Jessy's Newsletter

Quote of the month 💡📌

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leadership Spotlight ✨✨

Did you know that studies have found more than 70% of leaders have at one point in their career experienced impostor syndrome?  That is C-level leaders I’m talking about, not the rookies who’ve just stepped into a leadership role.

That number hit me.

Why?

Ok let’s look into what impostor syndrome actually is.  There’s a lot of opinions out there.  For the sake of this article, I’ll refer to the mother of all sources from back in the day where there was no such thing as The Internet: The Oxford dictionary.

“The persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's own efforts or skills; cf. earlier impostor phenomenon n.”

I’ll throw in the one from Cambridge for good measure and to ensure I’m not offending anyone:

“The feeling that your achievements are not real or that you do not deserve praise or success”

Back to the +70% of C level leaders who have, at one point or another, felt like they did not deserve their success, their achievements were not real and their results were not the result of their own efforts or skills.

At the same time, I highlighted how crucial strong leadership is today – more than possibly ever before.

Strong leadership hinges on confidence. 

Yet more than 70% of leaders have at some point in their career felt like their achievements were not their own.  They felt like at any point, the other shoe was going to drop.

That is worrying.  To put it mildly.

I am not writing here about the source of impostor syndrome. 

My only intention is to help any leader who has ever felt this way, overcome this.  I do not have the audacity to think that simply reading an article from me would be the be all and end all of impostor syndrome (that would likely be referred to as hybris).

A few tips that I have seen working for my clients however, might be able to show the path as to how to overcome this:

· Stick to the facts

· Stop hiding and speak up

· Log positive feedback & achievements

· Speak to yourself like you would to a friend

· Remember: you are not the only one feeling like this

Let’s expand these a bit further with some actions you can take today and start leaving your inner impostor behind!

· Stick to the facts

Write down ALL the results you have achieved with your team for the organisation you work in in the past 12 months.  Get specific.  Dig out the numbers.  Find that OKR or KPI or however-your-organisation-tracks-performance-sheet out.

Now add all the non-numerical extra things you have achieved: new hires, events organised, new clients landed, projects concluded, awards won, crises averted, …

Save this document somewhere easily accessible so you can stick to the facts whenever the evil impostor monster shows its teeth.

· Stop hiding and speak up

A first reaction for people experiencing this, is to hide in a corner.  Avoiding projects, avoiding assignments, avoiding anything that could put them on the map.  I get it.  This is a scary feeling and a dark place to be. 

The only way to get out of this hole, is to start showing up again.  That means speaking up.  I’m not saying you should get on a stage addressing an audience of 1000 tomorrow. 

I am saying you should try and speak up in the next meeting you’re attending.  It could be as simple as saying hello.  Or answering a question.  A leader whom I admire a lot once told me they had a rule for themselves, where they HAD to have said something within the first 3 minutes of the meeting starting.  To make sure they were part of the conversation.  You can give yourself 5 for the first meeting tomorrow.

· Log positive feedback & achievements

Most of us doing a job well, occasionally get compliments.  A ‘well done’ is a compliment.  A ‘thank you for getting back to me so fast’ is a compliment.

Find the emails or messages with these compliments and log them somewhere.  Preferably close to the sheet with all the facts you already started.

By no means am I suggesting you should turn into Narcissus and admire the beauty of your own image by means of reading all the compliments you received in Netflix binge mode.  Rereading these compliments at times where you’re struggling, especially just before an important presentation or meeting, can however make all the difference.

· Speak to yourself like you would to a friend

‘I’m such an idiot.’  ‘That was terrible!’  ‘I know I’m not good at this.’  ‘It’s probably a stupid idea…’. ‘I should have done…’

Anyone who would speak to you like that on a daily basis would surely not be your friend for a very long time.  You have to spend every day of your life in your own company, yet you tolerate speaking to yourself like this.

Why?

Start speaking to yourself with kindness.  ‘I know I’m not good at this YET’.  ‘That could have gone better – we did however land the project.’  ‘Next time I’ll do xyz.’

Small step, big impact.  Try it.

· Remember: you are not the only one feeling like this

More than 70% of leaders struggle with impostor syndrome at one point during their career.  You are therefore definitely not alone and in very good company.

Allow yourself to feel what you feel.  Breathe.  Think about the fact that a few other people in the room are probably feeling the same way.  Smile.  Lower your shoulders.  Get back at it.

You’ve got this

Resource of the month 📊🔎

A short overview of media I’ve been engaging with this month

• Book 📚️ Malcolm Gladwell’s The Revenge of the Tipping Point

• Music 🎵 The Four Seasons Recomposed: Spring by Eldbjørg Hemsing

• Movie 🎥 I’m Tim - Avicii

• Podcast 📻️ The secret to success isn’t power - it’s status with Alison Fragale by Adam Grant in his podcast Worklife

• Software 👩‍💻 Beehiiv and its many functionalities