Are you living with an imposter?

One of the subjects that has continuously intrigued me over the last 26 years of my professional career is that of Imposter Syndrome in business.

Especially in relation to the achievements of high-achieving female business colleagues and business owners that I have worked with, socialised with and created lifetime friendships with.

So, I decided to write a little bit about a subject that can affect us all, both men and women.

Imposter Syndrome.

This is defined as:

‘A psychological pattern in which an individual, doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a ‘fraud’.’

We need to be clear here that everyone (both male and female) can experience this syndrome, but I believe that it is more prevalent in women, so I am intrigued to find out why this is/could be true both for myself and also other high-achieving women I have met in business over the past quarter of a century.

Let’s go back in time a little, so that I can explain why as women, we can all potentially live with an inner ‘imposter’ in our heads and why it may be there at all.

My story is as follows:

I was born in Leicester in 1971. The year that the UK had ‘new money’ and went decimal. The 1970’s was an interesting decade from what I remember of it. The long hot summer of 1976, the arrival of Sindy and Barbie for girls (the boys got Action Man and Chopper Bikes) and a decade of strikes. Those of postal workers, dustmen and miners and the global world domination of a small Swedish pop sensation called Abba.

If you were organised in your home in UK in the ‘70’s, your family had a tin under the sink with emergency candles for lighting (as you could never tell when the power was going to go out); due to the strikes that were ongoing for the most part of the decade.

I was educated in the state school system in Leicestershire (UK) and back then, career choices for girls and women were limiting and the advice sparse to non-existent. We were still taught home economics and sewing at school, although I had much more aptitude at woodwork and metalwork to be honest (in fact I was one of the only girls to choose these options at this time).

Girls in the 1970’s and 1980’s, were actively encouraged to seek out careers and jobs in the ‘arts’ or ‘caring’ professions. Nursing and teaching were often the two choices that were spoken of most frequently or admin in an office including filing and secretarial work.

I remember my careers interview quite clearly in 1988 when the advice I was given was ‘go to university and then become a teacher – for a bright girl like you, that should be the option’.

In class we were taught about the achievements of men and I don’t recall educationally being given any positive role models in the syllabus that I felt I could remotely relate to.

There was a bit more parity in the teaching of arts and literature, but we once again learned that many of our female predecessors such as Austen and Bronte had a fantastically hard time getting books published, with many female writers choosing to publish under assumed male names just to be able to get their works seen in the 19th Century.

That said, around 80% of the teachers when I was schooled in the 1970’s and 1980’s were women. Typically in ‘arts’ related subjects like English and Drama and PE (Sports), the sciences were dominated by male teachers back then.

In the 1980’s, I was emerging from an education system that was already ‘streaming’ girls and boys into careers that were ‘gender suitable’ and at school the uniforms were still ‘skirts’ for girls and trousers for boys.

Ugh. I hated it but we didn’t think anything of it because back then, it was considered ‘the norm’.

The omnipresence of the media was there as always, I don’t think this has changed much for women now, with print magazines like ‘Jackie’ and Cosmopolitan encouraging you as a girl to think about fashion and boys and how your life would relate to them as you grew up.

All I wanted to do a child was to go ‘out to play’ and climb trees with the boys (including Matthew Thompson who lived next door but one to me, when I was in primary school).

So, what was the 1970’s and 1980’s like?

This was a time when telephones were fixed to the wall at home or you wrote a letter to someone if you wanted to communicate with them.

Or you ‘called around their house’ to see if they were in at home to then ‘go out’. Always with a 2p or small coin change (in your pocket) and a reminder from your parents, that you could always ‘reverse the call charges’ for free (well the recipient of the call had to foot the bill!) from a public phone box in the event of an emergency.

Plus - you had to remember your home phone number which was learned ‘off by heart’ along with those of your extended family and friends (again in case of an emergency – no mobile phones).

What happened to the girls I went to school with?

The majority of the great girls that I went to school with, felt they never fully realised their potential academically or professionally later on in their lives.

Speaking to them at length, they often spoke of regret in ‘settling’ for what had been laid out as the ‘preferred pathway’ for us all at that time as girls (and later as women).

Now some of them (in their forties and perhaps freer of caring for their children as they age) are choosing to start-up their own companies or proceed further with their careers or education for the first time.

As adults we are obviously free to choose and of course, we are the ‘end game’ of the choices that we make each and every day. It is however important to realise that it does help if the scales are tipped in your favour at the start of your professional life.

So, what does any of this information have to do with imposter syndrome and women?

Generally; in my own experience, women of my acquaintance and age feel they are expected to be great at everything.

Discussing this with professional women of my own generation (Generation X) they feel massive pressure to perform well at all of their roles all of the time.

They don’t (and I quote) ‘want to let anyone down’ or ‘disappoint anyone’.

I think that from a broader perspective, we have to look at the roles that women currently have in our western society; to help unravel the clues as to how they feel so very pressurised to succeed at everything, whilst leaving little or no space for respite for themselves.

Ultimately leaving ‘Imposter Syndrome’ to flourish, even when they are achieving great things in every single area of their lives.

The issue is, women are rarely recognised for successes in any of these roles or fields, leading to feelings of inadequacy.

So, what are women’s roles like in 2018?

Roles for women typically are:

·      Wife, partner, girlfriend, daughter, sister, niece etc

·      Mother – primary carer of the children (for the majority of the time)

·      The majority of the time they are the primary care-giver to parent(s), aging parents

·      Household carer - housekeeper and chief bottle washer

·      Business professional/worker

What are the expectations around these roles?

Women in their forties and fifties were conditioned very early on.

