When are they going to find out I don’t belong here?
An overview of Imposter Syndrome and how it can affect anyone no matter their social status, work background, skill level, or degree of expertise.
Written by Jo Nicholson
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My first thought when writing about Imposter Syndrome is “Who am I to write about this? I’m no expert!” and that’s right, I am not an expert on Imposter Syndrome, but I have done some up to date research building on what I covered as part of my Occupational Psychology Masters. And I do experience Imposter Syndrome and have done for most of my career, surely my viewpoint is valid, and may indeed help others?
So, I want to do this. I want to write this article. However, what if someone who knows more than me reads this and tells me how wrong I am? I may be revealed to be a fraud.
Thinking like this, is not an isolated incident. In my ten-year corporate career, making big budget recommendations which will be publicly visible, I lived in constant anxiety that my decisions would be wrong, that I’d got to my position because of the number of hours I worked and the merits of my constant research, not because I actually had the talent or skill.
I did well in my corporate career, which I attribute to the extent of all the hard work that I did. However, I would also say that Imposter Syndrome held me back, as I just didn’t have the courage of my convictions to give me the air of confidence which said that I’d totally got this. Don’t get me wrong, if someone else made the decision, I could manage the implementation and work with people to make it happen with oodles of confidence! But making that recommendation on strategic direction, well I just felt like a fraud that could be revealed to all at any time.
How common is Imposter Syndrome?
I’m not alone in feeling like this, in fact, 70% of women are said to experience Imposter Syndrome at some point. But it’s not just women. It impacts men too, runs across all cultures, occupations, and levels of experience. Imposter Syndrome was first described in 1978 by two psychologists, Clance and Imes. Following on from this initial definition there have been numerous studies and books published. However, despite this widespread recognition it still doesn’t seem to be a term that has been embraced and addressed in the actual workplace.
When I felt like this in my corporate career, I had no idea it was defined, I thought I was alone, I had no idea that others felt like this, and of course, I didn’t want to mention it to colleagues as they would ‘find me out’. I do remember the moment I sat in a seminar room as part of my Masters attending a lecture on Imposter Syndrome that it all came together. That lightbulb moment of ‘that’s me they’re describing, I’m not alone’, and then feeling relief.
Do you suffer with Imposter Syndrome?
Here are some of the common signs of Imposter Syndrome:
Self-doubt
An inability to realistically assess your competence and skills
Attributing your success to external factors
Berating your performance
Fear that you won't live up to expectations
Overachieving
Sabotaging your own success
Setting very challenging goals and feeling disappointed when you fall short
In her book, The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women, Valerie Young (2011) described five different subtypes of Imposter Syndrome. You may recognise yourself in one of these subtypes (albeit a very brief overview):
The Perfectionist
Competence is 100% perfectionism, anything short of this is failure.
The Natural Genius
Competence is the achievement coming easily to me, if I had to work hard I’ve failed.
The Superwoman/man
Competence is being able to do many different roles at the same time, failure is falling short in one role.
The Expert
Competence is the volume of knowledge of skill, failure is lack of knowledge.
The Soloist
Competence is achieving it on your own, failure is asking for help.
You can appreciate that behaving in ways to achieve competence in these areas can lead to physical and mental exhaustion, stress, anxiety, depression and eventually burnout.
I recognise myself in more than one of these subtypes and recognising myself helps me name how I feel, which in turn enables me to address how I feel.
Why do I feel like this?
There are a number of personality and environmental factors which are said to contribute to why you feel like an imposter. These could include some of the messages you picked up as a child from your parents eg. “they’re the clever one” or “they’ll never go far” which you may feel the need to prove or disprove. One theory that resonates with me, is a study of medical students who were all top of their class prior to medical school, but at medical school they are surrounded by like-minded achievers, and they then become the norm (*1), no longer feeling top of the class. This of course doesn’t mean that the knowledge, skills, or talent was any less in those individuals, but they may not have had the same external cues for them to feel talented.
My own experience of working with exceptionally talented marketing colleagues, having been appointed the role through my previous achievements, was to compare myself to my colleagues and see where others were more able than me. I became my own saboteur thinking others were better at the job and thinking myself arrogant to even think of a promotion when others would be better than me.
How I overcome Imposter Syndrome when it rears its head
Let’s go back to my first thought when I started to draft this article “Who am I to write about this, I’m no expert?”. With the thought comes a feeling, a feeling of uncomfortableness, and a rising sense of panic. Behaviour follows, but how do I choose to behave? Do I continue to write and push through the feelings, or do I avoid the uncomfortable feeling and stop writing? If I stop writing, I am allowing my thoughts to change the direction of something I wanted to do. By me recognising the thoughts and feelings, I can then make a conscious decision. What I choose to do is to recognise the thought as unhelpful, and to say to myself, it’s a thought, it’s not necessarily true.
So, I am pushing through the uncomfortable feelings, to help me ultimately achieve what I want to achieve. It’s not an easy journey, and I know I have to push myself out of my comfort zone moving forward. I am going to move forward with a voice on my shoulder, a helpful voice, telling me my thoughts aren’t necessarily true.
How can employers help?
Leaders can:
Talk about their own experiences
Create a culture to enable individuals to be more open at work
Organisations can:
Offer a mentoring system to enable individuals to talk about their positive attributes and realistically appraise areas that may be improved.
Create a culture that encourages failure as a learning opportunity rather than a road to doom.
Encourage open and compassionate relationships between workers and their managers.
Provide peer to peer networking to talk about experiences.
Momentum is gathering on improving wellbeing at work, and we need to see more of this, so individuals feel they can bring their whole selves to work. With the reduction of anxiousness in the workplace, improved performance will follow.
Further guidance
Dr Jessamy Hibberd and John Perry (details at the end of article) talk about some useful methods to help deal with imposter syndrome, which I recommend you look into. There are also therapists who can provide help if you need support, particularly if you are suffering from anxiety and depression as a consequence.
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Here are some resources that you may find useful to find out more:
The Imposter Cure, Dr Jessamy Hibberd, 2019; Aster The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women, Valerie Young, 2011, Crown; Overcoming Imposter syndrome, You are Not Alone Mental Health Summit, John Perry, March 2021 - YouTube (*1) Chandra, W., Heubert, C., Crowley, E., Das, A (2019); Imposter Syndrome: Could it be holding your mentees back? Commentary: Teaching, Education, and Career Hub| volume 156, issue 1, p26-32, July 01, 2019; The Totally Human Podcast – Jo Nicholson (author) and Andy Cast talk about their experiences of Imposter Syndrome www.totallyhumanpodcast.com