Have you ever wondered how imposter syndrome could be quietly costing your organisation top talent and innovative ideas?

In this solo episode of the Happier at Work podcast, Aoife O'Brien dives deep into the data behind her State of Imposter Syndrome at Work report, revealing how imposter syndrome isn’t just an individual’s challenge, it’s a pressing organisational issue. She shares her own experiences and highlights the staggering fact that around 90% of professionals have faced imposter syndrome at some point in their careers. Aoife unpacks how confidence is often confused with capability, leading to untapped potential and missed opportunities in teams.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

• How imposter syndrome affects about 90% of professionals, and why it often goes unaddressed at the organisational level.
• Why outward confidence doesn’t always reflect true capability.
• The impact of not addressing imposter syndrome.
• The importance of recognising and encouraging not just the most vocal contributors but the true value every individual brings.

Related Topics Covered:

Personal Development, Self-awareness, Psychological Safety

Connect with Aoife O’Brien | Host of Happier at Work®:

• Website
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Related Episodes & Resources:

Episode 223: Imposter Syndrome: The Invisible Barrier to Workplace Success

Episode 281: How Managers Accidentally Fuel Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome Report

About Happier at Work®

Happier at Work® is the podcast for business leaders who want to create meaningful, human-centric workplaces. Hosted by Aoife O’Brien, the show explores leadership, career clarity, imposter syndrome, workplace culture, and employee engagement — helping you and your team thrive.

If you enjoy podcasts like WorkLife with Adam Grant, The Happiness Lab, or Squiggly Careers, you’ll love Happier at Work®.

Editing by Amanda Fitzgerald.

Website: https://happieratwork.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HappierAtWorkHQ

Have you ever been in a meeting and thinking to yourself, it's not always the people who have the best ideas who are the loudest voices, and I really wish that Mark from sales would just shut his mouth? Or conversely, you see Sarah in marketing who is incredible at her job, but she's doubting her own abilities and she won't put herself forward for that promotion. That's exactly what I want to talk about today —not treating imposter syndrome as an individual problem or an issue to do with confidence, but really looking about how do we leverage the capability in an organization as a whole and what is not leveraging that capability actually costing us. So a quick definition of imposter syndrome, if you haven't heard the term before, it's beyond self-doubt. So people get the 2 things confused. Sometimes they think it's about doubting your own abilities, but really, the differential with imposter syndrome is this deep-seated fear that we don't belong, we're gonna get found out, and we're just lucky to be where we are. And you're in good company if you've ever felt this way, and I include myself in this as well because, by the way, I have experienced imposter syndrome.

And about 90% of the respondents of my latest report have experienced imposter syndrome, either currently experiencing it or have experienced it in the past. And that's in line with the previous report that I issued back in 2022. It's also in line with the statistics that I see when I run workshops, when I run programs, it tends to be around the 90% mark, which I think is interesting in itself. So to reiterate that point, if you've ever felt like this, you are definitely not alone. I did mention that I have experienced imposter syndrome in the past. The first time I heard the term, I had just been promoted to the senior leadership team. I was telling a friend about it and I was saying how I was the only one who was considered. I was just lucky, in the right place at the right time, really convincing myself of all of these things and the fact that they were true.

And she turned around to me and said, "It sounds like you have imposter syndrome." I had never heard that term before. And it wasn't until years later that I could look back and really understand the implication of what, you know, what does that actually mean for me? Actually, it meant that I was doubting my abilities. It meant that my perception of myself hadn't reached the level that other people, the way others had perceived me. So obviously I got promoted for a reason and my self-perception hadn't actually caught up with that. I have since gone on to speak about imposter syndrome quite a lot. I was featured in a national newspaper. Talk about feeling like an imposter when that happened.

But in the process of writing or contributing to the article about imposter syndrome, I thought about all the times that it had happened. And the first time I had ever heard about it wasn't the first time I experienced it. And even more recently, I was thinking back to very early in my career when I turned down a job, this is early career, this is like 22 years old, and I turned down a job because I thought, "I don't think I can do that." This is before I'd even started in the role. And again, if I think, you know, trace it even further back, my perfectionist tendencies in school, anything I put my hand to, if I get 99%, I'm wondering, well, where did the other 1% go? So it's this inherent thing, and I do talk about that in more detail in the report itself —the underlying factors as well as the triggers in the immediate moment that bring us back to those imposter feelings. I wanted to address this issue of confidence and capability because I think sometimes we can confuse the two. We see someone who looks really confident on the outside, someone who is loud, maybe they're outspoken, maybe they're freely sharing their ideas, even as I mentioned, if they're not the best ideas in the room, but they're the ones who tend to be the ones who are noticed. They tend to be the ones who are promoted.

