What Imposter Syndrome Costs Your Company

You're here because you have already achieved some outer success and reached your current executive leadership position. But growth doesn't have to stop here. There is a thrill and satisfaction in challenging yourself, stretching and seeing how much you can achieve. Have an impact and make a contribution.

The talents, skills and tools that have got you to this point will not necessarily take you further. Or the approaches you've used to achieve this success may have been expensive in terms of time, energy, stress and effect on your relationships. You need new or upgraded power tools to make sure you can sustain or advance your position more easily.

The High-Performance Executive Newsletter introduces these tools, so that you can level up, as video-gamers would say. It draws on many areas of solid research into high-performance in business, including neuroscience, psychology, physiology, trauma therapy and flow-state study.

The three essential areas for high performance are neuro-regulation (to get and stay calm), clear the negative self-talk and the beliefs that create them (including imposter syndrome), and create new success habits.

This week we're looking at the business cost of imposter syndrome.

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The Business Cost of Imposter Syndrome

In Issue 17 of this newsletter, I calculated the financial cost of imposter syndrome for an individual (easily over ￡1M+ earnings lost over 35 years for a CEO or C-level exec on ￡125k p.a).

In this Issue, I’ll be exploring what it costs a business in which executives have imposter syndrome.

Now just in case you’re thinking you can do a ‘purge’ on execs with imposter syndrome, please note that over 70% of high-achievers experience imposter syndrome, and its hallmark is that they keep it a secret.

You can’t easily spot imposter syndrome, and it’s not a personality trait, so you can’t test or filter for it either. But there are things you can do to help.

This Issue is about removing the hand waving vagueness that often goes with imposter syndrome, and plugging in research facts.

The goal is to make you aware that this is a significant source of stress for the individual and that has a significant impact on your company. And that it is completely unnecessary cost.

Effects of Imposter Syndrome

People with imposter syndrome feel like they are somehow not quite good enough, despite huge success, great reviews, awards etc. They secretly feel like a fraud, even though they are not, and are worried they'll be 'found out'.

The symptoms of imposter syndrome include the thoughts people have about themselves (self-doubt) and behaviours such as?perfectionism, over-preparing, procrastination, comparing, hiding their opinion, and slowing down their career path. It’s unlikely that an employer will see these symptoms directly.

Instead, execs with imposter syndrome will appear to be performing well, getting great reviews and seem totally confident.

However, the internal stress effect of imposter syndrome can be huge. Imposter syndrome often triggers the nervous system into the fight, flight or freeze state.

This is the body’s natural, normal response to a perceived threat to survival.

In fight/flight, the blood flow in the body changes; extra blood gets pumped to the limbs in preparation for physical defence and is drawn away from the prefrontal cortex in the brain. The strategic thinking and planning part of the brain!

A 2012 Princeton University study measured the difference between a triggered and non-triggered nervous system in people. They found their IQ temporarily dropped by 13 points when in the fight or flight state.

The change in blood flow means that your brain literally does not have the resources (oxygen and nutrients) to function at full capacity.

Performance

Being in the fight or flight state means that decision making is harder and less effective. It also increases risky behaviour and reduces creativity for problem-solving.

People are distracted by the self-doubt and worry of being found out (to be not good enough) and so are less focused. It’s also physically tiring to be on high alert for long, so people have less energy.

Being high-performers, you might not be able to tell all this from the outside. But internally, their performing well comes at a huge cost of energy and is much harder?work than it would be otherwise.

The upshot is that people with imposter syndrome often under-perform relative to their full potential, despite being very good at what they do.

That is, they are capable of even higher performance, even more positive impact and contribution. Without imposter syndrome, they would also perform at peak levels more easily, enjoy it more and have more energy.

Retention

A long-term effect of imposter syndrome and an activated nervous system is exhaustion. The constant feeling like you’re swimming upstream, working extra hard and longer hours to deliver well.

Unchecked, imposter syndrome can lead to burnout.

Like the ‘Great Resignation’ following the pandemic, this year we’re also seeing the ‘Great Burnout’ directly from the additional stress that the pandemic has created.

