Overcoming Imposter Syndrome at Work

What’s really holding you back? Spoiler alert: It’s not your skills. How many times have you felt like you’re not up for the job? That you’re not qualified? Or that someone else could do it better? Here’s the reality: ➡️ 13% of employees and 20% of senior managers admit they frequently feel like a fraud. ➡️ 54% of women report experiencing imposter syndrome, compared to 38% of men. I get it, because I’ve been there. I used to struggle with being visible - giving speeches, creating content online, even doing TV interviews. Despite decades of experience, there was always a little voice in my head whispering: “Do people really want to hear from you? What if they laugh at you?” Here’s the truth: It’s not based on facts - it’s just the noise in our heads. Here’s how you can overcome imposter syndrome and show up like you deserve to: 1/ The Imposter Loop ↳ You doubt every win and question every achievement. ↳ Own your story: You earned your seat at the table. ↳ Write down three wins you’re proud of. Seeing them silences the noise. 2/ The Permission Trap ↳ You wait to feel ready or for someone to say “go.” ↳ Stop waiting: Start before you’re ready. ↳ Set a deadline and commit publicly - action builds momentum faster than waiting for confidence to strike. 3/ The Comparison Game ↳ You stalk others’ success and compare your chapter 1 to their chapter 20. ↳ Run your own race: Their doubts, fears, and failures aren’t in the highlight reel. ↳ Unfollow or mute accounts that trigger self-doubt. Focus on progress, not perfection. 4/ The Perfectionism Loop ↳ You polish endless drafts, overthink every detail, and never feel “good enough.” ↳ Launch at 80%: Fix it in flight. Done is better than perfect. ↳ Set a timer for your next task and stop when it’s ‘good enough.’ Progress beats perfection every time. 5/ The Silence Spiral ↳ You keep your struggles hidden and pretend you’ve got it all figured out. ↳ Share your story: You’ll be surprised how many people say “me too.” ↳ Find a peer or mentor and share one struggle you’re facing. Vulnerability builds connection. 6/ The Safety Net ↳ You stay in your comfort zone and call it “being realistic.” ↳ Take the leap: Growth lives outside your comfort zone. ↳ Identify one “safe” habit you’re clinging to. Replace it with one bold action, no matter how small. 7/ The Knowledge Shield ↳ You hide behind preparation, waiting to know “just one more thing.” ↳ Start doing: Expertise comes from action. ↳ Turn learning into doing: Commit to acting on one idea from the last book, course, or workshop you completed. What would be possible if you silenced those doubts once and for all? For me, it meant saying yes to opportunities I used to avoid - like speaking on stage and sharing my story. ⤵️ Have you ever felt like a fraud despite your accomplishments? How did you work through it? ♻️ Share this post to remind someone they’re not alone. 🔔 Follow me, Jen Blandos, for advice on business, entrepreneurship, and well-being.

A highly qualified woman sat across from me yesterday.   Her resume showed 15 years of C-suite experience. Multiple awards. Industry recognition.   Yet she spoke about her success like it was pure luck.   SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT of female executives experience this same phenomenon.   I see it daily through my work with thousands of women leaders. They achieve remarkable success but internally believe they fooled everyone.   Some call it imposter syndrome. I call it a STRUCTURAL PROBLEM.   Let me explain...   When less than 5% of major companies have gender-balanced leadership, women question whether they belong.   My first board appointment taught me this hard truth.   I walked into that boardroom convinced I would say something ridiculous. Everyone seemed so confident.   But confidence plays tricks on us.   Perfect knowledge never exists. Leadership requires:   • Recognising what you know • Admitting what you miss • Finding the right answers • Moving forward anyway   Three strategies that transformed my journey:   1. Build your evidence file Document every win, every positive feedback, every successful project. Review it before big meetings. Your brain lies. Evidence speaks truth.   2. Find your circle Connect with other women leaders who understand your experience. The moment you share your doubts, someone else will say "me too."   3. Practice strategic vulnerability Acknowledging areas for growth enhances credibility. Power exists in saying "I'll find out" instead of pretending omniscience.   REALITY CHECK: This impacts business results.   Qualified women: - Decline opportunities - Downplay achievements - Hesitate to negotiate - Withdraw from consideration   Organisations lose valuable talent and perspective.   The solution requires both individual action and systemic change.   We need visible pathways to leadership for women. We need to challenge biased feedback. We need women in leadership positions in meaningful numbers.   Leadership demands courage, not perfect confidence.   The world needs leaders who push past doubt - not because they never experience it, but because they refuse to let it win. https://lnkd.in/gY9G-ibh

