Rethinking Impostor Syndrome

Rethinking Impostor Syndrome

For over 15 years, I have had the privilege of working with highly talented and experienced individuals, both in my private practice and as a corporate consultant.  As I got to know these extraordinary individuals, I was impressed by their educational credentials and corporate achievements.  However, in more than a few situations, these same accomplished professionals have expressed their concern that they might not be as accomplished and deserving of their status and positions.  It was not unheard of for them to refer to their success as “luck,” thus dismissing any effort they might have made to rise to their prominence.

How Workplace Culture Shapes Our Self-Doubt

The concept of Impostor Syndrome has haunted many famous people we might have looked up to, and we didn’t know they felt this way.  For example, even after writing eleven books and winning several prestigious awards, Maya Angelou couldn’t escape the nagging doubt that she hadn’t really earned her accomplishments.  Similarly, even Albert Einstein described himself as an “involuntary swindler” whose work didn’t deserve the attention it received.  Even Elvis Presley, despite revolutionizing popular music and becoming a global icon, often expressed disbelief about his success. In a 1956 interview with TV Radio Mirror, he said: “I don’t know what it is that I have… People look at me like I’m some kind of a freak. I know I don’t have any talent. I’m just lucky.”  The point is that if three of history’s most accomplished figures struggled with feelings of fraudulence, what does that tell us about this phenomenon?

For decades, we’ve treated impostor syndrome as an individual problem requiring personal solutions. We’ve told people to practice positive affirmations, build confidence, and overcome their feelings of inadequacy. But recent research suggests we’ve been looking at this phenomenon from the wrong angle entirely. The problem isn’t primarily within the people experiencing these thoughts but rather within the workplaces that foster them.

The Competitive Workplace Connection

New research published in Social Psychological and Personality Science reveals a striking finding: impostor syndrome is not driven by gender, as previously believed, but by competitive workplace environments. This study included six experimental investigations examining how workplace culture influences employees’ sense of fraud. Researchers surveyed employees about their work environments while collecting demographic data, and the results were clear. Competitive climates create impostor feelings across all employee groups.

This finding shifts the conversation dramatically. Rather than viewing impostor syndrome as something wrong with certain individuals, we can now see it as a predictable response to particular organizational conditions. When workplaces emphasize competition over cooperation, comparison over collaboration, and individual achievement over team success, they create the perfect breeding ground for self-doubt.

The mental health implications are serious. Employees experiencing impostor thoughts often struggle with increased anxiety and depression. They burn out more quickly. Perhaps most tragically, they cannot fully enjoy their hard-earned successes because they’re constantly waiting to be exposed as frauds. The impact extends beyond the workplace, affecting relationships, parenting confidence, and overall sense of self-worth. When 82% of people report having these thoughts at some point in their careers, we’re clearly dealing with a systemic issue rather than individual weakness.

From Syndrome to Thoughts

Part of the problem lies in how we’ve labeled this experience. The term “impostor syndrome” has evolved from its original meaning into something more emotionally charged and pathological-sounding. When we call it a syndrome, we suggest it’s a disorder that needs fixing, something inherently wrong with the person experiencing it. Calling it a syndrome also downplays just how universal this experience is. It’s not a disease or an abnormality, and it isn’t necessarily tied to depression, anxiety, or self-esteem, though those conditions can coexist with impostor thoughts.

But at its core, the impostor phenomenon describes something much simpler: the cognitive belief that other people overestimate your abilities at work. It’s not fundamentally about feeling fraudulent or fearing exposure, though those emotions may accompany the thoughts. It’s about the gap between how competent you believe you are and how competent others seem to think you are.

Reframing this as “impostor thoughts” rather than “impostor syndrome” helps in several ways. First, it emphasizes the transient, situational nature of the experience. Thoughts come and go. They respond to context. They can change as circumstances shift. Second, it reduces the stigma and shame that often accompany the experience. Having thoughts about your competence is normal and human. Having a syndrome sounds like something is broken.

Recognizing Impostor Thoughts in Your Team

Before managers can effectively support employees, they need to recognize how impostor thoughts manifest in the workplace. These thoughts don’t always announce themselves clearly. Instead, they show up through specific behaviors and patterns.

