Episode 5: 5 steps to Conquer Imposter Syndrome in the workplace

Foreign welcome to the Career Chronicles Podcast, hosted by me, Emma Nayla. Each week we'll be interviewing people from all walks of life and uncovering the challenges, successes, and insights that come from forging your own path. Whether you're looking for inspiration to pursue your own unconventional career, or simply curious about the stories of those who have done so, this podcast is for you. So join us as we explore the world of unconventional careers and the amazing people who have turned them into a reality. Sit back, relax, and let's dive into these incredible stories together. Welcome back to the Career Chronicles Podcast. I'm so excited to be hosting this week's episode. We are going to be looking at unleashing your true potential in the workplace and moving away from imposter syndrome. So confidence in the workplace and imposter syndrome in the workplace is something that has come up a lot recently with my clients. So whether you're looking just to get more confidence in the workplace with speaking to your colleagues or bosses or senior stakeholders, or if you're planning on going for an internal promotion or your next role, or even if you're planning on doing a full 180 move and start building a new career and are looking for more confidence, then this is the podcast episode for you. My name is Emma Naylor and I'm a certified coach and NLP practitioner, and I'm going to be talking you through five steps to conquering imposter syndrome and unleashing your true potential in the workplace. So grab yourself a notepad, put your phone on airplane mode, and let's start to explore the practical strategies and insights that can help you become more confident in your personal journey. First of all, confidence is not a fixed trait, but rather a skill that can be cultivated and nurtured over time. So let's embark on this empowering journey together and get you from going to feeling unconfident to super, super confident in the workplace. So let's start what is confident exactly and why is it essential in the workplace? So, essentially, confident imposes various elements including self assurance, a belief in one's abilities, and a positive self image of ourselves. When we possess workplace confidence, we unlock the door to improved job performance, effective communication, which in turn increases opportunities. So confidence can sometimes be hindered by barriers that I deal with with a lot of clients, such as fear of failure, imposter syndrome, negative self talk, and recognizing and addressing these barriers is super crucial to unlocking your true potential. So let's jump straight in. First of all, what is imposter syndrome? Essentially, imposter Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon where individuals doubt their own abilities and feel like a fraud. Despite the evidence of their previous accomplishments, People experiencing imposter syndrome often believe that they don't deserve their success and attribute luck, attribute it to luck and other external factors. They may have that fear of being exposed as incompetent or often worried that others will discover that they're not actually as capable as they appear to be. Definitely something that at the beginning of my journey and also running my own business that I experience. Imposter syndrome can also affect so many various aspects of life. Not just work, but it can include relationships, personal achievement, relationships with family, friends, all, or the way that we just carry ourselves every day. It is accomplishments, seeking support and challenging negative self perception that we want to start focusing on. So if we start having a look at where imposter syndrome comes from, it can often come from a few different areas. The first one is the high standards and perfectionism. Individuals with imposter syndrome often set exceptionally high standards for themselves themselves and believe that anything else less than perfection is failure. They constantly strive for flawlessness, leading to those feelings of self doubt and a sense of never ever measuring up. The second one is the fear of failure and making mistakes. Where there's this intense fear of making mistakes and again not meeting those expectations. The fear of failure can often be seen so strong that it becomes a barrier to taking risk or pursuing new opportunities. Interesting one is attribution bias where people with imposter syndrome tend to attribute their success to other external factors such as luck, timing or help from others. Rather than acknowledging their own competence and hard work, this attribution bias undermines their self belief, thus playing into that. Imposter syndrome number four is a really interesting one because it's definitely something that I see a lot of my clients dealing with, which is social comparison, comparing oneself to others, and perceiving that everyone else around us is much more accomplished and is much more capable than us. This comparison continues to amplify those feelings of inadequacy and reinforces that belief of actually being an imposter. The final one is a very interesting one and that's past experiences, including the upbringing again. Society expectations, messages that we receive during childhood, or pressures to meet certain standards can often lead to that self doubt again leading into that imposter syndrome. There are two other things that it can also lead into, which is the fear of failure and negative self talk. So the fear of failure, as we sort of touched on earlier, is the emotional and psychological response characterized by a strong aver or anxiety towards failing in a particular task goal or even outcome. It's a very, very common human experience and something that a lot of my clients have been dealing with. And it can really affect such areas as academics and careers and relationships. And it can really paralyze you and stop you from wanting to do the things that actually you want to do, but you're so scared of failing that you remove yourself from even giving yourself that opportunity. My other thing is negative self talk, which refers to that internal dialogue and those really, really critical thoughts. They can be self deprecating and very, very pessimistic. And it involves the tendency where we highlight the flaws of