Rashmi Ravikumar and I facilitated a Fraternitea session on the Impostor Phenomenon last week; thank you to all those of you who attended and were so generous and vulnerable in your participation.
IP is a term that was first coined by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in a paper they wrote in 1978 describing the internal experience of phoniness, felt by individuals who are highly successful but unable to internalise their success. While it was first postulated as something that impacts high achieving women, there has been a wealth of academic literature over the years which has shown this phenomenon manifesting across genders, ages and professions. The Impostor phenomenon has gotten more attention in the past few years, with a number of famous figures from Sheryl Sandberg to Neil Gaiman (one of my favourite authors) publicly sharing their own experiences. As with any concept that gets mass attention on social media, it may have been interpreted in an overly simplistic manner — it is not the same as low self-esteem; it is not about needing large amounts of external validation. There are three common characteristics that you would resonate with if, at some point in your lives, you have experienced IP.
1. The belief that he/she has fooled other people: for example believing that you got a promotion/got invited to speak on a panel/got a lot of likes on social media because you somehow convinced the others that you have capabilities that in reality you don’t.
2. The fear of being exposed as an impostor: the sense that any minute now, people will realise they have been conned and you will be unmasked.
3. The inability to attribute one’s own achievement to internal qualities such as ability, intelligence, or skills: if you do have IP, you’re likely to explain your success with phrases like “I worked really hard” “it just happened” “I got lucky” “anyone could have done it” “I was in the right place”. If you’re wondering, making a change does not mean swinging to the other extreme and becoming a credit-hog; it simply means being able to take a balanced view of what really contributed to your success
If you’d like to take the Clance IP test, see the link shared in the first comment below. In the workshop we got people to share (in small groups) stories of times they felt like an Impostor. And while we did not capture all the stories, we asked people to give a title to the story they shared — the image here is a capture of some of the titles; it provides a lovely, evocative picture of what IP feels like.
How do you overcome this? Through concerted disputing of your thinking and your explanatory style. write to seethaa@navgati.in if you’d like a note with specific techniques you can implement/use with your coaching clients or team. #selfawareness #personaldevelopment #change
