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According to psychology today, “people who struggle with imposter syndrome, believe that they are undeserving of their achievements. They feel that they aren’t as competent or intelligent as others might think. They think people will discover the truth about them and this truth will be the opposite of what the people actually believe. Those with imposter syndrome are often well accomplished. They may even hold high office or have numerous academic degrees.”
The imposter syndrome is a term coined by Dr. Pauline Rose Clance in the 1980s.Â
In fact, at the very beginning of research on imposter syndrome, it was only associated with high achieving women. Research subsequently found that over 70% of us suffer with imposter syndrome at some point. In fact, if you are a high achiever, the research suggests that you are 25 to 30% more likely to suffer from this imposture syndrome.
In this episode Michel discusses mindset, mentorship and other strategies to address the imposture syndrome.Â
She shares the story of Paul, a senior IT engineer, who has very strong communicator skills and a great ability to deliver presentations. Paul is admired by his peers and clients but doesn’t agree with their assessment of his abilities because he suffers from the imposter syndrome.Â
Michel suggests that our ability to accurately assess ourselves will give us a better, more holistic view of our strengths, our talents alongside the areas that we need to improve.
When an organization has high achievers like Paul within it who have great skills and competencies and are held back by the imposter syndrome, it impacts Paul, it impacts his teammates and the organization.
Please go to UpSkillCommunity.com to review show notes and join a community of leaders investing in better understanding themselves so they can address the imposter syndrome in their work and lives.
By very popular request. I am covering the imposture syndrome in this episode. The imposter syndrome is a term coined by Dr. Pauline rose. Clance in the 1980s. And according to psychology today. People who struggle with imposter syndrome, believe that they are On deserving of their achievements. they feel that they aren’t as competent or intelligent as others might think. And that’s soon enough. People will discover the truth about them. And this truth will be the opposite of what the people actually believe. Those with imposter syndrome are often, uh, well accomplished. They may hold high office or have numerous academic degrees. In fact, at the very beginning of research on imposter syndrome, it was only associated with high achieving women. But research subsequently found that over 70% of us suffer with imposter syndrome at some point. And in fact, if you are a high achiever, the research suggests that you are 25 to 30%. Likely to suffer. From this imposture syndrome
Michel Shah:Â
Welcome to UpSkill Talks brought to you by McGraw Hill. I’m your host, Michel Shah lead UpSkiller at UpSkill Community. UpSkill Talks is a podcast for leaders, leaders who are actively seeking innovative and creative ways to interact lead themselves and others. In every episode, through real life stories and enlightening conversations, we will explore the challenge. And opportunities real leaders face in today’s everchanging workplace. We will present you with real strategies for you to leverage your soft skills and produce transformative results. Thank you for joining me on this journey. Let us begin.
Let me tell you a story about Paul. Paul. Suffers suffers, truly suffers. From the imposter syndrome. Paul is a senior it engineer, a coveted role. A very, very strong communicator as well. Another skill does very coveted. He has been a master at delivering presentations for his organization for over 10 years. Very positive feedback from clients upper management and his peers. I should make Paul feel confident in his presentation skills. He has gotten loads and loads of recognition all around on presentation. Yet. Paul does not agree with them that he should have been chosen to mentor and share strategies with his peers on how to improve their presentations. So when his manager came to him, To take on this responsibility. Paul downplayed his competency in delivering presentations. And he tells his boss that what his boss doesn’t know is that the next presentation could very well be a bust. So he. Does not appreciate the spotlight because that puts pressure on him and increases his anxiety and increases the risk that the next presentation may likely be that bust. And so he declined the opportunity. To share his highly developed communication and particularly presentation skills with his team. Not because he isn’t willing to share with his team, but because of this fear, Paul’s imposter syndrome is going to work with him every day. And it shows up. In a big way on the days when paul has presentations So here are a few things I want to share with you in this episode, so that we level set our understanding of the imposter syndrome. And you will have an opportunity to see if it’s showing up in your work in your organization, in your team, in your own life. I’ll share five. Key things with you to start to this conversation. Number one. The imposter syndrome. Is internal. It lives inside of us. So no one has to know that we have it, but it’s locked up deep inside of us. Number two. It is a feeling perception. Experience. Sensation. But something we experienced personally. So the imposture syndrome is personal. Number three. It is persistent. This Feeling. is not something you have in a minute and it disappears. It is persistent. It is defined by its persistence. Number four. It’s the doubting of your abilities, doubting your accomplishments. It’s that Feeling of inadequacy, Feeling on qualified, Feeling under qualified Feeling On deserving that persistent feeling. That you can’t