Whether the cause is the pandemic or imposter syndrome, burnout is a serious issue. Not just for the mental health of the individual, but also for the disruption within a company that it causes.

When key players need a 3-6 month break, then projects at best slow down. Or the work is passed to their colleagues; other executives who must then prioritise which projects get attention. Or exhaust themselves trying to do the job of two people.

Or hiring an interim will also be a direct financial cost, so this cost is easy to calculate.

Some execs quit rather than push themselves to burnout. They mistake imposter syndrome for a personality flaw or weakness, and so they conclude that maybe they don’t belong at their level, in their industry or even in corporate life.

The financial costs for their replacement include recruitment agent costs, interim costs, and a signing bonus for a new hire. These costs again can be easily calculated.

Project or operational costs include the disruption within the team, delayed projects, all the way to lack of continuity in team performance reviews.

Culture

Most people can’t spot imposter syndrome per se. But they can see when people are stressed (whether from imposter syndrome or not).

Executives set the cultural tone in a company, and are role models to their teams. An exec who is pushing themselves towards burnout unintentionally creates a burnout culture. The cost of burnout then multiplies through their team. Remember that a triggered nervous system also means people are performing below their full potential because of the stress.

Stressed people are also more emotionally reactive (again due to changes in blood flow in the brain). This means they may get defensive, short-tempered, blame others, withdraw, or become more suspicious and less cooperative.

This knee-jerk reactivity can show up in exec meetings and/or with their teams.

The smooth running of the team is lost and there is increased conflict. It's not the thrilling high-performance environment that people love to work in.

This emotional reactivity is not someone’s personality but a direct consequence of the body’s physiological stress response. When imposter syndrome has been eliminated, the person becomes routinely calmer and this emotional reactivity disappears.

A Hidden Cost

The company costs of imposter syndrome include lower performance (than full potential), decreased retention from burnout or execs simply quitting and the cultural impact of burnout and reactivity.

I see it as a hidden cost because most people keep their imposter syndrome a secret. Because they think it's them when it's not.

The pandemic was beyond our control, however imposter syndrome and its huge cost can be completely eliminated.

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What I've loved this week:

Competing in the New World of Work by Keith Ferrazzi, Kian Gohar and Noel Weyrich

The authors make a great case for the agile enterprise. They explore practical ways to foster communication, connection and creativity in cohesive teams despite remote working.

Their testing ground for this has been the remote working during lockdown and then new hybrid working changes. The focus is on creating a highly adaptable culture that can survive and succeed in both current uncertainties and also in the unknown future.

A fascinating book and I look forward to seeing how the 'crisis agile' from lockdown emergencies translates to agile company culture in the hybrid workplace, as the authors predict.

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An action step you can do today (and this year) …

Three Steps for Companies

Whilst you can’t spot imposter syndrome, you can add up the substantial cost of people quitting.

You've invested in hiring great, talented executives to drive your company's success. It makes good financial and business sense to make sure they have the best possible chance of delivering their full potential and contribution.

Your company can help with imposter syndrome in a few ways.

1)?????Create awareness of imposter syndrome ( especially the message; it is not you, you're not alone and you can do something about it)

2)?????Create a culture that dials down imposter syndrome stress (support?through mentoring, instil belonging and create psychological safety)

3)?????Support by providing anonymous access to programmes (such as Inner Success) that eliminate imposter syndrome for good.

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We'll cover more on imposter syndrome in future issues.

Do subscribe and share!

I'm Dr Tara Halliday, Imposter Syndrome Specialist.

I've been a holistic therapist and high-performance coach for over 21 years.

I'm the creator of the premium Inner Success for Execs programme - the fastest and best solution to imposter syndrome.

My book, Unmasking: The Coach's Guide to Imposter Syndrome was an Amazon #1 bestseller in 2018.

Check out the Inner Success for Execs programme for fast 'up levelling' of your internal leadership tools, and eliminating imposter syndrome for good.

https://www.completesuccess.co.uk

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Have an excellent, refreshing and recharging weekend!

Tara