feeling like a fraud
open handed, steady eyed
gaining patient trust
Imposture syndrome affects people in all areas of life, and particularly in professional working life. It’s a behaviour where an individual doubts their own skills, abilities and accomplishments and are afraid of being exposed as a fraud. It’s thought that nearly 70% of people feel symptoms of imposture syndrome at one or more times in their life, and the phenomenon can impact mental and physical wellbeing.
Whilst the consequences of imposture syndrome are generally negative, a recent study suggests that there may be some benefits too. Basima Tewfik (2022) studied over 3,600 employees from a broad range of sectors, including from an investment advisory firm and a physician-training program. She found that people with workplace imposter thoughts become more other-oriented, getting evaluated as being higher in interpersonal effectiveness.
For instance, trainee doctors with more impostor thoughts were rated by their patients as being more interpersonally effective, more empathetic, as better listeners and better able to draw out information during doctor-patient interactions. The trainee doctors with imposture thoughts were exhibiting greater eye gaze, more open hand gestures and more nodding – all indicators of an other-focused orientation.
Importantly, Tewfik found that workplace imposter thoughts didn’t significantly affect objective performance – you might feel like a fraud but your colleagues wouldn’t guess from the quality of your work.
Original research: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2020.1627