Imposter syndrome, as if you didn’t know, is when you doubt your abilities and feel like you are going to be rumbled as a fraud. For most of us, it’s a short-lived experience when we feel out of our depth in new situations or roles.
It disproportionately affects high-achieving people, so take your visiting imposter as validation that you have joined this elite group. Kate Winslet has spoken openly about her feeling of being a fraud: ‘I’m rubbish and everyone is going to see it.’ She hasn’t let it stop her.
My article on the Dunning Kruger effect explains why ignorant people believe they know everything, whilst smart people can doubt their capabilities. They know what they don’t know.
What’s your feeling of uncertainty telling you? It’s a valuable part of the process, trying to protect you from risk and possible failure. Drill down into what’s bothering you, look at the facts.
Maybe your imposter syndrome is right to warn you.
Perhaps you need to pause, take a step back, plan more thoroughly, get another opinion or to build a stronger team around you?
And maybe it’s not right. Feelings aren’t facts.
Maybe you feel a bit out of your depth but who doesn’t sometimes. We face new situations and challenges constantly. Remind yourself of how you have coped in new situations before. You might not know all the answers, but you aren’t expected to. The last thing we need are over-confident people who think they know everything. All you need to know are the right questions and to build trust in the capability of the experts around you. Don’t waste time arguing with your imposter syndrome, just be aware of it, and keep going.
Differing experiences of imposter syndrome
Your feelings of not belonging may well be genuine.
If you don’t have role models who are like you or your competence is regularly and unfairly questioned, or you sense a bias against you, then of course you’ll feel like an imposter. It’s a vicious circle: once you feel like you don’t belong, you act like you don’t belong. Marginalisation becomes a reality.
Inevitably imposter syndrome will be on the agenda when I am asked to speak at women’s networking events. It rarely comes up in career strategy sessions in male-dominated workplaces.
That’s not to say that men don’t feel out of their depth sometimes, of course they do, but chances are that (white) men enjoy more validation over the years than many of their female counterparts, especially if there are more male role models at senior level. “Hey, you could be just as good as any of the guys here” might be well-intentioned but it misses the mark.
Sharpen up your job descriptions if you want your people to feel more confident.
Want your teams to feel more confident, take more accountability, put their hands up for what they want? Allow me to bang the drum again for updating job descriptions.
Good JDs are the bedrock of performance and productivity.
People are far more likely to doubt their competence and contribution if they aren’t crystal-clear on what is expected of them. The more sensitive amongst us will always feel like we haven’t done a good job if we don’t know how to measure exactly what a good job is.
Imposter syndrome can be useful to you