We were told that we ‘have to be good’ at all roles; whilst also paying very specific attention to our appearance with our ultimate aim being to ‘fit in’, at work and at home.

Fast forward to 2018:

If we look at the increased use of social media now and the rise of mental health issues in the next generation of young girls, it becomes apparent that inter-generational pressures for women are STILL the same as when I was growing up in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

There has hardly been a shift.

So the question for me is – has anything changed at all?

Through extensive discussions with hundreds of women over the years, the common thread of these discussions is; that the majority of professional women that I encounter still feel societal pressure around:

·      Looking good – appearance for women is still used as a measure of their success.

·      To be considered attractive to men – I don’t think this has changed since the dawn of time!

·      To be attentive, considerate and caring – family expectations around the home are especially demanding.

·      To be popular and being liked by their peers – this is an imperative aspect to ‘fitting in’ and keeping societal ‘norms’ in place.

·      Women who step outside these parameters are often vilified or considered ‘troublesome’ ‘aggressive’ or in some way ‘abnormal’.

Women are still defined as basically BEING something that satisfies the ‘needs’ of someone else and caring for them as their primary priority and to a certain extent ‘people pleasing’.

It is RARE that women in middle age put their own needs ahead of that of their children or families, because society as a whole, has conditioned us this way.

When they do, they feel incredibly guilty and inadequate and that leads to Imposter Syndrome, where they are so busy juggling multiple roles (often being outstanding at them!) that they feel as they are not achieving anything at all; even if evidence is contrary to this belief.

Once again, I refer to discussions with female friends and acquaintances and business owners across the years (and of course these are anecdotal) and I will highlight I am not a psychology professional, BUT I wonder just how many women irrespective of age and upbringing still feel like this in 2018 and WHY?

Perhaps we should look at the things that women are rarely told in the workplace and at home and this may give us some clues.

I then asked my female friends and acquaintances what they are NEVER told in the workplace, but would like to hear:

Women are rarely told:

·      You are brilliant – great work!

·      You are talented and should continue to develop yourself and your own skills

·      You should ‘stretch’ yourself by going for that promotion

·      You shouldn’t care what anyone else thinks – prioritise what you want and need

·      You should take more risks and I’ll support you in doing that

·      What do you need to succeed?

·      You should start your own business – go for it!

From early childhood, women in middle age have been taught to ‘play nicely’ ‘not to be bossy’ ‘don’t be overbearing’ ‘think about others’ and time and again girls are taught to defer their needs, in favour of others.

Then we are also vilified and discredited for raising this subject accused of ‘nagging’ or being ‘overbearing’.

This has to change in order for women to get parity both at work and at home and we need help from our peers whatever their gender to do this.

Ultimately, whatever women achieve, we have been conditioned to question that we have done it well enough, as we have been told to always seek external approval and validation.

This starts in childhood and continues into adulthood and has to change and is certainly true in my own experience throughout the years of my professional career.

Early in my career I faced horrendous sexism when I constantly out-performed my male colleagues in sales and was bullied by them in the workplace, as I was perceived as a threat and a 'freak'.

But has this attitude changed in 2018?

Here’s just one small example for you of what women face in the UK 2018:

For example; host of BBC2 TV panel show ‘QI’ Sandi Toksvig; gets paid the same as a male panellist on the programme even though she presents the same show (previously presented by Stephen Fry).

He got paid 40% more for the SAME JOB that she currently does.

If a flagship broadcaster is sending out this messaging then what does that tell us about gender parity in the UK today?

So, has anything changed for women since I was at school in the 1970’s?

With this kind of treatment towards women in business and with this level of inequality, we have a long way to go. If we can become a more inclusive and equal society in the UK this will be a start.

There’s a lot of work to do and with the support of men and other women we have to pull together to change the economic and business landscape, that will be beneficial for all.

Business globally has a key part to play in this and can help women that may suffer from Imposter Syndrome overcome their fear of fictitious performance failure; and give them a genuine reason to hope that one day, they may never feel it again.

Note:

I would be interested to hear from both women and men, to hear your experiences of Imposter Syndrome, how does it affect you at work or at home and how do you deal with it?

Are you a professional that specialises in this area?

How can we help improve and support women and men moving forward to help attain gender parity?

Please post your thoughts and comments below.

About the author:

Becky Lodge is an international sales and marketing director and business founder with over 25 years’ professional experience in complex technical markets including tech and engineering.

Degree and Chartered Institute of Marketing qualified, Becky is an advocate of innovation, future thinking and gender parity globally and is an experienced international speaker, delivering keynotes to education and large corporate providers on these subjects.

If you would like to contact Becky to speak on gender parity as a subject, then please send a message via Linked In here:

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/beckylodge

In 2018, Becky was selected from thousands of applicants across the UK to become one of ‘Sky News 100 Women’. These women are next generation leaders and influencers advocating gender parity and showcasing the outstanding achievements that these women have made in their fields of operation.

Becky is also an active advocate and speaker in education for girls and women in STEM and owns and operates her own business Little Kanga Ltd that is home to the brand StartUp Disruptors.

StartUp Disruptors is a UK based support network for start-up business owners with a member base online of over 1,000 small businesses; having helped over 3,000 small business owners realize their dreams and ideas since 2016.

StartUp Disruptors is sponsored and supported by Uber and Funding Circle and helps tech and creative business owners flourish and grow their company, through meetups, online support and mentorship.

www.start-up-disruptors.co.uk

www.twitter.com/solentdisruptor

www.facebook.com/startupdisruptors

www.instagram.com/startupdisruptors