shake. and number five it’s fear of being found out as a fraud. Despite evidence of your ongoing success. This reluctance to acknowledge and celebrate your own accomplishments. Reluctance to celebrate you your effort. Your skills, your abilities to ingest and embrace the feedback. That’s positive. The compliments. The results. To shy away from that and switch over. With the negative lens to the deficiencies that you see. And to use the deficiencies to overshadow all that is positive and all that is going great for you. This is what we’re talking about when we’re talking about the. Imposter syndrome. The imposture is how I refer to it. Z imposture. I want to talk to us a little bit more about some of the characteristics that are essential for us to really understand it. One, it’s a mindset of focusing on deficiencies. So we have to manage the mindset that we bring to work that we have in our personal lives that we have in our social lives. The mindset of deficiency lends itself perfectly to invite the imposter syndrome, into your life. When you focus on all of your deficiencies. And ignore your strengths when you focus on what you didn’t get right today and ignore everything that you did perfectly, everything that you achieved. That mindset of deficiency leaves room. It’s the fertile ground. For the imposter to come in and take hold. So we want to make sure that we are focusing on shifting our mindset from a mindset of deficiency to one. Of more strengths and accomplishments focusing on what we do well, as opposed to what we do not do well. So, if you’re wondering where we get this mindset of deficiency from it’s from everywhere around us is how we were brought up is how we as parents continue to do it for our children. Think about that mindset of deficiency. When your child comes home and the child got at nine to five and you say, what happened here? How come you made the silly mistake? This is our mindset of deficiency that not only is it impacting us now, but we’re setting up the next generation. To have the same thing continue. So the mindset of deficiency doesn’t allow us to see, oh, 95%. This is amazing. Excellent work. Great effort here. I like how you did this. Instead. It goes. I cannot believe you made this silly mistake over here. We bring that into our own lives. And when we do that presentation and everybody says, this is great. We come away and go, oh my goodness. I cannot believe I left this out. I can not believe I mispronounced that word. I cannot believe I skipped out the space. We are not pausing to acknowledge. You just did a great job. Everybody liked it. It was great. We’re not doing that. So that mindset of deficiency is a really important thing that we need to shift. So that’s number one. The second thing that we have to shift is our ability to accurately assess ourselves because that will then give us a better, more holistic view of who we are. Because it will acknowledge and incorporate all of our strengths, our talents, the skills, the levels of competencies. Alongside the areas that we need to improve on, but won’t be waited. Completely in favor of what we don’t have. If we are accurate in our self-assessment, we will also be accurate in measuring our areas of strength. And that is going to be critical. For us to be able to bring our best selves to our work, to our relationships, to our social and engagement. And we need people with talents showing up. And Sharon. In order for us to move this ball forward and to make our organizations better and to make our world a better place. When an organization has. High achievers like Paul within it. Who have great skills and competencies. Where the imposture holds him back from being able to share that with the rest of the team, it impacts Paul, it impacts his teammates. It also impacts the organization. It impacts what we’re able to achieve the rate at which we’re able to achieve it. And it certainly impacts. Long-term productivity performance. Long-term profits. It impacts our people relationships. It impacts our culture. It impacts everything about us. And so we want to engage in opportunities for reciprocal mentorship, for ongoing, coaching particularly with our higher achievers. Sometimes we focus more with our low achievers that are high achievers. Go and look at our high achievers. How can we continue to have these conversations that will make them feel safe enough to shift away? Focus from those deficiencies and focus on what is really good and begin to believe in their own abilities and begin to share their skills and competencies with others When that happens. It’s going to make this world a better place for all of us, that organizations will prosper. And someone like Paul will feel better about himself and begin to share his talents across the organization. So the imposter syndrome, it shows up at work, but that’s not the only place it shows up what’s important is that wherever it shows up, it has an impact on our ability to get better at a better pace. And it affects how we feel about ourselves and how we are able to support and collaborate with each other.
Michel Shah:Â
thank you for listening to this episode of UpSkill Talks brought to you by McGraw Hill. We bring you new episodes every Monday. Please take a moment to subscribe, leave a five star rating and a written review at apple podcast. Or follow us on. By Google podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, don’t forget to share UpSkill talks with other leaders like yourself. So they too may gain the skills and insights to produce amazing results. Please go to UpSkillCommunity.com to review show notes and learn how you can join a community of leaders from across the globe. Collaborating to lead in a more meaningful and impactful way. I’m your host, Michel Shah. And again, thank you for joining me on this episode of UpSkill Talks.
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