Q&A: Alison Shamir – “It is never too late to get rid of imposter syndrome and free yourself from it.”

In short:

• Alison Shamir is an international expert on imposter syndrome and the author of Conquer Your Imposter, which provides strategies for leaders and executives who are battling feelings of inadequacy, despite evidence of success.
• She points to research indicating that about 70% of people experience imposter syndrome.
• Shamir notes that a lack of confidence is often seen as the cause behind imposter syndrome, but she says this is not the case - the biggest issue is around people’s identity and self-worth.

Alison, most people are probably familiar with the term ‘imposter syndrome’, but tell me what it means from your point of view, and how prevalent is it?

The imposter syndrome definition is probably the biggest piece of misinformation that circulates on the internet. So, it is a great place to start our conversation. Imposter syndrome was coined ‘imposter phenomenon’ in the late 1970s, and what it actually refers to is when you are talented, qualified, competent, intelligent and have the runs on the board, you have the evidence of your success, you belong in the rooms that you are in, but you do not believe it. You ignore that evidence of competence and success and instead you harbour a belief that you are some kind of intellectual fake, phony or fraud. It is a sense of intellectual fraudulence or phoniness, despite evidence of competence and success. Although it is very prevalent – the syndrome impacts about 70% of individuals – very few of us speak about the experience, so it can feel very lonely and very isolating. That is a big part of the work that I do around the world, and in particular across legal and professional services to lift the lid on this topic.

Clearly, lawyers are not immune to this syndrome, right?

Imposter syndrome is very prevalent across the legal sector at all levels and I can explain the rationale behind that. But it is also very prevalent in some other industries – such as banking and finance, health, medical, academia and across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. What do these industries have in common? They have high-performing, high-achieving individuals who need to develop a clear line of competence and success. But again, when imposter syndrome sneaks in, we stop internalising that evidence and instead we think we are not smart enough, we are not good enough, we are not worthy enough to be in the room, and that it is only a matter of time before somebody taps us on the shoulder and figures it out that we should not be doing this role. In the legal sector we see a lot of people think, ‘I just lucked myself into this position.’

In terms of addressing imposter syndrome, are there any special stumbling blocks or any misconceptions around it?

Yes, imposter syndrome is often packaged as a ‘confidence’ issue – just go away, grow your confidence, become more competent and imposter syndrome will fizzle away. But it is not just a confidence issue because it impacts highly competent, qualified, intelligent individuals who have the evidence of competence and success. Now, it is impossible to get to key heights of success without some level or some strength of confidence. Does it ebb and flow? Yes. But does there need to be a strong element of it? Yes. So that is the biggest misconception, the biggest myth. Imposter syndrome is actually tied to identity and self-worth, and then confidence. Confidence is secondary, it is not primary. I do not want people thinking, ‘Gosh, I just need to go up another notch in my legal career. I just have to go and get sponsored or endorsed by that person. I have to spend another X number of years studying, or working in this particular niche of law.’ We cannot outrun imposter syndrome by gaining more competence because the fact is that we have the competence and we are ignoring it. And if we do not get to the crux of why we are questioning ourselves, then we will not be able to overcome it. The key is to focus on why we are questioning our self-worth and identity. Why do we question our belonging in the room? What has happened to us in the past? What stories are playing out in our heads that are making us talk ourselves out of a room that we have worked exceptionally hard to get into?

If you are a boss in a law firm, or a senior partner, what are some of the signs you may see of somebody who is experiencing imposter syndrome? And, importantly, what sort of impact can it have on those employees?

There are many signs, depending on the person, their personality and how they approach their work. It is important to note that there are two sides of the imposter coin. The first is the individual side. You, the person, you are questioning your worth, you are experiencing this psychological fear, this imposter syndrome, and we need to identify why. But the second part is the environmental, the systemic, the cultural factors that play a part. So, why am I sharing that? Because everyone is different. There is not a one-size-fits-all scenario. But some key hallmarks of individuals with imposter syndrome, when they are speaking about themselves, about their own success and their own position, tend to talk themselves down. There is a lot of self-deprecating talk: ‘I am never going to be able to do that.’ … ‘Who am I to be in this room?’ … ‘Why would that person want to support or advocate for me?’ …’I have no value in driving this particular case or case load.’ So, the self-talk becomes very personal and very self-deprecating, and eventually they start to do that out loud. They do it in front of peers. They do it in front of more senior lawyers. If you look out for it, you will notice it in some individuals. Some people will withdraw and get very, very quiet, lose their voice, and lose their ability to take charge on a particular case. In legal, one of the other signs of imposter syndrome is people chronically overworking. It gets to the point where lawyers are not sleeping because they are fixating on the fact that they need to deliver a ‘flawless’ performance, which is what the imposter syndrome is telling them. But ‘flawless’ is an impossible means to capture because it just does not exist. They drive themselves into this self-sabotaging zone where they become fixated on trying to be perfect, trying to be flawless, they lose sleep, and they are just driving themselves into the ground. That becomes very obvious and leads to burnout. Legal professionals are very good at hiding imposter syndrome. How do we get around that? We look for some of those signs that I have mentioned, but we also foster a culture where there is space for mistakes, for failures, for things that we miss, for the ability to learn, grow and adapt. We also need to provide psychological safety for lawyers to be able to have close bonds with people with whom they feel comfortable speaking about these things.

