Welcome 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 Henshaw, your executive coach, and today we're talking about getting your voice heard.

Nila was known to be brilliant.

She'd turned around two teams without seeming to have broken a sweat.

As a reward, she was given a third team to turn around.

Four months into that new role, her company reached out to me and asked me to be her coach.

Her HR business partner made it clear, the company viewed Nila as an enormous asset.

They wanted her to be happy. They also felt she had more to give. They wanted her to share

her knowledge, advocate for her group, and advocate for herself.

They wanted her to be bigger, more executive.

Nila wanted all of that for herself too.

During our very first conversation, she told me,

I've never been a good advocate for myself.

It always felt icky to me like I was bragging.

I'm still that way. My work should speak for

itself. I shouldn't have to tell everyone about it. I think your work does speak for itself,

Nila. I said, the company loves you. And in addition, they want you to advocate for yourself more.

Would you want that? Want it? Yes. Will I do it? I don't know. I never have.

That's certainly something we could talk about, Nila, I said. Now she asked. If you like, I said,

but I meant more like it could be one of the topics we visit regularly throughout the coaching.

We could check in on your self-advocacy

...