Imposter Syndrome

 

 Do you think that your work must be 100% perfect, 100% of the time? Or that you haven’t truly earned your position? Does your confidence take a plunge when you suffer a setback? 

You are not alone. 70% of the U.S. population has experienced this feeling, which is known as impostor syndrome. 

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, impostor syndrome is commonly understood as a false and sometimes crippling belief that one’s successes are the product of luck or fraud, rather than skill. 

Now that we understand what imposter syndrome is, let’s review the five types of imposter syndrome: 

1. 1. The Perfectionist: The perfectionists set exceedingly high goals for themselves. When they fail to accomplish that goal, they experience self-doubt and worry about measuring up. Success for them is rarely satisfying because they think could’ve done even better. 

2. One way to manage the Perfectionists is to remind them that mistakes are a part of the process and progress is more important than perfection. 

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3. 2. The Superwoman/Man: The Superwomen/men are addicted to the accolades and validation of working, rather than the actual work itself. This constant workload potentially harms their mental health, as well as their working relationships. 

4. One approach to managing Superwomen/men is to help them find their own internal validation and reframe failures as learning opportunities. 

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5. 3. The Natural Genius: Natural Geniuses judge their competence based on the ease and speed of doing a task, rather than the efforts involved. They feel ashamed if they take a long time to master something because they believe they should get things right the first time. 

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6. The Natural Genius needs help seeing that success is made of many small steps over time. Remind them to celebrate the small accomplishments which are a part of the bigger goal. 

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7. 4. The Soloist: Soloists feel that asking for help reveals their faults so prove their worth by refusing assistance. 

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8. One antidote is asking Soloists to work in team environments, showing them that each team member has a unique set of skills to learn from. 

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9. 5. The Expert: The Experts measure their competence on the basis of “what” and “how much” they know or can do. They believe they will never have enough knowledge and will eventually be exposed as inexperienced and lacking skills. 

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10. The Experts benefit from realizing that no one knows every answer and there is always more to learn. 

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Organizational Role in Imposter Syndrome 

We’ve discussed the individual aspects of imposter syndrome. How does organizational culture contribute to imposter syndrome? 

Organizational norms and behaviors can add to imposter syndrome. Some examples include working environments where praise is never given and leaders expect perfection, so employees feel that they constantly need to prove themselves. Another example is employee favoritism. 

Here are a few tips to handle imposter syndrome in your organization: 

• Keep reminding team members that they are competent enough for the roles assigned to them. 
• Avoid comparisons between team members and focus on the values each team member brings to the team. 
• Shift the focus from performing to learning and reframe failure as a learning opportunity. 

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Instead of hiding behind the fears of failure, we all need to face them, overcome them, and learn from them. The best way to defeat the imposter syndrome is to change the workplace environment. 

How often have you encountered imposter syndrome? How were you able to move forward? Share your thoughts and leave your comments below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter. 

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Purpose: The Key Driver of Organizational Performance

 

In the past, purpose has often been cast aside as non-essential to an organization’s success. Finances, IT, sales, and products have traditionally been discussed far more often than purpose. Yet purpose is actually the key driver to organizational success. Without employees feeling a sense of purpose, a salesperson would be listless, and product engineers would lose creativity. Now more than ever, purpose is important to organizational performance because it inspires employees to move beyond inertia to action. 

Many people ask how purpose differs from mission, vision, values, principles, and culture. An organization’s mission describes what business the organization is in (and what it is not), and its plans for the future. Its goal is to provide a focus for leadership and employees. 

A vision statement lays out where the organization is going in the future. It is usually drawn up by senior management to take the thinking beyond day-to-day activity in a clear, strategic way. 

Values explain how the mission, purpose and vision will be achieved through the expected culture of the organization. They serve as a compass of the expected norms, behaviors, and mindset. 

So what, then, is purpose? 

According to David Packard, Co-Founder of Hewlett-Packard, purpose is like a guiding star on the horizon- forever pursued but never reached. Although purpose itself does not change, it does inspire change. The very fact that purpose can never be fully realized means that an organization can never stop stimulating change and progress. 

Have you ever had to drag yourself out of bed to go to a job that you hated? It’s like you’re pushing a heavy rock uphill. But when purpose is motivating your actions, everything feels very different. You have a kind of lightness, even when things are intense or tough. The same thing is true for organizations; you can feel when a company is animated by purpose… and that’s a feeling that people want to have! It’s also a feeling that drives better performance. 

Organizational Purpose 

The purpose of an organization is not the answer to the question, “What do you do?” which typically focuses on products, services, and customers, but rather the answer to the question “Why is your work vital?” It conveys what the organization stands for in historical, ethical, emotional, and practical terms. 

Below are the key characteristics of an organization’s ideal purpose statement, which is: 

• Central and enduring to the culture of the organization 
• Inspiring and unifying 
• The answer to the question, “Why is this work vital?” 

A purpose statement should be brief so employees can remember it and use it to guide their daily actions. It should also be broad in scope to allow the organization to adapt over time to a changing world, while its central focus remains constant. 

Here are a few examples of organizational purpose statements: 

• ING – Empowering people to stay a step ahead in life and in business 

• Kellogg – Nourishing families so they can flourish and thrive 

• Insurance Australia Group (IAG) – To help    people manage risk and recover from the hardship of unexpected loss 

• REA Group – To make the property process simple, efficient, and stress-free for people buying and selling a property 

• Southwest Airlines – To connect people to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel 

• CVS – Helping people on their path to better health 

In the current world, employee engagement is crucial. Employees need to work with a sense of purpose that comes from knowing that what they do affects others in the organization. Engaged employees relish what they do and are more productive. 

Purpose provides clarity and stimulates innovation. Embracing clarity can open the door to allowing employees to see possibilities that they wouldn’t have otherwise seen. They understand the organization’s expectations of them and the reasons behind those expectations. It empowers them to deliberate new methods of doing their work to meet the organizational mission. 

We would love to hear from you! What’s your organizational purpose? How is purpose driving your motivation levels and enhancing the organizational performance? 

 

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter. 

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