Productively Working Through Impostor Syndrome

Impostor syndrome, or “a psychological experience of intellectual fraudulence where one struggles to internalize successes, instead attributing personal accomplishments to chance, luck, or trickery (Clance, 1985) has detrimental effects on individual performers, key support people, and the larger systems they learn, work, and live in. Impostor syndrome is caused by many factors, but perhaps the most common is low self-efficacy. Although we usually think of low self-efficacy and impostor feelings as “sadness, fear, worry, self-doubt, and a “fake it till you make it” mentality, impostor feelings can also lead to frequent comparisons to others, sensitivity to constructive criticism, procrastination, working extra to cover up a perceived lack of competence, and extreme anxiety. Emma Guthrie has extensively studied impostor syndrome in graduate students across the disciplines for the past two years and will use findings from this study to provide strategies for working through impostor feelings, and uplifting today’s thought leaders.