Even high-achievers can feel like an imposter

Picture this: You are in a room full of your peers — perhaps a board room, maybe at the Monday morning staff meeting or at a networking event. Anxiety builds and you are struck with the realization that you don’t belong.
Maybe you feel everyone else has accomplished more or is smarter, a better decision-maker or more earnest and focused, while your accolades have been created through lucky situations, random events or just knowing the right people. The fear is that someone is going to look right through you and know the truth — you’re an imposter.
Feeling like a fraud
The feeling of being an imposter is not as uncommon as you might think. Imposter syndrome, a term coined by clinical psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, is estimated to afflict 40 percent of successful high achievers regularly, and 70 percent of the general population has had instances where they consider themselves frauds.
The list of actors, authors and high-profile individuals who have publicly admitted to feelings of being a fraud might be surprising: Tom Hanks, Diablo Cody, Neil Gaiman and Sonia Sotomayor, to name a few. It is particularly pernicious with women in the workplace and in academia.
Repeating your successes
The psychological source of these feelings is varied and dependent on the environment in which they manifest. In my realm of early stage startup companies, I see it with the entrepreneurs who have successfully exited their company and are starting a new venture.
The second-time CEO/founder will internalize a self-image close to one end of the spectrum — either his or her past success is from pure self-reliance or the result of pure luck. Of course, the reality is it’s in the middle.
The most successful repeat entrepreneurs, CEOs and leaders are ones that have a good sense of the factors contributing to their past achievements, resulting from both personal efforts and propitious external events.
Creating a team effort
For business leaders, combatting the imposter syndrome first begins with the realization that you aren’t alone.
Founder of Salesforce.com, Mark Suster, tells an enlightening story, where imposter syndrome started to affect the entire management team due to the competition’s remarkable market success. He addressed his staff by saying:
“Look. I know that you keep reading about how our competitors seem to be going from strength-to-strength in the press … But here is the problem. You’re only reading our competitor’s press releases. You’re reading the good stuff.
“And you’re looking at ourselves naked in the mirror. You see all of our flaws. And I acknowledge that there are many. But when you see them they’re wearing their fancy outfits, look stylish and ready to go out on the town.
“They’re masking their internal flaws. And you know that they have many flaws, too. I’m betting more than we have.”

Hopefully, the next time you feel that you don’t deserve the success you have achieved, remember that most likely everyone with a degree of self-introspection has looked at his or her self in the mirror and has had the same doubts.