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 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 recently told The Diary of a CEO podcast . “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, New York 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 e