Throw Off Your Corporate Mask And Find Yourself
Do you speak, act, or relate at work in a way that feels out of alignment with your true personality? If so, join the club: You’re wearing a corporate mask.
Credit: [Flickr: 1Day Review & Chris H]
While this may seem like an “out-there” concept, metaphorical corporate masks are directly related to several pressing issues in today’s world of work: 1) the mental health crisis, 2) the deeply flawed emphasis on employee productivity, and 3) the way our workspaces are evolving in the age of AI.
Today I want to explore where these masks originated, why we are wearing them, how they benefit us (or not), and their role in the future of work. Hint: we’ll want to wear these masks a lot less to remain relevant in our increasingly tech-reliant world of work.
Corporate Masks In Action
My partner has a friend — we’ll call him Joe — with a particularly developed corporate mask. “Work Joe” is hypermasculine. He wears a collared shirt. He speaks formally and assertively, and he’s not prone to laughter. I’ve never really met “Work Joe,” but this is what my partner tells me about him.
I’ve only met the real Joe. He has a twinkle in his eye, is prone to cracking NSFW jokes and he wore a costume alligator head when he spoke at our wedding. (Joe, if you’re reading this, thanks for the memories ;))
Here’s another example, showing how these masks are not only disingenuous, but also counterproductive: Corporate coach Liesbeth van der Linden MBA PCC tells the story of one of her clients who was “wearing a corporate mask [that] was keeping him from being effective, particularly in business discussions, influencing, or decision-making:
Behind the corporate mask, he would think: ‘I need to win, or else people will see me as weak.’
With the corporate mask on, he would say: ‘They are wrong, I’m right. I don’t like them disagreeing with me.’”
This approach, and his lack of ability to be present with differing points of view, deteriorated his working relationships. His fear of being seen as weak was winning out over how he really wanted to show up.
These masks are hurting our ability to make greater progress with peers and other colleagues.
Venn(ish) Diagram of True Self, Corporate Mask & Corporate Culture. Note: Corporate Mask is not an exact overlap of True Self and Corporate Culture: It is your own unique creation.
Based on expert data about productivity and the future of work, I’m here to say that the corporate mask will have diminishing returns in the coming years. Why? I’m not the first to say the future of work is human. And these masks, by their very nature, are not human.
The History of Corporate Masks
Your specific brand of corporate mask is likely calibrated to the culture your boss and your organization perpetuate along with historical norms in corporate America. Whether you realize it or not, you are wearing this mask for tribalistic reasons: You want to feel like you belong.
According to The Atlantic, just prior to the Great Depression, the words used to talk about workers in books and boardrooms were “mechanistic, emphasizing accuracy, precision, and maximized production” (Read: Inhuman). Corporate culture, including language and mores, followed suit, incentivizing workers to embody these values or be left behind.
The first industrial corporations were built in the early 1800s, at the time of the Industrial Revolution. Later in the 1890’s, the 8-hour-day movement began as a reaction to the harsh working conditions of earlier years. And in 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) into law: Employers entered into voluntary agreements to institute 35- to 40-hour workweeks and pay a minimum wage of $12 to $15 a week.
Although the law was deemed unconstitutional, those concerned with workers rights continued to push for better conditions. In the late 1930s, they established what we know today as the eight-hour-per-day, five-day workweek (in addition to setting a federal minimum wage and instituting child labor protections).
Credit: [Flickr: 1Day Review & Harikrishnan Tulsidas]
How is this relevant to corporate masks?
We’ve lived with the 9-to-5 for over 100 years. It’s time to reevaluate this and evolve.
And yet the eight-hour-per-day, five-day workweek is the foundation of an “always-on” productivity culture that values “face time” above true productivity — because it’s rooted in hourly labor. Long ago, this way of working was proven to be out of sync with our human biology. And it’s ridiculous to think we are still hanging on to these ways of working, even in the realm of salaried knowledge workers.
In order to make it work, we wear the corporate mask. We find tricks to appear active on Slack for 8 hours a day. We feel the need to say yes to upwards of 5 meetings in one 8-hour period — even though that’s scientifically shown to reduce productivity. In some corporate cultures we feel pressure to be on camera. In others we have to dress a specific way or speak with specific jargon in order to feel like we’re fitting in.
Types of Corporate Masks
Corporate Masks might include any of the following:
Placing more value on masculine energies such as logic and structure than inherently female energies such as creativity and intuition.