Reluctance to seize opportunities is one of the clearest indicators. Employees may turn down promotions, new assignments, or challenging projects because they don’t feel “ready yet.” They consistently downplay their accomplishments and contributions, deflecting credit to others or external circumstances rather than acknowledging their own capabilities.

Perfectionism serves as another major red flag. True perfectionists set unrealistically high standards and then harshly criticize themselves when they inevitably fall short. They struggle to delegate because they need to control every detail to ensure perfection. Paradoxically, their fear of failure can lead to procrastination, leaving them immobilized and unable to start any tasks. The anxiety about not measuring up to an impossible ideal becomes overwhelming.

Workaholism often masks deeper insecurity. Employees consistently arrive earliest and leave latest, not out of passion but because they believe they must work harder than everyone else to compensate for being less skilled. They skip social events to keep working, struggle to relax outside of work hours, and never feel their work is good enough, no matter how many hours they invest.

Individualism driven by impostor thoughts looks different from healthy independence. These employees consistently refuse help even when assistance is offered or clearly needed. They believe that asking for support will expose them as frauds who can’t handle their responsibilities. They frame any requests for help as project requirements rather than acknowledging they would benefit from support.

Excessive modesty completes the picture. Employees brush off praise and attribute successes to luck, timing, or other people’s contributions. They have trouble internalizing their achievements because underlying doubt about their capabilities colors every accomplishment.

The prevalence of these patterns is striking. Research shows that impostor thoughts affect 71 percent of CEOs and 65 percent of senior executives. They impact 49 percent of midlevel leaders, 52 percent of first-level supervisors and managers, and 33 percent of non-leader individual contributors. When impostor thoughts reach this deep into an organization, they become everyone’s concern.

Five Types of Impostor Patterns

Impostor syndrome can be broken down into five distinct patterns that clarify how impostor thoughts manifest differently across people. Understanding these types can help managers recognize and address impostor thoughts more effectively.

The Perfectionist

This individual constantly undermines their own authority unless they’ve done everything perfectly. They feel like an imposter if there’s even the slightest hint of error. These employees set impossibly high standards and then beat themselves up for any deviation, however minor. They struggle to celebrate success because they fixate on what could have been better.

The Expert

This pattern involves Individuals who revolve their identity around continuous learning and comprehensive knowledge. They doubt themselves or feel intense shame when there’s even a minor gap in their knowledge or understanding. These employees believe they need to know everything before they can be considered legitimate, leading them to over-prepare obsessively and hesitate to contribute unless they’re absolutely sure.

The Natural Genius

People who identify with this trait experience impostor thoughts when something doesn’t come easily or takes longer than expected. If they’re typically quick at learning but struggle with a particular project, they interpret that struggle as evidence of incompetence rather than normal variation in difficulty. They measure their worth by how effortlessly they achieve rather than by the achievement itself.

The Soloist

These are people who value independence above all and feel like an imposter when they need to ask for help. Requesting advice or support triggers shame because it conflicts with their self-image as someone who should be able to handle everything alone. They equate needing assistance with being inadequate.

The Superhuman

These individuals measure success by how much they accomplish and how many roles they can juggle simultaneously. They feel like impostors if they think they should be doing more, because they can never do enough. These employees are at high risk for burnout as they constantly push themselves to prove their worth through overwork.

Recognizing these patterns helps managers understand that not all impostor thoughts look the same and that different employees may need different types of support.

The Gender Myth and the Biased Reality

One of the most persistent beliefs about impostor syndrome is that it primarily affects women. The original research in the 1970s studied high-achieving professional women, and the association stuck. But current empirical evidence tells a different story. Studies consistently fail to find reliable gender differences in who experiences impostor thoughts.

This matters enormously because the gendered narrative has allowed organizations to avoid responsibility. If impostor syndrome is a woman’s issue, then the solution is to help women build confidence and overcome their internal obstacles. But if impostor thoughts are a response to competitive, comparison-driven workplace cultures, then the solution requires organizational change.

