Do you also suffer from Imposter Syndrome?
Are you performance-oriented? Do you love it when something is perfectly done? Are you successful in your work? Do you get praise from others but still sometimes doubt yourself? Then you might just be suffering from Imposter Syndrome.
Because how often do you doubt your abilities? Despite your success? Despite your hard work and commitment? Do you ever catch yourself comparing your life to someone else's?
When you get an assignment or need to perform, do you go about your business like a man possessed? Do you set the bar extra high for yourself? And how does this performance pressure affect your resilience?
And what about that irritating little voice in your (back) head telling you that you didn't do anything special. That what you did was perfectly normal. Who is actually waiting for this? Others can do the same. That little voice is there even when you know that you have earned your success, right?
These are just a few examples that we all recognize and are known as excesses of the Imposter Syndrome. In Dutch we would call it the Cheater Syndrome, but that is a little less palatable. The Imposter Syndrome is not an official diagnosis by the way, it is more a collection of personality traits that we all carry within us. Both men and women "have" them. It is the fear of being exposed, and it often arises from the fear of not being good enough. There is a lack of confidence in one's own competencies while mastering them, and there is diminished resilience.
The 5 archetypal imposters
It could very well be, that you recognize yourself in one of these 5 archetypal imposters:
The perfectionist
You are afraid of making mistakes and you compensate by checking everything 10 times until it is 100% right. Check✅, check✅, double-check✅✅!
The superhero
You are afraid of falling through and so you are always proving that you are better than others. Cape on, big S on your chest and go! 🦸♂️
The soloist
You are so good, you don't have to make an effort, it is your innate talent. So you won't try your best either, because that's a sign of weakness. You will put time into something anyway and it fails... 🧞♀️
The genius
You're really not going to ask for help, because then they'll find out that you can't do it. Not good enough. And besides, you can do much better than the others, because they're all bound to make mistakes.
The expert
There is one area in which you begrudgingly excel, despite all your experience and all your knowledge. Every time you have to perform that one task it goes wrong. You are actually a kind of error expert 🧐.
Recognizable isn't it? By the way, chances are you recognize yourself in a combination of several archetypes of cheaters. Maybe you're a perfectionist super genius. Or a solo superhero. Or any other combination of the above types.
There is a danger in this syndrome and that is that you can run ahead of yourself. Not literally, of course, but it can lead to you asking more of yourself than you can, with all its consequences. So it makes sense to ask yourself where you are. How do you know if you are suffering from this and if you might be at risk?
Link between intelligence and Imposter Syndrome
There is an observable relationship between intelligence, level of education and feeling like an imposter. The higher a person is educated, the stronger one experiences feelings that fit with Imposter Syndrome. People with a higher IQ (you could call them "intelligent people"), low self-confidence, a lot of doubt and perfectionists are at the highest risk of suffering from Imposter Syndrome.
Research by Psychology Magazine among as many as 1,500 readers, shows that people whose parents were highly achievement-oriented, who were raised to be overprotective and/or had parents who exercised a lot of control are most at risk of feeling like a cheater. And if you think it will pass as you gain more experience, you'll be disappointed. Because making a career helps very little: unfortunately, the feelings and thoughts you have as an imposter do not disappear as you get better at your job.
It also affects famous people, whether they have won awards for their acting, received gold records for their music or are the CEO of a big company. Everyone suffers from it, some just more than others.
Performing better through Imposter Syndrome
That still begs the question of what imposter syndrome is actually good for. Fortunately, it has been shown to help us perform more, to get the best out of ourselves. Not to settle for less than perfect. People who suffer greatly from the perception of being an imposter are often very successful and outperform others. The performance of impostors actually shows that they are very capable, and to outsiders this is confirmation that they are in the right place.
So do you catch yourself thinking that someone else is very good at something and deservedly got that promotion? Then chances are that person is an imposter. And that in turn puts things in perspective nicely when you feel the same the next time.
How can you deal with Imposter Syndrome?
But how can you still deal with those annoying feelings and that irritating voice?
There is hope because in 2019, the American Journal of Vocational Behavior published an article on imposter syndrome. Incidentally, they then call it Perceived Imposterism, but the thrust remains the same. In this qualitative study of 20 professionals, they describe various tactics for dealing with it. An important starting point here is that it's not about you actually being an imposter, but about the perception you have of yourself as an imposter.
One of the best methods the researchers found is to seek support from people outside the environment in which you feel like an imposter. This works even better than when people seek support from peers or people with similar studies or backgrounds. When you pit yourself against peers, in business terms this would be called a peer group, chances are you will achieve the opposite. Because precisely the (fear of the) opinions of those people, are important for your feeling of being an impostor. So with them you will find the very confirmation of your imposter feelings. So start talking to people you trust and who have nothing to do with the (work) field in which you feel insecure.
It is also said that you are the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with. And this study proves that once again.
Another method that works well is to write down your qualities and achievements. Shift your attention from what is not good to what you can do. From uncertainty to quality.
You can do this very simply by taking an A4 sheet, folding it down the middle and listing on both sides of the fold what you have accomplished and what you can do.
Do you experience thoughts coming up only about things that didn't go well or that you can't do? Then use them to find a situation where the opposite was true. Before you know it, you'll have a laundry list of feathers you've given yourself!
Does Imposter Syndrome still affect your daily life and your resilience too much? With Team Heartbeats we are lovingly ready to support you in this. When you are more resilient, you get more confidence in yourself and your qualities, so you no longer have to run past yourself daily. We also want to give you the following message: don't be afraid to ask for help! This is a strength and you will not fall through when you do.