Imposter syndrome has a $287 billion price tag. How I watched 97 female executives sabotage their success last year. The pattern is predictable: Accomplished woman gets promotion. Doubt creeps in. Fear takes over. Performance suffers. Opportunities vanish. But here's what nobody tells you about imposter syndrome: It's not a personal failing. It's a systemic issue. The real problem? Traditional confidence advice doesn't work: ∙"Fake it till you make it" ∙ "Just be more confident" ∙ "Stop being so modest" ∙ "Lean in harder" These create more anxiety. Not less. Instead, try this approach: 1/ Document your wins. Every single one. 2/ Build evidence. Track your impact. 3/ Accept praise. "Thank you, it's true." 4/ Share victories. Without apology. 5/ Support others. Lift as you climb. Your doubt isn't the truth. Your track record is. Remember: You're not lucky. You're qualified. The world needs your voice. Especially when it shakes.

The antidote to imposter syndrome… (you need to read this): Earlier this year I had the biggest professional moment of my life: my first book launch. I walked into Times Square and saw my face on a billboard. That evening, a sold out crowd told me my writing changed their lives. From the outside, it looked perfect. Inside? I couldn’t sleep. Spiraling in anxiety, stress, and fear. Fear of being exposed. Fear of being found out. Fear that the world would finally realize I didn’t belong. Despite every external datapoint saying otherwise, the dark internal story was winning. I was in the grips of imposter syndrome. And if you’ve ever felt that way, here’s the playbook that got me through it: 1) Remember three facts You’re not alone. I texted the most successful people I know. CEOs. Billionaires. Famous authors. “Do you still feel like an imposter?” Every single one said the same thing: It never goes away. They still feel it before every big moment. They just act anyway. Nobody’s thinking about you. They’re too busy thinking about themselves. That fear of being “found out” is almost always overblown. Imposter syndrome is a tax on growth. Good things happen when you’re in rooms where you don’t feel like you belong. That discomfort isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. It means you’re growing. 2) Adopt the “yet” mindset Adam Grant framed it perfectly: Imposter syndrome: “I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s only a matter of time until everyone finds out.” Growth mindset: “I don’t know what I’m doing yet. It’s only a matter of time until I figure it out.” That one word changes everything. “I’m not good enough” → “I’m not good enough… yet.” “I don’t know how” → “I don’t know how… yet.” “I’m not capable” → “I’m not capable… yet.” The highest form of confidence isn’t knowing everything. It’s believing you can learn anything. 3) Coach yourself like you would a friend This sounds weird, but it works: I email myself. Like I’m my own coach. “I’m struggling with something, advice?” Then I respond: “What specifically is causing the fear?” “It’s the fear of not being good enough… I’ll disappoint… I’ll be found out…” When you force yourself to deconstruct the fear, zoom out, and question the assumptions—everything shifts. The fear doesn’t disappear. But you see it for what it is: Growing pains. Because at some point, you will feel like an imposter. And when that imposter grabs your steering wheel, look it in the eye and give it one simple message: Not today. Today, I grab the wheel. I’m in control. I have the power. Not today, imposter. Not today. ⸻ ♻ Repost to spread the insight. 🔔 Follow Sahil Bloom for more life wisdom. ____ 📌 Want the books that taught me to embrace life’s hardest lessons? Download my Favorite Books PDF (free) and join 800,000+ who get my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eSrGb8Kr