The research makes clear that anyone can experience impostor thoughts, regardless of gender, race, or background. While people from marginalized groups may experience additional pressures related to stereotypes and representation, the fundamental phenomenon of questioning whether you’re as capable as others believe crosses all demographic boundaries.

However, there’s an important nuance here that organizations must understand. The term “impostor syndrome” itself has been criticized for potentially blaming women and people of color for their feelings without adequately accounting for the very real societal biases they face. Racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination create workplace environments where people from marginalized groups genuinely do face extra scrutiny, lower expectations, or exclusion. When these individuals experience impostor thoughts, it’s not purely internal. They’re responding to actual bias in their environment.

This creates a crucial distinction that leaders must grasp: impostor syndrome is the voice inside your head telling you that you don’t belong, while discrimination is the voice of others telling you the same thing. One is an internal struggle with self-perception that can be addressed through cognitive reframing and organizational support. The other requires systemic change, advocacy, and dismantling of biased structures and behaviors.

Recognizing impostor thoughts without acknowledging workplace bias can amount to gaslighting. It tells people their perceptions are wrong when, in fact, they may be accurately detecting real barriers and prejudice. Organizations must address both the internal experience of impostor thoughts and the external realities that can trigger or intensify them.

People who are the only or among the few representatives of their particular group in a workplace are at heightened risk. This applies across many dimensions: race, ethnicity, disability, language, gender, age, education level, and more. When you’re the sole person who looks like you, sounds like you, or shares your background, you’re on the receiving end of stereotypes about competence and intelligence. These stereotypes create fertile ground for impostor thoughts to take root.

The Surprising Upside

Despite the clear downsides, research reveals a surprising complexity: impostor thoughts can, in certain contexts, produce positive outcomes. While we’ve spent years trying to eliminate them, research shows they can actually produce positive outcomes in specific contexts.

Studies have found that employees with impostor thoughts sometimes demonstrate increased work productivity. They show greater interpersonal effectiveness. They engage in less unethical behavior, perhaps because they’re more careful and conscientious. In many cases, their performance doesn’t suffer at all and may even improve.

This makes sense when you think about it. A degree of humility about your abilities can be valuable, especially in roles requiring collaboration and interpersonal skills. People who question whether they’re as good as others think may listen more carefully, seek more feedback, and work harder to prove themselves. The key here is “degree.” Modest impostor thoughts can drive growth. Overwhelming impostor thoughts lead to paralysis.

This complexity means that managers should not aim to eliminate impostor thoughts entirely. Instead, they should help employees manage them skillfully. The goal is to limit the downside while preserving potential benefits. For someone in a highly interpersonal role leading teams, some self-questioning can promote helpful humility. For someone already struggling with anxiety and performance issues, those same thoughts may need more active management.

Why Impostor Thoughts Persist

Understanding why impostor thoughts are so stubborn helps explain why they’re so widespread. Several psychological mechanisms keep these thoughts alive even in the face of contradicting evidence.

Highly skilled and accomplished people often fall prey to a particular trap. They tend to assume others are just as skilled as they are. When you find a task relatively easy, you naturally assume your colleagues find it equally manageable. This can spiral into feeling that you don’t deserve recognition or opportunities as much as other people, who you believe are just as capable. As Maya Angelou and Einstein demonstrated, there’s often no threshold of accomplishment that finally puts these feelings to rest. Success doesn’t cure impostor thoughts; sometimes it intensifies them, as the stakes feel higher and the perceived gap between your abilities and others’ expectations widens.

Another powerful force sustaining impostor thoughts is pluralistic ignorance. This occurs when we each doubt ourselves privately but believe we’re alone in thinking that way because no one else voices their doubts. Everyone in the room might be quietly questioning their qualifications, but because they can’t see inside each other’s heads, each person thinks they’re the only fraud in a room full of legitimate experts.

Since it’s difficult to honestly know how hard our peers work, how challenging they find certain tasks, or how much they doubt themselves, there’s no easy way to dismiss feelings that we’re less capable than those around us. We see others’ polished final products and public confidence while experiencing our own messy process and internal uncertainty. This asymmetry of information creates perfect conditions for impostor thoughts to flourish.

