The Imposter at the edge of growth
Why capable people feel like frauds, and what coaching can do about it
Neil Sharp | SVP Coaching
You have just been promoted.
You are in the room you worked hard to get into. People are listening to you. Your CV says you belong there. Your track record says you belong there. The evidence says you are capable.
And yet a quiet voice says: “At some point, they are going to realise I should not be here.”
That feeling is often described as imposter syndrome.
A useful-and misleading-label
Based on my work as a consultant, and now as a coach, I have arrived at the conclusion that the term itself can be both useful and misleading.
Useful, because it gives a name to something many successful people experience: the private fear that their achievements are somehow accidental, exaggerated or undeserved.
Misleading, because “syndrome” can make it sound as though there is something clinically wrong with the person. In reality, imposter feelings do not hold a formal diagnosis. They are better understood as a pattern of thinking and feeling - usually involving self-doubt, difficulty internalising success and a fear of being exposed, despite evidence of competence.
It is almost impossible not to come across the phrase now, in every walk of life. So, I have been doing some research, specifically to become better informed as a coach and better able to help my clients.
Much of the literature traces back to the work of psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes. In 1978, they described the “impostor phenomenon” as an internal experience of intellectual fraudulence among high-achieving women.[1] Later research (and real-world experience) has found imposter feelings across genders, age groups and a wide range of professional settings.
At the edge of growth
Clients often come to coaching with genuine concerns about having imposter syndrome and a desire to remove the feeling from their lives. I find that one of the most helpful questions is not, “How do we get rid of this?” but, “What might this feeling be trying to tell us?”
Because imposter feelings often appear at the edge of growth.
They can show up when someone steps into a bigger role, enters a new peer group, becomes more visible, leads through uncertainty, joins a board, starts a business, presents to senior stakeholders, or moves from being a technical expert to leading through others. I could list a hundred more scenarios.
In those moments, the issue is often not a lack of capability. What I frequently uncover with clients is something I think of as an “identity lag”. Your external role has changed. Your responsibilities have grown. Other people see you differently. But internally, your self-image has not yet caught up.
And so, the mind tries to explain the gap:
“They overestimated me.”
“I was lucky.”
“I only got here because of timing.”
“I will be found out soon.”
Hence, reassurance alone rarely works. If someone says, “You are brilliant - do not worry,” the imposter voice often replies, “Yes, but they do not really know.” The person does not simply need praise. They need help building a more accurate relationship with evidence, success, identity, and risk.
Research suggests that imposter feelings are associated with anxiety, depression, burnout, and lower job satisfaction, with prevalence estimates varying widely according to how the phenomenon is measured. One systematic review found estimates ranging from 9% to 82% - a useful reminder not to throw statistics around too casually.[2]
But the important point for leaders is this: imposter feelings are common enough to take seriously and costly enough not to ignore. They can lead people to overprepare, overwork, avoid opportunities, hold back their views, resist delegation, interpret feedback harshly, or assume that any mistake reveals something fundamental about them.
The imposter cycle
One of the most useful concepts I have come across is the imposter cycle.[3] I am eager to share it because it is something I wish I had learnt 40 years ago.
A person faces a significant task. Anxiety rises. They respond in one of two ways: overpreparation; or procrastination, followed by frantic preparation - my personal default mode!
If they succeed, they do not absorb the success. They explain it away:
“I only did well because I worked twice as hard.”
“I got away with it this time.”
The next task then arrives, and the same anxiety returns.
The cycle continues because success is experienced as relief, not evidence.
This links strongly with perfectionism. Recent research suggests that imposter feelings are much more strongly connected with perfectionistic concerns - fear of mistakes, self-criticism and worry about not appearing good enough - than with simply having high standards.[4]
The hidden rulebook
For many executives and business owners, the issue is not ambition. It is the hidden rulebook underneath their ambition:
If I was truly competent, I would always know the answer.
If I was really senior, I would not need help.
If I was genuinely good, this would feel easy.
