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Unpacking Michelle Obama’s Impostor Syndrome
In a December 2018 talk at an all-girls school in North London, Michelle Obama was asked how she felt about being viewed as a “symbol of hope.” That’s when the former First Lady disclosed something countless millions of women and men worldwide experience, but often don’t have a name for. "I still have a little [bit of] impostor syndrome, it never goes away, that you're actually listening to me." Impostor syndrome describes a core belief that we're not as bright or competent or talented as...
Overcoming Impostor Syndrome: The Perfectionist’s View of Competence
For the Perfectionist, there is a single focus, and that is how something is done. Your competence rule book is relatively straightforward. I should deliver an unblemished performance 100 percent of the time. Every aspect of my work must be of the highest standard. Nothing short of perfect is acceptable. When you fail to measure up to these unrealistically high standards, it only confirms your feelings of impostorism. Some Perfectionists hold themselves to these exacting standards,...
Coaching People With Impostor Syndrome
I just received notice from Random House that a publisher in Bulgaria wants to publish my book! That makes translations in Italian, Korean, Czech, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian (in Ukraine), and later this year, Ukrainian and Turkish. I’m not telling you this to impress you. I’m telling you this to underscore that the global demand for solutions to impostor syndrome has never been stronger.And with that, the need for informed coaches, mentors, and advisors who can effectively address this...
Overcoming Impostor Syndrome is Easier Said Than Done
Seeing my work cited in articles on tackling impostor syndrome is always a treat. Sometimes more so than others. Like the blog post that featured my solutions before concluding that implementing them is “easier said than done.”The writer was surprised when I chimed in to say she was absolutely right!Anything that evokes meaningful change is "easier said than done."It’s easier to say you want to lose weight than to lose weight (trust me, I know).It’s easier to say you want to start...
Impostor Syndrome and Perfectionism
There are many potential sources of impostor syndrome. Family messages and expectations, situational factors like being a student, being in a group for whom there are societal stereotypes regarding competence and intelligence, and aspects of organizational culture both related and unrelated to bias. However, there is one thing everyone with impostor syndrome shares one thing in common. Given this article’s title, you might expect that one thing to be perfectionism. You’d be close. More...
Is Impostor Syndrome a Fad?
In 2006, I got a call from Inc. magazine staff writer and now Editor at Large Leigh Buchanan, looking for help with a piece she was writing on impostor syndrome. None of the successful, and at that time, male business owners she reached out to identified with impostor syndrome. Or if they did, no one would go on record. How things have changed. Today men, and it seems everyone, can’t stop talking about impostor syndrome. Suddenly, the term is everywhere – in song lyrics, movies, television,...
Impostor Syndrome and Overnight Success
It's common for people who experience overnight success to experience impostor syndrome. That’s what happened to viral sensation Sarah Cooper, known for her hysterical videos on Tiktoc lip-syncing Donald Trump's speeches during the 2020 election. Here’s how Cooper described her experience in an interview with The Daily Beast. Each video I made got millions of views… then my life did start to change. I started getting attention from all kinds of journalists and celebrities and people I’d...
When it Comes to Impostor Syndrome, Do Examine Childhood Messages – But Don’t Get Stuck There
Even well-meaning parents can inadvertently send messages that impact how competent and confident their children later feel. If the only response to earning all As and one B is, “What’s that B doing there?” the child quickly learns that the only thing that’s acceptable is perfection. And for kids, praise is like oxygen. Other kids earned outstanding grades and yet received no praise at all. Regardless of the many reasons why good parents might not praise a child for academic achievement, it...
Organizational Costs of Impostor Syndrome: What’s Old is New Again
Have you noticed how the business world has taken note of impostor syndrome in a big way? In the recent past, colleagues and I have spoken at companies like Pfizer, Vanguard, Johnson & Johnson, Molson Coors, T. Rowe Price, PWC, Carrier, Trane, Liberty Mutual, Rakuten, BP, Sun Life, AXA, KFC, Microsoft, IBM, Boston Consulting Group, Coinbase, CIGNA, Hello Fresh, NASA, RaceTrac, and Deloitte— to name a very few. For companies like Google, JP Morgan, Microsoft, Siemens, Dell, Diageo,...
The Natural Genius’s View of Competence
When Max was 10 years old he asked his Uncle Jason to teach him how to play the piano. He quit after five minutes. Looking back Max realized that he didn’t want to “learn” how to play the guitar… he just wanted to “play” the guitar. The Perfectionist continues to be the most obvious and familiar of my five competence types, often described as the five Types of Impostor Syndrome. But that’s not what was happening here. The expectation that he should be able to quickly and easily pick up the...
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...
