According to an Arizona State University article, “Imposter syndrome is widely prevalent within higher education, with both graduate students and faculty reporting significant experience with the phenomenon. By some estimates, nearly 70% of academic professionals will experience imposter syndrome at some point in their career.”
Having worked with academics to build an incredible brand, I find that one of the first things we need to tackle is imposter syndrome, or the feeling that we are not who we say we are. That is why in the Power Your Research program we start out with “mindset matters”, where we address things such as reframing self-promotion, imposter syndrome and the psychology around increasing our rates for speaking engagements.
Not sure if you’ve experienced imposter syndrome? Ask yourself if you relate to any of these patterns.
Signs You Might Be Suffering from Imposter Syndrome
- Perfectionism. You may set high goals for yourself. Because your goal is perfection, the smallest mistakes may make you feel like a failure.
- Attributing success to luck. You downplay your success because you do not believe you deserve the success, or you believe you are just lucky.
- Unable to recognize success. Instead of celebrating your accomplishments, you worry that others will see “the truth” about your skills and abilities.
- Fear of failure. Because of a fear of failure, you may set challenging goals and be disappointed when those goals fail. You might also take on limited tasks because you fear failure.
- Difficulty asking for help. You might have difficulty asking for help because you believe asking for help will show that you’re wrong or unqualified.
If you relate to most of these patterns, you are likely dealing with imposter syndrome. It is important to address this early, because imposter syndrome can have insidious, far-reaching effects on your journey to build your brand.
The Negative Effects of Imposter Syndrome on Your Brand
- Avoiding networking. When you believe that your academic peers will discover that you aren’t good enough if you say or do the wrong thing, you are likely to avoid forming connections with those peers. You are especially likely to steer clear of those very people who would have the most in common with you and the most interest in your work, because you see them as the people with enough subject matter expertise to see through your facade. Your professional network is the lifeblood of your academic brand, and yet imposter syndrome isolates you.
- Avoiding self-promotion. Imposter syndrome makes you believe that you do not provide real value to your clients and audiences. Therefore, you are likely to feel guilt and shame about promoting yourself and your work. If you believe that, by promoting your work, you are burdening others with a request to support you rather than sharing with them an opportunity to get value from your expertise, you are likely to avoid self-promotion altogether.
- Passing on opportunities. Imposter syndrome makes you feel ill-prepared for new projects and new audiences. After all, someone who believes they do not deserve the success they already have will balk at the chance to take on even more responsibility and risk. How can you grow your brand when you feel internally conflicted about whether you want to?
- Not charging enough. For a long time, I charged $300 for a program that was worth $3000. This was a direct result of imposter syndrome; I believed the program was not providing enough value to charge the price that, intellectually, I know it should be. Part of building a lucrative academic brand is not leaving this type of money on the table, and your mindset is the first hurdle to jump over on that path.
- Lack of confidence. In addition to the concrete opportunities and profits you are likely to pass on while experiencing imposter syndrome, you are also likely to communicate a lack of confidence to people. For example, public speaking can be difficult at the best of times. If your internal monologue is adding the belief that your audience can tell that you don’t deserve to be there, that will cause a lot of anxiety, and you may not perform as well as you want. Addressing your imposter syndrome head-on can help you find peace of mind and also communicate your expertise the way you want.
At this point, you may accept that you are struggling with imposter syndrome and be convinced that it’s worth addressing. But how do you do so? We will talk about exactly that next time, so stay tuned!
LET’S CHAT: JUMP ON A FREE DISCOVERY CALL WITH FOUND OF POWER YOUR RESEARCH, DR. SHEENA HOWARD
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