Coming up..

• PART 1: What causes imposter syndrome?
• PART 2: How does imposter syndrome affect you?
• PART 3: What the hell can we do about it?

Sources

• The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women by Valerie Young
• The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox Cabane
• Playing Big by Tara Mohr
• School of Life - Imposter Syndrome
  

PART 1: What causes imposter syndrome?

What causes imposter syndrome?

• An industry that values brilliance
• A unhelpful learned definition of success
• An organisational culture that feeds self doubt
• Working alone
• Representing your entire social group

What causes imposter syndrome?

• Being human

How does knowing this help?

• Normalising removes it's power

So remember:

• "How I feel is perfectly normal given.."
• This is a common part of human experience
• It's a burden shared by many

PART 2: How does imposter syndrome affect you?

• Over-preparing and hard work
• Holding back
• Maintaining a low or ever changing profile
• Use of charm or perceptiveness to win approval
• Procrastination
• Never finishing
• Self-sabotage
  

How do you manage your I.S?

• Uncover your "crusher"
• Consider how your behaviours may be serving you
• Understand how these behaviours are holding you back

Getting personal

PART 3: What the hell can we do about it?

5 methods for overcoming imposter syndrome

1. Change your definition of competency
2. Learn how to respond to failure, mistakes and criticisms
3. Learn how to manage negative thoughts
4. Fake it till you make it / believe it / are it
5. Accept that other people are inherently like us
   

1. Change your definition of competency

• We each have our own personal "competency rule book"
• You’ve likely set your expectations of yourself too high
• To rewrite your book:
  • Identify your existing rules
  • Acknowledge what rights you’ve been denying yourself
  • Find a more reasonable alternative

2. Learn how to respond to failure, mistakes and criticisms

• In the wake of a failure, take notice of your inner critic
• Take steps to depersonalise, allowing you space to assess the failure
• Dealing with criticism:
  • Get space
  • Depersonalise
  • Filter
  • Analyse
• Criticism hurts more when it mirrors what we believe about ourselves

3. Learn how to manage negative thoughts

• Our mind’s view of reality can be, and often is, completely distorted
• Out brain has a negativity bias
• Dealing with negative thoughts:
  • Label and notice
  • Depersonalise
  • Accept that your view may be distorted
  • Acknowledge the motive
  • Respond with compassion
  • Practice

4. Fake it till you make it / believe it / are it

• CBT - change your behaviour and thinking and your feelings will follow
• You may feel uncomfortable "faking it"
• Recognise we all use "impression management"
• At the very least..
  • Don't point out your own mistakes or downplay your work
  • Learn to recognise when others are "faking it"

5. Accept that other people are inherently like us

• Others minds must work in basically the same way as ours
• When we encounter a stranger, there is nothing stopping us from being like them

In Conclusion

• It is perfectly understandable that you feel imposter syndrome
• Lots of other people feel exactly the same way as you
• People hide their imagined fraudulence in different ways
• There are at least 5 ways to help yourself
• "To feel different, you need to do things differently"