Working From Home Part II - Beating Imposter Syndrome

The completion of my first blog on this subject (up on my site now) led me to reflect a bit more on making an impression at work - especially when finding it difficult to make a difference in a new role or career choice. Imposter Syndrome involves an employee feeling underqualified or inadequate for the role they hold, and these feelings sometimes stem from lack of recognition or impact resulting from the work they do. Over 70% of people experience these feelings at some point in their career (Journal of Behavioral Science) so the issue is not restricted to young people making a start in their careers. With this in mind, I wanted to share my thoughts on putting these feelings to one side and working positively in whatever role you find yourself in.

The Effort is Worth More than the Result

In work project environments uncertainty is common, and how well we deal with the unknown is directly tied to how effective we are at work. With this in mind, it is easy to be disillusioned with work situations where uncertainty is high and our tolerance for it is low. This could in turn lead to less effective working and therefore feelings of inadequacy at work. Managing the unknown and the resulting stress is part of life, so even if you don't have the answers trying your best to get a handle on events is key. By trying and maybe failing we learn, so taking a leap into the unknown when trying to make progress in a project is 10x better than avoiding the issue - your manager will definitely see this the same way. I've found that taking a swing at the problem at hand eventually yields a result as long as those attempts are reasonable and professional. Put in the effort and your contributions at work will be recognised, remotely or otherwise. You can also lean on your experienced colleagues to guide your decision making. Ask them how they'd deal with a similar issue and try and learn from their approaches. Use it to shape your own efforts rather than relying on them to do the work for you.

Ask Away

Especially when joining a project, uncertainty is in part triggered by a lack of understanding. Getting to grips with the business context of a project makes it easier to understand how best to contribute. Once a project is already in motion, every day that passes makes it harder for new joiners to understand the business intricacies that make things the way they are. Reading as many project related documents and asking as many questions as possible is essential to reduce uncertainty and help you contribute value as soon as you can. In virtual environments don't get put off from speaking up if discussions are going beyond your understanding, trying to catch up after will make it harder to get to grips with discussions that just happened. No questions are stupid, but making team members repeat themselves because you didn't take notes or remember what they told you is the only pitfall I'd recommend you avoid. Utilise virtual tools such as the 'raise hand' function or drop a message into the meeting chat if you are worried about talking over anyone. Take effective notes and ask team members to illustrate things using a whiteboard or PowerPoint facility to help integrate you as soon as possible. Making the effort to understand makes a much better impression than being a passenger during important project discussions.

Take it Easy

Feeling underqualified for your job isn't a nice feeling, but you can turn it into fuel to drive your success. Whatever came before is irrelevant, you're here now so working hard to make yourself a success can turn these feelings into motivation rather than frustration. Setting lofty expectations of yourself is a good thing, but you can only deal with what's in front of you on a given day. Commitment to enhancing your effectiveness at work is key, as is managing uncertainty at work. I'll leave some links below detailing some uncertainty management methods that will hopefully help.

Author: My name is Amer, I'm a Computer Science with Business graduate currently working in tech consulting. My thoughts in this blog are based on my opinions regarding Imposter Syndrome at work, rather than concrete proposals based on research. Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn (on the about page) if you have any questions.

Sources:

• The Impostor Phenomenon - the Journal of Behavioural Science: https://so06.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/IJBS/article/view/521

• The hidden upside of imposter syndrome: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210315-the-hidden-upside-of-imposter-syndrome

• Coping with uncertainty at work: https://blog.jobs.ac.uk/university-careers/coping-with-uncertainty-at-work/

• A Psychologist Shares the Best (and Worst) Ways to Deal With Uncertainty: https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/cope-uncertainty

• 5 Ways to Deal With Uncertainty at Work: https://embracethechaos.com/2012/06/5-ways-to-deal-with-uncertainty-at-work/

• Coping with uncertainty about workplace change: https://drjenfrahm.com/workplace-change-uncertainty/