Using jargon such as “peanut butter,” and “net new,” which everyone in the room may not understand. (I still don’t fully get “boil the ocean.”)
A subtle pressure to act like you understand everything said in a meeting even when you do not.
Sidelining human emotion
Prioritizing a perception of productivity over relationships; relationships are only transactional
Seeming put together: Formalized speaking and dressing (v.s. conversational, human, and comfortable)
Acting competitive and/or territorial
Normalizing language that is culturally insensitive (e.g. referring to a workforce as an “Ohana,” using jargon such as “open the kimono.”
I like how Mandy Steinhardt adds to the conversation with her map of the Leader Mask in comparison to the Corporate Hero/Martyr and the Authentic Leader:
Leader Mask Qualities: Tall, masculine, decisive, assertive, consistent, dominant, formal in dress, hierarchical, timely, political, territorial, secretive, vague
Corporate Hero/Martyr: Boundaryless, working all-nighters to come to the rescue of a project, gets to take singular credit for something, harried, overwhelmed
Authentic Leader Qualities: Empathetic, servant-leader, integrity, straightforward, kind, champion of the team, collaborative, sensitive, engages and motivates employees to bring the best of themselves, inspires and empowers innovation
Credit: [Flickr: 1Day Review & Gerhard Wickler]
Reasons for Corporate Masks
We know that people wear these corporate masks because they want to feel like they belong, increase their chance for promotion, and — intentionally or unintentionally — hide their real persona so they don’t stand out or ruffle any features.
This is based on our very cave person-like instincts to blend in. The first human societies were tribal and egalitarian. Standing out could cost you your life. This survival instinct is deeply wired into our human DNA.
It’s time to consciously evolve.
The Impact of Corporate Masks
In certain cultures, if you are very good at wearing the corporate mask, it can get you promoted, earn you awards, and place you in the good graces of other leaders who subscribe to the corporate mask program.
The cons are many.
Mental Health - The larger the delta between your true self and how you show up at work, the more your mental health will likely suffer. You are putting a lot of energy into fitting the mold and drinking the Kool-Aid, which may essentially be self-abandonment in disguise: especially if you are falling into the trap of toxic positivity or gaslighting yourself in any way. Lyra’s 2024 State of Mental Health report substantiates the fact that organizational performance is directly tied to individual health. Psychological safety, aka feeling safe enough to put down your corporate mask, is a critical precursor to mental health in the workplace.
Lack of True Belonging - While a mask will give you a sense of outdated belonging, it will rob you of true belonging. According to Dr. Brenee Brown, belonging doesn’t require us to fit in. A sense of true belonging arises when you can accept yourself and show up as who you truly are. When you do this in the workplace, there’s a powerful ripple effect that creates a safe space for others to do the same and benefit from deeper, truer human belonging. (Side note: belonging is shown to boost productivity.)
Less Productivity: The foremost productivity experts have proven the most effective employees work in 90-minute bursts followed by rest. Some of them take naps. The “always-on” corporate mask prevents us from working in a way that’s better suited to our biology, thus decreasing our productivity and burning us out.
You’re Rendering Yourself Obsolete: Corporations have spent the last 10 decades or so finding ways to turn humans into productivity and efficiency robots. The AI revolution has begun to render these efforts obsolete in a matter of a few short years. The good news? AI can’t accurately replicate our feelings and emotions, our personal stories, and our human connection. As human beings, anything AI can’t replace is going to be the business currency of the future.
Credit: [Flickr: Mike Finn]
In the words of Richard Baldwin of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, AI:
“...can’t deal with unknown situations, they can’t provide empathy, or apply ethics, or be creative, or manage many people, or motivate many people, or educate people…whatever the new jobs are, and they will appear, we don’t know the names yet, just like we didn’t in the past two transformations, what we will be doing is the most human of our tasks.”
The Corporate Mask You Can’t Unsee
If stability, safety, and a steady paycheck are the predominant reasons you work in your corporate job — instead of your passion for the mission and your genuine interest in the work, there may come a time when pretending to care about your company’s mission becomes too exhausting to continue. Once you realize how much your life force energy is being channeled into things that don’t really matter to you, it’s almost like you can’t unsee it.
Now you have options:
Find somewhere to channel your passion, interest, or values within your company. For me, during my time at Salesforce, I was able to keep myself energetically afloat for a while by joining our internal coaching program. The boost in satisfaction I got from coaching carried over into the rest of my work as a marketing leader, making me more effective and engaged across the board.
