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Dr Terri Simpkin and Kate Atkin tackle your burning Imposter Phenomenon questions

How can you overcome Imposter Phenomenon (also known as Imposter Syndrome) at work? How did this phenomenon emerge? Do ‘imposter’ feelings effect some demographics or identities more than others?

Researchers Dr Terri Simpkin and Kate Atkin weigh in on the difficult myths, questions and misconceptions surrounding Imposter Phenomenon.

Our recent webinar exposed the complex issue of Imposter Phenomenon in the workplace (also known as Imposter Syndrome), but one hour wasn’t enough time to tackle all your questions about what to do next.

That’s why we went back to experts Dr Terri Simpkin and Kate Atkin for all the answers they weren’t able to give on the day – and they did not hold back.

Read their wealth of insights and actionable advice below – feel free to use the contents bar to navigate to the questions you’re most interested in. If you’d like more information, visit our Imposter Phenomenon toolkit.

Answer: From Kate Atkin MSc

Imposter Phenomenon (IP) is experienced differently by different people, and differently by the same person in a different context. So while tops tips for managing the ‘imposter’ chatter might work for some, they won’t work for all.

However, after naming Imposter Phenomenon and talking about it so that someone will listen and not judge you, or praise you highly (as that can be ineffective at best), here are some suggestions to start to lessen the ‘imposter’ feelings:

Collect and review quality feedback as ‘evidence’

People experiencing IP can find it difficult to take positive feedback on board, so they may dismiss the feedback instantly. Some people even tell me that they delete the emails straight away, without reading them!

But quality feedback, which explains why a project went well and what you specifically did to enable that to happen, is worth hanging on to. Feedback that simply says “great job” isn’t helpful.

Collect your quality feedback in a central place, such as in a ‘wonderful me’ folder or ‘brag file’. (These are both names clients of mine have used. Mine is simply called ‘feedback’.) Then, take time to review it regularly, such as once a month.

When reviewing your collected feedback, don’t “yes, but…” the comments made. Try not to dismiss them, or the person who gave them to you, as simply being kind, or trying to be nice because they wanted something from you.

Catch yourself if you find yourself thinking things like…

“it wasn’t me it was the team”
“it was because I got lucky that time”
“I just worked really hard”
Any other “yes, but…” sentence you can think of.

Drop these statements and start to “yes, and…” the feedback. This doesn’t need to be out loud, but in your head quietly, and confidently, say things like…

“yes, and… I learnt X from that situation”
“yes, and… I used this skill for that task”
“yes, and… I found it difficult but the feedback shows that I can do it and I am pleased with the result”.

Recognise and use your strengths

People who experience Imposter Phenomenon (I don’t like to use ‘suffer’ as that has a more medical connotation) can find that first exercise, described above, really difficult at the start.

For me, as someone who has long experienced IP, revamping my website and the testimonial section meant that I had to look at my feedback.

Upon reviewing this feedback, it was clear that there were some common strengths people mentioned.

Recognising and using your own strengths at work is another way of starting to combat IP.

This can be done by using the first exercise and looking for common threads in what people are saying about you and the work you’ve produced, or by even taking an online strengths profile.

Once you start identifying your core strengths, look for places where you can actively use them, and give yourself internal recognition for doing so.

If you are a manager, giving people objective feedback and identifying when they are using their strengths can be helpful here too.

Start to rewrite your story

Often ‘imposter’ feelings stem from childhood, or societal messages we received and are unconsciously holding on to.

Both hyper-critical and hyper-supportive parenting are linked to Imposter Phenomenon, so is stretching beyond that which we were ‘supposed’ to do, and finding ourselves as ‘other’ in the room.

If you can start to understand your own story, you then have the power to rewrite it into something that is more helpful.

For me, failing the 11+ exam and going to the local secondary modern, when both my older and younger sister passed the exam and went to the local grammar school, formed an internal message of ‘I’m not academic, not clever, and definitely not university material’.

It wasn’t until my late 40’s when my husband encouraged me to do a masters degree that I finally realised that I failed the 11+ because I was born in August and took it when I was really young. As a result of that thinking, I had dismissed my subsequent exam successes.

I also grew up under a hyper-critical parenting style, where there was always encouragement to do your best, to improve, and do better next time. This meant I internalised that only the ‘very best’ was good enough. Things needed to be perfect and right the first time, every time.

Recognising that this thinking was part of a false story – and a very unhelpful one – was when I started to let go of my perfectionism.

