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 Henschel, your executive coach, and today we're talking about humility as strength.

Nicole was feeling pressured on two fronts.

First, her senior management had made it clear.

She was on their high potential list if she could stop being so prickly.

To that end, they had given her a coach, me.

The second front had just appeared.

She'd been told she'd be inheriting a small team that historically had been quite low-performing.

She felt certain her ability, or her failure, to turn them around would be closely watched.

I appreciate their faith in me, she said, but who, boy, it feels like a lot.

In what way, I asked.

Well, Tom, look, I'm not worried about what would fix this team.

I'm one of the people who's been complaining about them.

I know what they need to do. But if I go in and start kicking ass like I usually do,

I think I'm going to pay a pretty steep price. So what's your plan? I asked. She laughed.

You tell me. I feel like I have to whip them into shape with half my tools taken away. Which tools, I asked.

Accountability, high standards, difficult conversations. Wait, why would you lose those tools? I asked.

You read the 360s, she said, referring to the feedback report I'd prepared for her. People want me to stop being so pushy.

Okay, I said, but they didn't say they wanted you to stop holding people accountable or having high standards.

Well, I don't know.

You saw the comments about getting some humility and being more humble.

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