7 Best Strategies To Overcome Imposter Syndrome

If you are here reading how to overcome imposter syndrome that means either you or your loved one is suffering from it. Self-doubt is widely discussed at present and has been labelled as imposter syndrome, a common psychological pattern that millions of people experience in workplaces and everyday practices. However, individuals dealing with self-doubt or imposter syndrome will struggle to regulate such thoughts and feelings. Let me explain you with strategies of how to overcome imposter syndrome especially as a woman and more about how it prevents personal as well as professional growth and development.

Understanding Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome was identified and named by Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes in 1978. It refers to an individual who has chronic doubt regarding his or her capabilities and is fixated on the delusion of being a failure despite success. Imposter syndrome is a particular psychological state, typical for successful personalities, when people do not consider achievements being expected from them deserved and believe that those are owing to luck, chance, or precise timing only.

Well, to clarify this syndrome, allow me to give you an example, my friend Maria has recently been promoted to the position of senior manager at a leading marketing company. Many admired her for her unique ideas and powerful presence. However, as she found herself in a new office, she couldn’t help but feel like she did not belong there. Maria has been working hard and has been successful over the years, yet she was convinced that her promotion was due to a clerical error or that she was lucky to be given the promotion.

Each time her colleagues congratulated her, she would honestly respond in return while in her mind she kept thinking, “I have made a big mistake; anyone must be thinking that I am smarter than I actually am”. This is one of the most common characteristics that a person with Imposter Syndrome possesses. Besides, there are many other characteristics of Imposter Syndrome which are also important to know about to eliminate it from life.

Key characteristics  to identify imposter syndrome

Perfectionism and setting unrealistic standards:

To start with imposters have high standards regarding their expectations and actions that they display to the public. In my opinion, they may believe that if it is not 100%, then it is not worth counting. This involves:

• It is a tendency to pay attention to the insignificant details of life.

• Staying longer on jobs to ensure that they look perfect or to their specification as they desire.

• Suffer from lack of satisfaction with good successes unless they are excellent.

• Reluctance to take any risk or engage in any task where there is a perceived inability to perform to the best of one’s ability.

Such perfectionism is generally unattainable and when applied leads to straining and high levels of stress. I also believe that although high standards help individuals to strive for more, with imposter syndrome, it becomes counterproductive and stagnating.

Overworking to prove one’s worth

This is one of the characteristics where the ability to be self-satisfied is mostly drained out. This makes it rather apparent that those afflicted by imposter syndrome tend to feel doubt afterward and then feel the need to excel more than other people to prove they have the ability. This can involve:

• Working beyond regular working hours or even during weekends

• No restrictions for accepting new assignments or additional responsibility

• Issues concerning shifting duties to other individuals

• Feeling guilty when one is not at work

This overworking is often presented as an effort to compensate for perceived deficiencies. But it may lead to all sorts of stress and may even unproductiveness in the future as a result of stress.

Undermining one’s achievements

Another feeling of imposter syndrome is doubt in one’s accomplishments and denying their significance. This might look like:

• Using other factors such as luck to explain what has been accomplished

• Thinking that others are providing more credit than what it is due to one that deserves.

• Lack of feeling deserving to be congratulated or rewarded

• Focused on negativity rather than the positives.

I believe that this undermining of achievements can prevent a person from reaching his /her full potential and can contribute to creating a feedback loop of doubt that can follow.

Fear of failure or success: Interestingly, this characteristic was present in me as I was afraid of failure as well as success at the same time because, to me, it was regarded as a sign of my inefficiency. This is evident as:

• Fear of failure: When experiencing imposter syndrome, people including myself are unable to grasp opportunities for growth risks or even engage in other kinds of risks for the fear of failure.

• Fear of success: We discover that success is as equally a vice as it brings about more work or expectations that we begin to feel that we can no longer produce the required result.

In some cases, this fear can lead to self-sabotage or missing opportunities to move and take better positions and promotions.

Difficulty Internalizing positive feedback: As for myself, I must stress that individuals with imposter syndrome are unable to accept positive criticism. This might look like:

• Saying no to compliments and admiration as them being sweet.

• The feeling of thinking that positive feedback has been earned.

• When receiving complaint messages but failing to notice commending messages.

• Assuming that other individuals must be erroneous when they provide positive judgments.

This failure to handle positive comments just fuels the sense of incompetence and thus perpetuates being an imposter. This has been observed across diverse groups of people such as workers, students, artists, etc. A survey was conducted by the Journal of Behavioral Science in 2011 to identify the incidence of such feelings. The survey shows that 70% of all people develop such feelings at one time or the other.

Imposter syndrome: Impact on cognition and behavior

Imposter syndrome has adverse effects on the individual’s life and the possibilities of personal growth and career advancement. Some consequences include:

• Lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of burnout.

