This is a special episode of TED Talks Daily featuring writer and consultant Dan Clay.

It's from The Way We Work, an original video series from TED.

In each episode, leaders and thinkers offer practical wisdom and insight into how you can adapt and thrive at work when the rules are always changing.

You can find season one of The way we work on TED.com.

A leader is steady, firm, decisive, unwavering.

Never let him see you sweat.

Always have an answer.

My name is Dan.

I'm a partner at a global creative consultancy. But there's another side to me.

Carrie Dragshaw, the character I created on Instagram. As I thought about my double life, I couldn't help but wonder.

When your true self is a little non-traditional, how much of it can you really bring to the office?

For some of us, is authenticity off limits?

For the first 10 years of my career, I thought there was one way to be a leader, decisive, and serious.

But that's not me. So I'd put on basically office drag to fit the

role. I'd talk in a deeper voice, try to hold in my hand motions. I'm someone who gets really

excited about things. So I'd temper that. I had this little voice in my head telling me,

you're too gay, too feminine, too flamboyant. I had one well-intentioned

advisor who said, everyone knows you're gay, and that's great, but you don't need to beat them

over the head with it. Cut to me in a tutu. For Halloween 2016, I dressed up as my favorite

TV show character, Carrie Bradshaw, thinking my friends would

get a kick out of it. And then things got crazy. The post went viral, and at first it was pure

fun. I started getting these incredible messages from people about how happy it made them,

...