Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeCharmer
There is no actual syndrome. It describes a very common feeling, especially in high achieving people. The term was coined in an article, which I actually read all those years ago when I was a very young woman doing a difficult and highly responsible adult job. I still thought of myself as a kid and wondered how the hell I'd fooled the higher ups into putting me in charge.
Impostor Syndrome is a clever term that resonates. It's a great short-hand way to describe a feeling many people have at various times in their lives.
If up to 70% of people experience it, I'd call it a normal feeling of self-doubt, not a syndrome. In my case, that self-doubt was good because my job actually gave me a lot of power over other people and my doubts made me willing to question whether or not my actions were in the best interest of the people involved. Of course, they couldn't always be. But it was important to act fairly and with full disclosure. Self-doubt didn't harm me, it motivated me to make the best decisions I could. It kept my feet on the ground.
The question is whether or not you let normal self-doubt turn toxic, gnawing away at your self-worth. If the answer is yes, then maybe talking to a counselor about the self-doubt and gnawing would be a good idea.
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I have to throw in my 2 cents. Over the past 15 yrs I have been working in my current job and finally the opportunity presented itself to lead others as assistant supervisor and in a way it has taken me 9 months in the making as my current supervisor and boss kept pushing me to delegate (another way to say power over people). I have had self-doubts as well. I am an honest person and like to treat other with respect and dignity as a motto.
At first it felt strange be able to delegate, been able to tell someone "do this, do that", but it has been a month now and I feel more at ease. Cognitive I know I have to give a directive, correct someone, and or observe someone and do it all while not letting my words or presence affect the employee and this is where I fall sometimes into difficulties. I am told by higher up that I have to toughen up and at the same time my boss tries to tell me to use a lot of psychology.
Today I had to observe an employee and from the time before I was given my current position he was my co-worker, but from one day to the other I am above him. Something with work performance and I had to observe him. He got upset at me and made a statement to me in which I judged as improper and I had to reported to my supervisor and boss. He was taken into the office for almost 1 hour. After the emoter walked out of the bosse's office my boss approached me and told me simply that I had not done nothing wrong b/c he explained to the employee in question that that was my job and that all that I was doing came from the top-down (chain of
Command)
Well my boss try to give me examples of how to psychologically pass a point w/o Irving a person's feeling. By coincidence another employee happened to be passing by with improper dress code and right before my eyes my boss asked him "cool shirt, what doesn't it say in the back?", "I'm sure it goes with a collar shirt right?" And he told me "see I just made him realize he was improperly dress while pretending to tell him he had a cool shirt" I was like "WOW" that's the type of psychology I'm supposed to use as the employee I was observing felt offended by my presence during my observation of his performance.
Thx u for allowing me to share.