• A common reason is not being able to tap promotion chances.

• Learning pressure/stress and anxiety.

• Higher anxiety, depression, and stress levels and;

• Problem of having real friendships

In a cross-sectional study of schoolteachers published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2019, imposter syndrome was found to be reversed by job satisfaction and directly related to burnout. This paints a picture of how effective imposter syndrome may be when it comes to future promotions as well as the mental health toll one is likely to pay over time.

7 Best Strategies to overcome imposter syndrome

1. Recognise and acknowledge imposter feelings:

The first strategy in addressing the problem of overcoming imposter syndrome is to be aware of such feelings whenever they arise. Once a person comes across such emotions, it can be understood that they are not always justified and there can be a mismatch between how one feels and how one should act in a particular situation.

2. Reframe negative self-talk:

Try to alter the thought process by not letting negative thinking occur without being refuted by citing evidence of competency and accomplishments. For this purpose, I would recommend keeping a “success journal” to document positive comments and positivity which can be re-read during such times.

3. Embrace failure as a learning opportunity:

The negative attitudes towards failure should be changed to positive ones where one could see failure as a process of growing. Try to adopt a growth mindset that can bring something positive to difficulty so that we want to regard the efforts as a part of development.

4. Seek support and share experiences:

You should find people you can speak to, like mentors, friends, and support groups to be able to share their experiences. It is of help in developing a better understanding. A study conducted by the Journal of Vocational Behavior in 2019 established a trend that shows that early-career academics who seek social support are likely to have lower levels of imposter syndrome.

5. Focus on providing value:

Look or establish acceptable causes for getting started or transitioning from mere desire to increase revenues or self-satisfaction. This was especially helpful in helping me to avoid stress-producing activities and redirect my effort towards beneficial tasks.

6. Practice self-compassion:

Treat yourself the way you would treat a friend who needs help, and do not be too hard on yourself. In a study by Dr. Kristin Neff, self-compassion is seen to be useful in diminishing the effects of imposter syndrome.

7. Celebrate small wins:

Reward small successes to self-esteem and use the present to modify behavior by focusing on efforts.

How to overcome imposter syndrome as a woman?

Now, let’s discuss the strategy to deal with Imposter syndrome being a woman. This condition occurs in both males and females. But it is more common in women particularly those who are employed in organizations that are dominated by male employees. I was reading an article titled ‘Journal of General Internal Medicine’ published in the year 2019 and came to know that women in academic medicine are likely to be affected by impostor syndrome more often than their male counterparts. Indeed when taking a closer look at my close network of friends and colleagues, I discovered some of them being victims of Imposter Syndrome. To help them and many other women I have noted down some specific strategies to overcome imposter syndrome:

Challenge gender stereotypes: Bring out awareness of community gender roles and perceptions that enable low self-esteem among women. It is always important to attempt to separate the discrimination that exists within society from the skills and abilities of the individuals.

Build a strong support network: The idea is to build relationships with other women in the same field or the industry you are in. Join other women’s professional organizations or any mentorship groups to find assistance from other women who may have faced similar problems.

Advocate for yourself: Promote yourself at your workplace and justify a deserved promotion or ask for a worthy salary increase. I found that females are relatively less likely to self-promote than males and this results in some form of imposter feelings.

Address perfectionism: You should always remember that perfectionism is more typical for women and it can give rise to imposter phenomenon. While it is necessary to set goals, it is alright to ‘shoot’ for ‘good enough’ so long as one isn’t he shooting for perfection most of the time.

Embrace your unique perspective: Learn what it takes to celebrate workplace diversity and how it can be used in the workplace. For instance, your gender is woman, and thus, possibly, certain attitudes and perspectives will be helpful to the team and the organization.

Seek out female role models: For females, I would suggest to go and look for other women of their choice in their desired area of practice. They can act as a role model to you and can share their practical experiences in managing the struggles in the imposter feelings they also had in their early days.

Challenge imposter thoughts with evidence: When one has these negative thoughts one needs to counter them and if possible, needs to write alternatives such as achievement and evidence of one’s abilities. It could lead to and prevent behavior where accomplishments made are labelled, avoided, or ignored.

As for me, I suppose that imposter syndrome is a process that has the direction towards which it is moving – towards its management, which involves recognition, time, and support. With awareness of specific signs of imposter syndrome and the guidelines on how to use practical adjustment procedures, one can easily mute the internal voice and further achieve success. Such problems should also be solved with gender issues to assist women in handling more challenges in combating imposter syndrome. Furthermore, if people aim to get rid of such feelings, my suggestion would be to focus on the positive outcomes and seek options on how to get closer to the potential. Imposter syndrome can be fought just like fighting depression; it is helpful to be patient while fighting this situation.