Why Authenticity Will Always Beat Appeasement
And why it’s a complete failure for the Wall Street Journal to post an article about how “women may get further ahead professionally if they mask their gender initially” and tag it as “leadership”.
If you listen to John Greathouse, and you happen to be a woman in tech, he’ll advise you to, “create an online presence that obscures your gender. A gender-neutral persona allows women to access opportunities that might otherwise be closed to them.” He goes on to close out his article with “Much like a book people cannot avoid judging their fellow humans by their “cover”. As such, women in tech should consider what they can do to broaden the audience willing to engage with them while mitigating potentially negative misconceptions. A neutral online persona will encourage more people to evaluate your work products and experience based on inherent qualities, not unclouded preconceptions”.
Where to begin!
I’ll admit, I seethed quite a bit when I first got wind of this one man’s opinion (and the fact there were a number of decision makers at WSJ who thought this was a good idea). My mind immediately jolted to how parallel in logic Mr. Greathouse’s argument is to those who implore women to dress more modestly so as to not be sexually assaulted and raped. “It’s not our fault we can’t handle the fact that you are a woman, so you need protect yourself from us!” Should my co-founders of color use avatars online under the same argument? I kindly ask that you immerse yourself in diversity, and excuse me while I go vomit.
The oblivious, archaic, and frankly unacceptable advice pushed out through this publication is proposing that our industry take the easy way out and keep system rigged as it currently is. I’m sure that suits Mr. Greathouse and friends just fine (for now). But, I’d instead like to challenge us all to tackle the problem at its root cause. Sure that’s harder and takes longer than this quick fix to success, but my guess is we’re all competent enough to do it.
Let’s propose and test an alternative hypothesis, one that we’re proving out daily at humble ventures: “men and women may get further ahead professionally if they reveal themselves authentically”.
As a woman, I’ve of course had my “cover” judged. By virtue of being a woman, strangers have not infrequently assumed that my role in the company is that of the “face”, (they’re of course wrong though — that title has already been claimed with glee by Ray Crowell). Even with some that I’ve worked more closely with over the years, it’s only after one of my male compatriots tells them “you better listen to Mary” that my insight is given the weight it merits.
But far, far more frequently, I’ve been successful because I’ve been unapologetically who I am — and that resonates strongly with others. Sometimes I’m bare faced and baggy jeaned, while other times I’m high-heeled and red lipped. I know I’m better at value proposition alignment and customer discovery than I am with spreadsheets. I don’t like watching movies. My point is — these variations in “inherent qualities” lie in both men and women equally. I’ve learned through experience that much of my value is derived specifically because I am authentic, and through that authenticity, I build trust between my clients, my co-founders, and my stakeholders. It works people, I promise.
So instead of trying to appease whomever may be behind the wheel of opportunity, let’s not waste our time on contrivance and instead focus our time, energy, and effort into growing who we already are as humans and broadening the reach of opportunities. Let’s commit (no — really commit) to that being our measure of merit, gender/race/status be damned.
