The Construction of Work Personas

Within the context of a recent senior level recruitment exercise, I was called upon to conduct psychometric assessment of shortlisted candidates.  One of these individuals, with an admirable track record of leadership success, was occupying a high profile and influential, strategic role within a market-leading global corporation.  Responsibilities included managing a large team; driving significant organisational change; and presenting regularly to large audiences, both internal and external.  During a comprehensive feedback/validation interview, this person found it easy to reconcile findings which actually contradicted the portrayed impression of confidence.  Because of underlying traits of shyness and introversion, which the assessment had uncovered, an early career priority had been to adopt a confident and outgoing work personality markedly different from a true self revealed only to family and very close friends. 

This experience prompted recollections of an earlier executive team development project.  As the figurehead and “external face” of the organisation, one team member was an eloquent, confident, strong and respected leader whose presence on radio and TV was commonplace.  Nevertheless, a personality profile depicted him as introverted and reserved, prompting him to marvel at its accuracy in describing his true self.  By way of explanation, he described, “Putting on a suit” each morning as being symbolic of casting his natural personality to one side in order to seek refuge within a carefully constructed and highly robust work persona.

Even celebrities have reported similar behaviour.  For instance, the late Sir Bruce Forsyth CBE, a legendary, “larger than life” British star, recognised by Guinness World Records as the male entertainer with the longest TV career, admitted openly that he was actually “quite shy” in real life, being the “polar opposite” of the extremely confident TV persona he had created.

Fake It Until You Make It?

Whether aware of it or not, these three individuals appear to have been behaving in accordance with the “acting as if” principle, attributed to Philosopher, William James, and latterly popularised by personal development gurus and proponents of the law of attraction who frequently promote the “fake it until you make it” approach.  The basic premise is that, by “acting as if” we are confident, we create the conditions for confidence to manifest itself. 

The Importance of Confidence

So why is confidence such an important quality within the workplace?  The answer appears to be attributable to our natural tendency to equate confidence with competence.  Confident people are presumed more capable and talented. They are more admired, respected and listened to, as well as more likely to be found in leadership positions.  Indeed, Dr Jim Taylor, an authority on the psychology of performance, has claimed, “Confidence is the most important psychological contributor to performance in the business world”. 

Others have highlighted the dangers of assuming that confidence signifies competence.  Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Professor of Business Psychology at UCL, contends that the essence of high-performing leadership is competence, humility and integrity rather than confidence, charisma and narcissism.  He proceeds to caution us, “So until we stop making decisions on the basis of confidence rather than competence, we will keep having arrogant, impulsive, narcissistic people in charge”.

So What Should We Conclude?

In addressing the question of whether confidence should be faked, it is necessary to distinguish between confidence or, indeed, overconfidence which is utilised to mask deficiencies in competence and the “acting as if” behaviour of genuinely competent individuals struggling to overcome their inherent shyness and introversion. 

Such considerations reinforce the importance of objectively measuring competence when assessing leaders rather than becoming distracted by manifestations of confidence whether high or low.  Further, when developing tomorrow’s leaders, there seems a strong argument for us to complement enhancement of competence, where necessary, with provision of suitable support to cultivate appropriate levels of confidence. 

Finally, aspiring leaders who feel disadvantaged by shyness and introversion will hopefully be inspired by the three cases presented earlier, realising that, by developing self-belief and confidence aligned with increasing competence, continuing career advancement is an achievable goal.  They are also encouraged to acknowledge their underlying personality characteristics as invaluable aids to ensuring humility in leadership and avoidance of overconfidence, arrogance, impulsiveness and narcissism.