Feeling like an imposter is not the same as imposter syndrome

Does this make sense to you?

Last week’s Intuition Insight was about feeling like an imposter. Feeling like an imposter does not follow that you feel imposter syndrome.

So, did you feel like an imposter at any time in the past week? If so, can you remember the circumstances, situation, place and people you were around? What made you feel like an imposter?

Many times during my life, especially in my corporate career, I felt like an imposter in the room. Often, I would be the only woman on the leadership team or in the room and I certainly felt like an imposter. But I never felt I had imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome is a term used to describe and explain the feelings of being in a situation, usually with other people, where you question your worthiness, you question your ability and you feel you are not deserving to be there.

Although I may have felt like an imposter in my career, I never felt that I was not worthy of being there.

Being an imposter, for me, was about being in a room with people who were not like me (mostly men), people who had very different values to me, who would be happy to talk over me and claim my ideas as theirs. That did not make me feel less worthy, it made me feel like I was ready to claim my ideas, ensure my values were noted and to ensure people let me finish speaking.

When I worked overseas, I also felt like an imposter as the only British person in the room, but I did not feel like an imposter in a bad way, which is how we can have come to understand imposter.

So the next time you feel like an imposter in the room, embrace it. Because it means you are probably not like the other people in the room - and that is a good thing! And please remember, feeling like an imposter does not mean that imposter syndrome automatically follows.

And if you want to find out what the guidance is for this week’s Intuition Insight, you can find out here.  

PS The link to the Intuition Insight is only available once it has been published, if you cannot see it then you can subscribe to the You Tube Channel here to get notifications.