Imposter Syndrome at Work—Clearing up Common Misconceptions

Buzzwords get thrown around every so often, and they’re usually just short-lived trends that die down eventually, however, sometimes they hit a nerve or create a serious impact on people. The growing trend of experiencing imposter syndrome at work is one such phenomenon. Despite the frequency of its use, the terms have not been fully understood sufficiently, and we already have some common misconceptions about imposter syndrome making the rounds. 

While the phenomenon is a very real problem faced by a number of workers across industries, the myths surrounding imposter syndrome and its link to job performance create a very damaging self-fulling prophecy that plays out on a loop. 

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Imposter Syndrome at Work—What Is It and Why Is Relevant to You? 

The term imposter syndrome is used to describe a feeling of insecurity and self-doubt within a specific area of an individual’s life. Success doesn’t come easy but despite it being a hard-won victory, people occasionally begin to doubt that it was a deserved reward they earned for themselves. The term can be used when people feel unworthy of any major accomplishment in their lives, however, it is becoming an increasingly common experience within the workplace. 

Feelings of imposter syndrome at work don’t just come out during moments of success but can become a regular occurrence in one’s day-to-day activities. Often workers begin to feel like they have tricked their coworkers into thinking they can handle a job when they are not really good at it. Workers begin to doubt that they have the skills for a role or if they have any right to be there, and these negative feelings can affect how they approach their work.

The signs of imposter syndrome at work tend to include:

• Anxiety over both success and failure
• Self-doubt and lack of faith in one’s abilities
• Impaired self-confidence in projects despite good results
• Attributing all progress to luck or other external factors
• Dissatisfaction with performance
• Constant stress and anxiety over being exposed for lacking skills necessary for the job
• Setting unattainable standards 

These signs are something everyone encounters at one time or another, but when they are collectively experienced and cause an individual to feel like a “fraud,” they may be signs pointing to an individual experiencing imposter syndrome. 

Workplace Imposter Syndrome Myths To Dispel

If you’ve heard of imposter syndrome at work or experienced it yourself, it’s important to have a realistic assessment of the phenomenon. Debunking the myths surrounding these experiences may allow you to overcome the issue yourself or help your colleagues, subordinates, or even your loved ones make it out.

A paper from the MIT Sloan School of Management and its collaborators explored the syndrome in-depth and identified a few myths about the condition and how we understand it. For one, the study revealed that any experience of imposter syndrome in the workplace is not permanent. Many believe that you either feel like an imposter or strut around with confidence, and there is no in-between. However, this isn’t true. Experiencing the imposter phenomenon is something that can be changed.

Another popular workplace imposter syndrome myth is that the experience is more prevalent among women. This isn’t true either as anyone, regardless of their background, can feel out of place at times, due to their own thinking and interpretations of situations. 

Imposter Syndrome is Not Inherently Harmful or the Cause of “All” Negative Outcomes

The study also corrected people’s inaccurate belief that the impostor phenomenon is uniformly harmful. In some cases, it can be a passing feeling that is linked to other negative experiences by default because we assume the two issues are connected. Although feeling like an imposter does tend to demotivate people, it isn’t always the cause of another negative behavior or feeling.

Some researchers were able to find that those who experience imposter syndrome at work actually performed better because they actively tried to compensate for their perceived shortcomings. 

The study also found that we do not have enough evidence to suggest that imposter syndrome creates all the negative outcomes and harmful patterns of behavior currently associated with it. While we assume that imposter syndrome can make you feel down about yourself and become the central topic of your focus, MIT Sloan professor Basima Tewfik explained that “we don’t have a lot of good research to suggest that these arguments actually hold up when we collect data.”

Final Conclusions on Experiencing Imposter Syndrome at Work

More research is necessary to draw more concrete conclusions about imposter syndrome at work, which is why those who experience it should be careful not to let it consume them and consider it the reason for the decline in their careers. If you or someone on your team is working hard on overcoming self-doubt at work, there are a lot of different factors that need to be taken into consideration carefully and addressed one by one. 

There is a link between imposter syndrome and job performance, but it is not a permanent one and neither is it likely to be the only reason for one’s shift in attitude. Consider all the outlying factors that might be affecting your performance, and get to addressing them one at a time.

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