Confession: I worry. A lot. Not just the big stuff (my kid’s health, my team’s happiness, my students’ success)… I also worry about the thing I shouldn’t worry about: what people think of me. I wish I could always trust my instincts. Just do me, be me. But it’s something I really struggle with. Then my friend Jodie Cook handed me a reframe I can’t stop thinking about: “If someone throws a ball to you… you don’t have to catch it.” Same with words, opinions, and judgments. Does that hit you like it hit me? (catch it if you like it!) I realized: I’m a ball catcher. I try too hard. I over-smile. I say yes when I want to say no. I even fake laugh (working on it!). What I need is to become a ball dropper: to remember it’s OK not to click with everyone, to know my preferred “flavors” of people, and to keep boundaries with toxic people (and toxic balls). Jodie and I sat down to map out how to do this. Here are the steps we landed on: 1. Click with the right people You don’t have to be everyone’s idea of heaven. It’s healthy to be closer to a few and neutral with the rest. Action: List the people (or fictional characters!) you naturally click with and don’t. What traits and values repeat? That’s your compass. 2. Focus on what you can control You can’t control reactions. You can control effort, intent, and craft. Action: Grab a pen and paper. Create two columns for things you can control and those you can’t. Cut the paper in half and get rid of the list of the things you can’t control. 3. Be judgment-free Judgment creeps into everything (others and ourselves). • Seeing someone unfit in the gym? Judgment • Seeing someone too fit in the gym? Judgment • Other drivers cut us off? Judgment When you treat judgments like weather (they pass), they matter less… and so do other people’s judgments of you. Action: Pick a simple affirmation (e.g., “I’m grounded in my values”) and repeat it when judgment shows up. 4. Zoom out your perspective When one person doesn’t like us, we globalize it (this means we think a large number of people dislike us). Try this: Visualize on the top of your building → Then visualize your city → the planet → the galaxy. You’ll realize how minor your problems can be. 5. Protect your energy Visualize a clear jar over your head. Let negative words bonk off the glass. Or picture the opinion-ball sailing toward you… and don’t catch it. Let it drop. (Visualization isn’t woo; used regularly, it works.) If this resonates, you’re not alone. I’m a recovering ball catcher turning into a proud ball dropper.

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 — 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈𝐟 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐕𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭? In the race to grow their personal brand, I’ve seen people: ✔ Post what they think will go viral ✔ Copy formats, tones, even personal stories ✔ Speak like a brand, not a human And while it may get likes, it often loses the one thing that truly builds trust — 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲. When I started building my personal brand, I promised myself: I’d rather grow slowly as myself than fast as someone else. Here’s what helped me stay grounded while showing up online: 📍𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 Your posts shouldn’t sound like a brochure. If you’d never say it out loud in real life, don’t type it. Tone = trust. And trust builds connection. 📍𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 “𝗶𝗻-𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀” 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 Everyone loves a success story. But people connect with the messy middle. Not every post needs a perfect outcome. Sharing the journey builds more credibility than polished perfection. 📍𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 Not what’s trending. Not what’s getting others likes. But what reflects your experience, your lens, your thoughts. The more real you are, the more people remember you — not just your content. People trust individuals more than brands. That trust only comes from being you, not a curated version of what you think people want. Your personal brand shouldn’t feel like a performance. It should feel like an amplified version of your real self. How do you make sure your content stays true to you? Drop your take👇 #PersonalBranding #AuthenticityOnline #LinkedInCreator #TrustMatters #ShowUpReal

