Behind the Mask
Halloween is upon us, which means it's time to dress up and possibly wear a mask. Your mask might work well with your Halloween costume, but are you wearing a mask to work every day? And does it jibe with your personality?
Hopefully, you're not going into work wearing your Freddy, Jason or Ghostface (you know, that scary guy from Scream) mask. But blogger and executive coach Steve Brooks wonders if all workers wear masks. He frequently asks his clients these two questions:
- While at work, are you something or somebody you're not?
- Are you a different person in front of the boss than you are in front of your peers or employees?
One client told him that during the work day, he wears multiple masks. Brooks said a person could enter the workplace in a Clark Kent mask, ready to start the day, and then put on his Superman mask, trying to solve all the problems. If someone gets under your skin, you might put on your Incredible Hulk mask and throw a temper tantrum. You might put on your Eddie Haskell (from Leave it to Beaver) mask when talking to your boss. By the end of the day, you are so exhausted that you've put on your Dracula mask, and you are ready to suck the life out of all of those around you. At the end of the day, you may put on his Kermit the Frog mask and commiserate, "It's not easy being green!"
Sounds tiring to me! I wonder, what is the need to wear masks in the workplace? Brooks ponders the question, "How can someone be effective in her job if she is being someone she's not?" He also said changing masks during the day could boil down to an integrity issue.
Do you do this, or do you know someone who does this? It makes more sense to me to just save those masks for Halloween.
(P.S. Just for fun, are you dressing up for Halloween this year? Who or what are you being?)