Six ways to overcome impostor phenomenon

Focus on your strengths

One study, involving more than 80 education professionals, suggests that a strengths-based intervention might have a direct, positive effect on self-belief, with a slightly less direct effect on personal growth (van Woerkom & Meyers, 2019). The researchers found that a strength-based intervention was particularly effective for people with low to medium levels of self-belief.

If you're unclear about what your strengths are, why not ask for feedback from your colleagues? Or, alternatively, you can complete the free strengths inventory, developed by Professor Martin Seligman.

Practice self-compassion

Through her research, psychologist and author Dr Kristin Neff suggests self-compassion has three elements:

• Self-kindness – taking the time to understand rather than judge yourself.
• Feeling connected with others in life – recognising there is a world outside ourselves.
• Mindfulness – seeing the situation in real-time without focusing on 'what ifs'.

One thing you can do is to keep a self-compassion journal. Write about any difficult events of the day (or the week) and then note down at least two things you did as best you could, given the circumstances.

Notice and disrupt any unhelpful thoughts

The ABC Technique, developed by Dr Albert Ellis, is used in rational-emotional therapy (RET) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). It can be useful in disrupting unhelpful thoughts.

The first two stages (the A and the B) refer to the Adversity we're facing and the Beliefs we hold in relation to that adversity. A and B, together, are known as our explanatory style. Our explanatory style is the thing we can disrupt, as the way we can explain things to ourselves can be affected by cognitive distortions. Depending on how we explain things to ourselves will affect the Consequences.

Use the ABC Technique to disrupt any distorted thoughts you might have about a situation. Reflect on your explanatory style (the A and the B). What are the facts of the situation? To what extent are your Beliefs based on your interpretation versus hard facts?

Normalise not knowing everything

That impostor feeling can simply be because you're out of your comfort zone. Perhaps you're in a new role, or you're on a postgraduate programme that's stretching your thinking. That discomfort is simply because we're in learning mode. It's not a bad thing.

Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize winning physicist, was an exceptional learner. His secret? He accepted that he couldn't know everything and that he always had something to learn. He kept a notebook which he called 'Notebook of things I don't know about'.

Why not create your own notebook of things you don't know about and update it each week?

Build a professional support network

Your professional support network can be made up of colleagues past and/or present. The important thing is that they are people you trust enough to share the good, bad, and ugly of what's going on for you at work. By sharing, you start to realise that (a) you're not alone in how you're feeling, (b) that helping others work through issues takes your focus of you and (c) that it's okay to celebrate when things have gone well.

Work with a coach or a mentor

While in my experience impostor phenomenon can affect anyone, there are some who suggest that it seems to affect women more than men. Coaching might help increase the legitimacy of women in senior leadership roles by enabling them to be seen as leaders, enabling their leadership identity development, and building their confidence (Oldridge, 2019). An experienced coach will understand the impact of the wider system the coachee is operating in. For example, is it systemic issues leading someone to feel like they're not good enough or that they don't fit in? 

• Dr Hayley Lewis is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society, in Occupational and Coaching; an HCPC Registered Occupational Psychologist; and Managing Director, HALO Psychology
• For the on-demand webinar, 'Impostor phenomenon – What is it and how to overcome it', click here.

References

Ellis, A. (1991). The revised ABC's of rational-emotive therapy (RET). Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 9, 139-172.

Neff, K. (2011). Self-compassion: The proven power of being kind to yourself. London: Yellow Kite.

Oldridge, K. (2019). A grounded theory study exploring the contribution of coaching to rebalancing organisational power for leaders. The Coaching Psychologist, 15, 11-23.

van Woerkom, M., & Meyers, M.C. (2019). Strengthening personal growth: The effects of a strengths intervention on personal growth initiative. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 92, 98-121.