Thank you, Jessica McClure, for contributing this guest post!
Impostor Fraud, Impostor Syndrome: that feeling like you aren’t equipped to do your job, may that be brains, power or ability…
It can hit anyone. The successful entrepreneur, the individual contributor, the Founder or the CEO… we are surrounded by so much noise that it’s easy to fall into the comparison trap. You could read a new self-help book every day and take a piece from each, you can follow people you admire on social media taking a page from their play book, you can read about employee experiences with successful leaders and assume you should be more “like them”, the list goes on and on and it’s exhausting…
How Schooling Sets the Stage for Comparison
We often want this magic wand telling us exactly what we need to do and how to do it, just like we had in school. Our teachers told us what to study, what to expect on the test and we knew that if we studied hard enough we could get a gold star. For some, they learned through listening and observing in the classroom and did well on tests without having to actually “study”.
And that’s where Impostor Fraud slides in for the first time.
It begins with … “they don’t know how hard I had to study to get this good grade, I’m actually not that smart” or conversely “it just comes easy to me” or “I got lucky with that grade”. Or maybe, you think you are that smart, study that hard and then comes the real world where you aren’t top dog anymore. The comparisons begin.
Workplace Feeds the Loop
Then comes the workplace. If we’re lucky we have a good manager who is equipped to train us and create an open, honest conversation that allows us to see where improvement is needed while owning our strengths. And through those channels we thrive.
More often we are thrown into a new situation and left to sink or swim, figure out what is needed from us and how to deliver. If we are only given positive feedback, we sense that’s not true and use our mental power to come up with personal critiques of the job we are doing. If we’re only given negative feedback, it’s just fuel for the fire of our own mental demons.
On top of all that, there is no playbook on how to do your job.
The dictionary definition of an Impostor is: a person who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others, especially for fraudulent gain; and fraud: a person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.
The double whammy of trying to BE someone else while taking home a paycheck..
I See Impostor Fraud Show Up In My Clients, Both Female and Men
Some of the ways it appears:
- Not wanting to be seen as a “jerk” so protecting their employees or not enforcing accountability, knowing that they actually aren’t doing anyone any good, least of all their employees
- Being afraid to speak up in meetings because what they have to say isn’t important
- Coming across so dominant and aggressive, because otherwise they fear they won’t be taken seriously
- Moving up the career ladder while feeling like they just got “lucky” and don’t deserve it
- The list goes on and on…
3 Steps to Combat Impostor Fraud
- Create AWARENESS around what stories and/or beliefs we tell ourselves OR that are told to us.
- PRACTICE with tools, action and changing behavior.
- COMMIT to creating change.
These three steps usually require you have someone on your team or in your immediate vicinity that you can trust, be it a manager, a mentor, or a friend, that can help you out of your own singular perspective and to help you notice and discuss your impact. This is where an executive or leadership coach can be very helpful, to help guide around awareness and practices that will create the biggest difference, while holding you accountable to your commitment, thus creating space for change.
How Managers Affect the Culture
For the managers and executives out there who can personally relate to this, you have the ability to create the culture where you are at and shift how your employees feel. One of my first questions to new clients is how do you manage your direct reports? Where does micromanaging need to end, where do you need to give more hands on attention and how are you giving feedback – both good and negative.
Creating Transparency and Trust within a Team
One of the experiences I love to provide as a Leadership Coach is to work with a team on creating harmony within their group.
I do this by first talking about impostor fraud and then asking each member to write on a piece of paper anonymously where they have felt like an impostor and drop it into a hat. Then pass the hat around and have each person read a slip of paper — it’s freeing to see that every person around the table has a story. We then go on to create powerful feedback structures and awareness to allow change to start.
I believe part of the reason that this is still such a hot topic, is because the first step, the awareness is there — but the 2nd of creating practice around breaking the cycle isn’t.
If this resonates with you, I challenge you to choose one thing that you will practice… maybe it’s something I listed above, or something from Yes, I Experience Imposter Syndrome or 10 Successful Leaders Share Their Struggles With Impostor Syndrome and How To Overcome It and as you practice and start seeing results, I hope you’ll be committed to breaking this cycle for yourself.
If you’d like one on one support and accountability then I suggest going straight for a coach, either one within the Reverb stable or reach out to me directly. My mission is for every person to own their confidence and knowledge of their personal strengths in the place we spend most of our time… our work.
Jessica is an energetic, grounded, and intuitive coach who works with clients to lead from a place of their authentic strengths with presence and confidence. As a Leadership Coach, I have worked with leaders across multiple disciplines in technology, finance, and startups to achieve their peak performance level and beyond.
