Awareness of imposter syndrome
- Philip Brophy
- Mar 26
- 3 min read
Right place, right time? • 3 min read
A group of researchers analysed 62 studies on imposter syndrome, comprising over 14,000 participants.
Their analysis showed that imposter syndrome was common among both men and women and across a range of age groups (adolescents to late-stage professionals) and it was particularly high among ethnic minority groups.
The analysis showed that imposter syndrome is often associated with reduced job performance, poor job satisfaction, and burnout among various employee populations.
Introduction
It can often feel like our achievements aren’t real and we are where we are through sheer luck. No matter how much we succeed, we’ll attribute this success to chance and being in the right place at the right time.
This week, we’re going to explore ways to finally kick it to the curb for good!
So, let’s begin by exploring the topic of imposter syndrome.
What is imposter syndrome?
According to some psychologists, it is anyone who is unable to internalise and own their successes.
Lots of us will recognise the feeling of entering a workplace, being really excited by the challenge of our new role but niggled by those pesky feelings of doubting our abilities and feeling like a fraud.
Origin
The first study on ‘imposter syndrome’ was published in 1978 and the concept focused on high-achieving women.
It revealed that despite their outstanding academic and professional achievements, women who experience imposter syndrome persist in believing that they are not good enough. They believe that they are not bright and they have fooled anyone who thinks otherwise.
Who does it affect?
However, imposter syndrome affects all kinds of people from all parts of life: men and women from all types of professions.
Did you know that an estimated 70% of people experience these imposter feelings at some point in their lives?
This stems from either perfectionism or low self-esteem, despite performance-related evidence to the contrary.
Why is it important to tackle?
Imposter syndrome feelings can be crippling, it can worsen over time and even begin to hinder our performance. The constant anxiety makes us work much harder than necessary and over prepare, “making sure” that nobody finds us out.
All of a sudden, we are caught in a negative cycle - the experience of doing well at something does nothing to change our beliefs. Even though we might sail through a presentation, the negative thoughts still linger in our head.
The more we accomplish, the more we just feel like a phoney!
Smoke and mirrors or imposter syndrome?
Well, let’s see – do you identify with any of the below feelings?
I second-guess myself all the time. Why do I constantly have to ask for other people’s opinions?
I’m completely under qualified for this new job. They must have been desperate to hire me!
I’m only here by an absolute fluke. Clearly someone messed up in hiring me!
I didn’t achieve anything to be honest. The task was overly easy.
Honestly, don’t pay me anything! Why don’t I just do it for free?
Geez…how am I getting compliments over that – it was terrible! They’re just being nice!
I’m never going to live up to their expectations!
Does any of this sound familiar?
Fear not!
In our next lesson, we’ll look at ways to address this by implementing new behaviours that will help build up our self-belief.
Key takeaways
Imposter syndrome is the feeling we get when we attribute our successes to chance and being in the right place at the right time.
It causes us to experience regular feelings of self-doubt and we continually berate our performance.
It means that we are unable to objectively assess our competence and skill levels.
Think big, act small
Imposter syndrome is a debilitating mindset that can hinder our day-to-day performances in the workplace.
We simply want you to become aware of these feelings.
Take note of when they occur and in our next lesson, we’ll provide you with a range of antidotes!
Content sources
Inc., Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman on Making Smarter Decisions
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
Peak Performance, Brad Stulbergand Steve Magness
University of Queensland Australia, Axons: the cable transmission of neurons
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