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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 around the world 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...
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...
What Is Impostor Syndrome?
Have you ever been unsure whether what’s holding you — or others — back is impostor syndrome, low self-esteem, lack of confidence, or something else entirely? Since there is so much confusion about impostor syndrome, let's start by answering the common question of, "what is impostor syndrome?" and then we'll address what it is not. For starters… Impostor syndrome isn’t a “fancy term” for low self-esteem.Think of self-esteem as the global sense we have about ourselves. But impostor syndrome...
New Narratives About Impostor Syndrome In Popular Culture
Impostor syndrome is seemingly everywhere, with an explosion of attention via books, blogs, online and print articles, podcasts, television and radio interviews, and social media. And with this popularity comes consequential shifts in the public conversation. Currently there are two divergent narratives about impostor syndrome. One frames it as a positive. The other challenges the very concept itself while simultaneously blaming it on systemic bias in society as a whole or within...
What If I Really AM an Impostor?
Dear Dr. Young, For me, it’s always been about achieving success when I have no business doing so. That’s not to say that I exploit others, far from it! Instead, it’s that I shouldn’t be in the position I am in because I don’t know these things, I don’t have the degrees, and I don’t have the experience. When asked by the team or higher-ups what I think our next move is, I tell them what I think we should do, and the suggestion is met with high praise and acclaim!But I have no idea how to...
Why I Hate Accomplishment Lists
Anyone who has ever started a small business knows how painfully slow success can be. It’s easy to get discouraged. That’s why, in the mid-90s, I started to document small wins. Year 1 Interviewed by my local newspaper Applied to teach at adult learning center Ran one public workshop Year 2 Interviewed by The Boston Globe Profiled in UMass alum magazine Sent press releases to 12 newspapers Taught two adult learning center classes Took HTML class Bought website domain The process reminded me...
The Competence Rulebook for Mere Mortals
All achievers want to do their best. But when you feel like an impostor, your “best” includes a host of self-expectations that go far beyond doing well. Whether you know it or not, your view of competence is a major contributor to perpetuating your belief that you are an impostor. Over the years you’ve adopted notions about what’s required for you to be considered talented, knowledgeable, skilled, or, in a word, “good” enough. And these notions have everything to do with how competent...
The Opposite of Impostor Syndrome
Impostor syndrome describes the tendency to dismiss evidence of our accomplishments. To believe instead that we’ve fooled others into thinking we’re more intelligent or capable than we “know” ourselves to be and that it’s just a matter of time before we’re found out. But what’s the opposite of impostor syndrome? In Valerie Young’s 2017 TED Talk she referred to people who don’t experience impostor syndrome simply as “non-impostors.” Even then, she knew the term was not ideal because people...
Fact Check: Impostor is Not a Scam or Conspiracy
Impostor syndrome is a scam.
Worse, it is a deliberate misogynous strategy created to hold women back.
Besides, it’s not even real.
That was the troubling and wildly inaccurate message of the 2023 commencement speech at Smith College.
