Who do you think you are? #impostersyndrome

What is imposter syndrome?

Imposter syndrome is where an individual has doubts about his/herself and has a fear of being exposed as a fraud.

Case study of how coaching helped an individual to start to overcome imposter syndrome

In a #leadership #coaching chat a client shared that she was sat at the table with a number of peer executives and she found herself stifled, embarrassed and holding back information that she wanted to share on the topic under discussion.

In our coaching session, we identified her underlying belief was that she wasn’t ‘good enough’. I hear this a lot.

Exploring ‘good enough for what’ she revealed that she didn’t think she was ‘good enough’ to share her view on a topic in which she was the expert. The words started to tumble...

"I might not know enough"

"What if I'm wrong, I'll embarrass myself"

"I'm not always sure about things and that will probably show and then I'll wish I'd never said anything"

"...And so I find it safer to sit back..."

We started to unpick the unhelpful and self-sabotaging thoughts. We recognised that they came from a place of helpfulness, in some respect (her amygdala - the fear center in the brain - was on alert to protect her and it had received a message which it had interpreted as fear).

We worked through her thinking - slowly - remembering that our brains are programmed to react quickly. In breaking down the thinking that sat behind the behaviour, it was easier to see that the brain had misinterpreted the facts and had responded to emotion.

We discussed her further challenging thoughts that popped up such as 'this is easy in coaching but not when I'm sat with the executive team!'. Again we walked through and understood what needed to happen for her to be able to do this 'in the moment'. We used forward thinking, trigger identification and situational behaviour planning.

The magic in action...

In a follow-on session, she shared how she had practised doing what she had planned. The first time, she said, "I nearly bottled it and then I thought, no, I want to do this". It went well and even if it didn't we had discussed how that would be useful learning.

She said she had boosted her self-belief & she felt she deserved her ‘seat at the table’ - in fact, she'd also been asked to mentor another colleague, who admired how she 'spoke up' in the meeting.

Imposter syndrome is something that can be worked through...why not have a free informal chat if you too experience this - I coach both males and females through imposter syndrome to release your true potential. You can call me on 07977 229059 for a free, confidential and informal chat.