The consequences can be significant. Intense impostor thoughts prevent people from sharing innovative ideas, applying for jobs where they’d excel, or pursuing programs that would advance their careers. The thoughts become self-fulfilling when they lead people to hold back from opportunities that would provide exactly the experience and validation they need.

Where Impostor Thoughts Begin

While workplace culture plays a major role in triggering and sustaining impostor thoughts, understanding their origins helps explain why some people may be more susceptible than others.

Parenting styles can lay the groundwork for impostor thoughts that persist into adulthood. Children raised under extreme pressure to perform academically, athletically, or socially may internalize the belief that their worth depends on constant achievement. When high grades or victories were expected rather than celebrated, or when mistakes were met with disappointment rather than treated as learning opportunities, children learned that they must be perfect to be valued. These early patterns create cycles of self-doubt that follow them into their careers.

Attachment styles also influence susceptibility to impostor thoughts. People with anxious attachment styles, who need frequent reassurance and validation, may develop an intense fear of failure or the persistent feeling that they’re not good enough. This manifests in the workplace as constantly seeking approval, over-checking work, and interpreting neutral feedback as criticism.

Cultural, religious, and cognitive biases also contribute. Messages about humility can morph into difficulty accepting praise. Beliefs about who “should” excel in certain fields create internal conflict when you succeed in an area where you weren’t “supposed to” thrive. Cognitive biases cause us to remember failures more vividly than successes, distorting our perception of our capabilities.

It’s essential to recognize that impostor thoughts depend on your own internal beliefs about your self-worth. When these thoughts arise from your internal dialogue, that’s impostor syndrome. But when external forces actively work to make you feel you don’t belong through exclusion, microaggressions, or discrimination, that’s not impostor syndrome. That’s bias and discrimination requiring organizational accountability and change.

What Managers Must Understand

Managers often make three critical mistakes when dealing with impostor thoughts in their teams.

First, they assume impostor thoughts are permanent personality traits. When an employee expresses self-doubt, managers may mentally categorize them as “someone who struggles with confidence” and expect this to continue indefinitely. But impostor thoughts are situational. They spike during transitions, new responsibilities, and unfamiliar contexts. As people gain experience and competence, their thoughts typically fade. This means the most effective interventions focus on changing organizational factors rather than on fixing individuals.

Second, managers treat all impostor thoughts as problems requiring immediate solutions. They rush to reassure, to boost confidence, to eliminate the thoughts. But this overlooks the nuanced reality that some level of self-questioning can be productive. Better approaches involve helping employees explore their thoughts, identify genuine skill gaps they can address, and channel their conscientiousness into productive action rather than rumination.

A critical insight here: arguing with an employee’s inner critic doesn’t work and can even backfire. When people with impostor thoughts hear “you’re great, stop doubting yourself,” they may feel more stressed because they think their managers are overlooking genuine concerns. The goal should not be striving for supreme self-confidence but rather learning to handle self-doubt better and distinguish between realistic and unrealistic concerns.

Third, managers assume only certain types of people experience impostor thoughts. They may be surprised when their most confident team members confess to self-doubt, or they may inadvertently shame people by suggesting they shouldn’t feel this way, given their identity or background. Everyone experiences these thoughts sometimes. Even highly successful people think, “Am I really qualified for this?” when facing new challenges.

Building Better Workplaces

The research pointing to competitive workplace cultures as a primary driver of impostor thoughts has profound implications. Organizations need to examine their practices honestly. Do they foster comparison and competition? Do they celebrate individual achievement while downplaying collaboration? Do they create environments where admitting uncertainty feels dangerous?

Workplaces that want to reduce harmful impostor thoughts should emphasize cooperation over competition. They should build cultures of psychological safety where making mistakes is understood as part of learning. They should recognize that when people feel they can ask questions, admit confusion, and acknowledge knowledge gaps without judgment, impostor thoughts become less threatening and more manageable.

