Earlier this year I had the great opportunity to speak about my professional background with a group of talented students at a reputable code school. The purpose of the talk was to share how the hard skills they were learning in a demanding 12-week boot camp were just one element of truly succeeding in today’s job market. Developing soft skills — communication, strategic thinking, self-management, teamwork, and leadership — is critically important to landing a job, keeping a job, and growing a career.

As my talk came to a close and the Q&A session began, a student in one of the front rows asked a question, “There is a lot of talk about Imposter Syndrome, especially for aspiring web developers. As someone who started her career as a web developer and has grown her career to running a company, have you ever felt like an imposter?” Yikes! Can the audience see the big YES across my forehead?

“Oh that? It’s no big deal.”

“What gives me the right to be here?”

“I got lucky.”

Ever uttered one of those sentences before? Neither have I, not out loud anyway. But the ability to downplay my success is something I can be very good at it if left unchecked.

With what I hope was expressed with poise and grace I shared some of my own experiences with imposter syndrome and how I dealt with it. The key take-away? Imposter syndrome is something many successful people feel and isn’t something to ignore or be ashamed of, it is something to recognize, share and overcome. Here are four ways to overcome imposter syndrome and beat those fraudulent feelings so you can feel more at ease.

A Bit of Background

First described by psychologists Suzanne Imes, PhD, and Pauline Rose Clance, PhD, in the 1970s, the impostor phenomenon often presents itself among high achievers who are unable to internalize and accept their success. Accomplishments are more often attributed to luck rather than ability and a fear that others will eventually reveal them as fraudulent is present. Imposter syndrome generates feelings of self-doubt and can result in anxiety and, often, depression.

Who are the most hard-hit when it comes to this phenomenon? Believe it or not, those in the spotlight — CEOs, Nobel prize winners, actors, professional athletes, public speakers, and television personalities. The more successful one gets, the greater the inner turmoil can become. Looking deeper, imposter syndrome is rooted in a sense of perfectionism and a fear of failure.

The more I have to lose, the more I try to control in each decision I make.

Imposter syndrome does not discriminate; it can affect anyone at any age regardless of gender or race, and two things are certain — it is a normal experience many people have at times in their lives and it can be overcome.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

If you are reading this thinking there is a possibility you might feel this way at times, there are tools you can learn that help.

Request Personal Feedback

When in doubt, reach out! Just as companies conduct performance reviews of their employees, you can solicit your trusted colleagues, friends, and family to tell you what you’re great at. One rule: ask them to only focus on the positive at first, until you are ready to hear the rest. Hearing the positive tends to lay a foundation and creates openings for deeper, more constructive feedback. How others view us is often very different than how we view ourselves, and for those struggling with feelings of perfectionism, the view from others is often more positive.

Recognize Your Expertise

Have you ever given yourself the chance to see your successes from the outside looking in? Take some time to write down a list of everything you have achieved to date in life and are proud of. You might be surprised to see how long the list is, and reveal successes you didn’t know existed.

Keep an Accomplishment Journal

If you are getting stuck thinking back to your accomplishments, start a journal and write down just one accomplishment every night before bed. Before you know it, the pages will be filled with big wins and little wins. The art of writing things down has a lot of power. Use the journal as a simple way to remind yourself of the occasional gap between who you are and who you think you are.

Change Your Thinking

Sometimes we need a way to reframe our experiences, including how we think about ourselves. Take a step back from your day-to-day routine and identify areas that might be impacted by fraudulent feelings. Here are two examples of how you can apply this approach:

Have a paper to turn in or an article to write? Start an outline, or a rough draft and solicit feedback. The entire publication doesn’t have to be perfect nor complete. Just get something down on paper and start doing.

If you are giving a talk on a particular topic, take a step back and ask yourself, “Why am I being asked to speak on this topic?” You must have valuable thoughts and ideas to share with an audience in waiting. Be clear that you were asked to speak and take time to realize the WHY before getting up on stage and sharing with them. You owe it to yourself — and your audience — to show up completely.

Parting Thoughts

These ideas are simple but can be difficult to execute. If imposter syndrome is something you’re battling with frequently, there are ways to get help.

Coaching is one of the best ways to receive support in making the realignment between the achievements you are creating and your current mindset. An expert in the field of coaching is Career Coach Kyle Elliott. Founder of Caffeinated Kyle, Coach Kyle is helping thousands of Silicon Valley’s top talent thrive and “achieve the impossible.” He does this by helping his clients dive deeper into what is holding them back so they propel forward. Receiving support to help strengthen your authenticity muscles might be just what you need to beat imposter syndrome once and for all.

