Unmasking Imposter Syndrome in Women

While having a rather intriguing conversation with a female ex- colleague about work, life and everything in between, I was amazed (secretly also being able to relate) to the amount of self-deprecating beliefs about what she has achieved is a lot about luck and that she feels not so "deserving", despite being highly accomplished in her domain. I went back and read more about the prevalence of imposter syndrome in female professionals. An HBR report says that women feel imposter syndrome more than their male counterparts. When women get successful, they unconsciously try to negate their success in order to conform to the gender stereotype that “Men are more successful than women”.

Women are often made to believe that they don’t belong to the corporate culture despite putting extra hard-work and constantly justifying their worth in the workplace. Though we see some amazing examples of support from the ecosystem around, women still become their own biggest critique. They constantly feel inadequate and often engage in self-doubt; the imposter in them makes it hard to trust their capabilities. There is a lot of additional, unwanted pressure that women place on themselves in an attempt to prove that they are worthy and deserving of their position.

But hey, not all is lost yet. We know that once we understand the cause better, we are better equipped to deal with it. Here are some ways of handling this better:

ü Remember that your mistakes don’t define you – Understand that making mistakes is a part of the learning process & you don’t have to beat yourself over it.

ü List your achievements – Write down all your accomplishments, even if you consider them insignificant. Looking at what you have achieved will help break the cognitive spiral of self-depreciating thoughts you get when something doesn’t happen as per plan.

ü Respond to failures with empathy – Give yourself the same benefit of doubt that you give to other people. Be kind to yourself and most importantly, learn to forgive yourself.

ü Neutralize negative self-talk with positivity – We can’t put a pin on our thoughts but we can surely change the way we talk to ourselves. Next time instead of directly coming up to the conclusion “I am stupid”, how about rephrasing this to “I did something stupid”.

ü Let go off the perfectionist in you – Becoming aware of the negative self-dialogue & assessing whether your goals and expectations are attainable and can help break the vicious cycle of perfectionism.

ü Don’t be your biggest critique – There are plenty of people out there to criticise you and tell you that you don’t deserve your success. Do yourself a favour and don’t be one of them.?

ü Change your default answer to “yes” – The imposter in you will make it hard for you to believe in yourself and automatically say “no” in response to any and every challenging task that comes your way. Start saying “yes” and you will be pleasantly surprised by your capabilities.?

With great power comes great responsbility. And with so much power bestowed to women, the biggest responsibility is to ourselves, to not let anything demean or make us feel any less or unworthy of what we have achieved. More power to you!!