As we celebrate International Women’s Day, I am reminded of how many amazing, talented, inspiring women I train and coach, who do not believe in themselves or may have trouble overcoming imposter syndrome at work.
They put themselves down, they negate a compliment with reasons why the positive statement cannot possibly be true about them, and they count themselves out of opportunities because others must be better than them.
When thinking about imposter syndrome and organisation structure, there is a trend between men and women. whilst women tend to put themselves down and not accept compliments, men have a very different response.
To be brutally honest, none of the above factors come into play with the men that I coach and train. Does this explain why a quick survey of my thousands of LinkedIn connections this morning showed me that 17% of Heads of Change roles were held by women? 83% male in these positions of authority is not gender equality.
If you hold yourself back, I hope this visual of 20 reasons why overcoming imposter syndrome is a good idea will inspire you to be more appreciative of your own skills and talents.
Next time someone congratulates you for a great piece of work, or admires one of your talents, thank them, and acknowledge to yourself that maybe they have a point.
