How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome For Good

How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome For GoodHow to Overcome Imposter Syndrome For Good I was working at a job I loved when I started to wonder whether I was a bit of a fraud. Digital strategy and client service was my forte. But when I was offered extra responsibilities that suddenly had me leading meetings with top affiliate weltumspannend marketers (while I had minimal experience in that field), I began to experience inadequacy. At times, I was certain I was about to be found out.When performance check-ins rolled around, Id wonder whether I was finally going to hear, Youre not going to make the cut. Yet every piece of feedback I received was positive.My aha moment came when I stumbled on an article about imposter syndrome - I swore I was reading about myself. Realizing that other successful people had experienced the same feelings was a great relief.Since then, Ive discovered others with imposter syndrome too many times to count. Just the other day, I was supervision a colleague when she started displaying a lot of the same symptoms low confidence and self-doubt, despite positive evaluations.When I told her about imposter syndrome, the same wave of relief washed over her.Simply put, its a psychological phenomenon shared by many high achievers who are convinced theyre inadequate and their achievements are merely luck.The phenomenon particularly affects Millennials . Studies have found that a third of todays twenty-somethings suffer from a severe lack of confidence in the workplace.People are also more likely to feel fraudulent when theyre already different from their colleagues. Women, people of color, and LGBTQ workers can be more at risk , according to the American Psychological Association (APA).Knowing how common this experience is should give us comfort, but we also need strategies for dealing with it and turning our desire to succeed into an advantage.Here are some tips Ive learned about dealing with imposter syndrome1. Recognize whats hap pening. Being able to identify what I was experiencing was huge - it put my feelings into perspective.Ask yourself, Why am I doubting myself? Try to identify why you have feelings of insufficiency. Even just recognizing your behaviors can help minimize them so you can reset and refocus with confidence.Are you a perfectionist? Do you rarely ask for help?According to the APA, those are both signsof the syndrome. Comparing yourself to others - their work, personality, or circumstances - is also often a telltale sign . Unfortunate as these traits may be, they can help you better identify whether you do have the fraudster phenomenon (and later, seek to change it).2. Remember Youre not alone. When Im feeling doubtful, I look to powerful women like Sheryl Sandberg and Jodie Foster who have also admitted to feeling like frauds.I thought it was a big fluke, said Foster about receiving her Academy Award for The Accused in 1988. I thought everybody would find out, and then theyd take the Os car back.Remembering that undeniably successful people share the same struggles can provide great perspective.3. Look at the data. Another great way to get perspective is data. Looking at the facts of our own achievements can ground our feelings, reassuring us about the objective impact weve made at work.Keep an eye on the key performance indicators tracked by your team. Collect the opinions of those you admire and trust. Use the facts as a reminder that you wouldnt be here if you were underperforming.4. Fake it till you make it. Projecting confidence leads others to have confidence in you. So while your selbst is feeling weak, just fake it for now . Communicate with confidence, practice eye contact, and smile at those around you. Gradually, you realize youre actually much more capable in a situation than you believed.5. Understand theres a journey ahead. Just recognizing youre struggling with imposter syndrome doesnt mean itll go away overnight. It takes time to actually overcome t hose feelings. Thats OK. Whats important is to establish coping and to continue tackling challenges with the mindset of, Ive overcome this before, and Ill do it again.6. Give others perspective about their achievements. Its important not just to use these strategies for ourselves, but for helping others who are suffering.When someone shows signs of self-doubt, ask, Why do you think youre struggling with confidence here? Does the evidence suggest youre not performing well? Help that person gain the same perspective youve discovered.Lets reframe imposter syndrome - not as a debilitating condition, but as a strength. Its correlated with great things, like being hungry for growth and high achievement. Experiencing feelings of fraudulence actually puts you in a pretty cool club. If you learn to recognize it for what it is, it can keep your ego in check and your eyes firmly set on the goals ahead.Sarah Johnson is Acceleration Partners vice president of client services. Sarah has served on APs leadership team for more than five years and is responsible for the success of its 60-member client services team and the happiness of our clients.

