Imposter Syndrome Isn't What You Think It Is
Why your self-doubt isn't the problem, and what's really going on beneath it.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENTINCLUSIVE & CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP
Tracy Gandu
6/1/20266 min read
And positive thinking was never designed to fix it
She has the credentials.
The track record.
The respect of her peers.
She's delivered results in challenging environments. High-pressure environments where expectations are high, mistakes feel expensive, and competence often feels like something you need to keep proving rather than something you simply get to own.
By every external measure, she belongs exactly where she is.
And yet...
The meeting finishes, and someone asks:
"Can you send a little more detail around your thinking?"
Everyone else hears:
A reasonable question.
She hears:
I didn't explain that well enough.
They've spotted something I missed.
I should have prepared more.
Someone senior walks past her presentation and says:
"Interesting."
Nothing more.
And for the rest of the day:
Interesting good?
Interesting bad?
Did I completely miss the mark?
A colleague gets recognized publicly for work they both contributed to.
She smiles.
Congratulate them.
Then quietly thinks:
Of course.
They're better at this than I am.
I need to work harder.
The meeting invitation arrives with people she sees as more experienced than her.
Immediately:
I need to overprepare.
Don't say anything unless you're sure.
Don't get caught out.
And the exhausting thing is this:
Most of these thoughts happen so quickly that they barely register.
Because by now they don't feel like thoughts.
They feel like the truth.
I see this all the time with my clients, particularly women who have spent years carrying responsibility, delivering results, and quietly wondering whether everyone else received a rulebook they somehow missed.
Not because they aren't capable.
Quite the opposite.
Because many have spent years becoming exceptionally good at proving themselves in environments that quietly taught them they needed to.
We call it imposter syndrome.
And we've been given a fairly predictable set of solutions.
Build your confidence.
Focus on your achievements.
Repeat affirmations.
Think more positively.
Here's the thing.
That advice often doesn't work in the way people hope it will.
Not because the intention is wrong, but because it's trying to solve a deeper pattern at the surface level.
The Real Problem Isn't Confidence
This is where I think we keep getting it wrong.
Imposter syndrome isn't simply a confidence issue.
It's often a conditioning issue.
Because confidence lives at the surface.
Conditioning sits underneath it.
We've also been sold another idea along the way:
"Fake it till you make it."
And for a while, that can look like confidence.
You say the thing.
Take the meeting.
Push through the discomfort.
But if underneath it, you're still carrying old messages around worth, visibility, or needing to prove yourself, often what you're building isn't confidence.
Its performance.
You can journal.
Repeat affirmations.
List the evidence.
But if something deeper still believes:
"Don't get it wrong."
"Don't disappoint people."
"Don't get too big for your boots."
"Don't be too visible."
"You need to prove yourself first."
Those messages continue running quietly in the background.
Not because you're broken.
Because your nervous system learned something and decided it was important.
Research in neuroscience and behavioral science suggests that much of our emotional processing and automatic behavior happens outside conscious awareness. The often-cited "95%" figure popularized by Bruce Lipton isn't universally accepted within neuroscience, but it points toward an important idea:
Many of the patterns driving behavior operate below conscious awareness.
The issue isn't the leader.
The issue is the programming.
And unlike character, programming can change.
The Part Most People Miss
There is another layer here.
Identity.
I see leaders who have become exceptional at performing competence while feeling disconnected from themselves underneath it all.
The one who keeps collecting qualifications because one more might finally make them feel ready.
The one who over-prepares for every meeting because certainty feels safer than visibility.
The one who supports everyone else while quietly questioning their own value.
The one who has become indispensable to everyone except themselves.
My work with Soulprint Leadership also draws from Pip McKay's work on Archetypes, which combines ancient archetypal patterns with psychology, neuroscience, and modern coaching approaches to explore how identity shapes the way we see ourselves and move through the world.
One of the ideas I find particularly powerful, described in Pip McKay's work in Once Upon an Archetype, is that many of us spend years trying to improve behaviour without understanding the deeper patterns underneath it. The stories we absorb about who we should be, how much space we're allowed to take up, and what makes us worthy, capable or safe can quietly become woven into identity itself.
