Five types of imposter: Which one are you?
Written by Marie Hannan-Meads from Professional Development Training Ltd.
1. The perfectionist
For Perfectionists it’s all about getting things right. Actually, it’s not just right, it’s absolutely perfect! In fact, nothing less than perfect is acceptable.
This isn’t just about trying your best to excel – that would be quite normal behaviour – this is about relentlessly aiming for unblemished performance 100 per cent of the time.
Over-preparing, setting unattainably high expectations of yourself and then trying to cope with the constant pressure to deliver amazing results every single time…no wonder that a perfectionist feels disappointed in themselves and overwhelmed by imposter feelings. Harsh inner criticism and feeling shame at your perceived failure haunts perfectionists - and all this even when, by most peoples’ standards, you’ve done brilliantly!
2. The natural genius
The Natural Genius imposter also set themselves impossibly high standards – but their thinking is that they should easily be able to get things right on first attempt. In fact, it’s not achieving things fast enough that leads to them feeling like imposters.
Natural genius thinking is that you should be good at all things straightaway and if you aren’t you’re a failure. If you’re a Natural Genius imposter, you probably struggle to learn from mistakes and may see difficulties and challenges as things you’re just simply unqualified for because you’re so convinced that you ought to be a natural at something on your first try.
3. The rugged individualist
This type of imposterism shows itself in a belief that you should be able to do everything on your own. No need for help or support from others – Rugged individualists see needing help as a failure that triggers imposter feelings.
If you’re a rugged individualist you probably value independence above everything else, which means it’s tough to delegate, feels shameful to ask for help because of a fear that asking might be seen as a sign of weakness – and have an unhealthy belief that achievement only counts if it is done solo so it proves your worth.
4. The expert
The expert convinces themselves that as long as they know all there is to know about a subject or situation, all will be well; that provided that they are truly competent or clever, everything will be fine. Experts put an unhealthy emphasis on needing to know it all to prove they are capable.
Consequently, experts feel that they can only have a go at something if they’ve learned absolutely everything about it beforehand.
They worry about being seen as less than utterly competent. Experts fear being exposed as not knowing their stuff, so tend to chase qualifications as proof of their competence to themselves, create huge self-pressure to acquire as much knowledge about a subject as possible – rather than accepting that it’s actually okay to learn as you go.
5. The superhuman
The Superhuman views competence as an ability to juggle absolutely everything including as many roles as possible – manager, colleague, partner, parent, friend, volunteer, student – and that failure to be able to successfully keep all the balls in the air at the same time is a sign of being an imposter.
Guilt is a common factor amongst Superhumans – guilt at not being able to achieve such (impossible) standards, guilt at not being able to ‘do it all’.
If you find it difficult to say no to things because you feel you should be able to manage everything at once, you may have fallen into the Superhuman trap of mistakenly overestimating how much is possible for mere mortals to achieve.
If any or all of these types feel familiar to you, coaching can help you get to grips with managing those imposter feelings more successfully.
Contact us for more details of our 121 coaching programmes and our public workshops in central Birmingham.
If you’d like an in-house workshop for your organisation or team, to explore Imposter Syndrome and how to handle it, please get in touch.