Imposter Syndrome and its Evil Twin

Today we will explore Imposter Syndrome.  It can be defined as: “A psychological pattern where individuals doubt their accomplishments and fear being exposed as a ‘fraud’, despite evident success and recognition”. People with Imposter Syndrome often attribute their achievements to luck or external factors rather than their own skills and effort. This can lead to chronic self-doubt, an inability to internalize success, and a persistent fear of being ‘found out’.”

In case you are wondering: Yes, I am someone who has this ‘gift’.  I’ll share later how I dealt with it.  My hope in writing this is to help others to get through their Imposter Syndrome and lead a more satisfied life motivated not by fear and self doubt and rather by inspiration.

First let’s go to the beginning and examine where Imposter Syndrome comes from.  There is no single pathway to becoming someone who has this ‘gift’.

The main features of the syndrome are:

• pressure for achievement/success

• self doubt

• negative self image

But where do they come from.  Common contributors include:

Family Environment / Early Socialization:

If a child or teen is faced with a constant barrage of very high expectations and negative reinforcement that questions whether they are useful, perhaps even labelling them as useless or worthless this will seed their mind full of self doubt.  There could also be an experience of bullying leading to a ‘chip on your shoulder’ situation where there is a self-imposed pressure to succeed.  Both of these situations can also lead to a negative self image.

Personality Traits:

In the Big Five framework of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism people that are high in both Conscientiousness and Neuroticism may be at higher risk of Imposter Syndrome.  There will be a tendency to place high expectations on oneself, and when not living up to those high expectations to drift into negative self talk.  Low agreeableness could exacerbate this.

Comparison to Others:

Someone could be an objectively high performer but if they are surrounded by other even higher performers self doubt will tend to creep in, particularly exacerbated if they are high in neuroticism.  They will feel less competent than they really are.  Social media can also make this a lot worse.

Cultural Pressure:

Social pressures that equate success and achievement with worth, create a pressure to constantly prove oneself.

So why do I call this loveliness a gift?  Because it can be, but with an ugly cost.  Imposter Syndrome puts fuel in the tank to drive one to achieve, perhaps even overachieve.  The cost is the risk, perhaps inevitability of burn out.  A key mitigator to risk of burn out is mutual respect, including self respect.  The imposter syndrome sufferer is seriously lacking in self respect.  This combined with a tendency to drive oneself to a high workload, and a likely willingness to sacrifice self-care create a recipe for burn out…a question of when, not if.

It is often useful when examining something to try and find its opposite.  Sometimes the optimal point is not in opposition to something, but in balance between two opposites.  The key ingredient of self doubt in imposter syndrome is one extreme.  Opposite of self doubt is arrogance.  In between is self awareness.  Downstream of self awareness is humility:

Self doubt is not the same thing as humility.  Let’s take a quick look at each of these:

Self-Doubt

• Nature: Self-doubt involves questioning your abilities and decisions leading to hesitation, a lack of assertiveness, and fear of being exposed as inadequate.

• Impact: While a little self-doubt can encourage self-improvement, too much can hinder your confidence and growth, preventing you from taking risks or seizing opportunities.

• Feelings: It often comes with anxiety, insecurity, and a sense of inadequacy.

Humility

• Nature: Humility is an awareness and acknowledgment of one’s limitations and the respect for others' abilities and contributions. It's about recognizing that you don't have all the answers and also being open to learning from others.

• Impact: Humility fosters collaboration, continuous learning, and personal growth. It helps build strong relationships and instills a sense of gratitude and respect.

• Feelings: It’s often accompanied by a balanced sense of self-worth and an appreciation for others.

Arrogance

• Nature: Arrogance involves an inflated sense of one's own importance or abilities. It often manifests as overconfidence, dismissiveness of others, and an unwillingness to accept feedback or acknowledge mistakes.

• Impact: Arrogance can lead to interpersonal conflicts, isolation, and a lack of opportunities for personal growth. It can create a barrier to meaningful connections and collaboration.

• Feelings: It is often accompanied by a sense of superiority, entitlement, and disregard for others' contributions.

Self-doubt can be paralyzing, while humility is empowering.  Embracing humility doesn't mean you lack confidence; it means you have the wisdom to understand there's always room for improvement and growth.  In contrast to self-doubt and humility, arrogance can be alienating and counterproductive.  While confidence is beneficial, arrogance goes too far hindering both personal and professional growth.

There is a phenomena known as the Dunning-Kruger effect at play when we are developing competency.  In the ideal situation it would look a little like what is shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Ideal Growth Curve of Confidence vs Competence

Now let’s take look at the self doubter and the arrogant individuals in Figure 2:

Figure 2: Dunning Krueger and Imposter Confidence vs Competence

The truly arrogant individual may never climb down from mount stupid.  How many leaders in the world have scaled mount stupid and stand there proudly?  That’s a whole different discussion.

Suffice it to say we have identified imposter syndrome’s evil twin: the Dunning-Kruger effect.  There is a lot to digest in this second chart, more than there is space for in this short newsletter.  I’d be happy to chew it over some time if you want to reach out. 

So as with many things we are seeing today, the center is being vacated.  Social media is driving some kids to self doubt and likely imposterhood, while the promotion of “self-esteem” is setting other kids on the path to mount stupid.

Humility is critically important not just to leadership, but to anyone seeking to grow and develop.  For the readers who are parents we see an enormous opportunity: to raise future adults equipped to grow.  Does this happen by giving kids “self-esteem”?  I say: emphatically NO.   What we can do is to help our kids to develop real competence, exposing them to others, possibly in their peer group who are more competent.  They will develop an understanding and appreciation for competency, the realization that there will be other people better at things than you (the start of humility), and earned confidence in themselves when they develop competency; confidence in their ability to build other future competencies.

I think there is also a strong argument to be made that basic competency in multiple areas leads to a better quality of life.  Someone with basic music competency will be able to better appreciate beautiful composition or playing.  Someone with basic competency at athletics can appreciate sport more broadly.  Trades, crafts, writing, reading, numeracy, science, art; all domains where basic competency opens up worlds of satisfying pursuits. 

In the next newsletter in this series, we will take a look at situational leadership for the leader who has someone with the ‘gift’ on their hands.  In the final piece we will look at what the imposter can do to get out of this trap and perform sustainably in the long term.

In the meantime I’ll leave you with a quote to cogitate upon:

“In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king” - Erasmus