Unmasking the causes of imposter syndrome

Hayvn Halftime, a series of short seminars hosted at the Darien-based Hayvn Coworking Community, recently focused on an issue that impacts many people in the workforce: imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome, originally called the “imposter phenomena”when first described in a 1978 paper published by a pair of psychologists at Oberlin College, is typically (though not always) experienced by women who are successful professionals or students. Imposter syndrome takes the form of persistent feelings that one’s achievements are the result of sheer luck or even fraud, paired with a fear of being “found out”by others.

Executive leadership coaches Eileen Springer and Christine Alvarez walked their audience through the root causes of imposter syndrome, discussed the group’s experiences with it and provided some simple solutions for handling the issue when it comes up.

Springer has coached leadership teams at Fortune 100 companies and leverages more than 30 years of business experience to inform her instruction. Alvarez, in addition to running a coaching network for Columbia University’s Teachers College draws on three decades of experience in a number of media fields. Together they form the team at Your Next Next, a coaching and career consulting and development service.

“It comes up a lot with our clients,”Alvarez said of imposter syndrome. “It feels like a mask, like you’re hiding something, like there’s something not quite authentic or real about you. Pretty much everybody feels like this at some point in their lives.”Alvarez explained the difference between healthy and unhealthy forms of doubt. Healthy doubt, which can be the butterflies in the stomach before a big presentation or the feeling that a situation can be improved, is immensely useful, according to Alvarez, who added these feelings inspire work checking, rehearsals, practice, and help make situations exciting and help success feel exhilarating when challenges are overcome.

In contrast, Alvarez said unhealthy doubt is a paralyzing sensation where self-doubt becomes overwhelming.

“This leads to anxiety,”she said. “This leads to constantly second guessing yourself, and it can lead to a lot of anxiety induced paralysis, or the term ”˜analysis paralysis,’where you’re constantly overthinking.”According to Alvarez, the result is that the negative bias humans tend to have leads to an overemphasis of faults and a consistent underestimation of one’s own capabilities. With that pessimistic outlook, things one is capable of are never tried, and what is actually attempted can be unduly stressful, or subject to self-sabotage.

“The thing about self-sabotage is that we take on different personas,”Alvarez noted, explaining several distinct forms the imposter syndrome induced actions can take. Those include the “expert”who is terrified of not understanding even a single fact, the perfectionist who holds work to impossible standards even if doing so is detrimental, and the workaholic who constantly works for the sake of doing work, leading to burnout.

Alvarez detailed ways to counteract these tendencies by first identifying and then challenging the thoughts that drive imposter syndrome.

“Try to call it out, to name it, the minute you get those feelings name it and just stop for a moment,”Alvarez urged the audience. “Then identify the circumstances where it’s happening. Is it when I’m with upper management. Is it when I’m with other people who are experts? Is it happening with my team? With the finance people? Just take a moment to break it down and address it.”Alvarez said the most important question to pose to oneself is: “How true are these things?””Half the time we tell ourselves stories that aren’t really true,”she stated. “A little bit of true maybe, but not true. They’re often based a little bit on what we’re thinking, but far more on what we’re feeling.”Alvarez offered imagining what a good friend or mentor would say in the given situation as an effective tool for battling those feelings. Even if they would offer a critique, they would do it in a gentle and constructive way, which is important to internalize.

Alvarez added that responding to these situations with grace and being willing to reach out for help, even if it seems like there’s an increased risk of “exposure,”was among the most powerful tactics.

After Alvarez’s presentation, Springer walked attendees through a worksheet examining how “Cathy”was dealing with a difficult situation. The resulting conversations were wide ranging, with attendees weighing in with personal anecdotes both about their own experiences in the workplace and their own struggles with imposter syndrome.

“Christine and I chose this topic because there’s so much out there now about imposter syndrome and part of our work together is research and bringing that research to our clients in a way that is helpful,”said Springer as the meeting concluded. “We are finding it’s a great time to have a partnership with a coach when you are experiencing some sort of doubts, doubts about your current situation or if you’re in the process of pivoting or if you just need to help bring that clarity and have a process for bringing that forward.”