Imposter Syndrome at work
Imposter Syndrome: TIPS for Success in the Workplace
By Tayla Stucke
Work is a core component of our identity – we spend around a third of our life at work, building relationships and a sense of self. Imagine, then, feeling like an imposter at work and wondering when you’ll be found out you’re not as competent as others think you are. Remarkably, around 70% of people have experienced Imposter Syndrome at some point in time [1] - where they feel like a fraud and aren’t able to internalise their successes. It affects people from all professions, including university students, academics, students, lawyers, tech professionals, construction, and the like. Transitions in work roles, increased work complexity, and promotions can all trigger self-doubt and lead to imposter syndrome. Let’s see how imposter syndrome shows up in the workplace:
Tate is hard worker who puts in long hours on a minesite. Their performance and can-do attitude has caught the eye of senior management, and Tate has been promoted multiple times within the first year at work and is now supervising people they first started work with. This causes Tate anxiety – after all, why would they listen when Tate has the same years of experience as them? Feeling underserving of the supervisor position, Tate takes on extra reading about management in addition to long days working onsite.
Alice is starting her first year as a surgical registrar. Whilst relieved to finally make it onto a surgical program she has significant doubts – Did she deserve a spot or was she let in due to an error…did she just fluke the interview? Alice feels like an imposter, and this is amplified on a daily basis when she encounters information she doesn’t know. To cope, Alice spends her free time studying up so that she has an answer for any question that comes her way, and tries to avoid giving responses if she is able to. Needless to say, she experiences overwhelm and burnout as a result.
Fresh out of university and two months into his first ‘real’ job as a lawyer, Ethan jumps at the opportunity to join a panel discussion on burnout in lawyers in front of an auditorium of university students. It’s not long until panic sets in as Ethan feels inferior to the other more experienced panellists, leading him to researching exhaustively on the topic. Whilst Ethan does receives positive feedback at the panel discussion for sharing his experiences with burnout, he brushes it off, more relieved that he hadn’t been exposed to be a fraud, and considers himself lucky that he had such a ‘junior’ audience.
Tate, Alice, and Ethan are all competent individuals who have earned their positions through hard work. However, they feel undeserving of the positions they find themselves in and can’t seem to shake persistent self-doubt. That’s the thing about imposter syndrome…it takes away your accomplishments and competence, tricking you into thinking that external factors are the reason for your achievement – luck, your skill in deflection and deception, and the audience’s kindness or lack of awareness of the subject matter.
SIGNS OF IMPOSTER SYNDROME AT WORK
Think of imposter syndrome like a nagging voice in your head telling you that you're not good enough, even when all signs say otherwise. The term imposter syndrome is a variation of ‘imposter phenomenon’, a phrase coined by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes to describe the persistent doubt of one's success despite evidence suggesting otherwise, alongside an inability to internalise successes [1]. Below are some ways in which imposter syndrome shows up at work.
You feel like a fraud, that others think you are far more competent than you really are, and that you’ll be exposed.
Like our doctor Alice, there’s moments of looking over your shoulder and thinking that you’re only in your position because of some error, and that it will all be taken away from you in an instant. Holding this belief often leads to heightened pressure on yourself to maintain this perception of you. [2, 4]
You routinely compare yourself to your colleagues and come off worse.
Social comparison is a strong maintaining factor in imposter syndrome - you compare your perceived shortcomings to what you consider to be the talents of your colleagues. That is, you cherry pick your flaws and hold them up against others’ strengths – understandably, feelings of inadequacy can arise, and reinforce the belief that you’re not good enough to perform in your role. [5]
You struggle to internalise your achievements and successes
Thanks to imposter syndrome, your achievements are dismissed and explained away as resulting from external factors like luck or others’ support, rather than recognising the role that your skills and abilities played in the success. [2, 4]
You rely on behaviours to hide your perceived shortcomings
When you feel like a fraud, you behave in ways to avoid being found out:
You may overcompensate (perfectionism, we’re looking at you!) by working towards impossible standards to avoid potential failure and exposure much like Ethan the lawyer.
You may also procrastinate at first, then rush to finish the job and qualify your performance with the time pressure you were under (Learn more about the link between perfectionism and procrastination here).
Or, you try to avoid the task altogether to avoid the potential for failure.
While these behaviours may help you avoid scrutiny in the short term, unfortunately they maintain Impostor Syndrome by reinforcing your belief that your abilities aren’t good enough as they currently stand. [2, 3, 4]
WHEN DOES IMPOSTOR SYNDROME APPEAR?
Impostor syndrome can rear its head in a variety of workplace scenarios, with transitions and changes in roles and responsibilities often highlighting imposterism, as seen in the situations facing Tate our supervisor and Alice our doctor. Stepping into higher responsibilities often involves being confronted with unfamiliar tasks and scenarios at work, which can lead to uncertainty and feelings of imposterism. [2] Some more specific transition points may include:
Moving from studying or training into a work setting when you find yourself facing new challenges whilst working with highly experienced colleagues. Feelings of insecurity and self-doubt can intensify due to unhelpful social comparisons with those far more experienced than you. [6]
Promotions and advancement into more senior roles can also trigger impostor syndrome, leading you to doubt your competence and ability to meet the increased demands of your new position – this may be working on more technically complex projects, or taking on new tasks (for example, managing a budget for the first time). [2]
Stepping into the leadership space or being lauded for your expertise can also prompt feelings of imposter syndrome. Being seen as a leader in a particular space or field means people may expect you to have all of the answers and be skilled at guiding and mentoring others. The pressure to meet both your own and others' expectations can be overwhelming. [2]
A NOTE ON IMPOSTER SYNDROME + MENTAL HEALTH
Given a significant amount of time is spent at work, constantly living in the imposter headspace can have a real impact on your mental health.