This doesn’t mean eliminating all competition or pretending everyone is equally skilled. It means creating environments where people compete with themselves to improve rather than constantly measuring themselves against colleagues. It means celebrating learning and growth rather than only rewarding those who appear effortlessly competent.

A workplace culture that treats failure as a dead end rather than a learning opportunity will inevitably encourage perfectionism, workaholism, and impostor syndrome. Leaders must send clear messages that mistakes happen and don’t have to be sources of shame. When executives share their own experiences with failure and self-doubt appropriately, they model that leadership involves managing uncertainty rather than projecting constant confidence.

Practical Steps for Supporting Employees

Understanding impostor thoughts is only the beginning. Organizations need concrete strategies to support employees experiencing them.

Provide Manager Training

Few managers are well-equipped to tackle impostor thoughts among their team members, despite playing crucial roles in supporting and encouraging employees. Manager training should cover the various signs of impostor thoughts and coach managers to normalize fears and self-doubt as natural parts of work life. Including information about impostor syndrome in both manager training and onboarding processes helps managers understand its causes, recognize its signs, and respond effectively. When people who lead, manage, mentor, or train others understand impostor thoughts, they can minimize costs and consequences for both individuals and the organization.

Build Open Relationships From the Beginning

Employees need trusted relationships where they can discuss self-doubt comfortably. Mentoring should be an essential part of successful onboarding, helping develop relationships from day one. HR departments should go beyond interviews to create ongoing mentorship programs and social activities that help employees feel comfortable sharing how they’re coping with work challenges.

Implementing an open-door policy encourages communication and discourages impostor thoughts by allowing employees one-on-one access to managers. Regular check-ins, especially with newer employees still settling into their roles, create safe spaces to discuss any challenges that arise. Building this rapport early prevents isolation and provides support channels before impostor thoughts become overwhelming.

Play to Employee Strengths

When job descriptions don’t align with employees’ skills, employers may be partially to blame for impostor syndrome. If someone genuinely lacks the skills their role requires, their impostor thoughts may contain a kernel of accurate assessment. However, in most cases, employees experiencing impostor thoughts are perfectly capable; they’re just not being positioned to leverage their strengths.

Playing to employee strengths boosts creativity, encourages innovation, and improves engagement. When employees work in areas where they excel, they gain confidence and reduce feelings of inadequacy. This means thoughtful job design, skill mapping, and willingness to adjust roles when mismatches appear.

Have Honest Conversations

When employees exhibit signs of impostor thoughts or name the experience directly, respond sincerely. If you’ve struggled with impostor thoughts yourself, consider sharing your story, including what triggered them and how you managed such feelings. Leaders’ vulnerability normalizes the experience and reduces shame.

Have honest conversations about goals and expectations. When employees feel inadequate, ask them to explain their thinking. They may have misinterpreted job requirements, the position may genuinely not fit their skills, or the work environment may not be welcoming. Getting to the root cause helps determine the appropriate response.

Encourage Individual Strategies for Managing Impostor Thoughts

While organizational changes are essential, individuals also need practical tools for managing their impostor thoughts. Managers can help employees develop these strategies.

The most powerful individual strategy is simply talking about impostor thoughts. Many people suffering from these thoughts fear that asking about their performance will confirm their worst fears. Even when they receive positive feedback, it often fails to ease their feelings of fraudulence. But hearing that an advisor, mentor, or peer has experienced impostor thoughts can provide tremendous relief. Knowing there’s a term for these feelings can itself be incredibly validating. When managers create space for these conversations, they break the silence that allows pluralistic ignorance to thrive.

Collecting and revisiting positive feedback provides concrete evidence against impostor thoughts. Encourage employees to keep a record of accomplishments, positive performance reviews, grateful emails from colleagues, and successful project outcomes. When impostor thoughts intensify, this collection serves as tangible proof of their competence.

Documentation can reveal patterns that counter impostor thinking. One scientist kept blaming herself for problems in her lab. When she started documenting the causes of every problem, she realized most stemmed from equipment failure rather than her incompetence. This systematic approach helped her recognize her own capability. Managers can suggest similar documentation practices when employees attribute every setback to their own inadequacy.

