You work hard, you get a promotion, you’re growing, and everyone is praising you. At the same time, the feeling that you are deceiving everyone and do not really deserve what you have achieved does not leave you, and what is there is just a happy coincidence.
In such a situation, most likely you are faced with the “imposter syndrome”.
What is “imposter syndrome”?
Despite your efforts and efforts, you feel that all this is very difficult for you. and in fact, you can’t do anything. Management and colleagues admire the results of your professional growth, but the thought does not leave you that this is a deception of yourself and your environment. You tell colleagues that you are satisfied with the work, but you feel that these are false words.
This is how the “imposter syndrome” manifests itself. You get worse and worse, even after compliments and positive reviews, you assure yourself that they are false, and you do not deserve them. This situation depresses you, but how does it affect your effectiveness?
“Imposter Syndrome”: a study
In the late 90s of the 20th century, Pauline Rose Clancy and Suzanne Imes researched a group of successful women. They asked about their job satisfaction, skills, and assessment of their own competence. It turned out that many of the respondents said that they did not deserve what they had achieved, women thought that they were in their positions by accident, and colleagues were mistaken in considering them successful.
People have achieved in professional life significant success, but they themselves interpreted this as luck and underestimated their competencies.
Often, “imposter syndrome” is not unique to women, although the response is often gender-dependent. Women are less likely to be promoted and occupy leadership positions, so when they feel like “swindlers”, they do everything possible to prove that they are worthy of the result: they continue to work hard, learn new things, and develop professionally. Men do everything to hide their own doubts about their abilities.
Why does the “imposter syndrome” occur?
The “imposter syndrome” is exacerbated by free and unlimited access to the Internet and information. No matter how good you are at something, you can easily find someone who does it even better today! And then you accuse yourself of an insufficient level of professionalism. In addition, in many cases, only the end result is visible, and not the path to its achievement. For example, if you study painting, practice for a long time, study techniques, select colors, process relevant literature, and already feel that the work is getting better, you are being praised. And all of a sudden, on the net, you saw other artists uploading new and wonderful paintings every day. It upsets you, and you are dissatisfied with yourself and your results.
However, you do not know how much time and effort it took someone to reach this level, but you take the final result and compare it with yours. Of course, this will make you stop believing in your own abilities.
At the beginning of training, you are processing a lot of information. It seems to you that you are constantly developing, and learning something new every day. At some point, you have already reached a certain level in this area, and learning takes on a different meaning: you solve work problems and do not even know that at that moment you also received new information or skills. And it seems to you that you are standing still and development has stopped.
Today, there is an endless sea of information around us, many things you do not know, and this ignorance is more than knowledge. But this state of affairs is normal, although it seems to you, the contrary. Thanks to the Internet, you see that your field is constantly evolving, something new appears every day, and you physically cannot comprehend this amount of information. It seems to you that you just need to read and study everything, otherwise you are deceiving others, calling yourself a successful specialist.
How to overcome the “imposter syndrome”?
First of all, don’t be afraid to talk about it. If you tell your manager about your problem, he will present his vision of such a situation. Perhaps his position will open your eyes and make you believe in yourself and your abilities. Do not think that if you confess your doubts, you will be fired from your job.
Since many appreciate your work, this is not unreasonable and there are good reasons for this. The cases when someone insincerely praises you are actually very rare and isolated. You need to learn to give thanks and realize that you are doing a good job.
Stop watching others online and comparing them to yourself. Everyone goes their own way and at their own pace. Realize it’s impossible to succeed overnight, everyone puts in a lot of effort, and time to become an expert.
It should also be remembered that it is impossible to know and be able to do everything. If you don’t understand something others are talking about, it’s okay! In the end, you can later find out about it, or just ask colleagues. We are all surrounded by a huge information noise ., something new appears constantly, and no one can immediately understand, remember and study it.
“Imposter Syndrome” can also unconsciously help you climb the corporate ladder. If you think that the level of your knowledge or skills is insufficient, accordingly, you are doing everything possible to correct it, which means that you are more motivated.
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