Being tough isn’t required.
When John the Baptist checks up on Jesus from prison in the Gospel of Matthew, we are tempted to see this as unbelief, doubt, or confusion. Jesus dismisses those thoughts.
He then asks the crowd what they expected from him? “A reed shaken by the wind?” There is a sense in Jesus’s response that he speaks of John and his ministry as requiring toughness. The image of a rugged individual standing up for a cause.
While such an image can be comforting to some, it isn’t universally so. Especially in light of John’s potential skepticism of Jesus! Is he inclined to call Jesus “soft?” I think we’re supposed to believe the answer is yes.
Jesus goes on to proclaim John’s greatness among people. And I suspect it has less to do with toughness in the abstract, but in relationship to his mission. He was preparing the way for God. That’s the point.