Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: ‘You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness’

Especially as you grow tenure at an organization, it feels much easier and comfortable to bring your authentic self to work. But former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras says that’s bad for business. “Don’t bring your authentic self to work. I don’t want your authentic self to work. I want your professional self. I want your respectful self,” she told the Diary of a CEO podcast in an episode published in September 2025. “I want your empathetic self. I want your competent self. You can bring your authentic self to a Thanksgiving meal with your family if you’d like to.” Poumpouras, a Queens, N.Y., native, was a U.S. Secret Service special agent, polygraph examiner, and interrogator who served from 2000 to 2012, protecting U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and George H.W. Bush. She’s now a law enforcement and national security analyst, the bestselling author of Becoming Bulletproof, and an adjunct professor at the City University of New York. “Could you imagine if I brought my authentic New York self to every interrogation I did?” she asked, recounting an interrogation from years ago in which she had to interview a 16-year-old boy who had allegedly assaulted a 3-year-old little girl. “What would my authentic self say? ‘What are you thinking? How could you? It’s a 3-year-old.’ No, I brought my professional self,” she said. What mattered more in that moment was getting a confession, she said, so she could find out what happened so the little girl wouldn’t be victimized again. “‘Okay, tell me what happened. Tell me more,’” she recalled saying. “Non-judgment. Poker face. You know why? Because what I think, my authentic self, is irrelevant.” Poumpouras also argues bringing your authentic self to work puts the spotlight on one individual instead of prioritizing teamwork. “Don’t come in and be phony. Nobody wants a phony. But [the] authentic self has become me, me, me, me, me. Everybody, check me out,” she said. “I was irrelevant. When you show up