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Why So Many Experienced Leaders Feel Like Imposters

A group of colleagues smiling and chatting around laptops during a collaborative workplace meeting.

One of the things that continues to surprise me is how many experienced leaders feel as though they aren't quite good enough.


You might expect years of experience to bring certainty. After all, if you've spent years supporting children, leading teams, making difficult decisions and navigating challenges, surely confidence should follow naturally. Yet that isn't always what happens.


Many leaders find themselves looking around a room and assuming everyone else knows more than they do. They notice other people's qualifications, confidence or expertise and quietly wonder whether they're the only person who feels uncertain. The reality is that these thoughts are far more common than most people realise.


I think part of the challenge is that qualifications are visible and experience is not. Qualifications can be listed after a name or written on a CV. Experience is harder to see. It's built through years of supporting staff, responding to unexpected challenges, helping families through difficult situations and making decisions that affect the lives of others every day.


These things become part of normal working life and so they can easily be overlooked. We stop seeing them as evidence of our capability and instead focus on what we don't know, what we haven't done or where someone else appears to be doing better.


What I've noticed over the years is that the people who struggle most with imposter syndrome are often the people who care most about doing a good job. They set high standards for themselves. They reflect constantly. They notice every mistake and every area for improvement. Unfortunately, they rarely give the same attention to everything they are doing well.


Perhaps that's why self-doubt can be so misleading. It feels like evidence, but often it isn't. More often, it's a reflection of how much we care about getting things right.


The challenge isn't becoming more capable. In many cases, that capability is already there. The challenge is learning to recognise it.


Perhaps the next time you find yourself questioning whether you belong in the room, it might be worth looking at the evidence you've already accumulated over the years. Not the qualifications, titles or achievements that other people can see, but the quieter evidence that comes from showing up, leading well and making a difference day after day.


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