[Photo courtesy of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia]
I hear it so many times from young, talented women. They do their job well, get promoted, and instead of charging ahead, they feel like imposters. Imposter Syndrome – the inability to internalize one’s accomplishments – is a real issue many high-achieving women face.
It can express itself in different ways, all of them pretty harmful. Maybe you use self-deprecating language or feel embarrassed when asking others to do something. Or you feel guilty that you got the promotion over someone else you thought was more qualified. We have to get these feelings out of our heads.
These pervasive thoughts put us at a distance from our roles as leaders. I had just been promoted to CEO, and my onboarding coach asked me, “So what are you going to do at the board meeting? How are you going to present yourself?”
I replied, “I’m going to go in there and be intentional about my position as the CEO, I’m going to be show that I’m owning the role…”
She stopped me and said, “You don’t need to do that.”
When she saw my blank face, she continued. “You don’t need to be assertive about being CEO. You were voted in unanimously. They want you in that role. You don’t have to teach them that you are the CEO, because in their minds, you already are.”
By thinking that the CEO role was something I needed to assert to others, I’d ignored my own advice. What I needed to do was remember that I worked for this, and now I owned this, period. It was time to unveil my vision and strategy to the board.
So I came up with my plan, a list of priorities that would define my tenure. I presented this platform to the board and told them what I would need from them in order accomplish it. The meeting went successfully because I had a clear picture of the way forward and most importantly, I did not waste my time trying to convince them that I was the new CEO!
And that is what is expected of a leader.
I have many more stories of this “imposter feeling” that is so pervasive among women, which I will share in upcoming posts. I’m interested to hear yours as well. I think it can be helpful to see the different ways that we demote ourselves even while we’re getting promoted in our jobs.