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 the well-balanced executive. No one was neutral about Carrie. In a global company that often moved slowly, Carrie got stuff done.

The chief executives to whom he reported loved that Carrie could push projects to completion.

His peers on the other hand were cautious.

Carrie was a beneficial ally, but when he started driving for results,

he could cause a lot of destruction.

His peers were constantly trying to contain him or avoid him.

The vast rank-and-file below Carrie lived in fear of him. The saying was that when working on anything involving Carrie you either had to

execute perfectly or else you got perfectly executed. It was legendary that once when he had threatened to

fire someone for a fairly minor infraction, people pushed back hard against him.

He was told that the punishment far outweighed the crime and that the employee was in the high potential pool.

And he was told, everyone likes her, firing her would cause a riot.

To which he famously replied,

that's why I don't get to know my people,

makes things easier when it's time to fire them.

Now contrast Carrie with Kim.

Kim is in charge of all North American call centers for her company.

Kim's 12 direct reports and their direct reports all love her with reservations.

Kim's feedback report her with reservations.

Kim's feedback report contained comments like this.

...