Sound familiar? Perhaps you do not know the term “impostor syndrome.” Or perhaps you are hearing it for the first time and wondering what fraud has to do with your job.
That is exactly why it is worth talking about.
Because this is not about deceiving anyone. It is about difficulty acknowledging your own competence, even when there is concrete evidence that you have it.
And about a question that I find especially important here:
What makes it easier for others to believe in your abilities than for you to believe in them?
What exactly is impostor syndrome?
Impostor syndrome, also known as the impostor phenomenon, describes an experience in which a person struggles to see their achievements as the result of their own skills, effort and decisions.
You can have strong results, the right qualifications and positive feedback from those around you, and still believe you ended up where you are by chance.
- A promotion? A lucky coincidence.
- A successful project? Thanks to a great team.
- Praise from your manager? Maybe they just do not know all the details.
A mistake, on the other hand, becomes proof of something much bigger: “I knew I was not cut out for this.”
What does modern research say?
The phenomenon was first described in 1978 by psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes, who studied the experiences of women succeeding professionally and academically.[5]
But our knowledge has not stopped at those observations.
In 2024, the Journal of Organizational Behavior published a systematic review of 188 scholarly works from 1978–2023 (articles and doctoral dissertations) on the impostor phenomenon in the workplace. The authors pointed out how imprecise the concept itself is: over the years, researchers have understood it in different ways. They proposed taking into account both a trait-based and a situational view, because experiences of doubting one’s own competence may depend not only on the person but also on specific professional circumstances.[2]
An even more interesting perspective came from a scholarly review published in 2025 in Academy of Management Annals by Basima Tewfik, Jeremy Yip and Sean Martin.
The researchers propose paying more attention not to the feeling of insecurity itself, but to the thought that may stand behind it:
“Others rate my competence higher than I rate it myself.”
They also stress that such thoughts need not be a permanent part of one’s personality, and that their consequences are not always clearly negative.[1]
This is an important distinction.
You can feel confident as an experienced specialist and start doubting your competence after taking a management position.
You can run projects with ease in a familiar environment and still feel unsure in a new organization.
Uncertainty that appears in a particular situation does not have to define who you are or what kind of professional you are.
It is also worth remembering that impostor syndrome is not a separate clinical diagnosis. It is a term for a certain kind of experience and way of perceiving your own achievements — not a diagnosis you can give yourself after reading an article.
How to recognize this way of thinking
Imagine two people who have just finished a demanding project.
Both made a few mistakes. Both had to learn something new. Both received a positive assessment of the results.
“Not everything went perfectly, but I handled it. I also know what I can improve next time.”
“It worked out, but I was lucky. Next time it may not be enough.”
The event is similar. The interpretation differs.
Experiences related to impostor syndrome may be signaled by recurring ways of thinking and reacting, such as:
- Downplaying achievements. Instead of seeing your own contribution, you attribute success to chance, favorable circumstances or other people.
- Believing you must know everything. Every gap in knowledge feels like proof of incompetence.
- Difficulty accepting praise. When someone appreciates your work, you immediately find an argument for why they rate it too highly.
- Fear of revealing what you do not know. You would rather spend many extra hours solving a problem alone than ask a question.
- Setting ever higher demands on yourself. When you reach one goal, instead of acknowledging the success you move the bar higher.
Sometimes this leads to over-preparing, putting off decisions or avoiding new challenges.
But it does not look the same for everyone.
What is more, modern research encourages caution in attributing all these behaviors to a single cause. The mere co-occurrence of insecurity, perfectionism or lower job satisfaction does not automatically mean that one phenomenon causes the other.[1, 2]
So instead of looking for yet another label for yourself, I suggest looking at specific situations.
When do you start doubting your competence? What do you think then? And how do those thoughts affect your decisions?
Why don’t more successes always solve the problem?
This is one of the most paradoxical aspects of the phenomenon.
You would think that achieving something important should finally give you confidence in your competence.
- Passing an exam.
- Getting promoted.
- Leading a big project.
- Becoming a team leader.
And yet each new achievement sometimes brings not peace but a new worry.
“Now that I have even more responsibility, it will be that much easier to see what I can’t do.”
A closed loop can form.
