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Imagine working from a place of feeling inadequate, waiting for someone to call you out and confirm your greatest fear that you’re not good enough. This is a common fear that people with Imposter Syndrome experience. So if you go to work from that space, how do you think you show up and do your work?
Well there are two common ways and that is by overworking or by avoiding and both of these definitely have an impact on our productivity and performance.
So, where does this behaviour come from? It all comes from a need to keep you safe. By either over working or avoiding the important work you reduce the risk of being found out as not good enough. If you experience Imposter Syndrome then you may find that you over work or avoid, although you can be a mixture of both.
Over Work
If you’re an overworker then its highly likely that you’re going above and beyond each day, pushing yourself to prove yourself – that you’re enough and capable. You are scared of dropping the ball or being criticised, so you over compensate and will put work before your own health and wellbeing. You rely on external validation for your work, so you need to work hard to prove your worth. In your quest to prove yourself and your abilities, there could be lack of boundaries between yourself and with the relationships you have at work and at home.
Some of the common practices of over work are:
· Getting stuck in perfectionism
· Working after hours
· Unable to say no to others
· Unable to switch off from your to do list
· Over preparing for meetings, presentations, workshops etc
· Spending lots of time checking things such as emails or social media posts you’ve written
· Being available at all hours to others
· Working on your days off and holidays
· You get to the end of the day and you’re focusing on what you didn’t get round to ticking off your list, despite putting in 100% + effort
By over working you’re likely to be heading for burnout. You see no matter how hard you work to prove yourself, it is a never ending cycle. After every success you fall back into the overwork pattern of behaviour, so you need to break the cycle. Everything needs time to rest and recharge including you.
Avoid
If you avoid, then you are likely to find ways to distract yourself from doing important work and by doing this you’re protecting yourself from criticism or validating that you’re not good enough. You leave things to the last minute or spend little time on something and then if your work is not up to standard then you can say that you didn’t spend much time on it.
Some of the common practices of an avoider are:
· Procrastinating (especially around the challenging and difficult things)
· Shying away from new opportunities
· Fail to speak up and share views or opinions
· Don’t start something new as you don’t feel qualified or ready
· You talk yourself out of situations and opportunities
· Avoid difficult situations
· You leave things to the last minute so you under prepare (this gives a perfect reason why something isn’t good enough)
· When things feel too much you think about giving up and getting a low paid job, moving area or taking a break to go travelling
· You get to the end of the day and you know that it’s been playing on your mind that you didn’t get that important work done
By avoiding you’re likely to be disappointed and criticise yourself for what you didn’t get done. We can tell ourselves that we didn’t have time etc but in fact we know deep down that we held ourselves back. Instead of waiting to be motivated or to feel confident, it’s best to take action regardless of the outcome.
So now that you have an awareness of the different ways you can behave, here are some questions to help you reflect?
Q. Which work type resonates with me the most?
Q. What ways do I avoid or over work?
Q. How is this behaviour affecting me at work?
Q. How is this behaviour affecting my health and wellbeing?
Q. Now that I have this awareness, what is the ONE thing I can implement to break this cycle of how I currently work
Q How will I know that I have broken the cycle, what am I doing differently?
One final important thing to remember is your brain is wired to keep you safe and it also loves the familiar, so it doesn’t like making changes. So to make a change it’s not easy but it’s not impossible either. With time, effort, practice and repetition, know that you can change the way you behave, one step at a time.
If this blog resonated with you in any way, I would love to hear from you. Let’s carry on the conversation and help you to tame your imposter, so you can thrive in your life and work.