The imposter phenomenon isn't just your problem to solve

Over this series of posts covering the imposter phenomenon, we have considered what it is, how it shows up in capable leaders, and what you can do about it at the individual level.

This week I want to look outward. Because the imposter phenomenon has a social and organisational dimension that we shouldn’t ignore. And that is is especially important for leaders because, as a leader, you are in a position to impact how this affects the people you manage.

One of the key messages emerging from the research literature is that isolation sustains imposter feelings (Siddiqui et al., 2024; Bravata et al., 2019). When people feel like frauds, they tend not to talk about it. The internal logic is that you weaken your position even further if you admit that you feel inadequate to the very people who (you believe) think you are inadequate. So the feeling are kept private and the privacy helps keep the feeling alive.

This is why the research consistently says that group-based approaches, such as workshops and small peer discussion groups, are useful in helping diminish imposter feelings. The operative element in these settings isn't primarily the content. It's the normalisation. When you find out that the colleague you've been slightly in awe thinks that she's winging it too, you learn much more than you would by reading an article (Bravata et al., 2019; Siddiqui et al., 2024).

As we have also previously in this series, the research also points to mentoring and coaching as being particularly valuable in this context, in part for the same reason. They provide a relationship in which the veil of secrecy is pierced and honest appraisal is possible.

If you think about it, you probably manage people who are experiencing some degree of imposter phenomenon themselves. Some of them will be new to their role and navigating the identity gap we covered in part one. Others are high performers who you trust to do the more difficult work, but who secretly feel that they are not up to it. Given what you know, drawing on the material in this series and on your own experience, you can make a meaningful difference to this. Here are some approaches you can try:

The most useful thing leaders can do is simply make it safe to talk. You don't have to share your entire imposter history (though an honest, well-placed moment of vulnerability from someone senior can do more than an hour of bullshit team-building activity). But you can acknowledge, in plain language, that stepping into a new or more demanding role is disorienting, that feeling uncertain is normal and doesn't mean you're failing, and that asking for help is how capable people work and learn.

Vague encouragement is easy to dismiss. A person in the grip of imposter feelings has an efficient system for filtering out and ignoring generic reassurance like "you're doing well". What they cannot so easily brush off is specific feedback like this: "the way you handled that situation with the supplier last week showed real judgement. It means that we still get what we need on the best terms, so we can proceed with Project X without interruption."

You can even go further. Tell them to reflect on what happened, what they did and why it mattered. Encourage them to note it down and to deliberately cultivate it as a confidence builder and an experience they can draw on when similar situations arise in the future. The key here is that the experience gets processed at a deeper level, rather than just brushed off and moved past quickly.

And while you are at it, recognise that in doing so, you have just displayed excellent leadership and engaged in what Bandura calls a ‘mastery experience’ (see the heading ‘how to build self efficacy’ in the previous post). Therefore, you should go through the same process of intentional reflection, confidence building and deeper processing to ensure that your leadership confidence gets a lasting boost too.

When things go wrong in your team, pay attention to how you discuss them. The attribution patterns we've examined in this series are partly learned from the people above us. A manager who responds to a mistake as if it reveals something enduring about the person's capabilities reinforces exactly the pessimistic attributional style that sustains imposter feelings. The alternative is to treat setbacks as objective information: what happened, what contributed to it, what can be learned, what comes next.

Regular one-to-ones that go beyond task-based check-ins and include a real "how are you finding things" give people an opportunity to surface uncertainty before it progresses to avoidance. You don't need advanced coaching skills to do this. You do need curiosity, and the patience to listen before moving to solutions.

Formal mentoring programmes are valuable where organisations will support them. But it is also worthwhile teaming up with a peer or group of peers; people who are trusted and at a similar level to you, who will have similar experiences. Meeting regularly with them in a context of psychological safety, can help you recognise that your challenges are not unique and can help you learn from each other.

Bandura's (1977) vicarious experience research is worth remembering here. Self-efficacy grows through watching someone similar to you succeed. A junior team member watching a colleague a year or two ahead navigate a difficult stakeholder conversation gets something qualitatively different from listening to a senior leader describe how they handled situations twenty years ago. The relevance of "someone like me doing this" is what makes it work. Peer learning reflects this.

The research shows that as well the individual's psychology, environment matters too (Siddiqui et al., 2024; Bravata et al., 2019). Teams and organisations with higher rates of imposter-related distress tend to share certain features:

Psychological safety, the belief that you can speak up, admit error, or ask a question without social penalty, is the most consistently identified environmental condition that reduces imposter-related difficulties at the team level (Edmondson, 1999). A leader can create the conditions for psychological safety without waiting for an organisational programme. It starts with how you respond in the moment when someone says "I don't know" or "I got that wrong."

Think also about onboarding or induction for new people. Consider whether the current approach makes it easy or hard to admit confusion or struggle in the early weeks. A new team member who learns quickly that it is safe to express uncertainty, is much less likely to slide into the isolation and faking of confidence that feeds imposter feelings in the long term.

I think it is worth ending by empasising this. Several studies note that some traits associated with imposter feelings, such as high achievement motivation, thoroughness, and a strong drive to do good work, are also associated with positive outcomes (Gottlieb et al., 2023, as cited in Siddiqui et al., 2024).

The goal, across the four pieces in this series, was never to eliminate doubt or to help produce leaders who feel unbridled confidence bordering on arrogance. It was to stop self-doubt driving your decisions, narrowing your ambitions, or sending you down the path of either exhausting overcompensation or subtle withdrawal.

You can be feel uncertainty without being paralysed by it. And you can hold high standards without treating every imperfection as evidence of unworthiness. The research says that this is possible. And if you were able to have an honest conversation with most of the leaders you admire, you’ll probably find that they too sometimes still feel like an imposter, or have done at some time in their career.

The important thing is to recognise that these feelings are inevitable when you push yourself to new heights. But they can be managed if you regulate the way that you think about your experiences and if you are as reasonable and kind to yourself as you no doubt are to the people around you.

References

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215.

Bravata, D. M., Watts, S. A., Keefer, A. L., Madhusudhan, D. K., Taylor, K. T., Clark, D. M., Nelson, R. S., Cokley, K. O., & Hagg, H. K. (2019). Prevalence, predictors, and treatment of impostor syndrome: a systematic review. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35(4), 1252–1275.

Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.

Siddiqui, Z. K., Church, H. R., Jayasuriya, R., Boddice, T., & Tomlinson, J. (2024). Educational interventions for imposter phenomenon in healthcare: a scoping review. BMC Medical Education, 24, 43.

All of my posts for new leaders are here.

As we’ve seen, coaching is one of the recognised interventions that can help with the imposter phenomenon.

If you’d like to explore whether I can help you with any imposter feelings hit reply and we can arrange an introductory chat. There are more details and booking links here.