First comes a challenge. Then the fear that you will not cope. In response, you work even harder, check every detail and try to eliminate the risk of error.
You achieve a good result.
But instead of taking it as confirmation of your abilities, you think:
“It only worked out because I prepared so hard.”
At the next challenge, the whole mechanism may start again.
The problem is not always a lack of success. Sometimes the problem is the way we allow ourselves to interpret it.
That does not mean hard work or thorough preparation is wrong.
It is only worth checking what drives us.
Do I prepare carefully because I want to do the task well?
Or because I treat every possible mistake as a threat to my professional worth?
From the outside, these behaviors can look identical. Their meaning for the person doing them can be completely different.
Impostor syndrome at work — three situations where it is especially easy to doubt yourself
The situations below are examples illustrating possible professional experiences, not descriptions of specific coaching sessions.
1. A promotion that was meant to bring joy and started to cause stress
For several years you do your job well. You know the processes, people come to you with questions, your manager appreciates the results.
Finally, you receive a promotion offer.
From the outside, everything looks logical. You have the experience and achievements that justify such a decision.
But questions appear in your head:
- “Can I really manage other people?”
- “What if it turns out I was a good specialist but am not cut out to be a manager?”
- “Won’t everyone quickly notice that I don’t know what I’m doing?”
In such situations I suggest separating two matters.
The first: do you have competences on which you can build the new role?
The second: what do you actually still need to learn?
These are not the same question.
Nobody becomes an experienced manager on the day of the promotion. New responsibility means new skills to develop.
A lack of experience in a particular area does not have to contradict the competences that got you to this point.
If you are in this situation right now, also read my article “A promotion, yet doubts”. See also a sample conversation about a promotion decision — the same situation handled in two different ways.
2. A new job and the belief that everyone knows more
The first weeks at a new company can be demanding.
A new team. Unfamiliar processes. A different way of communicating. Shorthand you do not understand yet. Meetings where others use company terminology with ease.
You may have many years of experience and still feel like a beginner.
It is easy then to confuse two things:
- not knowing a specific environment,
- lacking professional competence.
Yet even a very experienced person needs time to get to know a new organization.
Instead of asking “Why don’t I know this yet?”, try:
“What should I really already be able to do in this situation, and what do I have the right to still be learning?”
This question helps separate realistic expectations from those we impose on ourselves.
3. Managing a team and the pressure to always have an answer
In a leadership role, it is easy to believe that confidence means infallibility.
That you must be able to answer every question, know the solution to every problem and never show doubt.
But is that really what a team needs?
Or does it need someone who can make decisions, listen, draw on other people’s knowledge and admit that some matters need checking?
Ask yourself:
Do you expect your own manager to know absolutely everything?
If not, why do you set that condition for yourself?
It is also worth looking at how you build your leadership role. I write more about it in the article “How to manage a team as a new leader”.
And what if the problem isn’t only in you?
I would not want this article to leave you convinced that every feeling of inadequacy is solely a matter of your thinking.
Sometimes the work environment really does make it harder to build a sense of competence.
Unclear promotion criteria, constant criticism without constructive feedback, unrealistic expectations or a lack of support after taking on a new role can make even an experienced person start doubting themselves.
And this is not just intuition.
A study published in 2025 in Current Research in Behavioral Sciences, conducted among 353 university graduates starting their careers outside academia and healthcare, found a link between performance pressure in the work environment and the intensity of impostor-type experiences. It was a questionnaire study, so it shows an association, not a cause. Its results concern this particular group and should not be automatically generalized to all employees.[3]
That is one more reason to look not only at yourself but also at the conditions in which we work.
So I suggest one more question:
“Am I the one constantly undermining my competence, or do I work in an environment that regularly undermines it?”
The answer may change the direction of your next steps.
Sometimes you need to look at yourself differently.
And sometimes you need to define expectations clearly, talk to your manager, set boundaries or consider changing your professional situation.
One does not exclude the other.
Five questions that help you see yourself differently
In coaching, I especially value questions that let you move beyond the first, automatic interpretation of a situation.
Not to convince anyone that they are great.
Rather to see a fuller picture — including the one that is hard to notice when your attention is fixed solely on your own imperfections.
