Teresa Lavary was exhausted. She worked for a corporate event management company, where she organized and planned a high-profile event with strict security measures, and worked overtime for several months. The speaker at that event was Barack Obama.
Lavary knows how to handle complex event planning, but he doesn't know how to deal with office politics. A perfect opportunity to prove her prowess turned into a living nightmare. Lavali was questioned and rebuked by his colleagues, and his professionalism was also questioned. Every decision she made was directed, either explicitly or implicitly. Ravalli didn't know if it was because of race, after all she was the only black woman on the team. Despite her admiration from clients, she began to doubt her ability to do the job.
The planning team's attitude towards Lavali was too harsh. Lavary found herself demoted from leader to co-leader, and eventually no one else recognized her leadership. This fact greatly weakened her confidence, plunged her into deep anxiety, self-loathing, and made her feel like an imposter.
Moderate nervousness that would have benefited (is this job right for me?). Will colleagues like me? Can I do it well? It developed into a workplace-induced trauma that led her to consider suicide. Looking back now on the impostor syndrome that tormented him at the time, Lavary knows that what binds him is not a lack of self-confidence, but structural racism and prejudice.
Examine what we know as impersonator syndrome
The broad definition of impersonator syndrome is doubting one's abilities and feeling like a liar. This problem plagues many high-achieving people who find it difficult to accept their achievements. Many people doubt that they are not really worthy of the honors they have received.
Two psychologists, Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes, proposed the concept of impersonator syndrome in a pioneering 1978 study of highly accomplished women, initially called the impersonation phenomenon. They argue, "Despite their academic and professional success, the women who have this problem insist that they are not actually smart and that everyone else has been deceived by themselves." This discovery spawned various leadership studies and projects on female impersonator syndrome in the decades that followed.
Even prominent women like Hollywood stars Charlize Theron and Viola Davis, business leader Sheryl Sandberg and even former first lady Michelle Obama and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor have confessed to having experienced impersonator syndrome. A Google search yields more than five million relevant results, including attending meetings, reading books, and telling stories about your achievements in the mirror.
As for the causes of impersonator syndrome and the impact of the workplace environment on female impostor syndrome, there are far fewer studies. We believe that women tend to doubt their own success for reasons not necessarily impersonator syndrome.
Structural racism, classism, xenophobia, and other prejudices were hidden after the concept of impersonator syndrome emerged. Many groups were excluded from the study, such as women of color and people with different income levels, genders, and occupational backgrounds. We now know that impersonator syndrome places the blame on the individual and does not involve the historical and cultural context that is the root cause of this problem for women. Impersonator syndrome makes us focus on getting women at work to solve their own problems, rather than how to solve the problems of the work environment in which women live.
Feeling uncertain doesn't mean you're a liar
Impersonator syndrome can morbid normal upset, hindsight, and mild anxiety in the workplace, especially in women. Men's achievements and talents are gradually recognized in the course of their work, and their doubts usually subside. They can easily find people who are similar to them as a reference, and their abilities, contributions, and leadership styles are rarely questioned. Women's experience is the opposite. The women's career development conferences we invite to always have a "overcoming impersonator syndrome" session.
The label of impersonator syndrome comes with a heavy burden. The word "impersonation" gives a hint of fraud to the uncertainty and anxiety of joining a new team or learning a new skill, while the medical term "syndrome" is reminiscent of "female hysteria" that was seen as a disease in the 19th century. Uncertainty is a normal part of a career, yet women's uncertainty can be seen as impersonator syndrome. Despite the strength, ambition, and resilience women exhibit, the daily confrontation with mild offense, especially the expectations and presuppositions beneath stereotypes and racism, is always exhausting. The concept of impersonator syndrome fails to encapsulate this complex situation, placing all the blame for its effects on the individual. The workplace continues to be misled by this concept to find solutions to the problems caused by systemic discrimination and abuse of power at the individual level.
Prejudice and xenophobia can exacerbate doubts
For women of color, the problems of self-doubt and lack of belonging in the workplace may be even more pronounced. Not because women of color (the term refers to a very broad range) have birth defects, but because racial and gender factors add up to keep women of color in a state of instability at work. Women of color around the world are implicitly (or explicitly) told that they do not belong in the white and male-dominated workplace. In Working Mother Media's survey, half of women of color plan to leave within two years because of feelings of edge and disillusionment in the workplace, which is consistent with our experience. An xenophobic environment that exacerbates self-doubt is a key reason for our shift from corporate employment to entrepreneurship.
"The so-called 'professionalism' standard is full of cultural biases and distortions." Tina Opie, an associate professor at Babson College, said in an interview last year. The pressure of employees belonging to marginalized groups to elevate themselves to standards that members of the same group have never met (and are often not expected to do) can be overwhelming. Latino female employees who had spoken actively at the conference suddenly became silent. Indian female employees who are almost certain to be promoted receive vague feedback on "lack of leadership qualities". Transgender women, who have always been outspoken, no longer speak because their bosses' words reveal that they are unaware of gender issues. Black women who had offered to help organizations improve their products were told they didn't have team spirit and felt unable to provide feedback without concern. For women of color, otherwise common senses of misgiving are amplified in the struggle with structural prejudice and racism.
In fact, we don't have a sense of belonging because we never get the support we need to generate it. To overcome impersonator syndrome, the solution is not for the individual, but for changing current patterns and creating an environment that encourages multiple leadership styles and treats professionals of different races and genders equally.
Self-confidence does not equal competence
We often mistake confidence for competency and leadership. Employees who don't conform to a male social style are told they have impersonator syndrome. Organizational psychologist Tomas Chamorro Premuzic said:
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At the end of the day, men almost everywhere in the world feel smarter than women. Arrogance and overconfidence are inversely proportional to leadership, which is the ability to build and maintain high-level teams and persuade others to put the team's common good above self-interest.
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Such a system rewards male leaders who have confidence (and may not even have the corresponding abilities), punishing all women who lack confidence or show confidence in ways that are seen as unacceptable. This type of bias is hidden and complex, stemming from a narrow definition of "acceptable behavior" in the male leadership model.
Correct prejudices, don't correct women
Impersonator syndrome is particularly prevalent in a hostile culture of individualism and overwork bias. The rhetoric of "correcting women's impersonator syndrome" has been going on for decades, but we believe that an inclusive workplace is necessary to ensure women's career development. It is clear that the cultural environment in which professionals are marginalized and discriminated against is necessary to correct rather than correct impersonator syndrome.
Leaders must remove structural biases in the cultural environment for women. Only in this way can the so-called impersonator syndrome experienced by marginalized employees – or at least help these employees turn normal levels of self-doubt into positive motivation – which requires a supportive work culture.
In this way, perhaps women will not be misdiagnosed as having "impersonator syndrome" in the future.
Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey |
Ruchka Tuchian is the founder of Candour, an inclusion strategy firm, and the author of The Diversity Advantage: Fixing Gender Inequality In The Workplace. Jodi-Ann Burray is a popular speaker and author who focuses on the combined issues of race, culture, and medical equality.
Shuojian | translated by Zhou Qiang| edited
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