“It didn't work," said the King. "The cloak of invisibility didn't work."
"Yes, it did," said the Royal Wizard.
"No, it didn't," said the King. "I kept bumping into things, the same as ever."
—James Thurber | Author
As business coaches with expertise in career coaching, VIM Executive Coaching can well understand the essence of James Thurber’s quote. The great and gifted author wrote those lines during his heyday in the 1920s and 1930s.
When career coaching clients often turn to us, they (sadly) relate they not only have felt invisible in their organizations but in many career coaching programs as well. It turns out, this concept of invisibility has been around for quite some time and it is getting worse.
“I couldn’t make myself invisible enough”
Psychologists Wes Adams and Tamara Myles writing for Psychology Today (October 2025), talked about the hidden costs of executive leaders who try to make themselves “invisible” at work. It generally leads to several negative outcomes. Invisibility erodes employee “meaning and motivation,” and the authors stress “invisibility actives the same pathways as physical pain and invariably leads to disappointment and burnout.”
Why do workers try to make themselves invisible at work in the first place? Numerous studies point to the concept of self-protection. Executive leaders, especially in these highly uncertain times, list at least seven reasons they run to embrace invisible modes:
- To avoid complete burnout
- They are burdened (from lack of emotional support to lack of compensation)
- Their workplaces are toxic
- It is easier to protect one’s energy than engage
- They feel unfairly judged and neglected so in turn, they withdraw
- Peers have turned on them and sometimes, even enlist the help of supervisors
- They are placed under magnifying glasses of bias, often being forced to apologize “for existing.”
In essence, many attempt to wear the cloak of invisibility to survive until the next paycheck. The strategy simply does not work. It is impossible to “play small” enough to endure.
Career Coaches Who Follow Scripts
Adding to the invisible executive’s problems are when they seek out career coaches who use formulaic approaches. This often happens when the very same organization who is burning out a great employee, sends them to “an approved” and often, last-resort counselor who applies a one-size-fits-all “motivational” mindset.
“There,” often in a classroom of other executive leaders who are told to report for career mind “adjusting,” sit in front of a know-it-all speaker who follows an approved agenda. Numerous studies of this approach have shown the executives lose their own unique voices, get approved advise, sometimes get talked into taking yet another approved course and another, and ultimately, lose all sense of their trust and privacy.
What they don’t come away with are three, extremely important skills: a mindset of authenticity, positive one-on-one feedback and vital encouragement and purposeful challenges to help them improve. Why wouldn’t they receive this help? Because solid career coaching requires as much from the teacher as the student. Many so-called career coaches are unwilling to explore the individual needs and aspirations of the executive leaders they are attempting to help because, frankly, they never explored their own lives.
Engagement without commitment serves neither the student nor the teacher. The development of authenticity is the opposite of invisibility and embraces trust at its core levels. True career counseling, true sharing and commitment are not casual exercises but a willingness to remove the mask of inconspicuousness.