07 230802 Imposter Syndrome - Is It Real Or Is It Hegemony

Meredith Holley49min

Megan Goering Mellin

00:05

This week we are discussing impostor syndrome, a hot topic in the workplace. Is it real? Or is it hegemony aka intrusive thinking? We are going to talk about that today, discuss some of our experiences and then ask you yours. So as we get started on this topic of imposter syndrome, I think it's kind of nice to ask ourselves, What even is imposter syndrome? Meredith, do you want to take a crack at how you think of impostor syndrome?

Meredith Holley

00:34

Yeah, I think that imposter syndrome is, so I'm gonna look at it from two different angles. But one is, it's a set of beliefs that we've identified that somehow we don't belong in a space, sometimes it's a workspace, sometimes it's a political space, or like a platform space. But it's, it's a set of beliefs that say, we don't belong, we're sneaking in, we're not qualified enough. And, and so I think that that's sort of the traditional set of what impostor syndrome is. But I also want to think about it and kind of look at it from a different angle. And that is that it's a common human experience when you're in a new space, to feel fear, to understand that you don't know everything. And that's just true that you're you're learning and that's why you're in a new space, you're challenging yourself to do something hard.

Megan Goering Mellin

01:32

And looking for belonging. Right, you're

Meredith Holley

01:33

like, right,

Megan Goering Mellin

01:34

you're just checking out that you're like, is it safe here? Are these friends or foes? How does the social structure work? That's very normal.

Meredith Holley

01:43

Right? Like, I think we've talked about in the past, like, your body seeks safety, right? Even like your your, your sympathetic system is just like looking for is this safe? Is it not safe, and that's just a normal human experience. And there's a documented research based trend that when women go into a space, it's common to pathologize their experience of that space. So when if you have a man and a woman going into a new workplace, we're more likely to say that the woman's experience of fear is imposter syndrome. We're saying it's like a disease. Whereas the man's experience of fear, we say, Oh, you'll you'll get over it, bro. Like, that's interesting. Like, that's normal. You everyone, like

Processing audio...