Dissolving Impostor Syndrome: Having all the confidence you need in your (team's) technical ability

Of all the issues that can give rise to Impostor Syndrome this is surely the biggest.?Perhaps it’s the only one that has real justification.?Sometimes.?Or maybe sometimes it’s only partially justified, or not at all.

Perhaps certain clients have unreasonable expectations.?The smaller the IC Team, the more multi-skills may be expected of individuals.?And while that may be legitimate at the recruitment stage, what if a corporate restructure leaves a copywriter with responsibility for running Town Halls, or an event manager is now expected to produce visual collateral, or write speeches for the leadership team?

It’s all very well sending people on training courses.?But some folks’ brains just aren’t effectively wired to do it all.?It’s usually OK if a graphic designer has dyslexia, or that a copywriter can’t draw for toffee.?But it’s never going to be in your organisation’s best interests if anyone in your team feels they’re having to fake it ‘til they make it.

(The area in which this is most likely to arise is writing – because it’s the activity many clients feel they can do every bit as well as a specialist copywriter. Sometimes they're right, of course. Sometimes not.)

An impostor free alternative

We believe the following would be ideal:

You always have justified confidence in your own technical abilities, and those of every member of your team

How does this alternative sound to you??And what would it take to get there??

As always, it can be useful to map out the reasons why changing the status quo would be useful (in case you come across key decision-makers who need convincing) - beginning with the potential impact of not having that confidence.

Likely impact

If anyone's technical ability isn’t all it could be, it can give rise to one or more of four challenges:

1. it takes longer than it otherwise might to produce communications
2. you (or the un-confident team member) don’t feel able to stand up for a particular way of presenting an idea when someone wants to change it (even if the original version 'feels right')
3. if communications need to be signed off by others it may take longer to get them approved
4. some communications may end up being less effective than they otherwise would be.

Chances are, anyone struggling with confidence in their technical abilities is likely to recognise one of these. Or maybe they'll come up with something unique to themselves. Either way, you've broken then ice. And it's clear that time, money, emotion, reputation and business impact are all at risk if this situation is allowed to fester.?So we really need to tackle it.?

But what exactly might need tackling? Again, there's a list you can go through with them - which can help people feel they're probably in good company.

Likely causes

There are at least six possibilities here. Two of them can apply to any technical skill deficit; four relate specifically to writing:

?

1. Someone may have been given a responsibility which no amount of time and professional development is going to fix.?They may improve, but are unlikely to be as effective as the organisation needs them to be (eg the dyslexic Graphic Designer being asked to do copywriting)?
2. It may be that someone could become effective, given the right training and enough time to practice, but they haven’t yet been given what they need.?
3. Someone may be a perfectly capable writer, but lacks confidence in their ability simply because they haven’t learned the technical terminology which would enable them to discuss how and why they’ve written something in a particular way.?
4. 'Psychoneuroendocrinal' functioning. This ludicrously long word is describing an everyday experience which is nonetheless wondrous: the way in which your thoughts affect your feelings, and vice-versa. Everyone has?unconscious processes?which drive their gut reactions to what they’re reading (they’re affecting your emotional responses to these words at this very moment).?And because these processes are unconscious, most people struggle to pin down exactly why something ‘doesn’t feel right’.?They can give writers a crisis of confidence in their ability.?And they can cause disagreements about ‘the right way to write this’ without either party knowing what’s driving their emotional responses to the words in front of them.?(This is a biggie, which we touched on in our earlier article about The Approvals Process: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/dissolving-impostor-syndrome-stopping-approvals-from-russell-olivia/)?
5. Some people’s lack of writing confidence may be nothing to do with their ability to string a sentence together. Many folk end up staring at blank screens not because they’re unsure about how to write something, but because they’re unclear about what needs writing in the first place. The problem lies not in their writing ability but in the briefing process.
6. Perhaps your organisation lacks a comprehensive set of language standards for everyone to follow.?This means other (often more senior) people can undermine a perfectly good piece of writing based on their own subjective opinions (and again we're back to individuals' psychoneuroendocrine systems).

