Insecurity and the imposter syndrome
The Ugly Duckling image by "Il Brutto Anatroccolo" di H.C. Andersen, on Flickr, some rights reserved.
Imposter syndrome, that feeling of not having earned what you’ve achieved, is faced by up to 82% of people according to a 2020 review of the research.
While studying in London, I worked in a shop in Kings Road that sold relaxation products, self help books and beautiful jewellery. Not only did I work with wonderful women who became dear friends, I met an eclectic and wondrous variety of people from multiple countries, cultures and walks of life. One very famous and beautiful singer came in on a regular basis to buy self-help CDs (yes it was a while ago!) including on raising self-esteem. At the time I found it extraordinary that someone with so much of what we strive for and measure success by in western society should have low self-esteem. I also found it reassuring how utterly human she was. Clearly wealth and fame are no protection from insecurity and imposter syndrome.
Dig around the internet for a minute and you’ll find numerous examples of famous folk who have struggled with feelings of being an imposter. Michelle Obama writes about her struggles with Imposter syndrome in her memoir Becoming. The late and great David Bowie told Q magazine in 1997 that while he rose to fame in the 70s: “I had enormous self-image problems and very low self-esteem, which I hid behind obsessive writing and performing. … I was driven to get through life very quickly…I really felt so utterly inadequate. I thought the work” — songwriting, recording, performing — “was the only thing of value.”
In a 2002 interview Meryl Streep said, “I don’t know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?” While Maya Angelou once said, “I have written 11 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.”
This feeling Angelou refers to of being a fraud who will be ‘found out’, was dubbed the Imposter Syndrome In the 1970s by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes from Georgia State University, who noted it amongst intelligent and high achieving women. It’s also prominent among people with underrepresented identities in workplaces.
In a Harvard Business Review article Jasmine Vergauwe, co –author of a paper in the Journal of Business and Psychology on the Imposter Syndrome, said impostors are often plagued with “worry, self-doubt, and anxiety” when doing an achievement focused task. “In order to deal with these feelings, they either extremely over-prepare a task or initially procrastinate and then follow that with frenzied preparation. Mostly, they succeed, and they experience temporary feelings of elation and relief.
However, as Clance writes on her website: “Even though they are often very successful by external standards, they feel their success has been due to some mysterious fluke or luck or great effort; they are afraid their achievements are due to “breaks” and not the result of their own ability and competence. They are also pretty certain that, unless they go to gargantuan efforts to do so, success can not be repeated. They are afraid that next time, I will blow it.”
For women this plays out in the workplace in depressing ways. Women are less likely to ask for a raise or apply for jobs unless they are 100% sure they have all of the necessary prerequisites. Men wade in and apply with only 60% of the prerequisities.
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
Coaching, counselling and therapy can help and psychologists provide tips for overcoming it in this article from the American Psychological Association.
Leaders In workplaces can help create a more authentic and honest work environment by sharing their own insecurities and struggles. And when they encourage people to ask questions when in doubt, to self reflect and support one another.
Another place to find support is The Empress has no Clothes online community
It helps also to keep in mind the Dunning-Kruger bias. This points out that to assess your expertise at something, you need to have the skills that create the expertise to do so. Or, as Bertrand Russell wrote: “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt”.
And finally, Michelle Obama offers some sage advice in this interview: