Feeling like a fraud…

As executive coaches we work with large numbers of managers and leaders. Many of them are hugely talented, hardworking and driven people, yet not infrequently during a coaching session we will hear them say something like “I suppose I fear that I will be revealed as a fraud” or “they will see that I shouldn’t really be in this role”.

This sense of imposter syndrome, a term first coined in the late 1970s, will be familiar to many people.

Regardless of what level of success they may have achieved in their chosen field of work or study, or what external proof they may have of their competence, those expressing the 'syndrome' remain convinced that they do not deserve the success they have achieved and will at some point be "found out".

It used to be thought that imposter syndrome (or more correctly ‘imposter phenomenon’) mainly affected women and those from minority groups. We now know that it affects people fairly equally across all groups with women being slightly more affected.

Imposter syndrome expert Valerie Young says that it is not about low self-confidence but about chronic self-doubt. Are women slightly more prone to self-doubt?

As a psychology undergraduate many years ago I researched the snappily titled “Sex differences in the attribution of success and failure”. It would seem to be relevant – here’s what this area of research suggests: men and women differ in how they account for their success and failure. Women seem more likely to attribute their success to external factors outside of their control (e.g. "the task was easy", "I was lucky") and more likely to attribute their failure to internal factors ("I didn’t work hard enough", "I was not sufficiently competent") than men. Men on the other hand seem more likely than women to do the reverse, attributing success to internal factors, and failure to external factors outside of their control. This has been repeated in many studies and these effects are found across many cultures to varying degrees. My own research looked to establish the age at which this difference might be seen and found quite clear evidence of it among 6 year olds…

What are the implications for women leaders and indeed for those of us who coach them? I am interested for example in how using cognitive behavioural coaching and examining core beliefs might help in this area.

I’d love to hear from you – what are your experiences?

If you are impacted by imposter phenomenon, you might be interested in our new online programme, Beyond Doubt: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome