All About Imposter Syndrome

Millions of brilliant women are suffering from the same phenomenon known as imposter syndrome. Before we dive in, consider the following questions:

Do you ever feel like all your accomplishments have been due to luck, coincidence, connections, or anything else that isn’t your own intellect, hard work, and talent?
Do you ever worry that you’re going to be exposed as a fraud, even when you’re well into your career or have significant expertise?
Do you worry that you are somehow inferior to your colleagues, even though you have lots of evidence to the contrary and receive frequent positive feedback?
Do you fear that if you relax or get off the hamster wheel even for a minute, you might lose all that you have?
Do you feel like everyone around you is smarter, works harder, and does a better job than you do?
Do you find yourself terrified of making mistakes and constantly believing you are likely to make one?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might have what is known as Imposter Syndrome. And you're not alone. Research suggests that Imposter Syndrome disproportionately affects high-achieving women. And as many as 75% of women will experience this phenomenon at some point in their life.

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What is Imposter Syndrome?

Imposter Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which individuals doubt their abilities and have a persistent fear of being exposed as frauds, despite evidence of their competence. It is often accompanied by perfectionism, black and white thinking, and fear of rejection and failure. These thoughts create intense self doubt, anxiety and insecurity.

What Causes Imposter Syndrome?

Societal and Familial Conditioning: Many individuals, especially those socialized as women, are taught, either directly or indirectly, to doubt their self-worth and engage in self-criticism. Growing up in a family with high expectations or a critical environment can also increase the likelihood of experiencing imposter syndrome.

Professional Culture: In the nursing and healthcare fields, professionals often operate in challenging, competitive, and rapidly evolving environments with high expectations and stakes.

Critical Self-Talk (AKA The Inner Critic): Habitually believing negative self-thoughts can lead to feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. Imposter syndrome essentially consists of these negative, self-critical thoughts about one's abilities, accomplishments, and self-worth.

The Inner Critic

We all have an inner critic inside our head. This voice offers unsolicited opinions, harsh feedback, beats us up, and pushes us relentlessly towards conforming. This critical voice holds us back from pursuing our goals, prevents us from enjoying our lives, and is eager to tell us that we're not good enough, are a complete failure, and are undeserving and uncapable of success.pSome people like to assign a name to their Inner Critic, and I have found this to be a useful technique.

This fragile, uncomfortable part of ourselves serves a very important function - to keep us safe. Our brain evolved to be hyper-alert and cautious and the Inner Critic thinks it is doing just that. But if you want to overcome Imposter Syndrome once and for all, you'll have to learn how to recognize and redirect your inner critic.

What Doesn't Work to Fix Imposter Syndrome

Positive thinking (e.g., trying to think thoughts you don’t believe, like “I’m amazing and everyone loves me!”)
Just telling yourself to feel differently.
External validation (works for a few minutes but wears off fast)

How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome doesn't just go away on it's own. You have to address the problem, which is your thoughts (i.e, your inner critic). You have to completely rewire your thinking so that new, confidence-boosting thoughts come naturally and your old, self-doubt producing thoughts go away. This takes time, and practice, but we can use coaching to make it possible.

But first, we need to recognize where Imposter Syndrome, and the voice of our Inner Critic is showing up.

Exercise: Get to Know Your Inner Critic

Download and complete the attached worksheet. As always, bring anything that comes up for coaching.