Issue 8 | August 20, 2024
IN THIS ISSUE
FEATURED ARTICLE
What It Means to Normalize Impostor Syndrome
THIS WEEK’S REFRAME
WHAT’S NEW AT IMPOSTOR SYNDROME INSTITUTE
FREE Live Q&A with Dr. Young Tomorrow (Wednesday 8/21)
FEATURED RESOURCE
The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitudes.
— Victor Frankel
What It Means to Normalize Impostor Syndrome
Adelle was convinced that she’d fooled everyone into thinking she was smarter and more capable than Adelle “knew” herself to be.
“I suffer with impostor syndrome on a minute-to-minute basis,” she wrote.
She’d recently graduated with honors from an elite women’s college. She was also the first in her working-class family to go beyond high school.
Instead of applying for corporate jobs or law school like her classmates, Adelle decided to use her business degree as a self-employed social media manager in the trucking industry, something she knew about from her dad’s work driving long-haul trucks.
When I read Adelle’s email my first thought was, how could she not feel like a fraud?
After all, she checks the boxes for multiple groups known to be prone to impostor syndrome.
√ Her impostor feelings took hold while a college student.
√ She spent four years striving in an elite and, therefore, highly competitive school environment.
√ She was a first-generation student and now, first generation not to work in a so-called blue-collar job.
√ She works alone.
√ She works in an industry with historically few women.
Rather than take comfort in this information, Adelle’s response was, “Oh no, I’m doomed!”
Considering how impostor syndrome has been largely framed, this response was not surprising.
Join us for a special Live Session with Dr. Young!
In addition to answering your questions about impostor syndrome, you’ll discover:
- Top coaching mistakes — and how to avoid them
- The #1 misconception coaches have about impostor syndrome that can harm your client’s progress
- The costs and consequences of impostor syndrome to your client — AND your coaching practice!
- Why you shouldn’t try to “diagnose” impostor syndrome (and what to do instead!)
- Why a “pep talk” doesn’t work — and what does
- Plus, we’ll answer questions about our upcoming Impostor Syndrome-Informed Coach™ training program
It’s happening tomorrow, Wednesday August 21 at 10am.
Games Mother Never Taught You: Corporate Gamesmanship for Women, by Betty Harrigan.
This was the first book to educate women – or anyone – new to the “game” of getting ahead in large organizations.
Two years later Gail Evans, former executive vice president of CNN Newsgroup, wrote Play Like a Man Win Like a Woman, which covered similar ground.
Since then books like Lois Frankel’s 2014 best seller, Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office continue to sell well.
So why am I featuring a book came out in 1989?
Because in the late 1980s I got my first real “job-job” in a large Fortune 100 company.
Prior to that I’d been either a perpetual student or self-employed or both. To say the corporate world was a foreign land would be an understatement.
Despite some dated references, Games Mother Never Taught You helped me understand the culture of large companies and how it differs from how women often view the world.
It also saved me from making several potential blunders.
Like not understanding that when your boss’s boss welcomes you to the company and tells you their “door is always open” that in reality going over your boss’s head is a huge no-no!
If you’re new to the (American) corporate world, regardless of gender, it’s worth a read.
Do these insights resonate with you? What else should we be writing about now? Tell us by emailing info@impostorsyndrome.com.
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