3 Ways To Let Go Of Imposter Syndrome And Shine In The Media Spotlight

By Henry DeVries, Forbes.com Contributor

SUMMARY: Impostor syndrome affects 75% of women executives. Explore strategies to recognize and release this phenomenon, including planning, preparation, and worst-case scenario role-playing. Discover how to overcome imposter syndrome and attract the right-fit clients.”

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Is imposter syndrome holding you back from attracting right-fit clients?

A senior manager at a financial firm (let’s call her Melinda) was an experienced speaker and presenter who wanted to prepare for media appearances. She hired media trainer Susan Harrow to help her overcome her “crisis of confidence.” Melinda’s Ivy League credentials and track record of extreme success didn’t mitigate those feelings.

The Attack of Imposter Syndrome

“This ‘attack’ of imposter syndrome is common among even the most accomplished women,” says Harrow, who has media-trained thousands of people including Fortune 500 CEOs, celebrity chefs and rock stars.

In fact, Harrow believes 75% of women executives have imposter syndrome.

The term imposter syndrome was coined by American psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, who published an article called “The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention” in the 1978 journal Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice. Here’s how the abstract presented the matter: “Despite outstanding academic and professional accomplishments, women who experience the impostor phenomenon persist in believing that they are really not bright and have fooled anyone who thinks otherwise. Numerous achievements, which one might expect to provide ample objective evidence of superior intellectual functioning, do not appear to affect the impostor belief.”

The Impostor Syndrome Phenomenon Origin

Clance and coauthor Joe Langford acknowledged that both men and women are challenged by imposter syndrome in a 1993 article in the journal Psychotherapy: “The impostor phenomenon was originally thought to be particularly pervasive among females (Clance & Imes, 1978). Surveys of several populations, however, have found no differences between the sexes in the degree to which they experience impostor feelings.”

Training to Shift Out of Imposter Syndrome

Harrow is a media trainer, marketing strategist, and author of the best-selling book, Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul. In an interview she shared that the quickest way to gain confidence, certainty and comfort is through planning, preparation, practice—and role-playing worst-case scenarios. This includes imagining and rehearsing the most heinous situations where imposter syndrome rears its head.

…Read the three ways to overcome imposter syndrome on forbes.com here

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