Find somewhere to channel your passion, interest, or values outside of your company. I also did this while I worked in corporate. I started my coaching business as a side hustle and I saw a direct correlation between my positive engagement at Salesforce and the degree of energy and momentum I was feeling in my side hustle.
Hatch a plan to leave your corporate job and focus on what you love to do or are genuinely interested in.
Break the corporate mold. I did a bit of this as well at Salesforce. I led my team meetings with breathwork sessions. I dropped in with my direct reports and made a conscious decision to care about them as human beings more than I cared about the KPIs on the table. This in and of itself was a revolutionary act that filled my cup. It also landed me stellar ratings in our Great Leader Survey. (And this is exactly what I coach people do to in my Human at Work flagship program — among many other things.)
The general theme above is that you have to find places and outlets for the real you. If you don’t, you risk losing touch with your essence, your spirit, and your zest for life. I believe that we are all here on Earth to make a difference by doing the things that light us up. I also believe that you can do what you love and make lots of money. The old paradigms of “work is hard,” and “nose to the grindstone” are crumbling, but that’s a topic for another day.
Me and my son James at the “Ohana Floor” of the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco; corporate masks notably absent.
Building the Foundation for Unmasking
There are a few things that need to happen for you to embolden yourself, to put your needs, your desires, your values, and your dreams first in your life.
Generate the necessary safety inside yourself. You don’t need to outsource this.
If you are a leader, you can start to put down your own corporate mask to shift the culture on your team so others feel safe to do the same.
Share more personal stories at work. Quite simply, vulnerability is a healing force in corporate spaces.
In 1:1s, slow down the pace. Ask your directs how they’re doing and mean it. Leave ample space for them to answer.
The Cultural Benefits of Eschewing the Corporate Mask
By now you realize that employees wear corporate masks to fit themselves into the mold, not ruffle any feathers, and perpetuate a capitalistic system that is not serving anybody.
Even though fear-driven superiors may want you to keep your mask on, there are some positive outcomes — even within your corporate culture — to removing your mask as much as possible.
Your magnetism increases: The corporate mask isn’t human. Especially in the age of AI, people are drawn towards humanity, emotion, connection, and vulnerability. This is what enables you to stand out. When you show up radiating with your full human spark, potential, and zest for life, everyone can feel it.
The ripple effect: When you are showing up without the mask, you are paving the way for others to step into their authenticity. This is an incredible gift. You are changing corporate culture for the better in a grassroots way, from the inside out.
You might just get promoted: Your confidence in who you are and your lack of adherence to the corporate template of the majority is going to make you stand out among your “superiors” at work. In my experience, this kind of standing out is exactly what you need to get promoted. There’s a lot more to this, and it’s something I coach executives on quite a bit.
Your team will fall in love with you (not in a romantic way): When you create a safe space for authenticity, you are laying the foundation for loyalty, bonding, and productivity. Your people will feel safe with you and they’re more likely to want to do the best work of their lives. Full stop.
You’ll sell more: Nobody wants to buy from a robot. If you’re a seller, and you lean more into your authenticity, your customers and prospects will want to buy from you.
The Age of The Corporate Mask Is Coming To A Close
Although the term “corporate mask” hasn’t been around forever, the concept has existed for decades. And now that you are aware of the history of these masks and the reasons we’ve worn them in the past, I hope that your mask is loosening a bit.
As a collective, we are outgrowing the need to wear these corporate masks. There are many tried-and-tested strategies for dropping the mask. Those who find ways to lean into their true selves and their authenticity are going to future-proof their careers for more joy, connection, advancement, and success in the age of AI. In the process, they’re going to catalyze a necessary shift away from corporate monoculture and towards an age of humanity and generative ways of working in the corporate world.
If you’ve made it this far I have a few questions for you:
Are you feeling exhausted because you’re holding up a fake persona at work?
Do you long to close the gap between your 9-to-5 tasks and what you love to do?
When you look at the people who are ten years older than you at work, do you want to be like them one day? Or does the thought worry you because they don’t seem happy?
Do you feel a pull like there’s something more for you in your career?
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” subscribe to my newsletter to learn about upcoming coursework and community offerings I’ll be launching in the Fall to support you. I’ll be sharing early access and special rates for founding members.
