Here Are Four Questions To Ask That Stop Imposter Syndrome Every Time

Recently, a young mentee reached out to me wanting advice. Let’s call her Jessica. She’s starting a new management role at the big corporation that she works for, on top of trying to manage anxiety about re-entry into the office. The promotion is a big deal for Jessica, and she’ll be managing a large team for the first time. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I really do feel like I’m a fraud and I’m going to fall down at this managing role,” Jessica confesses to me on the phone. It’s important to note that Jessica is one of two women of color in her department, and her team is mostly men and mostly white. For Jessica, the stakes are high. So I introduce her to my favorite leadership tactic: the power of self-affirmation.

Whether it’s battling imposter syndrome, anxiety about a new role or navigating unconscious bias, a strong psychological counterbalance is found in self-affirmation theory. The concept was pioneered by Dr. Claude Steele in the 1980s, as he investigated standardized testing and race. His research showed that triggering internalized stereotypes (like when you have to state your race on a test) can create a psychological threat that negatively effects someone’s performance. But he also found what I think of as the antidote, which is the power of affirming our values and accomplishments. When we do so, we have the capacity to protect ourselves from internalized negative self-image or stereotype. I will go more into the science in a moment. Let’s first look at the four questions I posed to Jessica.

1. Who are five leadership role models that you admire?
2. What values do you have in common with them?
3. Why do they inspire you? (and specifically, what actions do they take that you admire?)
4. How have you taken similar actions in your own life that you’re proud of?

I asked for five role models because it’s a little bit of stretch. Most people could probably mention one, two or three leaders, but five made Jessica think a little longer. She mentioned Ursula Burns, Mellody Hobson, Sarah Blakely, Melaine Perkins, and she got stuck on the fifth one a while. Finally, she mentioned Hubert Joly. When I asked Jessica what values she thought she had in common with them, she thought a moment and said, “Tenacity. All these leaders had to overcome significant challenges, sometimes because of where they were coming from in their lives and identities, and sometimes it was business challenges they took on.” She also mentioned that she admired how each leader helps her to remember to be curious and in some ways, optimistic, even when it’s tough to be.

In terms of inspiring Jessica, she mentioned breaking barriers, resiliency and humbleness. Burns and Hobson are both important “firsts” in breaking leadership barriers. Others kept building their businesses after facing hundreds of rejections, like Blakely and Perkins. Joly likely did not face the same dynamics that the other four did. But Jessica notes that she was inspired by how humble he was when he turned around Best Buy. He took time to understand consumers and frontline workers, and helped create one of the most inspiring corporate turnarounds in decades.

Now that we had a sense of what values Jessica resonates with, I asked her to reflect on similar actions she has taken in her own life. She started to list things that she has done in her career, stopping midway to voice a protest. “But how can I compare myself to my role models? I’ve done nothing compared to them,” she said. I reminded her that we’re thinking about similar actions, not a comparison. The point is to focus on evidence of personal success, where our work created a genuine sense of pride.

Jessica continued to reflect on the work she had done on her team. She’s particularly expert at connecting staff across departments. She’s always had a keen understanding of the end user, often better than others on her team. Those abilities helped her get products shipped faster and more successfully than others. These are the accomplishments that make her proud, and frankly, are a big part of why she got promoted.

So how does the science fit in to this exercise I did with Jessica? Affirmations remind us of our self-worth and personal values. What Dr. Steele found was that when Black students had to mark their race before taking a math test, their performance would suffer. However, if they affirmed themselves – wrote down something they were proud of that they did – this closed the achievement gap on a standardized math test when compared to white student scores, even when they had to mark their race. This positive effect of self-affirmation has been replicated in studies for many other minority groups and women, with the same outcome of closing the gap on test performance. It even helps white folks, too.

While imposter syndrome, promotion anxiety or the stress of navigating unconscious bias are all three very different situations, they all hinge on insecurity and fear. So we have to dispel the fear. Reaffirming what we believe in and reminding ourselves of evidence of past success can be a reliable way to dissolve the fear. It allows us to actively tackle that fear head on – for myself and for my mentees like Jessica. Give it a try the next time you worry that you might not be the genuine article, because you will likely find evidence to the contrary.