Do you want to decrease self-doubt and imposter syndrome?
How greater clarity of direction can support you – an exercise to try
Self-doubt and imposter syndrome – 2 phrases we hear a lot in the work we do with women. Whether they are on our Resilient Women Leaders Programme, Regaining your Mojo course or working with them on a 1:1 basis.
Self-doubt prevents you from taking unnecessary risks, it’s also important for it not to stand in your way.
Imposter syndrome. A phrase first coined in 1978 by 2 women, when they felt they weren’t as good as they thought they were but seemed to be fooling those around them. This phrase was then, over time, pushed onto women to make them think they weren’t as good.
With Self-doubt and imposter syndrome, amongst others, often becoming barriers to our own growth, development or promotion, how can we start to make small changes so these barriers are no longer limiting us?
A few weeks back, I attended the ‘Women in Business and Tech expo’ which has a fascinating mix of speakers, both male and female, supporting women in the world of business and tech. A few things resonated and connected with the Resilient Leaders Elements framework we use, as all the success stories highlighted the need for our 4 elements :-
- Awareness
- Leadership Presence
- Clarity of Direction
- Resilient Decision Making
MBE Karen Brady started her talk using the below statistics from recent research:-
- 62% of women in work looking for better work/life balance
- 59% now see work/life balance is more important than salary
This is certainly what we see too. So how do we get that better work-life balance?
We could focus on any one of the Resilient Leaders Elements to support this question but for this blog, I’m going to use Clarity of Direction because, without it, it’s hard to make decisions going forward which support the end goal / vision.
Here are a few questions to help, 62% of you, ponder work/life balance and what it actually looks like? What are we aspiring to?
- What is your end goal?
- What does a work/life balance look like?
- What are you doing?
- What are you seeing?
- Who are you spending time with?
- What are you doing more of?
- What are you doing less of?
If you can’t visualise it, it become much harder to achieve it.
If you want to start decreasing self-doubt and / or imposter syndrome, you need to have a plan. You need to take a step forward towards that goal. You need to start focusing on yourself – something I know we’re not that great at doing either!!
Here’s a task that may help you start moving in that direction. Try this simple exercise:-
Step 1
On a piece of paper, draw 2 columns and title them
- What I want to do more of?
- What I want to do less of?
Here’s an example:-
What I want to do more of:
- Meet friends for a cup of tea and a catch-up
- Go to the gym
- Go for a swim
- Take my parents out for lunch
- Read a book
- Speak to old friends, just because
- Connect with my neighbours
- Say ‘no’
- Go to bed earlier
- Leave work when I say I’ll leave work
What I want to do less of:-
- Work in the evenings (at home)
- Be stressed at the smallest things
- Constantly be planning
- Say ‘yes’ to everything
- Always offer my involvement, even when I know I don’t have time
- Eat rubbish food
- Staying late at work
Step 2
Once you’ve written down that list. Pick 1 from each list and write down exactly what you have to do, to achieve it, to make it happen.
Step 3
When are going to action it?
Commit to this and write it in your diary
Tell your family that this is what you’re doing to do.
Step 4
Do it
‘Vision without action is merely a dream, Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.’
Go on, it’s time to start changing your world, one action at a time.
If you’d like to know more about our next open programmes or you’d like to create bespoke workshops at your place of work, do give us a call. We love working with individuals and teams. YOu can find out more about our open programme by clicking the links below or by emailing alex@tlrdynamics.com
Resilient Women Leaders: 3 month programme, 12 masterclasses, buddy pairs, 1:1 coaching, access to online leadership tool to support you building muscle where you most need it, psychometric profiling report.
Regaining your Mojo: a 5 week programme, 1 hour per week, designed to support people with a need to refocus, rebalance and re-energise when you have lost a bit of confidence in who you are and what you do!