Maybe your colleague will identify more than one of these - which is fine, because now you may be able to help them with a useful solution. Of course it's possible you may uncover something that isn't on this list - which will need a solution of its own. But if their challenge is covered within our six possibilities, what can you/they do about it?

Potential solutions

Inevitably the solution depends on the cause you're trying to solve.

It’s nuts to expect someone to do a job they’re ill-equipped for.?But is it just about giving them the right training and support??Or do you need to give the responsibility to someone else??(Either way, you need to make it safe for them to tell you they’re uncomfortable with what’s being asked of them.?Obvs.)

If you have someone who’s a capable writer but lacking in confidence:

• There are plenty of books you can turn to deal with the technical terminology issue. And you can’t really go wrong with?Oxford University Press. Being able to cite one of their publications is a sure-fire way to take the wind out of the sails of even the most determined pedant. Our go-to publication for decades has been:?Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage.?But other books may carry more weight in different countries.?The key issue is to let those external heavyweight authorities fight your battles for you.?
• Perhaps your organisation doesn’t yet have a comprehensive set of language standards which are?TFVP?(Transparently Fit for Valid Purposes).?If so, you could think about introducing and disseminating such standards.
• For everything else it’s probably best to rely on training:

1. There are plenty of courses teaching the basics – should any of your team have that need. It may even be possible to use e-learning for this.
2. You could learn a set of?TFVP language standards?(which can do much to remove subjective opinions from future debates).
3. It may also help to learn a?TFVP?process for?taking IC briefs.

All these may help. But training can take people only so far.?Anyone who learns new techniques is also going to need:

• Time to practise this learning, so you and your team can deliver maximum ROI.
• A?mandate?to use these practices in all relevant circumstances

(If you’re unsure how to take any of these steps, get in touch.)

Where those solutions could take you

No matter what someone’s current confidence level – and no matter how justified it may or may not be – these solutions ought to do the trick in most circumstances.?They should help move anyone to a place of confidence in their technical ability which is not only pretty much unshakeable but (and this is the really cool bit) justifiably so.

Likely business benefits…

…for you:

You and your colleagues will be able to get through the work with maximum efficiency. And the quality of what you produce is likely to be exceptional. If writing is the issue, your people will also be able to discriminate between valid and invalid suggestions for copy changes. This can reduce unnecessary time wasting, and boost the reputation of your team. It can also enhance your working relationships with all your team’s clients.

…for your employer:

Because every communication will hit home with everybody it needs to, your organisation’s internal audiences are far more likely to be performing increasingly well.

In conclusion

There’s a world of difference between ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ confidence, and justified confidence.?Every member of your team needs the latter.?Your organisation needs them to have it too.?Writing in particular is an area where people’s quiet underconfidence (and quiet overconfidence) can be exposed.?But we hope we’ve helped you understand why this can happen, and given you some practical ideas for tackling this all-too common source of Impostor Syndrome.?The key question now, then, is who else within your organisation needs to understand this? And what else would they need to know?

If this post has prompted any fresh ideas for you, please share them. That way everyone can benefit from that bigger picture. And, together, and we can all end these forever frustrations, for everyone's good.

About the author

We are Russell+Olivia Brooklands (ROB) - and we've been working in the field of Internal Communication for over 25 years.?Through our consultancy work and training programmes we've helped IC Specialists to up their game on four continents, in blue chip companies like GSK and Airbus, and major national and international bodies, including the European Central Bank and the UN. We were one of the founding Directors of the Institute of Internal Communication.?And we're leading the IC Practice Governance initiative, to help IC Teams better support line managers in becoming increasingly effective communicators.

You can find out more about our work, and how we can help you to easily make your life better, at commgame.co.uk