The only benefit of impostor phenomenon is getting rid of it...

I, like many others, love a good TED Talk. Short, snappy, often amusing but usually with some profound nugget of wisdom that stays with us long after we shut down the media player.

This one is no different

The talk from Mike Cannon-Brookes is no different. And yet, I’m going to use it to illustrate how the ‘imposter syndrome’ is getting popularised to the point of trivialising the seriousness of the core construct which at its worst, is debilitating for individuals and productivity sapping for organisations.

Mike Cannon-Brookes is a great speaker, an engaging personality and by all accounts a brilliant entrepreneur. He’s got that laconic way of delivering a story and a cheerful insouciance characteristic of Australians. He’s witty and ‘spins a good yarn’.

And while I’m sure he has no intention of belittling the construct of the impostor phenomenon his talk illustrates a common misconception of what, as the original theorist described it, ‘the feeling of intellectual phoniness despite success’ actually is. I call it a personally convincing ongoing, cyclical and illogical sense of phoniness or ‘lack’ of capability despite external or objective validation to the contrary. Snappy, huh?!

It’s not a syndrome.

Firstly, we need to get the name right. It’s not a syndrome. It’s a learned suite of behaviours and thoughts that are context bound. That’s not a syndrome. It’s an experience or as Dr P R Clance first coined it, a phenomenon. It’s not a personality trait, it’s not a clinical mental health condition, nor is it a medical condition although it can lead to clinical conditions such as anxiety, depression and persistent low mood. There is nothing positive or beneficial about impostor phenomenon. Unless you count getting rid of it, of course. Only when it’s gone is there any positive outcome.

Only when it’s gone is there any positive outcome.

Mike starts off telling us that he starts a business with little track record of running a business and that he and his mates really don’t know what they’re doing regarding accounts for example and he believes people are going to find him out. This does not point to a track record of achievement and therefore this is more likely to be self-doubt. 

It's the entrepreneurial mindset of ‘I’m not sure what I’m doing here, but I’m going to give it a pretty good go before I get found out.’ All power to him.

If Mike had a track record of running successful business before, believed that it was all due to luck, other people's efforts, being in the right place at the right time and still was absolutely convinced that he was going to get tapped on the shoulder and found out for being a faker – well that would be more like impostor phenomenon.

I admire his tenacity and honesty and courage to do what he did.

The story goes on and Mike tells us about the connection with Elon Musk. The anecdote unfolds to illustrate that he knows nothing about batteries and yet the media have labelled him an expert. Out of his depth and fearing being called out for his lack of knowledge he feels like an impostor. And with good reason as this IS being an ‘impostor’: albeit accidentally and with good humour and good intention. I admire his tenacity and honesty and courage to do what he did. But. This is not impostor phenomenon either. This is really not knowing what you’re on about. If he’d done a Master’s thesis on the relative efficacy of battery power as a response to community power shortages and still believed that he was not an expert or knew too little to speak with Elon Musk, then he’d be more likely experiencing impostor phenomenon.

I enjoyed this talk as a story, but not as a description or tale about the impostor phenomenon or not even the imposter syndrome. Mike may well experience the impostor phenomenon in its true form, but I didn’t hear him talk about it here. 

This is a frank, open and honest account of how a talented individual overcomes a pressing sense of self-doubt across multiple situations and does extraordinary things. He’s to be congratulated for that. And that is a much better story than one about misconceived ‘imposter syndrome’.

Read more about what IP is and what it is not at www.braverstrongersmarter.com or where I stash my blogs www.forfakesake.org.