If you recognize the feelings described above, try answering these five questions.
1. What facts actually support my assessment?
Instead of “I’m not cut out for this job,” ask: “What exactly did I do, or not do, that lets me think so?”
Perhaps you will recall one difficult project or one meeting where you did not know the answer.
But is a single event enough to judge all your abilities?
2. What facts support a different interpretation?
This is not an invitation to ignore mistakes. It is an attempt to notice the information that does not fit the negative picture.
- Which projects have you managed to complete?
- Which problems have you solved?
- What do people appreciate in your work?
- Which competences have you developed over the past year?
You do not have to call yourself an expert. It is enough to honestly notice what you can already do.
3. Am I demanding more of myself than of others?
Imagine a colleague making exactly the same mistake.
Would you decide they are not fit for the job? Or would you look at the context, their experience, their room for improvement and everything they have achieved so far?
If you give others the right to learn, why deny yourself the same right?
4. What would be good enough in this situation?
Not every task requires perfection. Not every decision has to be optimal in every respect. Not every presentation has to anticipate every possible question.
Consider what result actually meets the needs of the audience, the team or the organization.
Then check whether the remaining requirements come from a real need or from a fear of being judged.
5. What would I do if I didn’t have to prove my worth to anyone?
This question can be particularly interesting.
Maybe you would ask for help. Maybe you would sign up for a project that has long interested you. Maybe you would finally say you need more time. Or you would stop working extra hours just to make sure nobody questions your competence.
This is not about changing your behavior right away.
To begin with, it is worth noticing how many of your decisions come from real goals, and how many from the need to prove you deserve your place.
What can you do today? Exercise: fact, interpretation, next step
I suggest a short reflective exercise you can do on your own.
It is not a diagnostic test or a method of treatment. It is a way to put one specific situation in order and look at the meaning you give it.
Choose an event from the past few days in which you doubted your competence. Divide a sheet of paper into three parts.
Fact — what actually happened?
Write down what could be seen or heard, without judging.
Example: “During the meeting I couldn’t answer a question about one of the metrics.”
Interpretation — what meaning did I give it?
Example: “Everyone probably thought I don’t know my job.”
Check whether you actually know what others thought, or whether it is your assumption. Then look for at least one other realistic interpretation.
“It was a detail outside the scope I had analyzed earlier. I can check the data and come back with an answer.”
Next step — what can I actually influence?
Example: “I’ll check the metric and send the team an explanation. In future meetings I’ll say openly when I need to verify data.”
Notice the difference.
In the first interpretation, a single question becomes a verdict on the whole person.
In the second, there is concrete information and a possible action.
The feeling of uncertainty does not have to disappear before you can take a sensible next step.
Is it enough to simply believe in yourself more?
If it were that simple, many people would not struggle with similar doubts for years.
The advice “you need to believe in yourself more” sounds good but explains little.
Because what do you actually do when self-belief does not come, even though you do your job well?
In my approach, something else matters more: checking what you base your picture of your own competence on.
Confidence does not have to mean being sure you will always cope.
It can also mean:
- “I don’t know everything yet, but I can learn.”
- “I have no guarantee of success, but I can prepare as well as I can.”
- “I can make a mistake and still be a competent person.”
Interestingly, researchers of the impostor phenomenon also challenge the popular belief that the thoughts associated with it must always lead to worse professional functioning.
The 2025 review shows that the links between such thoughts, behavior and work outcomes are more complex than popular self-help often presents them.[1]
That does not mean you should cultivate insecurity or ignore the discomfort that comes with it.
It means rather that not every doubt has to be treated as a flaw to be eliminated immediately.
Sometimes it is worth checking what that doubt says about the situation you are in.
- Does it point to a real need to develop?
- Does it come from pressure from your surroundings?
- Or is it perhaps an interpretation you have not tested for a long time?
That is a different starting point from constantly expecting that one day you will reach a level at which you stop having any doubts at all.
When can coaching help?
Coaching is not about convincing you that you are good enough.
Nor can I promise that all your doubts will vanish after one conversation.
What I can do is help you look at how you assess your abilities, what demands you set for yourself and how they affect your decisions.
