Beating the imposter syndrome - the #1 antidote

I was coaching a sales manager who admitted she suffered from a lack of confidence and imposter syndrome. By imposter syndrome, the persistent fear of getting found out or belief that one's success is deserved.

She is not alone.

An estimated 85% of people suffer from low self-esteem according to research from Dr. Joe Rubino.

Some of the signs include

·        saying negative things and being critical about yourself.

·        joking about yourself in a negative way.

·        focusing on your negatives and ignoring your achievements.

·        blaming yourself when things go wrong.

The impact at work is that people don’t put their hand up for promotion, don’t stretch themselves and when promoted to a leadership role doubt themselves.

The data also says that imposter syndrome is more prevalent in women than men. A well-known study pointed out that while women look at a job description and only apply if they have all the attributes, men would apply if they reached the % of what was required

A KPMG study noted that 75% of female executives across industries have experienced imposter syndrome in their careers.

Whilst thought to mainly occur for women, studies have shown that there is evidence that men experience imposter syndrome just as much as women. The research also suggests men are more likely to have more severe anxiety due to that feeling compared to women. 

Back to my client. Despite the company promoting her to a management role, she didn’t feel confident in her ability as a leader.

It reminded me of when I was promoted to a sales manager position. I was a top performing salesman, and as a result was promoted to run a team. I succeeded in this so was then promoted to area manager. At one point I had 25 staff reporting to me and I was stressed out to the max. No leadership training. Very little support. There was the mistaken assumption that my technical excellence in sales would magically translate into management expertise.

People need to be given the skills and confidence to step up into leadership

I do believe that the strengths and skills we bring to each of our roles can be translated into other situations. For example in the case of the client she had the ability to be able to build rapport and relationships quickly.

Reflecting on success stories is the antidote to the imposter syndrome.

The times where we have been successful, engaged, time has flown and we have been able to achieve success.

It takes a bit of work and 80% of people never take the time to do the work of reflecting. As a result people often move from one role to another by chance or end up missing out on working in the “sweet spot” that exists when passions and talents are combined in what we do for work.

So take a moment to reflect on when you have been successful. The length of time it takes for you to brew and drink a cup of tea is all it takes. And if you get stuck reach out :) I would love to chat.