Simply naming these as “impostor thoughts” rather than accepting them as truth helps create distance from the feelings. Thoughts are mental events, not facts. When someone thinks, “I don’t deserve this promotion,” they can reframe it as “I’m having the thought that I don’t deserve this promotion.” This subtle shift creates space to examine whether the thought reflects reality or is an artifact of impostor syndrome.

A powerful technique for managing impostor thoughts is actively separating feelings from facts. When impostor thoughts arise, encourage employees to question them: What actual evidence exists that I’m an imposter? What concrete facts support the belief that I’m incompetent? Most of the time, they’ll discover the evidence doesn’t exist. The feelings are real, but they don’t reflect reality. This exercise helps distinguish between the emotional experience of doubt and the factual record of competence and achievement.

Here’s a validating truth worth sharing with employees: true impostors don’t worry about being impostors. People who genuinely lack qualifications or intentionally deceive others don’t agonize over whether they belong. The very fact that someone is concerned they might be a fraud is often evidence that they’re not. This realization can be powerfully liberating.

Finally, emphasize action over rumination. Impostor thoughts thrive when people get stuck in the loop of “I can’t do this.” Breaking that cycle requires taking concrete steps forward despite the thoughts. Each action taken, each project completed, each challenge met provides real-world data that counters the impostor narrative. Movement matters more than certainty.

Address Systemic Bias and Promote Inclusion

Organizations must go beyond individual support to examine and address systemic issues. Evaluate work performance fairly across all employees. Be transparent about pay and benefit equity regardless of race, gender, and other characteristics. Participate in cultural competence and team-building activities. Conduct regular employee reviews that clearly define performance metrics and encourage improvement.

Promote diversity not just in hiring but specifically in leadership positions, where representation matters enormously. When employees see people who look like them, sound like them, and share their backgrounds in positions of authority, it counters stereotypes and reduces susceptibility to impostor thoughts rooted in being “the only one.”

Listen to employees about the hurdles and biases they face, and be transparent in addressing these issues. Help employees succeed by consistently leveraging your influence for fair promotions and equal benefits. Recognize that you cannot solve impostor thoughts through individual interventions alone when organizational culture or systemic biases continue to create the conditions that generate those thoughts.

A New Approach

The path forward requires both organizational change and individual support. Organizations must reduce unnecessary competition that breeds comparison and self-doubt. They should promote inclusiveness, cooperation, and psychological safety. They must recognize that high rates of impostor thoughts among employees signal something about the workplace environment, not just about individual psychology.

At the same time, managers need practical approaches for supporting employees experiencing impostor thoughts. This means naming the experience clearly and helping employees understand that what they’re feeling is common impostor syndrome, not evidence of their inadequacy. It means normalizing these thoughts by discussing openly how widespread they are, especially during transitions and when taking on new responsibilities. And it means managing them with nuance, offering reassurance while also helping people identify genuine areas for growth and channeling their conscientiousness into productive development.

When we understand impostor thoughts as a normal cognitive response to certain workplace conditions rather than a syndrome requiring treatment, we open up more effective ways of addressing them. We stop placing all the burden on individuals to fix their mindsets and start assigning appropriate responsibility to organizations to create healthier cultures. We recognize that some self-questioning can be valuable while also preventing it from becoming debilitating. Most importantly, we shift from viewing impostor thoughts as something shameful to understanding them as helpful information about how people experience their work environments.

The goal is not to create workplaces where everyone feels completely confident all the time. That’s neither realistic nor necessarily desirable. The goal is to create environments where people can acknowledge uncertainty, ask for help, and grow into their roles without the crushing weight of feeling like frauds who will inevitably be exposed.

We may never completely banish impostor thoughts, and perhaps we shouldn’t try. But through open conversations about professional challenges, increased awareness of how common these experiences are, and organizational cultures that value learning over flawless performance, we can create workplaces where people feel freer to acknowledge their uncertainties while also recognizing some simple truths: they have talent, they are capable, and they belong.

You are cordially invited to contact my office for specific ideas on how I can help your employees, managers, and your organization overcome the limitations of imposter syndrome.