Fake it though you’ve made it: battling leader impostorism

These leaders are also likely to invest extra effort in work, which may have organizationally beneficial consequences. Leaders experiencing impostorism may be highly motivated to ensure they perform to the “extraordinary” role expectations of a leader. For example, these individuals may work harder in an attempt to compensate for their perceived lack of aptitude and to alleviate their feelings of shame over their perceived fraudulence and fear of exposure. Indeed, there is evidence that self-conscious emotions, such as shame, motivate people to work hard toward achievement. Moreover, people experiencing shame are found to facilitate exemplification behaviors (e.g., arriving early, leaving late, self-sacrificial behavior, dedication, and hard work) in order to manage their shame and signal to people around them that they are worthy. Leaders experiencing leader impostorism will likewise attempt to show exemplary leader behaviors, driving up their perceived in-role performance. Although this may contribute in positive ways to the leader and organizational outcomes, there is also the potential that this could spiral into the “leader impostor vicious cycle”, leading managers in leadership roles to attribute their success to the fact that they have exerted extra effort rather than to their own capabilities. This cycle may sustain the feelings leaders’ impostorism, increasing the risk of the negative consequences described above.  

What triggers leader impostor experiences?  

Traditional approaches to experiences of impostorism (and the impostor syndrome) have tended to consider it a characteristic of the individual. However, our focus on the nature of the leadership role, supported by more and more work, suggests that leader impostorism experiences are a product of the environment, and not a flaw in personality. This means that, many people, when placed in a leadership role, are susceptible to experiences of impostorism. At the same time, our review of the literature suggests that there are several individual, relational and organizational factors that are especially likely to trigger leader impostorism experiences. Here we highlight a few key factors, as well as what can be done to counter them. 

1 Being new, or newly promoted: the new person in town. Stepping up? Being new in a role may lessen leaders’ sense of leadership identity and their efficacy, leading newly promoted individuals to feel more like impostors. As individuals gain more experience in their role and have a stronger sense of efficacy their experience of impostorism is likely to lessen.   

How to address this: When you kick off a new role, anticipate that you’re likely to experience this, so it doesn’t come as a surprise. Focus on visible small and early wins that can demonstrate your competence (to yourself!). Organizations should be aware this is a sensitive time for impostorism and give support at this stage. Organizations should ensure that leaders are treated well, and have opportunities for training and experimentation. Where this is supported, leaders will be able to gain confidence in their role and in their leadership efficacy, and the negative cycle of impostorism will be broken.

2 Relational triggers: having few role models or sponsors. Do you see yourself among your peers? Do you feel as though there is no one who has taken you under their wing (i.e., a sponsor)? Do you feel as though the leaders you are familiar with are too different from yourself to be relevant role models for you? Maybe you work in a company with few exemplary representatives of who you are and of how to manage the challenges and tasks associated with your role. Sponsors and role models help bridge the gap between how you see yourself today and being able to see yourself as a future leader. 

How to address this: Search your networks for leaders who share key characteristics with you, and ask them about their leadership journey. Organizations should look to build rich mentoring networks for their leaders so that leaders can build a richer and more realistic understanding of what a good leader looks like. In this way, organizations can create a broader schema of who may occupy a leadership role.  

3 Organizational culture triggers: How inclusive is your culture? How competitive is it? Are you the only woman, or minority in the role? Certain organizational cultures can exacerbate the reverence associated with the leadership role. In organizations where there are big status gaps between leaders and subordinates and when there is less interdependence between leaders and subordinates, it can make it challenging for you to see yourself as capable of fulfilling the leadership role. Also, if you are the only woman or minority in the role and the leaders in your organization come from very different backgrounds than yours (culturally, professionally or otherwise), then you are more likely to feel as though you don’t fit the role. This is because people tend to build cognitive schemas of “what a leader is” around the things they see real-life leaders do and the types of people they have encountered in these roles. When leaders in your organization don’t act or look like yourself, it’s harder to apply that schema and title to yourself.  

How to address this: organizations should work to create an inclusive work climate, that can emphasize the value in integrating diverse cultural identities and leveraging the increased insight and skill that such diversity can bring.  

Leadership impostorism is malleable and shaped by the environment and organizations. Thus, organizations can tackle this and limit the taxing experience of impostorism by being aware of this phenomenon and how common it is, as well as by changing the system to address this.