What is it? The inability to believe that your success is deserved or legitimately achieved as a result of your efforts and skills.
Over 70% of workers experience imposter syndrome in their lives and it can have a major impact on your happiness and well being at work. Here are 5 tips to overcome
Imposter Syndrome in the workplace:
1.) Your Strengths
It's easy to stay so focused on your to-do list and inbox and neglect your strengths and accomplishments. It's always good to understand and recognise your own strengths. When do you receive positive feedback? When does it not feel like you are working? When does it come naturally to you and you enjoy what you are doing? These are your strengths!
A great way to keep track of your strengths is making a list of the skills and accomplishments that make you uniquely qualified for your job. Focus on smaller goals that you have achieved which will you give you a greater awareness of what makes you special and what you want to achieve in the future.
2.) Learn from your Mistakes - Embrace your failures
Everyone makes mistakes and It might not seem like it at the time, but mistakes and failures can provide us with great opportunities to improve and self-develop. Avoid the temptation to self- criticise when things do not go your way but instead learn from them. At the very least it is a great example to use in a future interview.
3.) Step out of your comfort zone
Confidence is developed through slowly pushing and stepping out of your comfort zone. Don't give in to negative self-talk and find opportunities to build your confidence up step by step. Agree to do a task you have may have not originally wanted to do. This will help to boost your confidence!
4.) Success is due to your hard work and not luck!
It can be easy to put your achievements and career success down to circumstance or luck.
Take responsibility for your career success. Recognise your hard work, determination and failures that got you to where you are today.
5.) Create a support network at work
The worst thing that people with imposter syndrome can do is to isolate themselves from receiving positive feedback from other colleagues and even their boss. Work hard to build relationships with your co-workers, so you have people to go to lunch with and lean on for support.
Another relationship to work on is the one with your boss. Don't wait for an annual performance review to get your boss's assessment of your work. Ask for feedback on what you've done well and ask for what you could improve on.
When you're starting a new job, it's expected that you don't know everything. Managers very much appreciate someone who is inquisitive and is wanting to grow, and asks good questions. Once you've built a trusted network, you won't be afraid to ask your coworkers for guidance if you're unsure how to tackle an assignment. Instead of getting stuck in feeling like an imposter, ask for help if you are not sure what to do.
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