They tend to be the ones who are thought of for the bigger projects, the visibility, all of that kind of thing. But being confident outwardly does not necessarily equate to having the capabilities. And this is something I'm exploring a lot more in my work, the idea of capability and what it means and how to articulate our capabilities so that people understand the contribution that we make and the value that we bring to the roles that we have. And not just for other people, it's for ourselves as well, so that we understand the unique capabilities that we have and the value that we're bringing to the organization. Again, oftentimes when we talk about imposter syndrome, we tend to focus on the individual and the difficulties that it poses for the individual in terms of promotions and career progression and stress. But we don't often look at the organizational consequences of imposter syndrome. So if you think about this, if you're a leader, if you're working in HR, if you're working in talent or capability, 90% of the people around you have experienced imposter syndrome at some stage in their career. And when we experience imposter syndrome, what are the kinds of things that we're doing and what knock-on impact does that have on the organization? It's things like staying quiet.

"I'm not going to share my idea. I'm not going to speak up in this meeting. What if people think I have no clue what I'm talking about?" This kind of thinking stifles the innovation that we need, especially at the pace of change that things are at the moment. If people are not speaking up, if they're not showing you what they're really capable of, if they're doubting their capabilities, then it's very likely that you have hidden talent within the teams that you're dealing with. That you can't necessarily see the potential because they don't see the potential in themselves or they don't know how to articulate that potential. Think about the succession planning and the leadership pipeline. You could fill that leadership pipeline if people felt more confident, more capable, if they had that level of feedback, but people are holding themselves back. They feel like, "I'm not ready yet." They are doubting their capabilities.

They're staying quiet. They think that people around them are much more capable than they are, and so they're defaulting and they're letting other people shine instead. And those other people, as we've seen already, are not necessarily the best people to be in those positions. Another really powerful thing around this is retention, and I think when we look at retention, we think maybe it's something to do with the leaders or the culture, but sometimes it's the individual confidence that people have. And I know we don't really think about this or we don't really talk about this, but imposter syndrome can sometimes lead to people resigning. And in fact, in the report itself, I show that 8% of respondents have actually quit a job because of imposter syndrome and 52% have thought about quitting. Because of imposter syndrome, like that's 60% of your staff thinking or actually quitting, and so retention becomes an issue as well. It becomes a cost to the organization of not addressing imposter syndrome.

In the report itself, I talk about how some of these behaviors present. This is based on the survey, the questionnaire that I carried out, but I also talk in much more detail about the solutions. Like as a leader, as an organization, what can we do and what should we be doing to address this issue? One of the first areas that we can think about is noticing people's contribution. What are people contributing? What's the value that they're actually bringing? And not solely focusing on volume, not the loudest voices all the time, what value are people actually contributing? And does that match up with what we're trying to achieve? When you're looking for people to take on stretch assignments, it's not just simply saying, "Would you like to volunteer for this?" or "Would you like to take on this additional work?" It's reiterating the strengths that they bring to the role that they're already doing and framing it as an opportunity for them to contribute and to stretch themselves and to show the organization what they're really capable of because you see that capability within them. You can even ask them, "What project do you think would really stretch you?" And when it comes to feedback, give evidence, share something really specific. This is something we get so wrong in organizations. We focus so much on that negative developmental feedback, we forget to give people positive, reassuring feedback when they're doing a good job.

So remind people what they're doing well, why it's important, why they matter, and why their work matters as well. But be really specific about it. It's not just great job, it's going into a bit more detail about the impact that their work has. When people can see this kind of evidence, that helps them to build up confidence in themselves and their abilities. Don't wait until people feel ready. People will say, especially if they have imposter syndrome, "I'm not ready yet." And here's the thing, they probably will never feel ready. Putting people into situations where they don't feel ready is an opportunity to stretch and to grow.

And again, by reiterating the support that you are there to provide them and the capabilities that maybe they don't see in themselves. And here's a really important thing. The foundation of the thriving talent model is create an environment of psychological safety. Have those difficult conversations, make people feel safe in your presence, create psychological safety within the team. When we create those conditions of psychological safety, when people feel like it's okay to speak up, to share what's going on for them. Maybe they'll open up about their experiences of imposter feelings. Maybe they'll share with you that they don't feel ready. Therein lies an important conversation, and you can share back with them how you view things, because sometimes when we have imposter syndrome, that's all we can see.

All we can see is the deficit. What you are there as a leader to do is to shine light on what those other people cannot see at all. Another interesting part of the report is showing how imposter syndrome impacts on people's leadership behaviors and their leadership styles. But what if we could teach leaders through education, through programs, through awareness, how to address the imposter syndrome that they feel themselves, but also how to manage it within the team? If you want to get your hands on a copy of the report for free, you can download it from impostersyndrome.ie/report. I'd love to know if today's episode resonated, whether you see these behaviors in other people, whether you notice it for yourself. Do get involved in the conversation. I would love to hear from you. You can get in touch on [email protected] or get involved in the conversation over on LinkedIn, which is where I am most active, and I really look forward to hearing from you.