Highly educated, talented and with a successful career? That is something that is difficult for a woman to accept. She continuously hears the voice within herself that warns her about the unmasking. ,That she’s actually not that successful at all., She is actually waiting for the other person to confirm this to her. That she doesn’t know what she’s doing at all. Foreign? Not really, it is a woman’s nature and it even has a name: ‘imposter phenomenon’… It can seriously hinder a woman in her functioning. Feeling like she’s an imposter. Then you don’t believe in yourself. If something goes well, you are lucky. Or perhaps there was no challenge. All those promotions, rewards for performance are all a mistake or possibly even a mistake.
The psychologists Clance and Ines described in a study in the late 1970s that highly educated women are unable to enjoy their achievements or celebrate their success. In fact, they believed that they should never have been admitted to university at the time.
Impostor phenomenon
The psychologists have never recognized it as a mental disorder. A lot of research has been conducted into the impostor phenomenon in recent years.
The disorder means that you attribute successes to everything except your own performance.
How do you recognize someone with the imposter phenomenon?
Questions that constantly go through your mind are often:
- ‘compared to me, the others are much more intelligent’
- ‘everything I do is never as good as I would like’
- ‘avoiding or fearing evaluations’
Do these questions regularly run through your mind and you can’t figure them out ? Then there is a chance that you suffer from the impostor phenomenon.
Moreover, these thoughts are accompanied by a negative self-image. Self-confidence is hard to find and depressive feelings often take over. Because you are constantly afraid of being exposed , you work harder and throw yourself into a job or you postpone it because you do not dare to start it yet.
Men too!
Women are not alone with these feelings: many men also suffer from this phenomenon. Experts have discovered that an important cause can be traced back to the family in which a person grows up. They often have in common that they managed to rise from a simple background or they grew up in a family where the children were mainly judged on their performance.
Sometimes the cheater deceives
The American psychologist Mark Leary showed that cheaters are secretly convinced of their success. He gave them a test and asked them to estimate the score on this test. The impostors rated their own scores much higher when told that their achievements were not made public. As soon as they thought it was made public, they suddenly became a lot more modest.
Social strategy?
Perhaps it is actually useful that you have it: the threat phenomenon. By saying you’re stupid you might also see it as an attempt to fish for compliments. Plus, you’ll have cover in case something goes wrong. It is not rare for people who, after taking an exam or giving a presentation, say I don’t know if I did well and in the meantime they walk away with the best grades. The impostor phenomenon is therefore actually a social strategy.
Sabotage?
Almost everyone is concerned about it: that others, for example your colleagues, are waiting for you to collapse. That says a lot about yourself. More than about those colleagues or that boss you are so worried about. They often really have something better to do.
But let’s be honest: false modesty won’t get you anywhere. You are really not doing yourself or others any favors. If you cannot resolve it, it may be wise to use coaching or e- therapy to remove your unjustified doubts. Managers should be more aware of whether an employee is getting in the way. However, cheater or not, someone who sabotages his career not only does himself a disservice, but the entire company.