If I make a mistake, I will be exposed.
Those so-called rules are exhausting. They are also unrealistic.
Competence does not mean knowing everything. Leadership does not mean never needing support. Confidence does not mean the absence of doubt. Growth does not mean comfort.
The workplace matters too
There is another important layer. Imposter feelings are not always just inside the person. Workplace context matters.
Researchers have argued that the imposter phenomenon needs to be understood in context, including belonging, stereotypes, underrepresentation, and workplace culture.[5] Harvard Business Review has also challenged the overuse of “imposter syndrome” language, especially when it is applied to women and people from marginalised groups. The risk is that we locate the problem inside the individual while overlooking biased or exclusionary systems.[6]
That matters for leaders:
Is this person being included?
Are they being sponsored?
Are expectations clear?
Is feedback fair and specific?
Do they see people like them succeeding here?
Are they reacting to self-doubt-or to real signals from the environment?
A coaching approach holds both truths at once. Yes, individuals can learn to manage imposter feelings more skilfully. And yes, organisations need to create environments in which people do not have to overprove their belonging.
What can help?
This is not intended to be a comprehensive self-help guide, but here are six practical approaches that may help someone gain the upper hand:
1. Name the pattern. “I am noticing an imposter voice in these situations”, is very different from, “I am an imposter.”
2. Separate feeling from fact. “I feel exposed” is not the same as “I am incompetent.”
3 Rebalance attribution. Instead of asking, “Why was I lucky?” ask, “What did I do that contributed to this outcome?”
4. Build evidence. Keep a record of results, feedback, decisions, contributions, and moments handled well. This can be part of journalling, if that is your thing. It is not an ego exercise; it is a corrective action to distorted thinking.
5. Challenge the competence rulebook. Ask, “What am I assuming a competent person should always be able to do?” Then replace impossible standards with more human ones: “Competent people prepare, learn, ask, adapt and recover.”
6. Stay in action. Confidence is not always the starting point. Often, it is the result of acting, learning and surviving the stretch.
For leaders managing others
The task is not to rescue people or smother them with reassurance. It is to help them see themselves more accurately, take supported risks, absorb evidence, and work in an environment where they do not have to hide perfectly normal doubt.
The aim is not to eliminate every moment of self-doubt. The aim is to stop treating self-doubt as the truth.
Many capable leaders are not held back by a lack of ability. They are held back by a story about themselves that has not caught up with reality. When that story begins to shift, even slightly, their presence, confidence and impact can change dramatically.
So, if there is one question that sums all of this up, it is:
Where in your work might your self-image still be catching up with your capability?
My next article will look more closely at what imposter syndrome actually is - and what it is not.
[1]. Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). “The impostor phenomenon in high-achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention.” Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0086006
[2]. Bravata, D. M., Watts, S. A., Keefer, A. L., Madhusudhan, D. K., Taylor, K. T., Clark, D. M., Nelson, R. S., Cokley, K. O., & Hagg, H. K. (2020). “Prevalence, predictors, and treatment of impostor syndrome: A systematic review.” Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35, 1252–1275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-05364-1
[3]. Huecker, M. R., Shreffler, J., McKeny, P. T., & Davis, D. (2023). “Imposter Phenomenon.” StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK585058/ See also Clance, P. R. (1985), The Impostor Phenomenon: Overcoming the Fear That Haunts Your Success.
[4]. Hill, A. P., & Gotwals, J. K. (2025). “A meta-analysis of multidimensional perfectionism and impostor phenomenon.” Journal of Research in Personality, 118, 104639. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2025.104639
[5]. Feenstra, S., Begeny, C. T., Ryan, M. K., Rink, F. A., Stoker, J. I., & Jordan, J. (2020). “Contextualizing the impostor ‘syndrome’.” Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 575024. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.575024
[6]. Tulshyan, R., & Burey, J.-A. (2021, February 4). “Stop telling women they have imposter syndrome.” Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/02/stop-telling-women-they-have-imposter-syndrome