are standing at the front, on the stage don’t have an imposter telling them they’re not good enough. But hand on heart, I’ve never yet spoken to anyone who has said, “oh no, I don’t know what you’re on about”. I realised that it was important for all of us to tell our stories more, so that people don’t ever imagine that it’s just them.
And that’s what the imposter likes to do, to make out that it’s just you and that everyone else is really competent. I’m here to try and bust that myth.
Is there a difference between pro- fessional confidence and personal confidence? JW – There might be behaviours and things that you would like to be differ- ent about who you are in the workplace, but fundamentally who you are in the workplace is not a separate person to who you are in the rest of your life. The work that I do with people helps them identify those behaviours, not just in a professional context, but in their life in general. That then gives the experience and tools to use across their life because the more confident you are in one area, the more it can help you in another.
It’s surprisingly common in a pro- fessional context to feel we’re not competent enough or we might get “found out”. Not so often among family and friends, but we do often think I’m not ‘X’ enough – not fun enough, not relaxed enough, not sensible enough, and these can be completely contradic- tory as well. There’s no logic to them. So yeah, it does happen across all areas of life, but helping to recognise that and choose more consciously in one area of your life will really help the other areas of your life too.
How does it relate to leadership? JW – I have never had any desire to be a manager, but I often find myself drawn to leadership positions and leadership roles. I’ve just used the word position, but it’s not just about that. It’s about leading projects, leading change or leading by example too – there are so many types of leadership.
Traditionally leaders are people that we hold on a pedestal and then when we think about ourselves as leaders, we think that we have to be like that. But some of the best leaders that I have come across, people that I admire, are just people that are unashamedly themselves.
And so part of this is recognising and accepting who you really are. So, for me, leadership is something that does apply to everybody. I run a TRUE Leaders Community online; it is not for people in leadership positions, it’s for people who want to lead their
June 2023
Jo Walley.
lives in a way that feels right for them. Often when there is a leadership oppor- tunity, at that point the imposter will up its game and ask things like, “Are you sure you’re the person for this? The person who was here before was amazing. You can’t live up to their expectations.” It will never be satisfied with just things being as they are.
Is it worse for some people? JW – My perception is that the imposter is always the same. The difference is how strong we feel. I’ll explain this more at the conference session, but it boils down to the view that the imposter is not you. It might be in your head, it might be giving you messages, it might be giving you feelings, but it’s not you. So, when you say “I keep holding myself back”, you’re not holding yourself back because you would never choose to do that – and that’s why there’s conflict sometimes.
The imposter is always the same, the difference is that there will be certain cir- cumstances or situations in our life where we feel it more than others. The difference is how strong we are in combating it and perhaps whatever other thing is going on in our life is causing us to feel not quite
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 27
as resourceful, and then the imposter will feel stronger.
But people are becoming more aware. In the past, you’d get on with things and go “it’s a shame I didn’t put myself forward for that”. Now it’s a little bit more cultur- ally and socially acceptable to talk about this stuff.
Talking about things like this is becom- ing more mainstream. And the more we can do that the stronger we can get as individuals and as a society. I imagine that one day we’ll have kids at school who have these skills. It would be amazing if we could help each other to build our re- silience and develop our tools for dealing with life at a much earlier stage. IP
l Book your place at
www.cilipconference.org.uk.
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