Leadership - Empowering Women In Tech

How To Overcome Imposter Syndrome To Boost Your Career Growth

Have you ever doubted your capabilities and thought someone else was smarter than you?

Have you ever wanted to share an idea with your team but bit your tongue and kept quiet?

Have you ever down played your achievements and said you were just ‘lucky’?

Have you ever walked into a room and turned on your heels because you felt less than?

If you said yes to any of the above questions, please know that you are not alone. It is common for women to doubt their capabilities, skills and strengths. They fear being found out or called ‘a fraud’ even if they are highly educated and have many accomplishments behind them.  

Many women, more than men, suffer from a condition called imposter syndrome. This is a deep seated subconscious belief, but not an official diagnosis, that they don’t deserve to be successful in life or that they are not as intelligent as they think they are.

At some point in our lives, data shows that at least 70 percent of us will experience imposter syndrome—that nagging feeling that we are not good enough despite clear evidence to the contrary. - psychologytoday - https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/evidence-based-living/202408/the-gender-divide-in-imposter-syndrome 

Imposter syndrome makes us feel that ‘we're not good enough’ and so we dim our light, play safe and keep our opinions to ourselves for fear of being judged or rejected. Societal beliefs about women have also contributed to the way we show up and for many of us, we do not reach our full potential. 

For many years, the tech industry has been dominated by men and for women it may feel daunting to build a career in this industry. Breaking barriers and beliefs about women is one way to close the gender equality and digital gap. A lot of work in this field has been done by agencies such as UN Women but it is just as important for women to look internally and break down their own mental blocks, beliefs and barriers.

What can we do to help women become strong tech leaders and lead with confidence and courage?

To help you achieve this, we’ve listed below six points on how to overcome imposter syndrome:

Step one: Identify your core self-limiting belief

Our self-limiting beliefs are often rooted in our childhood experiences and societal influences which leads to doubting one's abilities and skills. An example of a core self-limiting belief is ‘I am not good enough to be a leader in a male dominated industry.’

Step two: Create new and positive beliefs about your leadership abilities.

Reframing your self-limiting beliefs into positive ones will help you scale faster in your career. For example - if you currently believe that ‘you are not good enough’ to work in a male saturated environment you can flip this into a positive belief. An example is ‘I have the necessary skills and expertise to help me grow in my role and become a great leader for other women.’

Step three:  Practice self-compassion to counteract your inner critic.

Without even realising it, our inner critic, that’s your inner voice and possibly another person close to us, lives rent free in our head and controls our thoughts and actions! It is important to acknowledge and listen to what our inner voice is saying as well as practice being kind and compassionate towards ourselves. The more we lean on our inner sage and intuition, the more we will be grow in confidence and self-belief of our abilities.

Step four: Recognize past successes to build credibility.

This process involves seeking evidence of one's successes. Imagine going to Court and being asked by the Judge to list your successes. He/she will ask for evidence and you can provide him/her with a list of your past achievements, big or small, to showcase your credibility and authority as a leader.

Step five: Build a support system

No man or woman is an island! We can only go so far on our own. A popular African proverb is says - If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.  This means that building a network of women who have achieved your goal or are working towards it will help you grow faster in your career. You can connect with your peers within your organization or attend relevant networking events where you will receive valuable support and guidance.

Step six: Take action every day to foster growth as a leader,

The proof is in the pudding is another common phrase to track progress and measure our results. By taking action every day, as we work towards becoming a great leader and one who has unshakeable confidence, will help us reach our goals whilst staying motivated as well. We will recognize our negative self-talk and change them into positive words.

An example is when we say to ourselves ‘I can’t work out this programming code’, you can change it and create a curious mindset. Instead you can say ‘What do I need to learn to help me work out this code?’.

Embedding these six steps into your daily life will help you shift your perspective on how you see yourself. It will help you unlock your full potential and develop a success mindset to create meaningful changes in your personal and professional life. Your expertise, skills and talents will help you become an effective leader, build inclusive and high performing teams and contribute to the organization’s objectives.

Founder and Director of Global Mindset Solutions, Nazlee Mayhew is also a Business and Mindset Coach. She partners with emerging and mid-senior level leaders to help them define their leadership style, identify their strengths and leverage the power of soft skills. She also help them reframe their self-limiting beliefs, overcome imposter syndrome and fear of failure or success.

Leveraging solution and future focused coaching methodologies, NLP techniques, growth strategies, role playing exercises and tools help women become visible champions who will close the gender equality and digital gap.

Nazlee offers one-to-one coaching, group coaching and business consulting, and organises networking events for individuals and organisations. Nazlee is a certified Life Coach with The Academy of Modern Psychology (2019). She is also a Certified Business and Mindset, NLP Practioner, Money Mindset Coach and Self-Love Coach with the Clique Academy, United Kingdom.

If you’re interested to learn more about our women in leadership coaching programs, book a free 30 minute business strategy call here. Walk away with a simple strategy on how to boost your leadership strengths and skills to become an effective leader.

Contact me via: nazmayhew1@gmail.com or www.instagram.com/iamcoachnazlee

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