The Struggle is Real: How to Vanquish the Imposter Phenomenon

By Roger Berry, Senior Program Director at Berry Coaching + Consulting

Picture this: After careful preparation and planning, you just aced a meeting with a business partner, wrapped up a successful work event, or brilliantly answered every question in front of senior staff. Despite having every reason to declare victory in those achievements, doubt creeps in, we begin rationalizing what could have been executed better which leads us to have a serious lack of conviction in our abilities.

In talking to some of my friends and colleagues, I’ve noticed that it’s a quite common theme to think this way, even among high achievers. This feeling that we are a “fraud” or that “we don’t deserve to be successful” even with an excellent track record academically and professionally, was explored by psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes in the 1970s. According Clance and Imes, those affected by the phenomenon often attribute their successes to luck rather than to talent.

Research has found a staggering 70% of people have felt like an imposter at least once. That little voice inside our head can be very damaging to our self-esteem and self-worth. The voice can also manifest more when we are in a very competitive or unfamiliar situation, unleashing a pervasive sense of deep insecurity.

The journal Psychology Today explains that the imposter phenomenon is not considered a psychiatric disorder. Despite this, its effect may cause clinical anxiety, which can also evolved into regular stress in our daily lives. For young professionals especially, the imposter phenomenon impacts performance negatively more often hindering confidence to step up to leadership positions and feel a sense of real accomplishment.

Luckily this energy-sapping feeling can be combated with a few simple yet effective steps:

●     Call it by its name: identifying the problem is the first step to moving toward the right direction. Trust me, this feeling is more rampant than we know. 

●     Celebrate your wins: acknowledge and enjoy your accomplishments and praises given by others. This is particularly important for introverts.

●     Enlist the help of a mentor: talk confidentially with a trusted and experienced person in your field. We sometimes overlook those around us who can be of great help to overcome insecurity. You’ll be surprised to learn that they also have felt like that at some point in their career, and they can share with you how they coped with it.

●     Take on challenges: you will feel energized and reinvigorated after crushing challenges you were afraid of tackling before. This will boost your confidence, and serve as a stepping stone to accomplish more goals. 

Next time you are second guessing your performance and feeling like everyone else deserves the glory except yourself, remember to stop, be kind to yourself and accept how valuable you really are. Everlasting positive changes occur incrementally, and you don’t have to feel inadequate and alone. We can all benefit from continuous self-improvement while embracing ambitions and climbing the career ladder to achieve success.