What’s one thing you should do if you suspect your team is struggling with impostor syndrome?
Start by talking about it!
The first step is to help people realise it’s a totally normal feeling and that they’re not alone in feeling this way.
It has become a widely misunderstood term however – thank you for that social media 😒
Is it the same as self-doubt? Is it a mental health condition? Does it go away as you get more experienced? Is it actually a superpower? And so on…
Spoiler alert: the answer to all of the above is no.
Helping people to better understand what it is and what situations might be most triggering for them specifically can help them to settle the feeling and move forward.
To stop it becoming a blocker that prevents them from achieving their potential.
If you’re a leader and you feel impostor syndrome too, sharing this with your team, when done in the right way, can be really powerful in helping with this normalisation.
And could act as a catalyst to make it more of an open topic to be spoken about more safely.
In all of the leadership roles I’ve had over the last 8 years or so I’ve chosen to do this by giving talks and running sessions on impostor syndrome, including how it’s affected me in my career.
Together with previous co-speakers such as Jack Histon, Robert van Kooten and Catherine Watson the aim has been to share knowledge and experience, to help people understand it better and reduce its impact.
Now that I run my own coaching business I’m continuing this by offering both workshops and coaching on the topic. Plus I’ll be speaking at November’s Agile Yorkshire on this too!
Give me a shout if you think your team or workplace could benefit from more awareness, knowledge and understanding of impostor syndrome
#impostorsyndrome
