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Welcome new members!
It's great to see that our group is growing! Since Impostor Syndrome was referenced, I'd love to have a discussion about how this impacts you and the strategies you use to manage it. For me, one of the most effective strategies I've found is to leverage my resources. As soon as I stop trying to know and do everything myself, I feel much more confident and capable of doing things well. What thoughts do you have on this topic?
Anonymous
09/30/19 at 3:57PM UTC
I've suffered from imposter syndrome since I started working in tech. I think it's really hard to overcome, and for people who don't have it, I'm not sure they really understand it. The way I've tried to manage it is to ask my trusted colleagues/references to help me identify my key selling points, the things they would back me up on if/when they were to be a reference. I think imposter syndrome is based a lot on not knowing what you don't know. So to me, I feel someone might say to me "What do you mean you DON'T know THAT?" ... that's my worst fear. It makes me frantic to try to know a little bit about everything, which takes focus away from being an expert on any one thing. I am very interested in what others have to say, since I do not think I'm "cured" yet, but I am trying to get better and be more confident in my abilities. Great question.
ExecCareerExecutive Coach | Women's Leadership
121
09/30/19 at 4:56PM UTC
Thank you so much for sharing your story! I have a few thoughts:
1) My Impostor Syndrome began in tech as well. I had never planned to go into technology but opportunistically found myself in an environment surrounded by people who I felt knew way more than I ever would. It was incredibly daunting. This is a challenging environment for many of us because it tends to attract smart people, leading us to think we're not as good as we should be. And it's still highly male-dominated, which automatically leaves us feeling a bit out of place. One of the greatest triggers of Impostor Syndrome is feeling different from the dominant culture, so it's only natural that so many women feel this way in the tech world.
2) You make a good point about not knowing what you don't know. We worry that we're going to be blindsided by a question that we didn't even know we needed to know. Unfortunately, that leads us to always feel unprepared. In many cases, we try to anticipate what we need to know and spend so much time trying to catch up that we lose sight of other career advancement opportunities, like relationship building. It's typically not the subject matter expert who gets ahead. It's the person who has the right connections, EQ and political skills.
3) I love your strategy of asking for feedback on your selling points. At the end of the day, we can't know everything. We need to have enough trust in ourselves and our core strengths that we can unapologetically own up to the things we truly don't know. In some cases, we may not even want expertise in those areas. Maybe it's not interesting to us and we'd rather partner with someone else who has that core competency. In other cases, we may identify an important gap and then take steps to fill it. But we have to start from a place of strength and completeness. I may not know everything but I know enough to deserve to be in this role right now and I will continue to grow and develop as we move ahead. Let's face it, if you were perfect at your current role, you'd be overqualified and there'd be no reason to stay! : )
Anonymous
09/30/19 at 8:16PM UTC
this is THE BEST RESPONSE, thank you so much :D
ExecCareerExecutive Coach | Women's Leadership
121
10/01/19 at 1:37PM UTC
You're so welcome! : ) I'm glad you found it helpful!
