... A Different Way to Think About Imposter Syndrome
I have worked with many leaders who speak about imposter syndrome. The words have become so common, so instantly recognizable, that they’ve become a kind of shorthand, a way of naming the gap between how capable we appear to others and how doubtful we feel on the inside. I understand why the term caught on, it names something real and felt by many. But I’m uncomfortable with it because I believe the label does damage.
The term ‘imposter syndrome’ was first introduced in 1978 by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, and it was originally observed in high-achieving women who couldn’t internalize their own success. Since then, it has expanded into a catch-all diagnosis for self-doubt in accomplished people. It has, in my opinion, been over-applied, misapplied, and used in ways that quietly shift responsibility onto the individuals who are least to blame.
An imposter is someone who deceives others for fraudulent gain. Not one of my clients has ever fit that definition. What they describe is working hard to prove their worth, doubting their right to take up space, and feeling like they’ll be found out as not good enough, even as they consistently deliver, lead, and contribute. That is not imposter syndrome but rather a reasonable response to being in environments that haven’t fully welcomed them or, being in an environment where challenges and opportunities are new.
A syndrome implies a pathology, something happening within the person. The Enneagram, Integral Coaching, Jungian psychology, and every other framework I have worked with deeply, points to the same thing: when we feel inadequate in spaces where we are objectively capable, we need to look at the system, not just the self. We’ve pathologized a very human response to exclusion or expecting ourselves to know it all, and we’ve handed that pathology back to the person already working the hardest to contribute valuably.
As Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey wrote in their 2021 Harvard Business Review piece, ‘Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome’, the answer is not to fix individuals. It is to build environments where diverse ways of leading are genuinely valued, not just tolerated. And where more is put in place to support everyone to thrive.
A client told me about a woman she’d met on a leadership panel who said something that surprised a lot of people: “I don’t experience imposter syndrome”. As I understood from my client, when this leader encounters a challenge that she doesn’t yet know how to navigate, she doesn’t experience it as evidence that she isn’t worthy or doesn’t belong, she experiences it as a problem she is yet to figure out. It doesn’t become a referendum on her worth, proof that she was promoted beyond her abilities, or a sign that she’s about to be found out. It’s simply: I haven’t solved this one yet.
This kind of ease isn’t simply a mindset shift; it’s been earned through years of having to prove a right to belong that perhaps should never have been in question. Naming that doesn’t undo what this leader offered, it just means the work of getting there looks different depending on where we have started.
This orientation - I haven’t figured this out yet – is at its core, the natural, healthy relationship with learning about the unknown that we all had before it got eroded. Not knowing is not the same as not being worthy or not belonging. Having something still to figure out is not the same as being inadequate. It is just what it is: a problem in front of you, waiting to be engaged with. If only more of us were encouraged, at all stages of our lives, to meet our challenges in this way, as problems to be curious about, not verdicts to be feared.
When you notice an inner voice of ‘I’m not enough’, ‘I don’t belong here’, ‘I’m more than you think’ or ‘I’m about to be found out’ – you might just get curious about what it is actually pointing towards. And this time, not to pathologize it or name it as a syndrome. Rather to ask: Is this a problem I haven’t solved yet? A skill I’m still developing? A situation I’ve never been in before?
If the honest answer is yes, then you are not an imposter. You are a human being encountering something new. That is not a disorder, it’s an opportunity for learning and growth.
Photo taken by Bob Gardali - Cape Town, South Africa