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October 12, 2006
Halloween Trick or Treat: Examining Your 'Workplace Mask'
Think October. What comes to mind? For most people, it's Halloween, pumpkins, and pint-sized goblins on a sugar-fueled, door-to-door feeding frenzy. Me? I think about strategic re-positioning. That's because Halloween is the perfect time to gain a major competitive business advantage by doing an up-close evaluation of your everyday workplace masks. The following exercises can help you achieve powerful results to benefit you, your company, your clients, and your bottom line.
The exercises are rooted in the theory that we all wear masks in our daily lives. We show different parts of our personalities to different people at different times. The person you are with your family is not the person you are with your clients or your boss. At work, our deep-rooted fear of exposing our weaknesses prompts us to put on our mask of perfection. It's a survival instinct from our earliest days. We are innately driven to protect those vulnerable areas because an animal's exposed weakness usually results in its demise.
There are countless workplace masks. For example, there's the "superhero mask," a very common mask worn by people who say yes to every request of their time and energy because they want to be perceived as go-to, can-do, team players. Men sometimes wear the "godfather mask," presenting a cool, gruff exterior so others won't think them soft. And one of the most prevalent masks I see, especially when I coach women, is the "Glinda mask." Remember Glinda? She was "The Good Witch of the North" in The Wizard of Oz and she always wanted everyone to be happy, and never wanted to offend anyone.
We all believe these masks make us stronger. On the contrary, it is our willingness to take off these masks and reveal the fears, concerns, weaknesses, and skeletons in our highly reinforced, double-bolted, hermetically sealed inner-sanctums that accomplishes many dramatic, life-enhancing, career-boosting results. Some of these results include more honest communication, a greater sense of teamwork and a deeper feeling of community. These are all things that are sorely missing for most of us in both our personal and our business lives.
Let's look closely at three exercises you can do to consciously and strategically remove your mask and examine your current image.
Exercise #1: The 360-degree evaluation. Despite the old adage that you can't judge a book by its cover, the fact remains that you are judged every day, by every person with whom you come into contact. You are judged on how you look, what you say and how you say it. And those silent judgments all too often cap your potential. Therefore, it is useful for every business person to know how they are perceived by those all around them at every level their bosses, their peers, their subordinates and their customers. In other words, what do your masks look like to others? That's the idea behind the 360-degree evaluation.
What should the 360 chart and evaluation reporting process look like? That's up to you. You can call me to receive a copy of my "360 Self-Diagnosis and Vision Chart" or you can create your own. The format isn't as important as the fact that you solicit feedback in every important area from all the levels immediately surrounding an employee - his subordinates, his peers, his immediate superiors and his customers. Armed with this information, an employee can make the changes necessary to rise quickly to the top.
There are two important points to remember as you ask people to complete these evaluation forms. First, ask everyone to be entirely honest with themselves and with others. This is a powerful, unique opportunity to make a real impact on careers and lives - but only if honesty and conscientious thought are the foundations of the exercise. Second, remind everyone that they must complete their evaluations of others with carefully constructed, positively worded, specific feedback. In other words, criticism must be constructive and must be offered with tact. Done right, this exercise can provide the fuel to skyrocket employees to unimagined successes.
Exercise #2: Costume party. But not just any old costume. Your employees should come dressed either as who they want to be or as the person they think others perceive them to be. This takes a lot of creativity and forces people to really think about their masks and costumes and about how their masks are perceived by others. For our purposes, we will use mask, costume, persona and image interchangeable. For instance, a really dynamic individual who is very athletic might come dressed as Lance Armstrong. A dark-haired recluse might come dressed as a member of the Addams Family. You're likely to get some surprises: perhaps a mid-performing sales rep will come dressed as Chuck Yeager because he dreams of breaking records and flying high.
So once you've got everyone gathered in costume, what do you do? The group leader or the person that is facilitating this event should begin by explaining the rules and guides and confirm that they will be strictly upheld to maintain the integrity and purpose of the meeting. What is the purpose? To kick-off the new you in the way in which you want to be and be seen. Start by asking everyone to talk about their costume, why they chose it and what it reveals about the person they want to become. Then ask people whether they were treated differently in their costumes and how, and use that question to segue into a discussion about how they might be treated differently if they dressed with impeccable professionalism every day. You might even bring up the movie Trading Places in which a businessman and a vagrant swapped clothes and were instantly treated according to how they looked.
It's important to explore the use of masks and costumes in terms of how they subconsciously and consciously define our inner and outer realities. A change of costume will shift our internal self-view as well as the way others view us. Hidden safely behind a mask and costume, we might express ourselves in very different ways than we do in our everyday business attire. When I was studying acting and performing in New York City, I found it much easier to become my character when I was in the full costume of that character. In costume, you experience the world differently and the world experiences you differently. Done right, this costume party should be a revealing, possibly painful process of self-discovery and revelation for every employee that will help them move to a place of greater success and happiness.
Exercise #3: Mirror, mirror. Periodically, we all need to take a hard look at our outer trappings - our physical mask as others see it. To do this, carve out an hour or two one evening and dress as if you're going to work. Now take a good look in the mirror and think about what you see - about what your clients see. Is your clothing neat and professional? Does it fit well? Is it appropriate for your job? Does it make you look and feel powerful? Is your hair neatly trimmed and stylish? Does anything strike you as potentially negative? For instance, are you earrings too long? Is your tie too loud? If it strikes you when you look in the mirror, get rid of it because it will strike your clients as well.
Go through your whole closet with these questions in mind. If an item is outdated, doesn't fit or looks the least bit unprofessional, get rid of it. When I work with clients to help them create a more professional image, clients sometimes tell me they are simply expressing themselves by not conforming to the most professional standards of dress. But my question to them is this: Is it worth "expressing yourself" if you're losing out on customers and promotions in the process? Perhaps you do feel most comfortable in tattoos and earrings, but how do you look to others? Don't risk alienating potential clients or employers because your mask looks too foreign, too revealing or too intimidating. Explore the masks you're wearing and be conscious of the effects they have on others.
Don't wait for the end of the year to make a resolution about your workplace and business masks. Take the time now, during the Halloween season, to honestly evaluate which masks are working, which masks are off-putting to those with whom you work. The next step, the fun and exciting part, is how you solve and resolve your challenges and re-strategize your future to achieve all that you require, desire and deserve. An unexpected, free bonus that comes with your empowering, renewing, self-evolution is how you can change yourself for the better. After you do this, you'll be amazed at how quickly your professional life turns from tricks into treats!
Ellen A. Kaye is an authority on image and communication, body language, and presentation skills. She is author of the best-selling business book, Maximize Your Presentation Skills: How to Speak, Look and Act on Your Way to the Top (Crown, 2002) and owner of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Perfect Presentation. For more information, call 480-391-9888 or visit www.ellenkaye.com.