Image courtesy of marcos-luiz-photograph @ Unsplash
Since I started to work around the topic of Imposter Syndrome, I frequently get asked to talk about it and I’ve noticed that there is a common theme around some of the questions I get asked, so I decided that I would share the commonly asked questions and my answers to them.
I love to take part in these interviews and raise the profile of Imposter Syndrome. When I started to specialise in this 3 years ago there wasn’t much out there about it, so I’m so pleased that many people are now wanting to talk about it. I wish these conversations were happening when I needed to hear them 20+ years ago but sadly we didn’t have the internet and access to the information we do now (showing my age here!). I might have realised how common and normal it is to experience this.
So here are the 5 common questions I get asked:
Q1. How would you describe imposter syndrome?
If I had to describe it I would say it’s doubting our abilities and competencies whilst not being able to recognise our own success and achievements. We have a skewed view of competence so whatever we do or achieve, it never matches up to our own high expectations of ourselves. We are our own worst critic.
Q2. How do we know if we are experiencing it?
We don’t wake in a morning thinking “oh I feel like an Imposter”, it’s much more subtle than that. How Imposter Syndrome affects us all can be different so how it shows up for me can be completely different for how it shows up for you but the underlying theme is we don’t feel like we are enough. We may feel like we don’t belong in the spaces we are in, feeling inferior to the people around us or we can feel under qualified for the job we’re doing or want to do and that then affects the way we think, feel and show up in the world.
If you resonate with this, then welcome to the club! It is more normal to feel this way than it isn’t, so you’re not alone in this.
Q3. Is it more common in women?
The original research was carried out involving women so for a long period of time it was thought it was something that affected women but this is something that affects all genders. The International Journal of Business Science in 2011 said that 7 out of 10 people will experience it at some point and more recently in 2018 research by Access Commercial Finance found that 62% of adults had experienced imposter syndrome at work in the last 12 months and within that study the breakdown was 66% of women and 56% of men experienced it.
My experience and work in this area leads me to believe that it can affect anyone and I have worked with both men and women, however in general I find that woman are more open to talk about their feelings and feelings of inadequacy more openly than men.
Q4. Do you think social media has had an impact on it?
Definitely both in a positive way and a negative way.
From a positive perspective, the profile has been raised and more people are talking about it and their own experiences, so at least people know they are not the only ones experiencing it. I definitely found comfort when I knew 7 out of 10 people would experience it, so I guess it’s the same. We feel like we belong and we are not alone.
The negative side is a lot of the time on social media we are seeing people’s highlight reels so it’s easy to fall down the comparison trap and assume that people are doing better than us because of what we see. However we need to be mindful that a lot of the time we’re comparing our inner world with someone else’s highlight reel and that is not a fair comparison. The best advice I ever heard about this was to keep your eyes in your own lane. Don’t get distracted by what other people are doing as you have no idea of their truth. When you feel comparison coming to bite you, stop scrolling and do one thing to help you move forward.
Q5. How do you overcome (or manage) imposter syndrome?
The first thing is to recognise that you’re experiencing it. Get clear on how it is showing up for you – be aware of your self talk and the way it is affecting the way you behave on a day to day basis, which falls into the imposter behaviour types of avoider or overworker.
At the heart of it is what you are believing about yourself and the great news is you can change your beliefs. Imagine something you used to believe in (such as Father Christmas!). You used to believe in it but now you don’t. Well you can apply that same principle to changing what you believe about yourself. Start to question your excuses, fears and thoughts and know you don’t have to believe everything you think. In fact don’t believe everything you think!!
Work on building your self esteem and inner confidence, whilst recognising and celebrating the small wins you have on a daily basis. Over time these add up and help you to see yourself in a different light.
The end result is you can see that you’ve always been much better than you have thought you were, you will say yes to more opportunities and you can start to enjoy the success you’ve been having all along. In the words of Glenda, the Good Witch “You had the power all along my dear”
If you would like to take the Imposter Assessment or discover your Imposter Type, then sign up to the free resources section of my website by clicking this link www.trishabarker.com/freeresources