A: From Dr Terri Simpkin

While I’ve not come across any peer-reviewed material that specifically addresses the question of ‘why’ Imposter Phenomenon has developed from a societal perspective, I’ve provided a list of research and news articles I think are most relevant. Much of the research has been about the individual responses, and how IP is experienced by different groups in various contexts, such as universities and the workplace.

In addition to the resources above, I’ll attempt to respond to this question using an example that rests on the myth that IP is related to gender and is something that women experience more than men.

Imposter Phenomenon is not a gendered construct. It is not a ‘female’ thing. However, women not only have their personal narratives that might suggest they’re not ‘good enough’, but they might be contending with broader social narratives that also suggest that they’re ‘less than’.

In most Western societies, there is a gender pay gap. This lends itself to an implicit social assertion that women’s work is of less value than that of men’s because it is paid less. So too, women are underrepresented on boards or in senior leadership suggesting they don’t belong in those roles.

Again, often in Western societies (but not exclusively so), women have for centuries been told that they shouldn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t do certain roles or occupations or activities and so this socially embedded notion of ‘otherness’ can fuel the personal inner narrative of ‘not being good enough’ or ‘being an impostor’ (particularly when people find themselves in contexts where there are few ‘people like them’. E.g: women in formula one racing, engineering or digital infrastructure occupations).

None of these social ‘stories’ are actually based on any rational fact. These embedded notions have been built on years, decades and sometimes centuries of assumptions and accepted beliefs that have no truth to them.

But what we’re dealing with here is not the truth, the actuality or the fact of the matter but what seems plausible (see the work of Karl Weick for more on this).

Human sense-making rests on what is plausible, what makes a good story, what fits with our implicit understanding of the world rather than fact. Think of it as implicit bias against the self.

Men and women have both been found to experience IP. So a man might find himself in a board position thinking he doesn’t belong there because his internal narrative is telling him that. However, it’s unlikely he’s also contending with the social narrative that says ‘you don’t belong here’. Women have the ‘double whammy’ in that scenario.

While we talk about this in binary male/female terms, we must remember that any sense of ‘otherness’ is often a precursor to IP. Social class, sexual orientation, neurodiversity or cultural background for example, can also fuel Imposter Phenomenon, where that characteristic is perceived as ‘other’.

Sadly, our society is very good at setting up the notion of ‘otherness’. Where we see this packaged up with the relatively recent fascination with constant self development, career progression, measurement of achievement. (Think performance appraisals that set up the notion of continual ‘improvement’, and – something that’s particularly true on social media – the fascination with perfection.

It is my opinion that this rampant need to continually improve, get ahead, make more, be of more value is driving people to continually compare themselves to others, not only at work, but in families and social circles too.

We’re constantly being judged and scrutinised and, as we know, one characteristic of Imposterism is this need to avoid scrutiny, judgement and measurement, lest others find us out to be ‘not good enough’.

Of course, social media (including professional sites, such as LinkedIn) invites us to put ourselves out there for public exposure, and therefore, judgement. But what we’re seeing on professional and personal social media are other people’s highlight reels rather than their reality, and we find ourselves wanting. It’s the desire for perfection in play. The need to be seen to be perfect, better, best, special, but not wanting the scrutiny or being able to internalise the accolades that might come with it.

I’d be very surprised if our hunter-gatherer ancestors were bothered by IP and given that research only stretches back to the 1970s it’s difficult to say how this might have played out in earlier epochs. But certainly, I think the implicit social habit of judgement, the need for constant growth (personal and as employees contributing to business growth) and the ease with which we can be scrutinised is certainly related to the social construction of IP.

Q: I’m an executive coach and I come across Imposter Phenomenon in my clients. How do you suggest I can best work with them on this phenomenon?

A: From Kate Atkin MSc

As a coach you have a very rewarding role in encouraging others to see themselves as they truly are, not the subjective self in their heads. There are key skills coaches need, and in particular when addressing IP with clients, the skills of listening and kindness come to the fore.

It can be tempting to point out someone’s success and objective evidence, but until they accept it on the inside – it won’t help combat their imposter feelings.

Clients respond when they know they won’t be judged, and beginning to talk about IP can create an inner fear of being judged. So acting with kindness, showing you are non-judgmental, and using clean language and non-violent communication can be really helpful in creating that safe space for your client to unpick their IP chatter for themselves.

The strategies suggested in answer to question one are good places to start with a client.

