The irony of Imposter Syndrome is that it only impacts capable, talented, skilled, motivated and ambitious people. Not the real “frauds” in the world.
We (those who experience Imposter Syndrome) feel like we are fooling everyone, like we are not worthy of our success or the praise that comes our way. We are temporarily blocked from connecting with the “reality” of our situation and our success.
To compensate, we develop “Imposter Personas” to make ourselves “look” and feel better.
These Personas act like shields or masks, allowing us to perform but also “protecting us” from anyone finding out that we are not as smart, talented, skilled or successful as they believe us to be (that’s how Imposter Syndrome makes us think)
These Personas come with negative and habitual behaviours that play on automatic loops in our subconscious minds – taking over our thoughts completely.
The longer we stay in a “Persona” the more we self sabotage and the further away from our Authentic selves we become.
The good news is that when you become aware of this and spend time reconnecting with your authentic self and building self worth, you’re well on your way to conquering Imposter Syndrome.
What is your Authentic Self?
Your Authentic Self is the real you. Unfiltered and unapologetically YOU.
It’s how you behave with your closest loved ones who light you up, and not how you behave around a hyper-critical family member who can never be pleased.
Your Authentic Self also lives in your values and your big goals (the secret ones that you might not have shared publicly).
To uncover your Authentic Self, you might have to look back to childhood. Think back to a time before the event that became your Imposter origin story (often this is a trauma or series of events in childhood or adolescence).
- What was your natural personality, and what were your tendencies before this event? (Confident, brave, matter-of-fact, bright, enthusiastic?)
- How do you feel and act around people who make you feel completely comfortable, loved and supported? (both in childhood and now as an adult)
- What excites you and draws your interest?
- What are you naturally good at?
- What do you love doing?
- Which achievements are you most proud of?
- What do other people say your strengths are? (Because as people who experience Imposter Syndrome, it can be hard for us to see our own strengths)
All these parts of you add up to your Authentic Self. It might be close to the surface, or it might be well hidden behind your fears.
Understanding your Authentic Self can help you to achieve your full potential. That’s because you’ll be living with less conflict with your Imposter Syndrome (which is constantly telling you that you’re not worthy of your success).
What’s your Imposter Persona?
In order to understand what type of ‘Persona’ you may have formed we must first understand the way in which you view Competence. In her book The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women – Dr Valerie Young highlights her famous 5 Competence Types.
Don’t worry if you see yourself crossing a few of these or dipping in and out at various times in your life.
The aim isn’t to shoehorn people into a label, but rather to understand some of the common ways people experiencing Imposter Syndrome view competence and how it can go on to impact their behaviours.
Most importantly, when you understand where your behaviours are coming from, you can work towards change.
Dr Young’s 5 Competency Types are: as per her website are:
The Perfectionist, Expert, SuperHuman, Natural Genius and Soloist.
If you’re the Perfectionist your view of what it means to be competent is:
- primary focus is on “how” something is done. This includes how the work is conducted and how it turns out. One minor flaw in an otherwise stellar performance or 99 out of 100 equals failure and thus shame
If you’re the SuperHuman, your view of what it means to be competent is:
- measures competence based on “how many” roles they can both juggle and excel in. Falling short in any role — as a manager, team member, parent, partner, friend, volunteer — all evoke shame because they feel they should be able to handle it all — perfectly and easily.
If you’re the Soloist, your view of what it means to be competent is:
- cares mostly about “who” completes the task. To make it on the achievement list, it has to be you and you alone. Because you think you need to do and figure out everything on your own, needing help is a sign of failure that evokes shame.
If you’re the Expert, your view of what it means to be competent is:
- is the knowledge version of the Perfectionist. Here, the primary concern is on “what” and “how much” you know or can do. Because you expect to know everything, even a minor lack of knowledge denotes failure and shame
If you’re the Natural Genius, your view of what it means to be competent is:
- also cares about “how” and “when” accomplishments happen. But for you, competence is measured in terms of ease and speed. The fact that you have to struggle to master a subject or skill or that you’re not able to bang out your masterpiece on the first try equals failure which evokes shame.
It’s not always clear cut. Some people (neurotypical or neurodivergent) identify strongly with one competence type, and many people have experienced elements of several which causes them to form many negative behavioural patterns (Persona’s) over their careers.
