High-fliers are often plagued by insecurity that they don’t know what they are doing and will soon be found out. Executive coach Bill Britten of Maynard Leigh Associates works with executives to uncover and work through these fears so they can achieve their full potential. In a Q&A, Britten speaks with DerivSource about how individuals can overcome these surprisingly common feelings of self-doubt, and what companies can do to nurture their executive talent.
DerivSource: What is imposter syndrome?
Britten: According to Wikipedia, imposter syndrome refers to “high-achieving individuals marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. More broadly, it refers to people, who, despite success and sometimes high levels of seniority, don’t feel like they know what they are doing, while everybody else does. They often believe that they are bluffing their way along and are going to get caught soon.
DerivSource: Who is affected by imposter syndrome?
Britten: It can affect anyone. A lot of very high-achieving people have talked about this feeling of being a fraud. Actress Meryl Streep—who has been nominated for an Academy Award 19 times and won three—has said, “You think, ‘Why would anyone want to see me again in a movie? And I don’t know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?” Nobel Laureate Maya Angelou has said, “I have written eleven books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.’ ”
While women are often more ready to admit to feelings of insecurity than men, imposter syndrome can affect men just as much. “All I can see is everything I’m doing wrong that is a sham and a fraud,” said Actor Don Cheadle.
It is not just actors who are affected. Ajay Chopra, founder of the Fast Company, has said: “It’s 4 a.m. and I’m not sleeping. I’m wondering if my company will make it to the next quarter. I told the board, my team, my investors—I told everybody—that everything would be fine. But truthfully, I don’t know if it will.” There are high-flying academics at the top of their field, and very senior company executives, who fully expect someone to tap them on the shoulder and say, “I don’t know how you got the job, but you shouldn’t be here. Could you please leave?”
DerivSource: What impact can imposter syndrome have on people’s careers?
Britten: I think it can hold people back terribly—especially women. Women are said to be less willing to take risks than men, which can be a good or a bad thing. They may be less likely to do things that are career threatening, company damaging or illegal. But they may also be less willing to offer dissenting opinions or apply for more senior positions.
It is difficult to gauge fully because people don’t tend to be very open about this sort of thing. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that women tend not to apply for jobs in the same way men do. Women might apply for a job where they feel they are 80% qualified, whereas men might say, “I’m 20% qualified for the role and I will blag the rest”. Imposter syndrome could prevent qualified women from applying for a role—or if they have the job, it could prevent them from delivering, because it is not easy to suppress this self-doubt. So while imposter syndrome may affect men and women equally, its ultimate impact on women may be greater.
“There are high-flying academics at the top of their field, and very senior company executives who fully expect someone to tap them on the shoulder and say “I don’t know how you got the job, but you shouldn’t be here. Could you please leave?”
DerivSource: What impact can it have on firms?
Britten: Companies can miss out on valuable talent, key contributions, and creativity can be stifled. If you suffer from imposter syndrome, it can be difficult to speak up in meetings and be the lone voice if you are surrounded by a lot of apparently self-confident people who are all agreeing with each other. Self-doubt or the feeling that a person doesn’t really know what they are doing will undoubtedly prevent important contributions and reality checks from coming out. You could argue the entire financial crisis was caused by too few people being willing to say, “Hold on a minute, I don’t think this is a very good idea.”
DerivSource: How do you help people overcome their sense of being a fraud?
Britten: I would advise people to take a cold, hard look at the evidence. Look at what you have actually achieved, look at the impact you create. Imposter syndrome is internal—it is often influenced by all sorts of conflated things to do with childhood, self-image, self-esteem, belief structures and so on, which can be very overwhelming. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, the author of Lean In, talks a lot about the question of impact and looking at what you have actually achieved.
Social psychologist Amy Cuddy touts the power of body language in projecting feelings of self-confidence, even if you don’t initially have them. The more confident you appear, the more confident you will end up feeling. Actors know that if you adopt a certain physicality, it will change the way you feel. If you can get your eyes to water, it is easier to access the emotions behind crying, if that is what the role requires. Similarly, if you adopt the physicality of somebody that is confident and robust, you will feel more confident and robust, and consequently other people will treat you as someone who is more able and robust. It is a virtuous circle.
“If you adopt the physicality of somebody confident and robust, you will feel more confident and robust, and consequently other people will treat you as someone who is more able and robust. It is a virtuous circle.”
DerivSource: What can companies do to help nuture their employees who may be very talented, but suffer from these feelings of self doubt?
Britten: Companies can do a lot more in terms of mentoring their staff, and offering encouragement to people to apply for certain roles. Sometimes if a person feels they are not qualified to apply for a job, they just need a push from someone senior saying, “You are good enough to do this.”
Coaching is another way firms can support their staff, especially senior executives. People rarely come to a coach specifically because of imposter syndrome, but feelings of self-doubt almost always surface during discussions. It can be very lonely at the top—CEOs especially are expected to be bullet-proof, so there is nowhere for them to go with questions about what they are supposed to be doing. The more senior a person gets, the more important coaching becomes, because it gives them somewhere to discuss anxieties and concerns, as well as somebody who will challenge them.
