Hello, I'm Dashiani Navanayagam, and welcome to the conversation, the program that brings together two women from around the world and allows them to share their personal stories and experiences with each other and us.
First, a what do Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, Tom Hanks, and possibly you all have in common?
Well, they've all reported experiencing imposter syndrome, a behavioral phenomenon where a person doubts their capabilities or believes their accomplishments are down to external factors.
This isnt a new theory.
In fact, the term has been around for more than 40 years, and today the concept is ubiquitous across self help books, social media, and career development programs.
In fact, one of the most recent studies, which analyzed 750 high performing executive women, found 75% of them experienced imposter syndrome at some stage in their careers.
But why are women seemingly more affected by this than men?
And can its occurrence reflect deeper issues around places of work and society?
Well, I'm joined by Teen Zikas, an author and career coach in the US, who last year wrote the book Overcoming Imposter syndrome at the Black Woman's guide to conquer perfectionism.
Stop overthinking and thrive in your career.
And Hera Ali, a pakistani author, career coach, and mentor who is now based in the UK and whose article on imposter syndrome in 2017 for the Huffington Post went viral.
Teen and Hera, welcome to the conversation.
Hello.
Thank you so much for having us.
Thank you so much.
When we talk about imposter syndrome, it can sound like we're simply talking about this rather nebulous feeling of general self doubt and anxiety that a lot of people will have experienced at some point during their life.
So, Tina, can you define exactly how imposter syndrome is different to that?
Imposter syndrome is a consistent thought pattern where we're diminishing our own accomplishments, we are attributing our successes to luck.
This is then often paired with a fear of being discovered as a fraud, or not as capable as we appear to be.
All of us experience self doubt at some point, but imposter syndrome is that elevated sense of I'm not living up to what people are expecting or what I'm doing needs to be perfect, or else everyone will know that I shouldn't be here.