This process of exploring Persona vs Authentic self is about detecting patterns in your behaviour and understanding how you view competence so you can identify the best steps to take to intercept and redirect the behaviours into more positive and confident action.
How this plays out in practice: my Imposter Persona was Perfectionist, (and now I’m a recovered Perfectionist)
In my Cultivate and Conquer weekly community emails, I recently shared my story of childhood trauma.
In fact, it’s quite common for people who experience childhood trauma to develop Imposter Syndrome as young adults:
“Bussotti (1990) suggested that, in families in which support for the child’s feelings and individual development was lacking, the child who becomes an impostor may have… been required to develop a “false self” in order to receive validation. That false self is then likely to carry over into adulthood as insecurity about one’s true identity, often felt as impostor feelings in those who are successful achievers” [emphasis added]
From J. Langford and P. R. Clance 1993 “The Impostor Phenomenon: recent research findings regarding dynamics, personality and family patterns and their implications for treatment”
Without realising what was happening, I adopted the Perfectionist persona as a way of ‘protecting myself’ so no one ‘found out’ I wasn’t really capable.
I found myself always striving for perfection and seeking external validation to make myself look and feel better. But even when I achieved a perfect score or won an award, it was never enough. My Imposter Syndrome told me I got lucky or I still wasn’t good enough. I couldn’t internalize my success. And just kept chasing more and more.
After many years of working on my Imposter Syndrome, I’ve learned to stop Perfectionist tendencies from slowing me down or sabotaging me altogether.
To understand if you’ve adopted a Persona(s) ask yourself the following:
- Do I resonate with one or more of the above Competence types?
- What is a common negative thought/story I tell myself?
- What is my most frequent self sabotaging behaviour?
- When do I tend to do this behaviour most?
To connect back with your Authentic self ask yourself the following:
- What do I like or love about myself? (that is not attached to my work or my accomplishments)
- What are my values?
- What are my top 3 strengths?
- What lights me up inside? (passion, purpose or vision)
The power of Authenticity
Several women I’ve coached have shared that their boss or peers have told them to “be less authentic” because they “come across as cold” or that they’re “abrasive”.
These women are high achievers in senior roles, and people are telling them “not to be yourself” at work. Gender bias in language is a huge issue.
Telling an individual not to be themselves is incredibly damaging. And for those experiencing Imposter Syndrome it just makes us hold onto our Persona even tighter.
In order to be successful we need the right mix of Authenticity and Appropriateness. For example if we are in a business meeting with our boss or an important client we might choose more ‘professional’ language than what we’d use with a group of friends. This doesn’t mean we are not being Authentic, it just means we are also being Appropriate.
What we never want to be (or should never be told to be) is inauthentic.
“You’re too cold. You need to be more warm. And be vulnerable sometimes.”
^^^ This was a [now former] colleague telling me not to be myself 😱 ^^^
And for the record he was an awful person. A misogynist who couldn’t handle a confident and intelligent woman.
I am not afraid to speak my mind. And when I do, I remain both Authentic and Appropriate.
But I struggle with vulnerability. Due to suffering childhood trauma, I struggle to “let my guard down”.
And at times in my career when I tried to be more vulnerable, it didn’t go well.
Because I was forcing myself.
And that messed with my head, because I was being inauthentic.
Also for those of us who experience Imposter Syndrome we already feel our own sense of vulnerability and fraudulence which we desperately try to hide with our Personas.
Live in your Authentic Self to conquer Imposter Syndrome
If you can get to the point where you live in your Authentic Self instead of being ruled by your fears and Imposter Syndrome, a lot can change.
You’re more likely to be comfortable in your own skin, speak your mind, and say no to activities that don’t serve you.
You’ll also be conscious of the work and relationships that make you happiest.
And you’ll be dismantling your Imposter Syndrome.
Dig into memories.
Ponder who you are when you’re not driven by fear.
Meditate on the questions of “Who is my Authentic Self?” and see what feels right to you.
It might take a while for the truth to come out, but it’s worth the effort, because the outcome can be transformative.
You don’t need to hide behind that mask or shield anymore.
You are worthy and capable as your true self, you just need to reconnect with what truly lights you up.
