I had a conversation with an HR Director not so long ago, whose company had promoted a new CEO. One of the first things the new CEO said was that he wasn’t interested in growing or in personal development for himself. He was a relatively young CEO (mid-fifties), but his position was “this is me; this is what you get; I’m not going to change.”. The word “inflexible” sprang to mind!
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Working with someone who is inflexible can be difficult. If that person’s your boss, it can be demoralising and demotivating. If that person is running the company, it can mean trouble for the direction of your organisation and the wellbeing of your people.
As I’m thinking about the new year ahead of us in 2024, I don’t wish for any of us to be inflexible or to have to work with people who are inflexible. So what causes leaders to close themselves to learning, and what can we do about it?
What is Imposter Phenomenon and how does it affect leaders?
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It may seem like quite a big leap, but I wonder if, when leaders are inflexible and resistant to change, is that a result of Imposter Phenomenon?
(NB: some people call it Imposter Syndrome, but the word ‘syndrome’ means a kind of disease. I prefer Imposter Phenomenon, which was also the original term for it when it was first written about in 1978.)
Imposter Phenomenon is self-doubt or feelings of insecurity about our abilities to do our job, even when we have evidence of our achievements, and most of us have experienced it at one time or another. Notable people who have spoken about experiencing it include Michelle Obama and Olivia Coleman.
It isn’t wholly rational, because those who experience it don’t feel better when they achieve something or when other people offer praise. They usually attribute their achievements to external factors rather than themselves. They’re waiting for the people around them to realise they’re not a capable, competent person after all. It can affect someone at any point in their career, and some researchers believe that senior leaders can be more prone to it than others because their decisions are much more visible than those of others in more junior roles.
What’s the effect on the rest of the team or organisation?
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Imposter Phenomenon obviously affects the individual. If they’re a leader, it can also affect the people they lead. The more positive aspects of Imposter Phenomenon, especially when a leader has a high level of self-awareness, can encourage us to ask more questions, listen to what others have to say, and encourage more collaboration.
The more negative aspects can lead us into perfectionism for ourselves and our teams. When things have to be perfect instead of good enough, our people may feel overly criticised and will tend towards perfectionism themselves.
Procrastination can also be an issue, where a leader puts off making important decisions because they experience high self-doubt. This leaves their people in limbo, either waiting for a steer or making decisions for themselves, resulting in different people heading in different directions. Essentially, the team isn’t working together, and people don’t feel valued.
Lastly, leaders may be or may become inflexible. They are so worried about their people finding out they’re an imposter, they close themselves off to learning and new ways of doing things. They’re so worried about others thinking they’re not competent that they can’t show even the slightest sign they don’t have all the answers. They can’t afford to be vulnerable, even though it is essential to building good relationships in a team or a whole organisation. Culture comes from the top, so this affects the everybody, making it harder for people to build relationships and share ideas.
Over time this will set the scene for increased stress, reduced motivation, diminished wellbeing and lowered productivity across the organisation.
What can we do about it?
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Imposter Phenomenon, in a similar way to feelings of shame, tends to grow when we don’t talk about it. Anyone experiencing Imposter Phenomenon already feels isolated by their self-doubts. The pressure of hiding the doubts makes things worse and adds to the sense that the people around us have no idea who we really are.
Obviously, if it were easy for a leader or a CEO to talk about their anxieties, they’d already be doing it! As I wrote above, senior leaders often believe they can’t afford to be vulnerable. The easiest way to start is in a one-to-one setting with someone outside the organisation, for example, a coach or a mentor.
Once a leader has a safe place to show a little vulnerability and discuss their anxiety, it becomes more possible for them to reflect on their leadership and their personal development. Once this is established confidence can be built to open up more in one-to-one or group sessions with senior leaders (or for CEOs, perhaps in a group with CEOs from other companies) where they can hear from others about their challenges, learn how to coach each other, and build trust can be very powerful.
Of course, we want our leaders to start sharing their new perspectives with their people. According to Forbes, the three main behaviours for leaders to cultivate to combat Imposter Phenomenon are:
1. Encourage your people to ask you questions and become more comfortable saying “I don’t know” and discussing how you or your team can find the answers. This will steer you and your team away from perfectionism.
2. Facilitate group problem-solving, which is a small step from encouraging people to ask questions. Instead of needing to come up with an answer, make it a group activity and welcome perspectives from everyone.
3. Allow yourself to be vulnerable by sharing your mistakes. This shows your people that it’s okay to be human and make mistakes; the most important thing is to learn from them.
In the group sessions I described above, the leaders practice these three behaviours in a relatively safe environment. They may not realise it at first, but they are learning to be more vulnerable and to share more of who they are and what they really think. They will then be able to take these new behaviours back to their teams.
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One view of Imposter Phenomenon is that the best way to reduce its power over us is by cultivating authenticity. That means saying more of what we really think, including opening up when we don’t know and being honest when we disagree. It also means accepting that we may doubt ourselves from time to time, and that doesn’t mean we are bad at our jobs or that we are bad people. This leads to greater psychological safety and stronger relationships.
If we want to cultivate that across our organisations, we need our CEOs and senior leaders to get more comfortable being authentic and being open to change without losing their credibility.
