mindsets from this episode: When you speak, have a destination in mind. Ask yourself: “What is my point exactly?” and “Why is this something they need to know?” Pay attention to your listeners. Respond to their interests.Ask yourself: “Does what I’m talking about right now help us get to the destination?” I... | 22m 11s | ||||||
| 10/3/24 | Building Listening | A vice-president gets kudos for likability but knocks for her inability to listen. With her coach, she talks about listening repeatedly. This episode features one of those conversations. The 3 listening mindsets: Listen to learnFeelings are naturalStay separate Download the free multi-page learning tool about listening here. This episode is tagged in three categories in our podcast archive: Communication Skills Managing Yourself Relationship Building Five episodes you might... | 22m 53s | ||||||
| 9/5/24 | Mastering Anxiety | Battling perfectionism and anxiety, a leader asks her coach for help and learns a tool that helps her tame her terrors. This episode dovetails with many ideas in last month’s episode about Coaching versus Therapy. Tom talks about his own bout with anxiety and a near career-ending attack of nervousness in this episode from April. https://essentialcomm.com/podcast/mastering-nerves/ Pixar’s Inside Out 2 has a powerful depiction of a 13-year-old girl suffering a full-blown anxie... | 18m 41s | ||||||
| 8/8/24 | Coaching versus Therapy | Tired of feeling like a fraud, a leader searches for help down different paths. She and her coach talk about how coaching is, and is not, like therapy. The leader in this episode wrestles with feelings of being a fraud. Tom talks about three resources to help manage that feeling: “The Executive Impostor” Episode #176 of “The Look & Sound of Leadership” Self-Esteem at Work by Nathaniel Branden & Warren Bennis The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman Additional tools ... | 23m 19s | ||||||
| 7/11/24 | Giving Upward Feedback | A leader and her coach discuss a three-step model for turning upward feedback into a learning conversation that might allow the boss to hear the message. This month’s coaching conversation explores whether feedback should be given upwards in the first place. If so, are there ways to deliver the feedback effectively? Download the free “Giving Upward Feedback” PDF. In the commentary, Tom tells a story about the Marshmallow Test being debunked. Here’s the column he mentions. Th... | 22m 01s | ||||||
| 6/6/24 | Networking Conversations – Part Two | Knowing she’ll need to network to achieve her career goals, an ambitious leader asks her coach what a good networking conversation actually sounds like. Resources for Building Your Networking Skills Leverage the latest algorithm on LinkedIn with this research report. Coaching For Leaders podcast: “How to Grow Your Professional Network” Coaching For Leaders podcast: “Executive Presence with Your Elevator Speech” 10 Rules for Networking Link to 10 Rules of Networking PDF in Essential Too... | 23m 52s | ||||||
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Chart Positions
50 placements across 44 markets.
Chart Positions
50 placements across 44 markets.