5 Ways My Leaders Helped Me Overcome Imposter Syndrome
Overcoming imposter syndrome is something of a buzzword or hot topic right now. Call it whatever you want: call it feeling like you belong, call it people who are part of a minority in tech staying in tech and not leaving the industry.
Reflecting on my transition from being a newly hired developer with no CS degree to 1.5 years later having multiple challenging projects under my belt, I realized there are several specific things my leaders did that critically shaped my experience. As others have noted, often what we call imposter syndrome can be made worse or even be caused by a negative culture. On the flip side, then, it can also be remedied by a positive culture. Here are five cultural aspects leaders at my company provided that made the most difference in helping me overcome imposter syndrome.
Highly available support, especially at the beginning.
Just like our infrastructure, support should be highly available. A developer’s ability to ask effective questions matures as they mature. There were times in the first few months where I essentially pointed at the screen and stuttered “why?” because I didn’t even have the vocabulary to describe what I was seeing. The developers who trained me at my company are the definition of what you would want: people who model great communication and great problem-solving strategies.
Stretch projects appropriate to people’s abilities, paired with believing in them by default.
There’s something special about a leader who knows you and automatically assumes you’re capable of learning and executing on something you’ve never done before. Just because you’ve never done something before does not mean it cannot be learned. When you first start out, this is an incredibly daunting idea. If you are lucky enough to have a supportive environment plus a high resilience toward failures along the way, you will grow. Then you get to look back on hard things you did, which is extremely encouraging and validating.
Leaders and team members admitting when they don’t know things.
There are few things more immediately empowering than hearing a leader say they don’t know something. A little voice in your head says ‘aha!’ That means I can do this too! At my company, we have a culture that highly values humility, and we don't hire anyone who thinks they know everything. This makes a huge difference and helps create an environment that is oriented around continual growth for everyone.
Public praise.
I’m going to tell you a secret. One of the main fears behind imposter syndrome is the fear that other people don’t think you belong here. When people who have power publicly call out their team members who have done great things, this is helpful because it creates a positive culture and validates the decision to hire and keep that person. The opposite of this is being on a team where people try to steal credit for someone else’s work. Luckily that never happens at my company, but I think it’s important to consider what the opposite of celebrating your teammates looks like because it certainly happens in toxic cultures, especially to people who are part of a minority.
Representation in leadership.
To quote one of my favorite podcasters and authors, Jo Saxton, ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’. People need to see leaders who are similar to them, ideally at their company, but if not, then within the broader community. Women Who Code is #1 on my list of tech organizations that are truly advancing the cause of inclusion and empowerment. Let me know in the comments if you have other favorite groups to recommend.
Final Thoughts
If you lead other humans, you may want to consider whether they have a strong enough balance of both support and stretch projects to grow and whether humility, celebrating your teammates and representation in leadership are standard parts of your culture.
If you are considering a new position, especially in something unfamiliar or challenging, you may want to look at these aspects as signs of what life will really be like at a company.
Most importantly to those of us who are in it, it’s important to remember that overcoming imposter syndrome is not a single event but rather a gradual process of trusting yourself more and more in different contexts. That is why my favorite tip is to write down your accomplishments, big or small, and look back at this list whenever you need encouragement.