In sessions, we can look together for answers to questions such as:
- What standards do you consider necessary to feel competent?
- Which of those standards truly serve your development?
- What makes it hard for you to acknowledge your own achievements?
- How do you want to react in situations where you don’t know the answer?
- Which behaviors would you like to change so you can act more consciously and in line with your values?
You decide what conclusions you reach and which of them you want to put into practice.
My role is to accompany you in putting your perspective in order, to ask questions and to support you in turning reflection into concrete action.
This is how I understand career coaching and professional development (see the offer).
It is worth being honest about the current state of knowledge.
A systematic review published in 2020 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, covering 62 studies and 14,161 participants, pointed to wide variation in how the impostor phenomenon is measured (its prevalence ranged from 9% to 82% depending on the tool and threshold used) and to an absence of evaluations of treatment effectiveness in the literature it included. The review covered literature up to May 2018, so it does not reflect later research.[4]
That is why I do not present coaching as a scientifically proven treatment for impostor syndrome.
It can, however, be a space to work on professional goals, your assessment of your competence, decisions and ways of acting — within the limits proper to coaching.
When is a psychologist or psychotherapist the better choice?
If the sense of inadequacy comes with intense anxiety, a prolonged low mood, sleep problems, strong emotional distress or difficulties in daily functioning, it is worth seeking help from a mental health professional.
Coaching is not meant to diagnose or treat mental disorders and does not replace psychotherapy.
You do not have to decide on your own which kind of support is best. You can start with a consultation with a specialist who will help you assess the situation.
Impostor syndrome — frequently asked questions
Does impostor syndrome only affect people who are successful?
No. Although the phenomenon was first described among high achievers, similar experiences can appear at different stages of education and career. What matters is how we interpret our own competence and how we think others judge us.
Is impostor syndrome more common in women?
The earliest research focused on women, but later work also included men. A 2025 review points to similar levels in women and men, although individual studies, including one among people starting their careers, report higher scores in women. So the phenomenon should not be treated as specific to one gender. How strongly it shows up may also depend on the work environment.
Is impostor syndrome a disease?
No. Impostor syndrome is not a separate diagnostic category. The term describes experiences related to how we perceive our own achievements and competence.
How can I deal with impostor syndrome at work?
A starting point can be separating facts from interpretations, noticing your own contribution to successes, checking what is realistically expected of you and letting go of an impossible standard of infallibility. It also matters to take working conditions into account. If the doubts come with intense psychological distress, it is worth seeking professional support.
Can a promotion make me feel like an impostor?
A new role can bring more uncertainty and a fear of being judged. It helps to separate the competences you already have from the new skills you are still going to develop.
Can impostor feelings appear only in certain situations?
These experiences do not have to be constant. Current research points to their situational nature. You can feel competent in a familiar environment and still experience doubts after changing jobs, getting promoted or taking on a new challenge.
Does coaching help with impostor syndrome?
Coaching can be useful for working on professional goals, beliefs about your own competence and the way you make decisions. It is not, however, a treatment for impostor syndrome, nor a substitute for psychological help or psychotherapy when these are needed.
You don’t have to know everything to deserve your place
I would like to leave you with one more thought.
Perhaps for a long time you have been putting off the moment when you allow yourself to feel satisfaction.
- When you finish the next project.
- When you earn the next certificate.
- When you no longer make mistakes.
- When you feel you finally know enough.
But professional growth is not about reaching a place where we stop learning.
And competence does not mean infallibility.
You can be good in your professional role and still have much to learn.
These two statements do not contradict each other.
If it is hard for you today to see your own contribution to your achievements, you do not have to change your whole way of thinking at once.
To begin with, one question is enough:
“What do I know for certain about my competence, and what am I merely telling myself about it?”
Sometimes a change of perspective starts with exactly this kind of distinction.
Let’s talk about your situation
If you feel that constantly questioning your competence is affecting your work, your decisions or your readiness to take on new challenges, we can look at it together in an individual coaching session.
You do not have to come with a ready answer or a precisely named problem.
It is enough to know what you want to give your attention to.
I run sessions online and in person in Wrocław and Siechnice. Get to know Balance BCC or go straight to booking a session.
Bogumiła Czubińska Czapska — Balance BCC