Early in my career, when I shared the story of a workshop that completely bombed (an email announcing layoffs arrived in everyone's inbox during day 1 lunch of a two-day program -- and I had no idea how to handle this), three women immediately reached out to share their own "disaster" stories. We realized we'd all been carrying shame about normal learning experiences while watching men turn similar setbacks into compelling leadership narratives about risk-taking and resilience. The conversation that we had was more valuable than any success story I could have shared. As women, we are stuck in a double-bind: we are less likely to share our successes AND we are less likely to share our failures. Today, I'm talking about the latter. Sharing failure stories normalizes setbacks as part of growth rather than evidence of inadequacy. When we women are vulnerable about their struggles and what they learned, it creates permission for others to reframe their own experiences. This collective storytelling helps distinguish between individual challenges and systemic issues that affect many women similarly. Men more readily share and learn from failures, often turning them into evidence of their willingness to take risks and push boundaries. Women, knowing our failures are judged more harshly, tend to hide them or frame them as personal shortcomings. This creates isolation around experiences that are actually quite common and entirely normal parts of professional development. Open discussion about setbacks establishes the expectation that failing is not only normal but necessary for success. It builds connection and community among women who might otherwise feel alone in their struggles. When we reframe failures as data and learning experiences rather than shameful secrets, we reduce their power to limit our future risk-taking and ambition. Here are a few tips for sharing and learning from failure stories: • Practice talking about setbacks as learning experiences rather than personal inadequacies • Share what you learned and how you've applied those lessons, not just what went wrong • Seek out other women's failure stories to normalize your own experiences • Look for patterns in women's challenges that suggest systemic rather than individual issues (and then stop seeing systemic challenges as personal failures!) • Create safe spaces for honest conversation about struggles and setbacks • Celebrate recovery and growth as much as initial success • Use failure stories to build connection and mentorship relationships with other women We are not the sum of our failures, but some of our failures make us more relatable, realistic, and ready for our successes. So let's not keep them to ourselves. #WomensERG #DEIB #failure

👉 Many senior executive women have been promoted for years for one specific skill: They can walk into chaos alone and make it look easy.... Exactly that skill will ruin your reinvention! When a restructure hits, or the big “ex‑” moment comes, this is what many senior women do: Day 3: still on LinkedIn, liking the “so sorry to hear this, you’ll land on your feet” comments. Day 10: The shock wears off, the nervous system is still buzzing, you open a blank doc to “think about what’s next.” And this is where the real danger starts. Because you don’t put what you actually want on that page. You start writing what a “reasonable” version of you would do. • “Maybe I go for a slightly smaller role.” • “Maybe I go back in‑house first before I try my own thing.” • “Maybe I stay in this industry, it’s where my network is.”    By Day 30, you’ve built an entire “next chapter”… that is nothing more than a safety‑optimized remix of the last one. 𝗥𝗲𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘀. Here are 5 honest ways to stop doing that to yourself: 1️⃣ Assume your first draft is a downgrade If you wrote your plan alone, assume this: Version 1 is not your dream. It’s your defense. Gut‑check it: If you pitched that plan to your younger self, would she light up or look at you like, “We didn’t go through all of this… for that?” 2️⃣Catch the “good girl in a big job” voice When you think about a bolder move and immediately hear: • “Who do you think you are?” • “Don’t be stupid, you have kids / parents / a mortgage.” • “People will think you’re chasing attention.” Label it: “This is not true., This is my good‑girl identity talking. You don’t negotiate with that voice. You thank it for its service, and shup her up. 3️⃣ Put your real desire in the calendar, not in a journal If you say you want something, it needs a date. • Want to test a portfolio life? Put one paid experiment in the next 60 days. • Want out of your current industry? Put one real conversation in a new one this month. • Want to build something with your own name on it? Put one tiny offer live. If it is not in your calendar, it will never happen. 4️⃣ Stop being the only adult in the room You have spent a career being the grown‑up energy: the one who holds, absorbs, explains, calms. Reinvention needs a room where: • You are not the strongest one by default. • You are allowed to be the messy one. • Other women can look you in the eye and say, “You’re not going back in there smaller. Not on our watch.”    That’s why we built 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗖𝗶𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗲 – 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. It’s for senior executive women who are finally scared of how convincing they are… when they talk themselves out of what they really want. If you recognise yourself in this, capable but alone in your head with a too‑small plan, DM me 𝗠𝗜𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗥𝗦. Because if you could have thought your way into the next version of you by yourself, you would have done it already.

