Are you succeeding because of luck or skill? Understanding the Imposter Phenomenon.

Dr. Pauline Clance and Dr. Suzanna Imes coined the term ‘Imposter Phenomenon’ in 1978 to refer to a phenomenon experienced by people who, despite having excellent accomplishments and academic records, still feel an internal sense of fraudulence or phoniness about themselves. This feeling may be enhanced when dealing with challenging situations or important achievement tasks. The Imposter Phenomenon can affect individuals in any occupation, be it doctors, those in academia (scientists, researchers), doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, managers and even college students.

The Imposter Phenomenon may point to the Attribution Theory, which explains how we perceive and explain the cause of events. Individuals partake in the most fundamental attribution error when they attribute their professional and academic success and accomplishments to luck, being in the right place at the right time, their network and not to their own skills and hard work. This misattribution causes significant distress because they feel as though they did nothing to earn it.?

The Imposter Phenomenon (IP) is often witnessed in people who are high achievers, but are also unable to believe that their success is a result of their own ability or skill set. This inability to rationalize their success on the basis of ability leads to them believing that it is due to luck, hard work or somehow manipulating others (Clance & Imes, 1978). Their belief about their inability is coupled with overestimating others’ ability: believing that others are loaded with the ability and skills required to succeed, and that they do not need to work very hard or put in much effort to succeed (Parkman, 2016).??

How does it affect people??

Those who deal with IP are likely to be more concerned with mistakes, details in their work and criticism of it, be afraid of evaluation of their performance lest they be found less competent and seek validation from others regarding their output. Constantly worrying that others will find out about their “weaknesses” leads them to ruminate over them and try to overcome them, rather than focus on their achievements or successes; they also tend to have a desire not to climb the professional ladder. It includes many components: a fear of failure, need to be the best, tendency to dismiss one’s ability, the belief that superhuman abilities are normal, and tendency to feel fear and guilt about one’s success.?

Presence of the Imposter Phenomenon is linked with negative affective conditions such as depression, generalized anxiety, dearth of self-confidence, feelings of frustration that arise out of an inability to meet one’s own high standards of achievement and constantly worrying that one will be “outed” for being incompetent.?

Is it different in men and women??

When they first presented their idea, Clance and Imes believed that it affected women more than men, but subsequent research has proved that to be false- it affects men and women equally,? but it may present itself differently: for men, it results in high levels of impulsivity and a need for change, whereas for women it presents as aversion to risk and a withdrawal from many accomplishment-related activities.?

Why does it happen to only some people?

Researchers have found evidence pointing to the conclusion that those who experience anxiety are more likely to experience feelings of being an imposter. Two major personality indicators of IP are low self-confidence and perfectionism. Those with high self-esteem are able to distinguish between self-worth and achievement and thus do not feel a need to show off. Perfectionism, especially when extreme, can cause individuals to overestimate the number of mistakes one is making, be less appreciative and very highly critical of one’s own output. Perfectionists tend to harshly criticize themselves for perceived errors, even if the error is small/unimportant.?

Impact in the Workplace

Presence of the Imposter Phenomenon in the workplace can indicate potentially negative and disastrous outcomes. Overcompensation in the form of working overtime and making the minute details perfect may result in individuals with imposter characteristics becoming workaholics. ?Individuals with the Imposter Phenomenon also tend to have low self-esteem; individuals with high self-esteem believe that they are capable of making contributions that matter to the success of the organization, they are less likely to feel incompetent or phony. They are also capable of separating their self-worth from their productivity in an organization.?

Perceived support from the organization may also play a role in this phenomenon- those without perceived support from their organization tend to be much less satisfied, find their jobs less pleasurable, be in a worse mood at work and experience other negative conditions like stress, burnout and headaches. An increase of all these conditions may lead the individual to direct them inward, and attribute them to feelings related to being an imposter, such as self-doubt.?

These effects indicate negative consequences for the workplace in the long-term: when highly qualified individuals constantly engage in self-doubt, feelings of guilt and worthlessness, the productivity of the organization is at stake- those with the qualifications may remain in the same position over many years whereas those who may be less qualified are promoted. There also exists an indirect effect: those with the Imposter Phenomenon are more likely to be depressed, stressed, anxious and likely to burn out quicker than others, thus reducing the quality of both task performance (prescribed role responsibilities) as well as contextual performance (extra role behaviour such as extending one’s network). Thus the performance directed at personal benefit as well as company benefit is reduced.?

The Imposter Phenomenon may manifest itself in different ways in the workplace:

1. Workaholic Imposters: these imposters may overcompensate in order to overachieve to gain validation. Despite being exhausted by their efforts, they believe that the unnecessary effort was required to gain the output.?
2. Con Artist Imposters: although they do not act with the intention to manipulate others, these imposters believe that they are achieving their success by their charm or some factor other than their ‘true’ ability.?
3. Lucky Duck Imposters: those who attribute their success to external factors such as ‘luck’ or ‘fate’ but worry about their luck eventually running out.?
4. Chameleon Imposters: Those Imposters whose feelings drive them to conceal themselves as much as possible in the workplace and not draw any unwanted attention to themselves.?
5. Procrastination Imposters: in order to avoid succeeding or failing at any action, these imposters put off taking any action at all.?

Some methods of overcoming Imposter Phenomenon include:?

On a Managerial level:?

1. Providing regular and constructive feedback so that employees are aware of their strengths, and what they can improve on.?
2. Hiring and promoting people from minority/underrepresented groups, which can increase self-esteem of people within these groups to apply for jobs and promotions.?
3. Corporations can provide their managers with Inclusivity training to avoid any bias that may take place.?
4. Clarify work responsibilities and demands to ensure that employees are not left in the dark.?

On a personal level:

1. Merely improving one’s posture at work can change the way we think about ourselves; adopting a powerful, strong, outward posture can make individuals feel more confident and assertive.?
2. Using positive self talk. When one is overwhelmed with imposter feelings, it may be helpful to ask, “Why not me? They trust me enough to let me handle this because they know I can.”
3. Expanding one’s network can be beneficial, either by connecting with others who face the same issues or by connecting with those who can help to overcome them.?

CONCLUSION

Imposter Phenomenon is a secretive phenomenon and is way more common than one may think. If you find yourself engaging in it, know that you're not alone, and that you haven't gotten this far purely on luck. Recognising the signs of IP and actively countering them are important stepping stones to your path in life. All the best!

Written by Kamya Menon