The strangest career advice that actually works, from 300 entrepreneurs

The strangest career advice that actually works, from 300 entrepreneursThe strangest career advice that actually works, from 300 entrepreneursThree years ago I starteda startup podcastbecause I thought founders were crazy. Why would a sane person willingly endure such intense risks? Part of my curiosity welches personal As a recent college grad just setting out to navigate the workforce, I wanted to understand how they coped withlevels ofuncertainty that felt to me, anyway, like a bag of bricks on my chest.More than300 interviews later, Ive learned that the most successful entrepreneurs real strengths arent necessarilytheirproduct visions or executional abilities. Those certainly matter, but their habits and mind-sets might carry even moraweight. And as Ive discoveredthrough all myconversations, those arent always what you might expect them to be. Here are four of their best, yet counterintuitive, bitsof advice.1. Specialize in more stuff than you think you have toWhen Packagd founde r and Kleiner Perkins partnerEric Fengseeks inspiration, he looks to tennis legend Roger Federer. The thing I love about Federer is that there is nothing he doesnt do well, Feng told me. He plays on all surfaces. He can serve, volley, hit a strong forehand and backhand. That observation has inspired Fengto develop skills outside his cut-and-dried job descriptionas a technical founder and the former CTO at Hulu and Flipboard.I dont want to have a weaknesssomething I have to avoid because I cant do it, he says. My day job at Flipboard was leading the engineering gruppe, but I think the biggest contribution I made was working as an account manager on our Samsung partnership, which he notes was a much more specialized undertaking.RelatedFive Habits Of The Most Creative EntrepreneursFounders are eventuallyadvised to stop wearing so many hats, to delegate so they can spend more time making strategic decisions. But Feng has never stopped immersing himself in new fieldsidentifying skill set s he lacks and devising clear plans to develop them. That may seem like a misuse of energy, but hes found ithas realhidden value.Its particularly important to be an all-court player in startups because you never know how your company will change or where the biggest opportunity will lie, Feng explains. Thats not just a temporary, early-stage thing, he believes, its a key part of the overall experience. If youre only specialized in one domain, you might miss it.So rather than sitting in on a design meeting, mock up a design and present it. If youre trying to make some strategic decisions about your companyscustomer support, respond to support emails for a month. The goal isnt toobservea skill. Its to practice it enough so, that if needed, you can perform it.2.Share what makes you tick, then have your team do the saatkornSince her founding days at Gilt, Fitz cofounder and former Glamsquad CEO Alexandra Wilkis Wilson has kept going back toone key exercise with her team Everyone complet es the statement, Heres what you need to know about me to influence me . . . Its a trick she learned from executive coach Barry Carden for creating an opportunity to share professional pet peeves with one another and say, Look, if we are going to work together this is what you need to know This is what I respect. This is what drives me nuts. This is what I will deliver, to you and what I expect you to deliver in return.A companys cultural values usuallydictate what successful communication looks like. But thoserarely get deep or personal enough to expose what employees actuallydislikeabout their work experiences or personal interactions. And as Wilkis Wilson sees it, addressing those head-on isthe greatest way to decrease friction. When youre working in a high-stress environment you have to be honest with each other, shesays. You cant make assumptions, because everyone is coming from a different place.Try this exercise with your team and start with your own statement. Urge everyone to be as honest and descriptive as possible. It may feel uncomfortable at first, but it might be a great way to promote trust andcollaboration faster.Related8 Entrepreneurs On The Magic Moment When They Knew Their Startup Had Made It3. Forget your competitionCompetition doesnt matter, Andy Rachleff, who cofounded both the fintechcompanyWealthfront and the VC firm Benchmark Capital, told me. The only way to win is to delight the customer. You cant better delight the customer by paying attention to your competition.Its human nature to think about competitors, so as a leader it can be hard to get your team to switch their focus. Butthe next time your competitioncomes up, Rachleff advises shiftingthe conversation toward a concrete action you can take to improve your product.Since Rachleffs return as CEO last November, Wealthfront has aimed to widenthe gap with itscompetitors by launching seven new features, with aneighth forthcoming, he explains, not to mentiona complete brand redesign. According to Rachleff, clients responded by depositing more money and referring friends to the service, leading Wealthfront to see about $12 million a day in new capital.As a leader, it is imperative that you help your followers understand that reacting to your competition wont get you to the leadership position. Youll only lose less quickly, Rachleff says. I love to joke that I come from the Ricky Bobby school of management If youre not first, youre last. You cant become first by doing a better job of what your competition does.4. Stop making things happenJennifer Rudolph Walsh is the head of the Worldwide Books Department at WME, where she represents authors like Oprah Winfrey and Sheryl Sandberg shes also the founder of an event series called Together Live. Youd never question her ability to get stuff done.I was so busy hustling, making thingshappenand making themrightin my 20s and 30s. Then, in my 40s, Rudolph Walsh says, I discovered this magical place of making things happen and thenlettingthem happen. Thats the secret space for me Trying a little easier. Listening a little more. Not rushing to get to the end of the story or control the outcome. Just living inside of it.This state of mind can feel unrealistic managing a team and hitting deadlines. It might strike some entrepreneurs as too passive or laid-back. But as Rudolph Walsh sees it, it isnt a mandate to leave things to chance. Its a conscious decision to make room for serendipity, revealing opportunities that are right in front of you buthidden by tunnel vision.Without this mind-set, she explains, its a lot harder to turn small ideas into meaningful outcomes. As a result of the work Ive done around this, Im as happy as Ive ever been, Rudolph Walsh explains. The level of peace I can have in the middle of a storm amazes me.Jenna Abdou is the host and producer ofBeyond the Headlineat33voices,a podcast where founders and investors share their stories and highlight the tactics they use to build indust ry-changing companies. Jenna also works closely with startups and venture capital firms to produce unique content series in plus-rechnen to writing about startups, consumer trends, and women in business.This post originally appeared on Fast Company.

Webinar Offers Insight Into the Federal RD Budget

Webinar Offers Insight Into the Federal RD Budget Webinar Offers Insight Into the Federal RD Budget Webinar Offers Insight Into the Federal R&D BudgetMatthew HourihanASMEs Government Relations department will present a free webinar, Fiscal Year 2016 Federal Research and Development (RD) Budget, on Wednesday, May 20 at 1200 p.m. Eastern Time. The hour-long webinar will provide participants with the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the FY16 RD Budget, the budget priorities for the administration and Congress, and insights into the impact of federal investments on engineering research. The webinar will be presented by Matthew Hourihan, director of the RD Budget and Policy Program for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Prior to joining AAAS, Hourihan served as a clean energy policy analyst at the Information Technology Innovation Foundation. There, he tracked federal energy RD investments and innovation activities, and authored several white pa pers and policy briefs exploring the role of innovation in solving the nations energy and climate challenges. He received a masters degree in public policy with a focus on science and technology policy from George Mason University, and a bachelors degree in journalism from Ithaca College. To register for the webinar, visit the ASME Public Policy Education Center at http//ppec.asme.org.