Imposter syndrome takes its shape in many forms and affects most of us in our early careers.

Ever stayed up late triple-checking every part of a report? Imposter syndrome.

Can’t make a decision without crowdsourcing support from your peers? Imposter syndrome.

Scared shitless before a performance review? You guessed it… Imposter syndrome.

With 88% of workers impacted, imposter syndrome is an endemic of the corporate world…but it doesn’t have to negatively impact your life.

Here are 4 tips to crush imposter syndrome and gain confidence as a young professional

Step 1: Change Your Language

Step 2: Track and Measure Successes

Step 3: Lean on Community

Step 4: Appreciate it

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Change Your Language

Listen closely to your next call with your boss or your bosses boss. Chances are they use very strong and definitive language.

Words like…

• I know

• It’s certain

• Definitely

• Proven

• I’m positive

On the other hand, younger employees are more likely to use what is called soft language.

Some examples of soft language include:

• Maybe

• Pretty

• I hope

• I guess

• I think

While these words probably make up less than 5% of your vocabulary, they can have a HUGE impact on how we are judged by others and, more importantly, how we feel about ourselves.

Take a moment, and say the following out loud:

I think the report was due at the end of the day.

I’m positive the report was due at the end of the day.

How do you feel after saying each sentence?

The first sentence leads to anxiety. The second is a certainty.

Limit your soft words and focus on hard words. Your confidence will thank you.

Track and Measure Successes

As young professionals, we are constantly craving attention, fulfillment, and approval from our colleagues.

We all want to do a good job at work and be told so.

As such, it’s easy to bounce from one win to the next without taking the time to think about the scale and scope of our accomplishments.

When we don’t slow down to savor the wins it can often feel as if there aren’t any wins at all.

To combat this, I recommend keeping an Internal Resume and updating it (at minimum) Quarterly.

Keep a running list of:

• Your professional accomplishments

• Things you’ve learned

• Projects you’ve tackled

• Teammates you’ve worked with

• Deliverables you’ve submitted

Doing so will not only remind you of your greatness but it will also make future resume-building a breeze.

Write down and revisit your wins often.

Lean on Community

Here’s a secret… EVERYONE, from interns to CEOs, feels imposter syndrome at some point.

Given that, we should make talking about it more commonplace.

Here’s an idea to get you started…

Gather a group of your coworkers together and ask yourselves the following questions:

• What am I constantly anxious about? How can the team reduce this anxiety?

• What is one thing that impresses us about our colleagues? Why?

• Where within our workflow can we add more room for feedback, praise, and rewards?

Imposter Syndrome won’t ever go away, but it can be mitigated through communication and conversation.

Appreciate it

We’ve now established that everyone feels imposter syndrome at some point, but let’s take a moment to acknowledge its root cause… challenge.

We feel imposter syndrome because we are challenged.

If everything were easy at work we wouldn’t feel imposter syndrome. We’d feel comfortable.

We’d also be bored, irritated, and unfulfilled.

So, next time you are feeling like an imposter pause and understand that that feeling comes from the challenges you face.

And guess what? Challenge leads to growth.

Turn the tables on imposter syndrome. Thank it, don’t hate it.

You will face imposter syndrome at some point in your career. How you handle it is up to you.

Until next time,

Ben

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