Ep6 - Imposter Syndrome
Welcome to the Rebrand Revolution. In this week's episode Sidonie unpacks one of the original gangstas of the pop-culture lexicon - Imposter Syndrome.
She traces the history of Imposter Syndrome from humble origins in academia in the late 1970s through to its mega fame today, and asks who actually benefits from its existence. Sidonie proposes that sometimes we feel like an imposter because we are actually an outsider or in a hostile environment, and encourages us to change the conversation - away from the crippling self-limitation of Imposter Syndrome and towards the financial, political, and cultural mechanisms that actually perpetuate inequality.
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This podcast is recorded on Kaurna Country. We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Kaurna people as the traditional owners and custodians of this land.
You are listening to Rebrand Revolution, the podcast where we take today's pop culture cliche and turn it into tomorrow's empowered call to action. My name is Sidonie Henbest, and thank you for joining me. Each episode of Rebrand Revolution will focus on one term or word that makes up part of the lexicon of pop psychology, self development, self improvement and leadership. The language that inundates us every day - flies at us, left, right and center, morning, noon and night. We'll take one of these terms and propose some kind of reboot, refresh, rebrand, do over. I like to think of it as a makeover for our heads, not our faces.
Okay... This goes out to all those go-getters, high-achievers, do-it-all-and-be-home-to-tuck-the-kids-into-bed find of people. On this week's episode of Rebrand Revolution, we are unpacking one of the great emotional terrorists. One of the G.O.A.T.s. I am speaking about Imposter Syndrome. You know, such is the insidious nature of Imposter Syndrome that I even became quite worried about making this episode. I mean, I left it for a little while. It's always been one of the words that I intended to unpack on Rebrand Revolution, but I thought, don't peak too soon, dear, you'd want to wait a little while before you tackle Imposter Syndrome! And then I thought, You know what? Now's the time and what's the worst thing that could happen? Well, all manner of worst things could happen. In fact, an asteroid may crash into Planet Earth at any given second. But in all seriousness, imposter syndrome stems from societal and cultural pressures, right that are around us every single day, and that stress to us the importance of success, achievement and perfection.
I'm so excited to get going on this episode today, but first you know the drill, we have to start with a definition. So definition time, the Oxford English dictionaries describe Imposter Syndrome as noun, "the persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's own efforts or skills". Our collective global encyclopedia Wikipedia has this to say, "Imposter Syndrome, also known as Imposter Phenomenon, or Imposterism is a psychological experience of intellectual and professional fraudulence". In other words, those who experience Imposter Syndrome may doubt their skill, talent or accomplishment. They may experience a persistent, internalized fear of being exposed and despite external evidence of their competence. People who experience this phenomena do not believe they deserve their success or luck. Two interesting little factlets to go with this. In spite of its fancy name, Imposter Syndrome is not recognized as a psychiatric disorder nor a disease. It is not even a formal diagnosis within a medical context. Super important information for later. Right. We've got some definitions under our belt. Where to next?
As part of understanding the context in which these words or terms exist in our modern world, I like to go back and look at the history, and then go through a process of trying to identify the good, the bad and the ugly of these terms. Now we might start with the good, but I am not Pollyanna. I do not believe that there is any intrinsic good in the idea of Imposter Syndrome, as it is known today, but I'm very prepared to acknowledge the historical and cultural context in which Imposter Syndrome, or Imposter Phenomenon as it was originally known, appears, and I'd love to do that. So it appears as a collective term for phenomena associated with a certain set of experiences. These are experiences of otherness, not fitting in, a fear of success, a fear of being found out, the fear of failure and the stresses associated with exceptional performance and achievement felt by women and minorities. The name and, to a lesser extent, the phenomena themselves coming to being in the late 1970s, and that's no mistake. This is a world that has seen seismic shifts in civil and women's rights, in which heavy doors to boardrooms and executive floors have been finally pushed open by the intrepid few. This is the same era that sees Roe versus Wade and Title Nine come into effect in the United States, both of which see women join the workforce in unprecedented numbers, and, more importantly, stay there and have careers. So we have a new world, and this introduces an important factor, and that is the acknowledgement of what it is like to be part of the first wave. The feelings, the experience of not fitting in, the pressure to be better or faster than your white male colleagues, the fear that if you stumble, you will be left behind. These weren't imagined fears. They were facts. Laws may have changed to say that women and minorities had a right to equal opportunity to employment, but the culture in workplaces had not yet evolved to support this law. Recognizing when and where we are at odds with the prevailing cultural geography, and therefore more likely to be under scrutiny, more likely to be misunderstood or held to unreasonable standards, good or bad, is just acknowledging the facts of the matter. People started talking about the phenomena of being an impostor for very good reason, because it was true.
Time and again on Rebrand Revolution, the transition from good to bad to ugly tends to correspond to some kind of assertion that human beings are powerless in the face of their own thoughts. And Imposter Syndrome is no different. One scientific study in the late 1970s and a book in 1985 did not send everyone off a cliff. In fact, it was an earnest attempt to understand our human lived experience. So what would bring us, collectively to kneel at this point? What if we were told that the way we were experiencing the world was because we had something wrong with us? That might be where something goes from being a phenomenon to being labeled as a syndrome. If Imposter Syndrome is a syndrome (which it's not because it's not defined medically as diagnosis nor a condition), it implies that either we are stuck with it for life and it may well kill us, or that it could be cured. And I don't think either of these things is true. Because Imposter Syndrome isn't a thing, dearest people, it is just a name given to a big bunch of feelings, very real feelings, I hasten to add. But just because we experience them does not mean there's something wrong with us. More likely it is a reflection that there is something quite wrong with the situation we find ourselves in.
