Impostor Syndrome

Are you afraid of being “found out”?

A chance conversation recently led me to investigate Impostor Syndrome. The conversation was with a teacher, who told me of her constant fear of being “found out” as not really being competent at her job. This was despite comments from her bosses and colleagues which clearly showed her to be a highly-respected teacher.

Frequently, though not exclusively, found in the workplace, sufferers credit their success as being due to luck rather than their own abilities.

Impostor Syndrome is different from The Peter Principle, the theory that people are promoted to the level of their incompetence.

Impostor Syndrome sufferers are perfectly competent in the eyes of their bosses and colleagues. And yet they don’t see the qualities in themselves that others see.

Claire was horrified when her boss wanted to give her the highest grade in her annual assessment. She didn’t feel she deserved it and was afraid of having to live up to it during the following year. John, who had been invited to run a weekend workshop said, “Who am I? What do I know?” and yet reported after the event that it was a great success. There was also a student who believed the place she had been awarded at university must have been down to a clerical error.

We so often fail to see in ourselves the qualities that others see in us. The result is that we may not enjoy our success and may hold ourselves back from further advancement in our careers, or other areas of life.

My experience as a coach is that people can come to see in themselves the qualities that others see. I have seen self-belief emerge in clients so that they learn to recognise themselves as being wonderful, if imperfect, human beings. They can then allow themselves to shine.

As my singing teacher always says, “Remember, everyone else is only half as good as you think they are, while you are twice as good as you think you are.”

About the Author:
Sally Allnutt from Clear Path Coaching (http://wwww.clearpathcoaching.co.uk) is a …

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