I was lucky enough to have my team grow from 6 to 800 people in 9 years. I was promoted from Senior Manager to Director to Vice President, and I had imposter syndrome the whole time. Here are 4 ways I fought it, and how you can too: It is no surprise that when my team grew 130x from 6 to 800, I ended up not fully knowing what I was doing. At the same time, it is hard to say no to opportunities when you have experienced downsizing and setbacks. So, as the chance to take on new tasks and challenges was available, I said yes. There was definitely an element of "fake it until I make it" in the whole process. It is also true that most of the leaders above and below me were in the same situation. Because of the unprecedented growth of Amazon through these years, most of my managers and direct reports were also in the largest and most complex jobs of their lives. While I cannot know the inner workings of their minds for sure, I feel confident that many of them had similar feelings of imposter syndrome. Action 1: If you worry that you are in over your head, or that people might find out you don't completely know what you are doing, realize that this is normal. Action 2: Understand that it is normal to be in the largest and most complex job of your life for much of your career. If you are not, it often means you have either stepped back intentionally or that you have suffered a setback (like a layoff). Growth inevitably means doing harder things than ever before. Action 3: Get help. Be open with your mentors on what you need. You do not have to share all your worries to lay out your challenges and ask for advice. If you are in an environment where admitting “development areas” is unacceptable, turn your language around and ask for "help optimizing performance and delivery." No one will be against optimization, and it amounts to the same thing - getting insight on any gaps and places to improve. Action 4: Hire a coach, therapist, or counselor if you need one. To be top performers, we need a strong mental game. As leaders, particularly of knowledge work, our whole performance comes from our minds. None of us would hesitate to go to a doctor if we were sick, or a trainer to develop our bodies, so getting help with our mental performance should be a no-brainer. However, there is hesitation and sometimes shame in getting help with our mental game. Readers: I really want to create a short course on fighting imposter syndrome and developing a strong mental game to help with these common challenges. What mental challenges are you fighting? If you have overcome typical worries either in a specific job or long term, share what you did please.

“I failed 9 interviews before I realized the real reason I was losing wasn’t my answers… it was my mindset.” This is the story of one of my students. Let’s call her Ritika. Brilliant coder. Perfect GPA. Strong resume. Yet every interview ended with the same line: “We’ll get back to you.” (They never did.) Her problem wasn’t knowledge. It wasn’t even confidence. It was the voice in her head whispering: “What if I mess up again?” And here’s the truth I told her 👇 Success in interviews is 80% mindset, 20% answers. If you walk in doubting yourself, your words will too. But if you walk in like you belong there… recruiters feel it. Here’s how we rewired her approach: 1️⃣ We Killed the “Interview = Test” Myth Most candidates treat interviews like an exam. Wrong. It’s a conversation of equals. I made her stop preparing “perfect answers” and instead prepare “impact stories.” For example: Instead of rehearsing “I’m hardworking and detail-oriented”, she said: “I spotted an error in a client project that saved my college team from losing 3 weeks of work.” That’s not an answer. That’s proof. 2️⃣ We Built a “Confidence Anchor” Before every interview, she had to visualize her best win. For Ritika, it was presenting her final-year project to 300 students and professors. That memory became her anchor. So when fear hit, she reminded herself: “If I did that, I can do this.” 3️⃣ We Reframed Rejection Every rejection had crushed her. So we flipped the frame: ❌ Not “I failed.” ✅ But “This company wasn’t the right fit for me.” This mindset shift freed her from desperation. And desperation is the #1 smell recruiters run from. 4️⃣ We Practiced “30-Second Conviction” In the first 30 seconds, recruiters decide if they want to keep listening. So instead of starting with “I’m Ritika, I did B.Tech from XYZ,” she opened with: “I’m a computer science graduate who built 2 automation tools that reduced manual work by 30%. I love solving inefficiencies.” Instant credibility. 5️⃣ We Focused on Energy, Not Perfection Interviews aren’t scored like exams. They’re felt. Ritika learned to smile, pause, and show genuine curiosity. Because recruiters don’t hire the “best resume.” They hire the person who convinces them in 30 minutes: “I want to work with her.” 3 months later, Ritika had 4 job offers on the table. Same resume. Same skills. Different mindset. 👉 If you keep obsessing over “perfect answers” but ignoring your mindset… you’ll keep hearing “We’ll get back to you.” But if you learn how to walk in like you belong, everything changes. 📩 If you want me to help you prep for interviews the way I helped Ritika, drop me a message. #interviewtips #careergrowth #mindsetmatters #dreamjob #interviewcoach