Q: Are there higher incidences of Imposter Phenomenon among different cultures e.g. people from a BAME background?

A: From Dr Terri Simpkin

Imposter Phenomenon is contextual, so it’s not that certain communities or certain people will experience it more or less than others, but more how ‘otherness’ is perceived in certain contexts.

For example, people from BAME backgrounds are not more or less prone to impostor experiences per se, but where they find themselves in situations where they are perceived to be ‘other’, they may have IP experiences.

A Google scholar search will deliver many papers that examine the experiences and behaviours of people who are perceived as ‘other’ in contexts such as universities, schools and the workplace.

I’m involved in work with students from non-traditional backgrounds at universities (e.g. first in family, students from low socio-economic backgrounds and women in non-traditional programmes such as engineering and physics). Many of these students will be from a BAME background and so they may perceive an intersectionality of ‘otherness’ that might fuel IP.

The social narrative here is important, as it can support the inner personal narrative of ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘I don’t belong here’ which is, in essence, the platform of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and other social intolerances.

Exploring and taking seriously the experience of IP is important for workplaces and other institutions, such as universities, as IP is a socially learned and constructed experience as much as it is a personal one.

We need to recognise both sides of the story if IP is to be diminished for the good of the individual as well as society.

Q: What can you do when you highlight specific strengths or achievements someone has done, and they still wont own that success?

A: From Kate Atkin MSc

You can never make someone accept their feedback, strengths or achievements, a little like the proverb about a horse and water. However, you can encourage someone to rethink their dismissal of the strengths or achievements, by gently probing. Just be careful not to let your own frustration leak out as you do this! Asking, gently, what they are thinking on the inside when you see a grimace on their face as you give them another piece of positive feedback or name a strength they’ve used.

As a general rule, do more asking than telling. Ask people to identify the strengths they used when something went well – you may need to stay silent for a while.

Another option is to start team meetings by sharing strengths that have been observed during the past week. Having this done by the team, to the team is most effective, but generally team leaders need to start the process off and create the gaps and opportunities over subsequent weeks for others to chime in before getting the team to take the lead themselves.

Incorporating the language of strengths into annual appraisals, as well as the regular performance updates, can be helpful too.

Q: What advice do you have for Imposter feelings working from home?

A: From Dr Terri Simpkin

Some of the general tools that might be of use are explained in the first question, but specifically for remote working, the following tips could be helpful:

Speak with your manager to find out what they expect from you and your work.

If possible, ask for regular and informal ‘check-in’ to establish that what you’re doing is on the right track and to the expected standard.

Don’t fall into the trap of procrastinating or putting off work in favour of ‘busy work’.

‘Busy work’ is made up of the shiny distractions designed to trick yourself into thinking you’re doing more important things than the work you are actually supposed to be doing.

Be honest with yourself, and get stuck into the task, breaking it into chunks if you need to.

Avoid the mythology of other people’s superior work.

Imposter Phenomenon will trick you into thinking that others are doing more, doing better, being perfect. What we might see on the outside is their ‘highlight reel’. Stick to assessing your work against the criteria you have, not those of other people.

Join an informal network where you can chat to colleagues casually.

We’re missing the lunchroom chatter and watercooler gossip. This is where we pick up the ‘stories’ about what’s going on in the workplace and we make sense of that in accordance with our own experiences. Without that we may over inflate what others are up to and find ourselves wanting when the actuality is quite different.

Remember that Imposter Phenomenon is contextual.

It might change in response to changes in your work, the way you’re working and who you might be working with (or not, as the case may be).

Bring your attention back to objective measures of what you’re doing in terms of project outputs, deliverables or any other expected/stated performance criteria or measurements that you might have available to you.

Some work doesn’t lend itself to objective measures so set yourself realistic goals for the day. When they’re done, allow yourself to feel good in the knowledge you’ve hit your target (even if it’s squirmy or uncomfortable or ‘toe curling’ to do so… keep doing it and the discomfort will diminish over time!)

If all else fails, get yourself a mentor.

Having someone to bounce your IP experience off is a very good way of getting objective and truthful feedback about your achievements, capabilities and volume of work.

Find out more on Imposter Phenomenon

Totaljobs research

Check out our comprehensive Imposter Phenomenon toolkit covering the latest research and practical advice on how to deal with IP as an individual, manager and employer.

You can also watch the full webinar featuring Dr Terri Simpkin and Kate Atkin, or download the complete deck.