This post is part of the series: Jung for Leaders — The Inner Work of Moving People to Action
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Also in this series: The 12 Jungian Archetypes | A Deep Dive into Jungian Archetypes | Jung’s 5 Pillars of a Happy Life
When I was first asked to become a teacher at IESE Business School, it was a big honour for me and I was very proud of the achievement. The question that constantly filled my mind was “What would a good IESE Professor do in this situation?” I never asked what Conor would do… I was determined to be “a good IESE professor”. I lost the flexibility to respond as me. In my hunger to “do a good job” I became an actor playing a role, not a person responding flexibly to the world. This is an example of “leading as a mask” in Jungian terms.
I was good at this “acting the part”.
In my 20s and into my 30s I was very good at keeping up the appearance of a successful business leader. I looked the part and showed up where good business leaders were supposed to show up. I followed the rules and did what I was supposed to do. As a consultant I learnt how to look like I was doing a great job. When you don’t know who you are, you follow the path of what others expect of you.
At the age of 33 I faced the bankruptcy of the business that I had spent years building, a business that was a full representation of me the “successful business leader”. The mask fell apart… I could no longer maintain the energy and effort required to keep acting.
Jung had a name for this performance of becoming what is expected of you. He called it the Persona.
The Persona
The word “persona” comes from the Latin word for the masks worn by actors in ancient theatre. Jung borrowed it deliberately. The Persona is the mask we present to the world — the professional face, the social role, the curated identity we offer others.
The Persona is not a problem. It is a fact. We should not reveal everything to everyone all the time. Some degree of social performance is necessary for a life in society. A doctor needs to project calm. A leader needs to project confidence. A teacher needs to project optimism even on the days they feel none.
The problem comes when you forget it is a mask.
When you become so identified with your role — CEO, founder, expert, parent, teacher — that you lose access to the person underneath, something important breaks down. In 2008 when I was 33 I was fully identified as the successful entrepreneur leading the Taxijet business. When it failed, I failed.
Signs You Have Over-Identified With Your Persona
Jung described this as “inflation of the Persona.” Some signals to watch for:
- Imposter syndrome – You are secretly terrified that people will discover you are not really who you present yourself to be.
- You are threatened when your title, status, or reputation is questioned.
- You cannot turn off work mode. At dinner with your family, you are still performing. With old friends, you are still networking.
- Spontaneity has disappeared – Everything you say in meetings is what someone in your position would say.
The Persona Trap in Organisations
Schools, businesses and government organisations often reward “performative competence”, looking the part – Persona over Self. The articulate presenter gets promoted over the quiet but effective worker.
Many business cultures incentivise performative competence rather than practising competence. It is more important to look good than deliver measurable results. The startup incubator Y-Combinator call this “playing house”. (Read Paul Graham’s essay… check out the section on “Game”).
The CEO who is over-identified with their Persona creates teams that are trapped in theirs. And a team full of Personas is a team that cannot learn, cannot adapt, and cannot be honest with itself.
The Work: Moving From Persona to Self
The move is not to abandon the Persona. The work is to be fully aware of the difference between Persona and Self. To be able to put the mask on and take it off consciously. There are several tools that I use in my programs to gain access to self values rather than injected values:
- Drawing images that represent fulfilment for you (not writing, but drawing)
- Journaling – as a habit, not as a one off event. A daily habit of journaling opens up a channel to the Self.
- Noticing when art “catches” you – a poem, a song, an image, a story, a film… there is a message in this being “caught” by a representation or a symbol.
- Getting people to keep repeating the question “who are you?” while maintaining eye contact… the 5th or 6th time you answer the question you start to really explore who you are underneath all of the expectations that society has for you.
Jung believed that maintaining conscious awareness of the presence of both Persona and Self is one of the great ongoing tasks of adult life. Every time you stop the practice of awareness, society is very good at getting you back into Persona mode.
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” Carl Jung
A question to sit with: If you stripped away your title, your achievements, and your professional reputation — what would remain? Who is the person underneath the role you play?
This post is part of the series: Jung for Leaders — The Inner Work of Moving People to Action | Next post | Previous Post
Also in this series: The 12 Jungian Archetypes | A Deep Dive into Jungian Archetypes | Jung’s 5 Pillars of a Happy Life
Conor’s Jung for Leaders Series of Blog Posts
Carl Jung spent his life exploring what it means to be human. Most leadership development focuses on skills, strategy, and behaviour. Jung explores something more fundamental: the person behind the leader. The single most-read post on this blog is about Jungian archetypes — which tells me that the readers here are not just looking for tactics, they are looking for self-understanding. This series is an attempt to go deeper into that territory.
- The Shadow: The Part of You That Sabotages Your Leadership — projection, blind spots, why your strongest reactions point inward, the gift hidden in the Shadow
- The Persona: Are You Leading as Yourself, or as a Mask? — inflation of the Persona, the cost of living inside the role, the journey back to self
- Individuation: The Journey From Success to Significance — why midlife restlessness is a call not a crisis, what blocks the journey, why it is not selfishness
- The Anima and Animus: The Hidden Energies Every Leader Needs — one-sided leadership, integrating strength and empathy, what your professional conditioning suppressed
- The Hero’s Journey: Every Leader Must Answer a Call — departure, initiation, return; the call you’re refusing; why the ordeal is the point
- The Wise Old Man: Finding and Becoming a Mentor — the archetype in myths, what mentors do that advisors don’t, the shift from receiving to giving
- The Trickster Archetype: Why Every Great Team Needs a Disruptor — Loki, Coyote, the Fool; why organisations suppress this energy; how to channel it
- Synchronicity: Paying Attention to What Life Is Telling You — meaningful coincidence, intuition as intelligence, the discipline of attention
- The Collective Unconscious: “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast” — culture as organisational unconscious, how it gets formed, making the invisible visible
- Jung’s Psychological Types: The Original Framework Before Myers-Briggs — introversion/extraversion, the four functions, the inferior function as your blind spot
- Active Imagination: A Conversation With the Part of You That Knows More — the practice step by step, why it works, how to use it for decisions
- Your Personal Myth: Living the Story Worth Living — the closing post; the unlived life; rewriting the myth; the test of a worthy story