Imposter Syndrome Affects The Highest-Level Competitors In Sports And Business

Business leaders who feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities and are not sure they are up to the challenge may find some reassurance and inspiration in an unexpected place, the words of a 19-year-old. Suni Lee was the young gymnast who won the all-around gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in March 2021. She said afterward in an interview with ESPN that she had battled a lack of confidence.

“Like impostor syndrome,” she said in the interview. “That’s exactly what I have. And it’s very hard. It was very hard for me to motivate myself the first couple of weeks here because it was like I didn’t want to do gymnastics, I hated it.” High achievers with imposter syndrome don’t just have fleeting doubts about their competence or talent, they falsely believe they don’t deserve their position and will be found out as phony.

My book Beyond the Superhero: Executive Leadership for the Rest of Us addresses how impossible expectations affect senior business leaders, causing them to feel overwhelmed, underprepared, or anxious about failing. The antidote I proposed is humility, which allows us to feel that we don’t need to know everything, do everything, be everything, to be successful. We can just be our authentic selves. Taking this idea further, let’s examine a few ways business leaders can mitigate imposter syndrome in themselves or their team members.

• Focus on how you and your managers can make a difference. The process of building a dependable team to run a business requires having clarity of purpose and communicating it clearly. People sniff out any inauthenticity in mission statements and react negatively to muddled or unrealistic goals and expectations. Open and honest conversations about the capabilities, qualifications, and limits of all the team members, including yourself, help ensure the business is prepared to fulfill its purpose.
• Talk about failures in the context of exploring how we all learn from our mistakes. Dwelling on failures and lashing out at those who let you down create anxiety. Talking about our successes is fun and confidence-boosting, but ignoring failures is a lost opportunity. Leaders who show empathy for those who have made mistakes, and genuinely try to understand what happened, are more likely to have a supportive team when they slip up or feel overwhelmed and need help.
• Don’t ignore any signs that people are harboring doubts or experiencing lapses in self-confidence. People react in different ways to compliments and encouragement, from effusive thanks to the endearingly humble, “Just doing my job, boss.” Reacting with excessive denial is not humility. It is a red flag that should be explored further.
• Don’t assume imposter syndrome has a demographic profile, or that anyone is too established or too famous to succumb. Successful entrepreneurs are as susceptible as anyone to mental health challenges. Even someone who can do acrobatic handstands on a balance beam may be suffering with severe anxiety.