wrong mirror

Last week I was catching up with a friend from the industry.

I mentioned how much I admired his CEO, someone who posts constantly about leadership, people-first culture, psychological safety, feminism in the workplace... the full package. Thoughtful captions, vulnerable storytelling, lots of engagement.

His reaction? A long pause, and then a laugh.

"You have no idea."

Turns out the reality inside that company is the polar opposite of the feed. Poor treatment of people, bad manners, zero trust. A leader nobody actually wants to work for.

Interesting.

LinkedIn is a curated highlight reel, and we all know that, but somehow we still let a consistent posting cadence build a full image of someone in our heads. 

Frequent posting starts to feel like evidence of character. It isn't.

I've tried to be charitable about it. Maybe it's self-deception, they genuinely believe the person they perform online is who they are. Maybe the posts are aspirational, a version of themselves they're trying to grow into.

But if the people around you tell a completely different story, year after year, at what point does the gap stop being a work in progress and start being just... who you are?