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Additional Resources Mentioned

3 Ways Imposter Syndrome helps you achieve genuine Success

How to convince people you’re an Expert with Integrity

Karmic Ally Coaching’s Executive Presence Checklist

The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: And Men by Dr. Valerie Young

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Did you know that many super-successful people are walking around with Imposter Syndrome right now? They are by all accounts very successful in their careers. Yet they feel lousy because they don’t think they deserve it.

They feel like a fake. That everything they’re doing is a fluke. They worry that at any moment someone else is going to find out about the truth.

We may experience Imposter Syndrome because we feel our success was too easy to come by compared to what we thought it would take.

The feeling of being fraudulent happens because it was simple to achieve. Then we start to think it’s not even that special because anyone can do it.

If you feel that way sometimes, then lean in because this is important.

While I’m going to highlight imposter syndrome in corporate women, the advice applies to both male and female professionals.

The way to deal with this erroneous feeling is to be realistic. Check on how many people in your situation have achieved what you have.

You’re likely to find out that not as many people have succeeded doing what you’re doing as you think. This information alone should help you realize that you had to be responsible at least a little for your achievement.

Even if other people could do it if they wanted to, you did it – they did not.

Back when I wrote my post on how Imposter Syndrome could be a steppingstone to achieve genuine success, I thought I had said it all.

In that post I shared my own story of dealing with the Imposter Experience when I became the CFO of a global major in the insurance sector in their Poland office. I had the skillsets to execute the role but no real background or technical knowledge about the insurance industry.

I pointed out the signs of Imposter Syndrome and shared tips based on my experience to overcome it.

The final tip was to use your experience to develop your own style of leadership.

In my case, that experience motivated me to do better and prove I had what it took to be successful in my new job.

What I didn’t articulate was that it came at a cost – the worrying that I might not make the grade.

With the right mentor and team support I succeeded. It still required one extra crucial element – self-belief.

No amount of activity to overcome this anxiety creating feeling will work until you’re ready to address your belief system and update it to realistic ones.

Our core beliefs are formed quite early in life and if any of them are self-deprecating, then that is an area you need to work on first.

It requires self-awareness and an inquiring mind to question the belief. Our brain is wonderful. It will find you all the evidence you need to reaffirm that belief.

To overcome that, ask if you also found evidence to the contrary and see what comes up.

Ironically, people with imposter syndrome are often highly accomplished, impressive individuals.

On the outside, there is no apparent reason for them to feel like an imposter, and yet they still do.

They don’t go around declaring it but they feel it deeply.

There’s no one size fits all when it comes to experiencing this syndrome.

Dr. Valerie Young, an expert on impostor syndrome and co-founder of the Impostor Syndrome Institute identified 5 basic types.

Maybe it’s a mix depending on the circumstances and situations.

According to the Journal of Behavioral Science, approximately 70% of people will feel Imposter Syndrome in their lifetime.

It’s more so for women professionals. The 2020 KPMG Women’s Leadership Summit Report delved deeper into this phenomenon.

While their report focused on corporate America, the findings are relevant to any region and industry where there are women in the workforce striving to achieve leadership positions.

Here are some eye-opening findings.

• 75% of female executives reported having personally experienced Imposter Syndrome at certain points in their career.
• 85% of the survey respondents believed it is commonly experienced by women in corporate America.
• 74% of executive women believed their male counterparts don’t experience feelings of self-doubt as much as female leaders do.
• 47% of executive women said that their feelings of Imposter Syndrome resulted from never expecting to reach the level of success they have achieved.
• Having a supportive performance manager was identified by 47% of respondents as the primary workplace factor to help reduce feelings of Imposter Syndrome.
• 29% cited that feeling valued and being rewarded fairly is integral to a positive work environment.

The part that I found interesting was that 81% of the executive women surveyed believed they put more pressure on themselves not to fail than men do.

The respondents identified self-imposed pressures and self-criticism as key contributing factors of doubt and uncertainty.

These women also gave themselves a much smaller margin for error than men in similar leadership positions.