And when those stories become identity, they stop feeling like stories.
They start feeling like the truth.
Because when we lose connection to who we are underneath performance, we begin measuring ourselves almost entirely through external standards.
And external standards move.
There will always be another benchmark.
Another comparison.
Another reason to feel behind.
Real confidence doesn't come from endlessly proving yourself.
It comes from knowing yourself well enough that external validation stops carrying the full weight of who you are.
The Reframe
Imposter syndrome isn't evidence that you don't belong.
It's evidence that something that was never true about you may have been repeated long enough to feel true.
The most courageous thing someone can do isn't push through it.
It isn't any louder.
It isn't wait until confidence arrives.
It's become curious enough to go beneath it.
Because beneath the over-preparing...
Beneath the self-doubt...
Beneath the pressure to prove...
There was never someone broken waiting to be fixed.
There was always someone capable waiting to be reconnected to themselves.
And that work changes far more than confidence.
It changes how you lead.
How you speak.
How much space you allow yourself to take up.
How much energy you stop spending proving something that was never missing in the first place.
If you recognised yourself somewhere in these words, sit with that for a moment.
Not as evidence that something is wrong.
As evidence that there may be another conversation worth having underneath the one you've been carrying for years.
References
Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high-achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241–247.
Original DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1037/h0086006
Public-facing historical overview:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neuroscience-in-everyday-life/202308/the-history-of-imposter-syndrome
Bravata, D. M., Watts, S. A., Keefer, A. L., Madhusudhan, D. K., Taylor, K. T., Clark, D. M., Nelson, R. S., Cokley, K. O., & Hagg, H. K. (2020). Prevalence, predictors, and treatment of imposter syndrome: A systematic review.
Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35, 1252–1275.
Publisher version:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-019-05364-1
Open-access version:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7174434/
KPMG Women's Leadership Summit Report. (2020). KPMG study finds 75% of female executives across industries have experienced imposter syndrome in their careers.
Report PDF:
https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/sk/pdf/2020/2020-KPMG-Womens-Leadership-Summit-Report.pdf
Lipton, B. H. (Referenced context). Subconscious processing and behavioural programming.
Note: The commonly cited "95% subconscious processing" figure is widely referenced within personal development and behavioural science discussions, but should be interpreted cautiously as it is not considered a settled neuroscience consensus.
Peer-reviewed context:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6438088/
Additional source:
https://www.brucelipton.com/have-you-ever-heard-human-beings-we-usually-spend-best-only-5-our-time-our-conscious-mind-and/
McKay, P. Once Upon an Archetype.
Book reference:
https://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-Archetype-passion-identity/dp/0994446756
Additional publication information:
https://www.openpr.com/news/4231537/unlock-creativity-and-freedom-pip-mckay-s-newly-released-book
If this resonated and you're ready to build the kind of communication skills that make difficult conversations feel less like a minefield and more like a doorway — let's talk. Book your complimentary discovery session at tracyganducoach.com and let's explore what becomes possible.
With love, Tracy.
What We Know And What We Keep Missing
Imposter syndrome was first identified by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in 1978, originally through their work with high-achieving women who consistently attributed success to external factors rather than capability.
Since then, we've talked about it a lot.
We've also simplified it a lot.
Research suggests the experience is far more common than many people realise. A systematic review published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine identified prevalence rates as high as 82% across professional populations. The experience affects both men and women, with particularly high rates reported among ethnic minority groups. It is also frequently linked with anxiety, depression, burnout, and reduced job satisfaction.
Let that sink in for a moment.
We're not talking about a rare experience affecting people who are underprepared or lacking capability.
We're talking about accomplished people.
Leaders.
Experts.
People carrying significant responsibility.
KPMG research also found that 75% of female executives reported experiencing imposter syndrome at some point in their careers.
Which raises a different question.
If some of the most capable people in the room experience this, maybe confidence isn't the issue.
Maybe confidence was never the issue.
Because most conversations around imposter syndrome assume the problem is:
"I don't believe in myself enough."
But what if the question is actually:
"What have I learned to believe about myself... and where did that learning come from?"
That's a very different conversation.
Because now we're no longer talking about motivation.
We're talking about conditioning.
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