{"id":52,"date":"2015-11-24T15:19:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/?p=52"},"modified":"2026-03-31T16:03:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T16:03:02","slug":"profile-of-a-pretender-inside-impostor-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/?p=52","title":{"rendered":"Profile of a Pretender: Inside Impostor Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ever landed a promotion, aced a project, or earned praise\u2014only to immediately think, &#8220;I don&#8217;t deserve this. Any minute now, they&#8217;ll figure out I&#8217;m a fraud&#8221;? That nagging inner critic has a name: Impostor Syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite evidence of success, people with Impostor Syndrome feel like they&#8217;ve tricked everyone into believing they&#8217;re more competent than they really are. They explain away achievements as luck, timing, or someone else&#8217;s mistake, rather than admitting their own skill and effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To better understand who struggles with this, we conducted a study on Impostor Syndrome. Here&#8217;s what the data reveals about the personality profile of male and female &#8220;impostors.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>32% of women and 33% of men don&#8217;t feel they deserve their success.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>36% of women and 34% of men take perfectionism to unhealthy extremes, setting unrealistic expectations for themselves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>43% of women and 39% of men struggle with low self-esteem.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>44% of women and 38% of men believe their accomplishments were mostly a fluke.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Nearly half\u201447% of women and 48% of men\u2014don&#8217;t believe they&#8217;ve truly earned their rewards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>65% of women and 62% of men dismiss or ignore praise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>69% of women and 65% of men brush off compliments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>71% of both men and women downplay their achievements when others bring them up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And here&#8217;s the paradox: <strong>85% of women<\/strong> and <strong>81% of men<\/strong> with Impostor Syndrome are actually good goal-achievers, with plenty of success under their belt. Yet, more than <strong>60%<\/strong> worry that others will eventually &#8220;find them out&#8221; and realize they&#8217;re not as competent as they seem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most people struggling with Impostor Syndrome fall between the ages of <strong>18 and 29<\/strong>\u2014a time when many are still carving out their career path and figuring out who they are professionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The effects are clear at work, too:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Only <strong>30% of women<\/strong> and <strong>27% of men<\/strong> with Impostor Syndrome are satisfied with their job.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Real Issue Behind Impostor Syndrome<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, not every &#8220;impostor&#8221; is secretly brilliant\u2014some people really are underperforming. But our data shows that, for most, the problem isn&#8217;t competence. It&#8217;s <strong>perception.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>With low self-esteem, quirks look like flaws.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Normal setbacks look like catastrophic failures.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Everyday challenges look like impossible roadblocks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other words: Impostor Syndrome distorts reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The truth is, everyone has blind spots\u2014leaders included. Sometimes it&#8217;s perfectionism, sometimes it&#8217;s impostor thinking, and sometimes it&#8217;s habits they don&#8217;t even realize are dragging their team down. A 360 assessment like <a href=\"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/corporate\/tests\/strengths-assessment-and-growth-evaluation-manager-360\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/corporate\/tests\/strengths-assessment-and-growth-evaluation-manager-360\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SAGE-M<\/a> (for managers) and <a href=\"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/corporate\/tests\/strengths-assessment-and-growth-evaluation-non-manager-360\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/corporate\/tests\/strengths-assessment-and-growth-evaluation-non-manager-360\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SAGE-NM<\/a> (for employees) brings those blind spots to the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once the feedback is out in the open, coaching can zero in on what matters most: building self-awareness, sharpening strengths, and addressing the patterns that hold people back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Impostor Syndrome is to strong performers like kryptonite is to Superman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emotional-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":763,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archprofile.com\/archprofile_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}