Gender roles and stereotypes have a significant impact on a woman’s sense of belonging in a workplace, which can lead to experiencing Imposter Syndrome in some women leaders.

That report is not all doom and gloom though.

11% of the women surveyed didn’t relate to Imposter Syndrome.

Just as in my experience when I stepped into the CFO role for an insurance company without having much knowledge of the industry, these women didn’t experience a sense of unworthiness or a feeling of being incapable.

It was the self-awareness and knowing they had to stretch themselves, upgrade their core competencies and come up to speed.

In other words, they took up the challenge and stepped out of their comfort zone.

When career advancement opportunities arise, we as women professionals have to go for it.

Take the specific actions to overcome those feelings of self-doubt and Imposter Syndrome.

The tips in my previous blog post will get you out of this and onto better things.

I also believe that if you focus on developing your Executive Presence, you can alleviate the agony of Imposter Syndrome.

That’s contrary to the advice I keep seeing where one is advised to overcome Imposter Syndrome in order to be perceived as having Executive Presence.

The way I see it, Executive Presence is all about how other people perceive us.

When we change the way we perceive ourselves, we send out the message that we have the potential to achieve more and be good leaders.

Executive presence requires getting three things right: appearance, communication, and gravitas. These in themselves are a set of behaviours.

By developing the skill of self-awareness, we’d be able to identify the areas for further development, up skilling and reskilling.

With that knowledge, we’d also counter Imposter Syndrome because we are taking active steps.

The tips I shared in my other post will help with this. There are some specific ways though to developing our Executive Presence that will counter Imposter Syndrome.

Let’s take a look.

The first thing I suggest is to identify and focus on your strengths rather than moan about your weaknesses. Quite often we don’t understand or appreciate our strengths.

Consider asking your boss or peers what they think are your strong points. Look at your appraisals. One of the benefits of seeking a 360-degree feedback is you’ll get a lot of information from your co-workers who know you well. I’ve got an entire exercise on how to identify those strengths.

Using any of these methods will move you towards being more confident about your abilities.

Remember that if you’ve been offered a leadership position or responsibility, it is because of strengths and competencies that are visible to the person who has given you that responsibility.

Nobody expects you to know everything from Day 1.

There is no shame in asking others who know more about the systems and processes to guide you until you have the required information to bring your skills and talents into the picture.

It’s an action that many CFOs and CEOs do when they join a new organization. They spend the first month or two giving face time to the people they are supposed to lead and stakeholders. They ask questions about the system and any ideas people may have.

Armed with all of the new information, create a plan to cover areas where you have control. Include areas where the outcomes might not be what you anticipate. If you still get the heebie-jeebies, ask yourself, what’s the worst that can happen? Then plan out for contingencies.

It goes without saying that you need to keep developing your Executive Presence.

This is not a one and done skill that you can acquire through a workshop but a skill set that requires consistent application.

Not sure if you’re demonstrating Executive Presence? Get a free copy of Karmic Ally Coaching’s Executive Presence Checklist and see where you stand. Ask a trusted colleague or maybe two to assess you on that checklist and then work on the gaps.

Finally, remember that you have value.

The hard thing for people who have imposter syndrome to understand is the value they provide by being who they are. Even if 100,000 people are doing what you want to do, you provide a unique input and value to your version of that thing that no one else can ever provide.

Anytime you can provide something for someone, it is valuable (and that value is in the eye of the beholder); it doesn’t matter if it’s a commodity or if it’s totally 100 per cent unique.

Your special touch adds just enough value to make it worthwhile to you and to others. When you accept your value to the world, you’ll be able to let go of imposter syndrome and instead of asking, “why me?” you’ll start asking “why not me?”

Overcoming imposter syndrome is to accept that you are important as you are.

That you offer something special even if it’s similar to others, and that you are valuable in your own right. You are valuable just because you exist and the thing you do add value to the lives around you, even if it’s not totally original or new.

When you keep that in mind, you’ll not only overcome imposter syndrome but also demonstrate Executive Presence because you have the confidence.

Would you like to add to the conversation? I’d love to read about your views and experiences.

This is Vatsala Shukla for Karmic Ally Coaching signing off. Bye for now.