So what if Imposter Syndrome is just a tool for self and societal policing? "Hey, you. You're successful. You must suffer so badly from imposter syndrome". And when a question like that is posed to us, even to say, "Well, no, I don't think I do" is, is to push against the weight of a mantle of expectation that is on the shoulders of all of us. And this leads me to introduce a rather brilliant woman who has articulated all of this from the rarefied airspace of the top of her game. Reshma Saujani is a gender equality activist, an author, an attorney, founder of Girls Who Code and Mums First. She was the first Indian American woman to run for US Congress. She is what you call a trailblazer. In her keynote speech, she said, "People ask me all the time, how do I overcome imposter syndrome? And honestly, I'm done answering that question, because here's the thing. Imposter Syndrome isn't a syndrome at all. It's a scheme." She goes on. "It's never really been about whether we're qualified enough or smart enough or prepared enough. Instead, it's always been about the political, the financial and the cultural barriers that are designed to keep us out of those rooms in the first place." So my question for you today is this. Instead of asking, "How can I overcome imposter syndrome?", what would happen if we asked "Who benefits from us being in its thrall?" "Who benefits from us feeling like we are not enough, not smart enough, not qualified enough. Who benefits from me being small?" And if you can't hear an answer for those questions, ask yourself, "What would the world be like if I could show up as my entire self? What gifts would I bring? What problems could I solve? What love healing and acceptance could I offer to other beings?"
There is no rebrand or reframe coming today. Instead, I just have a completely new question for you all. So we're going to pop in our time machine, and we're going to go back to 1978 and the first presentation of imposter phenomenon. And let me ask you this. What if we took a moment and acknowledged the intense and very real feelings that occur when we find ourselves in an environment that is hostile towards us. That doesn't really want us there, but even if it does want us there, doesn't know how to have us there, and recognize that those feelings deserve to be acknowledged, named, owned, but not turned into a syndrome that is used to cripple us. And let's go a stage further. What happens when we acknowledge our fears? In my experience, it is not that we succumb to them. It's quite the opposite. It's actually that we are freed from them when we acknowledge them and say, "I see you scared in the corner, that's okay. It is a bit scary to be here. And damn straight, this is a new, weird, wild world." Don't mistake me for one moment. Okay? I, just like everybody else, experience doubt, fear, worry and all of the other little gremlins you could possibly care to name. I worry that I'm not enough frequently because I'm a human being, not because I'm a woman with Imposter Syndrome. But over the years, I have also cultivated a practice which offers genuine acknowledgement of my fears as they arise, and recognizes them as a really important part of my amazing survivor DNA. I employ a strong line of questioning around fact versus fiction. For example - "What facts do I have to support the idea that I am the worst possible person for this job?" Because, guess what? There probably is somebody else out there in this world, with our billions of people on this planet, who is technically better at this than you are. But you're the one here now with this opportunity. So why not just get on with it? Worried that you're not qualified enough to do the job? Sure, that's okay. It just makes us human beings cognizant of responsibility, of opportunity and of privilege, the privilege of being able to do something that other people can't do or won't be able to do or are not given the opportunity to do.
So here's an idea. Why don't we take a cue from Hollywood, from the countless powerhouse women who now refuse to answer questions about who they are wearing or who they are dating, as if these questions can somehow define who they are as extraordinary producers, artists and makers of change. What if we all just agreed that the jig was up? No more talking about Imposter Syndrome - cut it off. Cut its head right off. Instead, what if we started actually talking about what lies beneath? Why don't we talk about the mechanisms, the financial, political and cultural mechanisms that allow inequity and inequality to still be rife in our worlds? Because as long as we are victims of Imposter Syndrome, we are never going to be architects of our own change.
I know that Imposter Syndrome is something that many people identify with, and my hope for you is that in listening to this, Imposter Syndrome looks different in some small way. I really encourage you to talk to other people, ask them about their experience and share the idea that if we are not victims of some incurable disease, just human beings that are experiencing and responding to a world around us, what power that gives us back, what choices are asked to make, like stopping talking about Imposter Syndrome at all. It is my hope with Rebrand Revolution, that we can unpack some of the brick walls that are in front of us. The impediments to us leading free and fulfilling lives, and with love and kindness for ourselves and those who've come before us, find a way to free ourselves. The words and the language we use matter. They matter for us. They matter for those who come after us. They matter because we shape the world and our own reality in the language we choose. I know this is going to be one of those topics that really stirs things up for people, and I would love to talk to you about it. Hop onto Instagram, @rebrand.revolution, or write a comment on the on the podcast. I'd love to chat to you about it. It is a privilege to be able to share this time with you, and I thank you so much for listening. My name is Sidonie Henbest, and this is Rebrand Revolution. Until next time, stay curious.
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