When it comes to running a successful business, often, it is not a downturn in revenue that brings down a company but the internal culture. So it is hardly a surprise why some of the most established companies in the country spend so much on bringing in mentors, consultants, and anyone who can help improve their culture. If it’s important to them, it should no doubt be important to you. The following list entails some of the best ways to create a healthy business culture among your employees.

Identify Your Ideal Culture

Simply wanting a positive business culture isn’t enough to obtain one. You must go into this with a clear understanding of what you want the end goal to be. The fact is that you may already have an atmosphere of respect within your office, but you lack communication. On the other hand, say your communication is up to par, but nobody truly speaks with each other. Asking yourself these questions will allow you to create and implement a program that can provide you with the right business culture for your company.

Watch Out for Problematic Behavior

One of the most common excuses heard from business leaders when dealt with a sexual harassment claim, or a lawsuit is that they simply didn’t know it was happening. Sure, some may have no idea because people tend to act differently around their boss, but that should never be an excuse. The number one issue facing companies from achieving a healthy business culture is problematic behavior, of all kinds. This could include social media bullying, sexual harassment, racial discrimination, and much more. Remember sexual harassment takes many forms, so you need to always keep your eyes open for it. The best way to eliminate this type of behavior is to allow everyone to speak with you privately. Take claims seriously and do your own research to back up those claims if you ever need to let go of an employee.

Organize Town Hall Meetings

The concept of a town hall meeting is quickly becoming very popular within the business world. The fact is that sometimes other employees may not be the problem, it must just be you. Therefore, most people would not walk into their boss’s office to complain about them. This is where the town hall meeting comes in. This type of meeting allows your employees to ask questions freely while answering those questions in front of everyone in the office. This form of communication creates a more transparent and honest business that can no doubt, contribute to overall healthy business culture.

Creating a healthy business culture is a very challenging thing to do. Often sacrifices must be made, or we might have to place ourselves in uncomfortable situations. Nevertheless, it is incredibly important to develop this within your company. Not only because it allows your company to grow but because it is simply the right thing to do for yourself and your hard-working staff.

We help companies develop great cultures through change management and organization design. If you want to learn more about how we can help, schedule a complimentary discovery call.

There’s no shortage of advice about how to be an effective business leader. Scores of books have been written, speeches given, and interviews conducted with experts about the best way to lead a company to success. With all that information floating out there, narrowing in on the simplest, most effective leadership strategies can seem overwhelming. However, there are several time-tested ways to use your leadership skills to maximize your company’s cohesiveness and success. Here are a few of the most well-researched ways that leaders can promote a great corporate culture.

Responsibility and Accountability

According to Ivy Exec, the best, most effective business leaders lead by example, always striving to practice what they preach. The psychological reasons for the admiration people feel towards these types of leaders are complex, but they generally have to do with integrity. Everyone has likely had a boss or other leader who demonstrated laziness, hypocrisy or some other negative trait. You may have experienced this yourself and likely lost respect for that person. While compliance can be mandated by even the worst leader—at least for a little while—truly effective leadership requires mutual respect between leader and follower. This includes holding yourself, as a leader, to the same standards as those you are leading.

Continuous Learning

A major tenant of Sun Tzu’s “Art of War,” the famous treatise on strategy and leadership, is the necessity for constant adaptation to the circumstances as a prerequisite for success. According to Celerant, the more experience a business leader gets, the more prone they are to thinking that it’s the newer, more inexperienced people who need outside guidance. In reality, everyone benefits from learning, especially about subjects that are in a continuous state of development. Constant personal improvement is an asset for everyone, especially for the leaders of a company or group.

Resourcefulness

The best decisions are made when the most information is available. According to Organizational Physics, traditional models of leadership usually feature a rigid top-down structure, where the leader dictates the course of action to the follower and the follower obediently executes the plan. While there is a place for this type of leadership, like the battlefield, it often translates poorly to a boardroom or other collaborative activity. Alternatively, using an adaptive leadership model in which input is given by all participants greatly increases the brainpower devoted to solving a particular problem, increasing the likelihood of a positive outcome for the team.

You can make use of these strategies for a more harmonized, productive and enjoyable company culture. As a leader, you can build an environment that makes the most of your company’s potential.

Here’s another article you might like: Best Practices for Building and Managing a Scaleable Remote Team