Have you ever felt that you are not worthy of the praise people give you for doing a good job or for a project’s success? The feeling involves doubting your accomplishment and questioning whether you are worthy of being proud. Imposter syndrome is one of the significant hurdles employees have to face, and it manifests in various ways, leading to complications like loss of self-worth and downplaying or undermining your roles.
Studies show that about 62% of leaders having these feelings are likely to report dissatisfaction with their work and have lower self-esteem or external locus of control. Despite the complications, the situation can be reversed whenever you get help from a professional leadership coach.
The coach plays a pivotal role in helping you to be in touch with reality, combat these feelings, and begin taking credit whenever it’s due. That’s not all; they can also be your perfect and unbiased source of help on how to avoid these feelings in the future.
So, next time you go through a similar situation, here is how a leadership coach can help and why you should consider talking to one.
1. Recognizing and Acknowledging Your Feelings
Some employees often attribute their success to luck or other people’s efforts instead of considering how much they contributed. Such instances occur when employees do not understand their role in the workplace and do not see themselves as the main contributor. Eventually, imposter feelings creep in, and employees begin demeaning themselves even when they deserve the credit.
The role of a leadership coach is to help with self-awareness evaluation, helping you get in touch with your emotions. They help you understand your vision and goals and how much the achievement fits within your successes. As such, you are likely to be more practical and understand your potential as a part of the team. After the diagnosis, they can also help you fix the problem through training on aspects like work roles and goals and how to evaluate your performance and success.
Such training can also help you identify patterns related to imposter syndrome and how to avoid or eliminate them. This includes emotional intelligence growth and training to boost your self-appreciation and understand your worth.
2. Reframing Negative Thoughts
The culture of self-sabotage can arise from various sources, mainly the feeling of unworthiness. This can also arise due to organizational cultures, such as people undermining certain races and genders. As a result, employees may feel and think they got the job due to luck or sometimes inclusivity and diversity agendas.
Many forget that getting a job is due to competition and meeting all the prerequisites. Such thoughts can eventually affect productivity and morale. In the long run, they can make you feel unvalued, leading to lower performance.
In such an instance, the leadership coach will help you reevaluate your goals and current experience. Then, they relate all these aspects to your current role to prove that you qualify for the position. To prevent such incidences from occurring in the future, they can train you on goal setting and being a go-getter whenever you feel qualified for a role.
3. Offering Unbiased Support
Whenever you feel that everyone in the organization has a negative perception about you, you need a third party or an objective person to talk to. That person is your coach. They are always truthful and will never lie to you.
You can go to the coach whenever you need a non-judgmental individual who can help you understand your fears and security. In the process, they also help you explore yourself and your current situation.
Eventually, they can help you avoid insecurities and self-sabotage behaviors that affect your performance. They also help you develop a deaf ear for what other people say, thus making you more confident and boosting your self-esteem. These two attributes are critical for a leader who runs a diverse workforce or works in an organization with condescending workplace cultures.
4. Providing Accountability
The first step to avoid imposter syndrome is to be accountable for your roles and actions. This is essential to ensure nobody, but you take credit for the work done. A coach will train you to speak up during meetings and be proud of your contributions. They also train you to be a go-getter and apply for promotions, especially after putting in effort during a project and in teamwork.
As such, you no longer have to view others as more qualified than you. Instead, they teach you how to market yourself and be your ambassador. Part of this training would involve effective communication and self-awareness training focused on building self-recognition, which are essential for anyone willing to step up and take credit for success.
5. Celebrating Your Achievements
Taking a victory lap for successful outcomes is the first step to knowing and appreciating yourself for success. This could be an informal party, getting together with friends, or adding achievements to your professional vitae. For those with coaches, it involves sitting down and talking about your contributions, challenges faced, and what you could have done better.
Such discussion helps you see how much you participated and how much credit you deserve. This reinforces your sense of value and competence, helping you feel worthy of the outcomes and confident in your roles. This whole exercise is not to criticize yourself but to appreciate how much the project is successful because of you.
Concluding
Imposter syndrome can be a hurdle to eliminate. However, it is not invisible; you can deal with it if you have the necessary support. With the help of your leadership coach, you can become more self-aware, appreciate your contribution and feel more confident.
Eventually, you can become more accountable and celebrate your achievement as a significant part of the project or team’s success. If you need a realistic and productive discussion about yourself and your self-worth, the coach is also the best person to show you who you are.
