Imposter syndrome
From information by Dr Valerie Young
People who feel like impostors hold themselves to unrealistic, unsustainable standards of competence.
Impostor syndrome isn’t just an “interesting self-help topic”. Impostor-related thoughts and feelings lead to unproductive behaviours which are costly to individuals and their organisation. An estimated 70% of achievers - men and women - have experienced impostor syndrome.
Dr Valerie Young, an internationally-recognized expert on impostor syndrome and co-founder of Impostor Syndrome Institute, has researched hundreds of thousands of people from a wide range of occupations and at all phases of their careers and five different types of imposter syndrome have emerged - each with its own unique focus:
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The Perfectionist - The primary focus is on “how” something is done, how the work is conducted and how it turns out. If there is one minor flaw in an otherwise stellar performance or 99 out of 100, this equals failure, shame.
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The Expert - The knowledge version of the Perfectionist, the primary concern is on “what” and “how much” you know or can do. Because you expect to know everything, even a minor lack of knowledge brings failure and shame.
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The Natural Genius - The Natural Genius also cares about “how” and “when” accomplishments happen. But for you, competence is measured in terms of ease and speed. The fact that you have to struggle to master a subject or skill or that you’re not able to bang out your masterpiece on the first try equals failure which evokes shame.
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The Soloist - Cares mostly about “who” completes the task. Because you think you should be able to do it all on your own, needing help, tutoring, or coaching is a sign of failure that evokes shame.
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The Superhuman - The Superhuman measures competence based on “how many” roles you can both juggle and excel in. Falling short in any role - as a parent, partner, on the home-front, friend, volunteer - all evoke shame because you feel you should be able to handle it all - perfectly and easily.
The only way to stop feeling like an Impostor is to stop thinking like an Impostor. Fortunately this new thinking can be learned - and supported on an organizational level. You need to move from an "Imposter" to a "Humble Realist".
People who don’t feel like Impostors are no more intelligent, capable, or competent than those of us who do. They just think different thoughts. Simply telling yourself or others, “You’ve got this.” “You can do this!” Or “You deserve to be here!” (all of which are true) won’t move the needle in any lasting way. That’s because people who are genuinely humble but have never had impostor feelings, think differently about three things. They:
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hold themselves to realistic standards of competence
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have a healthy response to failure, mistakes, and constructive “criticism”
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expect to experience self-doubt and fear – but keep going regardless
Dr Young gave a TED talk on the subject. Here are some excerpts:
Have you ever had those, "I'm in over my head and they're going to find out" feelings?
Maybe that's when you got a promotion or you started a business or you landed in a new role and couldn't believe they gave you the job. This tendency to discount or diminish obvious evidence of our abilities is called the imposter syndrome.
Psychologists are still telling us that the way to overcome impostor syndrome is to just keep talking about it. The more we can talk about our supposed ineptness the better we'll feel. I don't know if anybody ever talked about how fat you feel like do you feel any thinner.
Talking about impostor feelings is a start but you can't share your way out of impostor syndrome. So what does work? It begins by recognizing the people who really don't feel like Impostors are no more intelligent or capable than you or I. That the only difference between them and us is they think different thoughts.
Which is really good news because it means all we have to do is learn to think like a Non-Imposter. No-one likes to fail, no-one likes to make a mistake, no-one likes to not know the answer or to have an off-day or to struggle to master something, but when these things happen to Impostors, we experience shame. Non-Impostors know they can't be brilliant at everything and they're fine with that.
We have to pay attention to the conversation going on in our head so we can reframe it the way a Non-Impostor would. For example, a friend of mine was asked to put together a major presentation at the last minute. She nailed it but all she could think of was that was just a load of rubbish. A reframe would be, "How good am I that I can pull together information at the 11th hour that other people genuinely find useful."
That last part is really important because it speaks to a contradiction in impostor logic. Because when you think about it what we're really saying is other people are so stupid they don't realize we're incompetent.
The thing about impostor syndrome is that it affects up to 70% of people - not just high achievers. It's a confidence issue for a lot of people.
You can't just walk into session on ways to combat imposter syndrome as an Imposter and walk out a Non-Imposter. That's not how it works. In fact, feelings are the last to change. If you want to stop feeling like an impostor then you have to stop thinking like an impostor.
70% - that has measurable consequences for a business or a company. People using coping mechanisms, not raising your hand, not asking for promotions, not giving ideas, not sharing in meetings and of course, procrastination. If you have a number of people in the organisation engaging in those behaviours you're going to have a cost to the organisation. Managers need to be aware and mitigate.
Watch the 8 minute TED talk:
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From information by Dr Valerie Young, 03/07/2024