If you are reading this, you probably know you have impostor syndrome at least some of the time. But what do we do next? Just knowing that impostor syndrome is a thing can help, but that doesn’t necessarily make it all go away. It’s like people telling you now to worry: that’s great and all, but kind of unhelpful. Well once you know more about your impostor inner-critic, here are some top tips on how to control how it makes you feel.
Many of us have heard of impostor syndrome: that self-doubt followed by the inner critic that tells us we shouldn’t be here. But all too often it is hard to notice in ourselves when impostor syndrome is the thing holding us back. Even if we know we have experienced impostor syndrome in the past, or are currently experiencing it in one aspect of our lives, it is often difficult to figure out where else it is holding us back. Loved ones, friends, colleagues and coaches can help us with this, but sometimes they don’t know either. Read on to find out some top tips for recognising impostor syndrome in new areas of your life.
Decision making can be one of the most challenging aspects in our career. From the ‘simple’ decisions of what to do next, which sometime result in no focus, to making swift decisions for your team and business that keep your company on track, decision making is part of our jobs every day. But it can be exhausting, time consuming and draining. And if we are leader, failing to make decisions can damage progress, impact change, and negatively impact confidence in you, your team, your product and your company. So how can we make decision making easier?
When we lack confidence, it can manifest in many ways. We may not be taking the leaps forward that we know we should, asking for, or taking an opportunity. A lack of confidence can hinder when we speak up, or we might listen to our inner critic more than we should. But one that is not talked about enough is having the confidence to say no. This applies not just to you, but helping your team learn how to say no to you.
One major player in our confidence, including leadership confidence, is our inner critic. That voice inside us that questions everything we do, makes us doubt ourselves and often is the thing that keeps us up at night. Many people talk about silencing our inner critic and turning it off. I believe that done in the right (and healthy) way, our inner critic can serve us. But only when we have learnt to fully trust ourselves.
Confidence is something that many (if not all) of us lack at some point in our lives. Some people have a gift of always appearing confident, others are genuinely confident 90-95% of the time. But every one of us has a lack of confidence in something, or a confidence gap, from time to time. The key difference between those who work through this best and those that are held back by a lack of confidence is having a toolkit that works for us as individuals to help push through those confidence-testing moments.
Guest Post by Lauren Smit of Lauren Graphics
How do you curate your online presence so that it is really working for you? What steps should you go through to make sure that what the world reads about you, works in your favour? Your online presence can open so many doors, but it can also slam doors shut, so let’s take some time to get this right.
Whether we like it or not, our online presence is often the first thing people look to when they want to get to know you. Gone are the days of really figuring somebody out just over a coffee. Before you even meet people for the first time, these days they will do an online search and make a decision about who you are before they even answer an email. So what does your online presence say about you? Is it saying what you need it to say? Does it actively work for you or hold you back?
Do you have managers that come into meetings, tear apart your idea, then walk out again? Not great right?
As managers and leaders, our job is often to give feedback, critique and help get people unstuck. But so often poor management is due to poor feedback. So what does it mean to give good feedback?