The Me You (Don’t) See: How Leaders Filter Intrapersonal Information at Work

As the expectations to “be yourself at work” rise, leaders must determine which self they reveal in what settings. To explore how leaders balance their self-identity in steady contexts, as well as crisis situations, we adopt an exploratory and inductive qualitative approach to understand how they filter their intrapersonal experiences and why. We draw on 65 in-depth interviews with leaders in a variety of industries and occupations collected at two points in time. Integrating signaling theory, we advance a model that accounts for the process through which leaders filter intrapersonal information to their followers. We find that in a steady state, leaders aim to share information that is consistent with their leader identity in order to send cues to their followers that signal desired messages, such as competence and safety, which are necessary to lead effectively; however, in crisis, these same signals are cued differently. Our work extends research on leader identity, signaling theory, and authentic leadership by depicting a process that explains how leaders selectively filter their intrapersonal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in order to match the contextual demands of the situation and lead effectively.