Feeling out of your depth and scrambling to learn everything you can is likely to lead to overwhelm and burnout. In James’ case, spending all of his time learning about lawyer burnout has resulted in increased stress and leading to panic. Similarly, Tate is new to being a supervisor and upskilling on management techniques in addition to long work days onsite.
Spending all your time preoccupied at work and/or overcompensating to avoid being exposed can result in stress, reduced quality of life and work/life balance, and depressive symptoms, as in Alice’s case. Unfortunately, Alice is only at the very start of her long surgical training period.
The challenge is that these difficulties can affect energy levels, motivation, concentration, and memory – all of which are important for work performance. This, in turn, can lead to feelings of inadequacy and exacerbate imposter syndrome.
TIPS TO MANAGE IMPOSTER SYNDROME AT WORK
If you feel plagued by imposter syndrome at work, here are our top tips to help you contain your inner critic.
TIP 1: Flip the Script on Unhelpful Self-Talk
Unhelpful self-talk can be a relentless companion, especially when grappling with imposter syndrome. Recognising and challenging the thoughts that come from your own inner critic can be a great first step.
The next time you feel anxious when faced with a competence-related task, turn your focus inwards to your thoughts. What do they sound like? Here are some examples to look out for:
"I just got lucky this time. I'm not really that skilled."
"Everyone else seems to have it all figured out. I'll never measure up."
"I only succeeded because someone was nice to me. I couldn't have done it on my own."
"I don't deserve to be here. Eventually, people will find out I have no idea what I’m doing."
Once you've identified your unhelpful thoughts, practice interrogating them, looking for what evidence there is to support your thoughts vs. what evidence there is against it, acknowledging BOTH positive and negative evidence exist.
For Tate the supervisor, this looks like balancing feeling out of depth in a new role and area they are not knowledgeable in (managing others) with recognising that they have been promoted on the merit of their performance.
TIP 2: Embrace Failure as a Friend and Not a Foe
A fear of failure in imposter syndrome can trigger stress and anxiety, as well as frantic efforts to avoid having failed. Fundamentally, it is the viewing of failure as a threat that contributes to negative feelings and actions. What this mindset ignores, however, is that failure is not always a negative outcome, but rather it is crucial to both personal and professional growth:
If failure is viewed negatively and as something to avoid, being faced with the possibility of failure stress and anxiety can be daunting and result in avoidance and/or overcompensation.
If failure is seen as part of a problem-solving exercise (involving trial and error), challenges and setbacks are seen as crucial to growth and development. A fear of failure (and, by extension, being ‘found out’) eases.
For our doctor Alice, this may include acknowledging that:
She has a very steep learning curve ahead of her, and that she will make many mistakes - no registrar starts off as an expert and comparing herself to senior consultants with decades of experience is unhelpful.
What she perceives to be ‘failures’ is just a collection of knowledge that she doesn’t yet possess, but being around the consultants highlight specific areas for her to focus on in her training. Adopting such a growth mindset helps her to embrace failure better.
TIP 3: (Really) Celebrate the Wins!
Imposter syndrome can overshadow successes, leading to the discounting of achievements. However, taking time to reflect on the work that you did, the skills that you drew on, and the process of achieving your goal can help bolster your sense of self-efficacy and esteem.
For James, this would involve recognising that he was invited to speak on the panel, appreciating the positive feedback he received from his presentation, acknowledging that his input was well received alongside his more senior co-panellists, and seeing the panel discussion as an opportunity to learn from others.
TIP 4: Seek Tailored Support
As you can see from the examples of Tate, Alice, and James, each person’s experience of imposter syndrome and the circumstances they face are all unique. So, whilst we have suggested general tips above, we recommend you seek tailored support for imposter syndrome with a psychologist experienced working in the intersection between work performance and wellbeing (like me! I also have a particular interest in helping those stepping into the leadership space). Work collaboratively to understand the specific triggers for your imposter syndrome, identify unhelpful mindset and self-talk, and find a path forward to ease the hold of imposter syndrome.
REFERENCES
[1] Clance, P. R., and Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0086006
[2] K.H., A. and Menon, P. (2022), Impostor syndrome: an integrative framework of its antecedents, consequences and moderating factors on sustainable leader behaviors, European Journal of Training and Development, Vol. 46 No. 9, pp. 847-860. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-07-2019-0138
[3] Grubb, W. L., & Grubb, L. K. (2021). Perfectionism and the Imposter Phenomenon. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 21(6). https://doi.org/10.33423/jop.v21i6.4831
[4] Maftei, A., Dumitriu, A., & Holman, A.-C. (2021). ”They will discover I’m a fraud!” The Imposter Syndrome Among Psychology Students. Studia Psychologica, 63(4), 337–351. https://doi.org/10.31577/sp.2021.04.831
[5] Gutierrez, D. (2022) The Impact of Impostor Phenomenon in the Workplace: A Multi-Generational Perspective. dissertation. https://www.proquest.com/openview/549a251f717dbda4948fc53ef61abaf3/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
[6] Stelling, B. E. V., Andersen, C. A., Suarez, D. A., Nordhues, H. C., Hafferty, F. W., Beckman, T. J., & Sawatsky, A. P. (2022). Fitting In While Standing Out: Professional Identity Formation, Imposter Syndrome, and Burnout in Early Career Faculty Physicians. Academic Medicine, Publish Ahead of Print. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000005049