ourselves, the mistakes or the shortcomings that we've made while actually completely disregarding any of the positive aspects or achievements that we that we've ever actually made in our life. So in order to cultivate the workplace confidence overall, we need to start moving away from all of these things. We need to start understanding ourselves. And this is where that self awareness is super, super key. As I said before, that imposter syndrome can stem from all of these different aspects and then lead into that negative self talk as well as that fear of failure. But I wanted to share with you today five main strategies and real life examples that you can use to start overcoming that imposter syndrome in the workplace and continue to grow. So if you haven't, make sure you grab your notepad, make sure you're grabbing your pen, and be sure to take notes. If you are listening to this while you're driving, as I know a lot of my listeners do, listen to this episode, start thinking about some things and then go home re listen to it and write some notes down. So step one Acknowledge and embrace your achievements, recognize your accomplishments and give yourself credit for your skills and contributions. For instance, if you successfully completed a challenging project or received feedback from a colleague or client, remind yourself of these achievements and the value that you've brought. Create a folder of all the praise you've received, not just from other people, but also from your from yourself. Or write notes about your achievements. I call this the jar of Good. Create a jar and whenever you do something good, get a little post it note, get a little piece of paper and write something good on it. Whenever you feel overwhelmed or you feel like an imposter, get one out, get them all out and review all of the incredible achievements that you have had. The second one is seeking support from others. So so reaching out to mentors, colleagues or friends who can provide that guidance for you. So for example, if you're feeling super uncertain about your abilities, discuss your concerns with a trusted coworker or your boss, someone that you trust in that working environment who can offer you a little bit of a different perspective, hold that mirror up for you and remind you of your incredible strengths. The third step is focusing on learning and growing. So embracing a growth mindset is going to be so important. If you are suffering with imposter syndrome and viewing those challenges and those hurdles as an opportunity for development. By continuously expanding your knowledge and skills, you are going to build that confident confidence over time. So my invitation and recommendation to you is consider taking relevant courses, attending free workshops, or seeking out, you know, opportunities that are free and that are available for you to do online. As I said, there are a huge number of free resources out there such as YouTube. Lots of coaches offer free coaching and they're in their free PDFs and their downloads. There is so much stuff available there. And the next thing is, you can also ask your business if they would be willing to pay for you to go and do a course that is relevant to your role. Again, focusing on that learning and growth is going to be so important. The fourth thing is challenging that negative self talk. And I actually just got off a session with a client this morning where we really acknowledged and worked through the negative self talk that she's having the comparison, the way that she speaks to herself. So being mindful of your internal dialogue and challenging that negative self thought is going to be so, so important. For instance, if you catch yourself thinking I'm not qualified for this promotion, reframe it to I may not have the skills yet, but I can learn and grow into this role. My next question to you is how would you talk to your friend? Would you say that they're silly for trying or would you say that you are so incredibly proud of them for getting out of their comfort zone or doing it? Would you tell them that they aren't good enough or would you say that you are incredible, incredibly proud and that you are so happy for them? Think about how you are talking to yourself versus how you would speak to your friend and start challenging that self talk. The fifth one is sharing your experience with others. So by openly discussing your imposter syndrome with friends or in trusted space, you'll start to realize that so many people face those similar doubts. Sharing your own struggles and how you're overcoming them can can help to create this really supportive environment and can pull down the barrier on so many people that are struggling. We definitely need to be opening up the conversation more and having those real, truthful and vulnerable conversations and providing support to each other and our tips and tricks that have previously worked. Remember, overcoming Imposter Syndrome is going to take time. These strategies that we've spoken about, along with perseverance self compassion can help you build and thrive in your workplace. So sit down with these points, write down a few plans of actions and start working on it. I really hope you enjoyed this week's episode. I would love for you to slide into my DMs and let me know the tools that you are going to be using. My Instagram handle is at I am Emanayla. Feel free to send me a dm. I would love to hear what it is that you're working on, how I can support you and to be your cheerleader from the sidelines. I hope you have a great rest of your week and I'm looking forward to next week's episode. Thank you for joining us on this week's episode. We really hope that you've gained valuable insights into what it takes to carve your own career path. Remember, whether you're an artist, an entrepreneur, or anything in between, there is always a way to pursue your dreams and create a fulfilling career for yourself. The key is to stay true to your passions, be persistent, and never give up on your goals. As always, we want to thank you, our listeners, for joining us on this incredible journey. We look forward to bringing you more inspiring stories in the future, so stay tuned for our next episode. Until then, keep pushing the boundaries, chasing your dreams, and living your most unconventional life. Thanks for listening.