How can law firm leaders embolden staff to help them try to get out of this difficult scenario? Is a structural change required, or is cultural change required?

Let us start with the latter part of the question. Cultural changes or structural changes are only needed if those elements are causing a problem. So, if you have individuals who are blocking people, who are evoking psychological fears, or if there is mistreatment, or if there is bullying, well, of course, those things always need to be addressed. They can play a huge part in exacerbating imposter syndrome. So, for example, with imposter syndrome your dialogue to yourself is, ‘I don’t belong here.’ And if you are already feeling that and somebody physically walks into that room and tells you to your face that they do not believe that you belong there, that will exacerbate imposter syndrome. Do we need to change those environments? Well, of course. The other part of your question, which is important, is that we need to provide psychological safety for lawyers. We need a space for anyone who is in the legal profession to be able to speak up if they are having a moment of imposter syndrome, if they are having a moment of self-doubt, if they believe they have made a mistake and they are trying to overcome that, if they have lost a case. They need safe spaces and safe rooms to address that. I have worked a lot with legal clients across Australia who are providing psychological safety outlets, who are providing cultures where staff know that they can speak up about challenging things, whether it is to one person, whether it is to a group, whether it is to a leader. They know that they can do that in a safe way. That is very important with high-pressure professions like law, like medicine.

Alison, your book outlines a three-step strategy to beat imposter syndrome. At the risk of trying to summarise the book in a few minutes, can you touch upon those steps?

I have a three-pillar model, and it is made up of ‘identify’, ‘intercept’ and ‘redirect’. So, we need to identify some key components, and we need to intercept them, which means we are making conscious choices to stop and pay attention, to question them. Then the third pillar is to redirect, whereby we are changing behaviours. The key things we need to identify with imposter syndrome are two aspects of a person’s story. We all have an imposter origin story, and we all have a current story we tell ourselves. The origin story is something from your past that has planted a seed that has made you question who you are. Fast forward to the present day and you are still telling yourself a version of that story. ‘I do not belong in this room because of X.’ Or ‘People like me do not do this type of role.’ That story is coming from somewhere and we need to understand the origin story, and we need to understand the current story, and we need to change them. This might seem like a really simple step, but it is actually the key step to overcoming imposter syndrome, and it is also the step that a lot of people shy away from because it is a deeply personal and self-reflective question. We actually have to hold the mirror up to ourselves and say what has happened in the past, why it has implanted this belief and negative story of ‘I'm not enough, I don't belong here?’ We have to get to the crux of that. If you think about a line of dominoes, the story is the first domino. If we flick that, we are going to have this nice synergy of every domino dropping after that with a little bit of work, but it is going to be a much swifter process. What we typically see with imposter syndrome is people are like, ‘I do not want to look into the story. I just want to get to changing the behaviours.’ And I say, ‘We will get there. We will absolutely address that self-sabotage.’ But we need to identify that origin story first and then we can unpack and change that story. If you do not unpack it, the story will simply follow you to the next role, to the next year of tenure, to the next title.

How does somebody know when they have actually beaten imposter syndrome? Is it immediately obvious?

You will know when you have beaten it. Sometimes it is immediately obvious and other times people are taking steps and they are like, ‘Okay, this feels better. I'm not doing the self-sabotaging behaviour anymore.’ But ultimately it comes down to the fact that they know they are telling themselves a different story because they are now able to internalise and take ownership of their success. The conversation going on in your head to yourself about yourself is very different. We are taking ownership of success, we are being able to critique, not criticise, we are being able to say, ‘Yes, I have done that. I am proud of myself. I can move on to the next thing.’ We stop talking ourselves out of positions or rooms and we start taking ownership of being in them or taking ownership of competence. That is how you know. Do you have a few moments of doubt every now and then? Of course. We all experience self-doubt. We all have psychological fears at times. But only 70% of us experience imposter syndrome.

Are there any other last messages that you wanted to get across on imposter syndrome?

I just want you all to know that imposter syndrome is a very real thing. The study of imposter syndrome is approaching 50 years. If you are experiencing it, if you are resonating with anything I am saying, you are not alone. It is a very real thing. It is not in your head, but you do not want to carry it throughout your legal career. Even if you are 20 years into your career, it is never too late to get rid of imposter syndrome and free yourself from it. So, I encourage you to keep speaking about this topic and other fears and doubts within your firms. If you are a leader, speak about your own fears, values, mistakes and journeys in your legal career. Create spaces where people feel safe to speak about challenges within your own profession and that will help people feel less alone. Like any topic, the more we can talk about it properly with evidence-based information, the less fearful it looks because it becomes a very practical thing that we can apply key steps to and overcome. You just need to know what the steps are.

This article is an edited version of a podcast. Listen to the full interview here.