Impostor syndrome: what it is, why it happens and how to overcome it

There is a specific kind of discomfort that only appears after an achievement. You get promoted, close an important project or receive public praise, and instead of pride, you feel fear. Fear that, on the next delivery, everyone will notice you are not as competent as they seemed to think. That discomfort has a name: impostor syndrome.

In this article you will understand where this pattern comes from, why it tends to hit precisely the most dedicated and competent people, and what practical paths exist to stop running your career from the fear of being “found out”.

What impostor syndrome is

The term was coined in 1978 by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, who observed a recurring pattern in academically high-achieving women: even in the face of clear evidence of competence (degrees, awards, results), they remained convinced that their success was the product of luck, of being in the right place at the right time, or of having fooled evaluators.

An important caveat: impostor syndrome is not a recognized clinical diagnosis in mental health manuals such as the DSM or the ICD. It is better understood as a psychological and behavioral pattern widely described in the organizational psychology literature, not as an illness. This doesn't lessen how draining it can be; it just helps you look at it without labeling yourself.

How impostor syndrome shows up

It rarely appears as a clear sentence like “I am a fraud”. It appears in subtler behaviors that often go unnoticed by the person themselves:

• Attributing success to external factors: “I got lucky”, “the client had already made up their mind”, “anyone would have done it”.
• Paralyzing perfectionism: revising material dozens of times for fear that a small mistake will reveal “incompetence”.
• Procrastination out of fear: postponing an important delivery because starting already exposes the possibility of failing.
• Overwork as compensation: taking on more than a healthy schedule can hold to “prove” you deserve the role.
• Difficulty receiving compliments: downplaying recognition (“it was nothing”) instead of simply accepting it.
• Constant comparison with colleagues, always concluding that others know more and deserve more than you.

It is common for impostor syndrome to appear more strongly at moments of transition: a new role, a promotion, joining a more experienced team or starting your own business. Precisely at the moments when we would most need confidence, the mind goes on alert.

Why it happens to the most competent people

One of the most studied aspects of impostor syndrome is that it tends to hit high performers harder, not because they have any real reason to doubt themselves, but because of how the brain handles competence and expectation.

The more someone knows about a subject, the more aware they become of what they still don't know, a phenomenon related to the so-called Dunning-Kruger effect at its most advanced end: experts tend to underestimate their own relative competence, precisely because they see the complexity of the field more clearly than a beginner would.

Add highly competitive environments, organizational cultures that celebrate only the final result (never the process) and, often, a personal history of having had to prove worth, whether from being the first person in the family in a given space, belonging to an underrepresented group in that field, or growing up in environments where mistakes were treated harshly. The result is a mind trained to associate competence with danger, not safety.

The five most common profiles

Researcher Valerie Young, who devoted herself to mapping different forms of impostor syndrome, describes a few recurring profiles. Recognizing yours helps identify the specific pattern at play:

• The perfectionist: measures success by the total absence of flaws, and any slip, however small, is treated as failure.
• The natural genius: believes real competence should come easily; if they had to work hard, they read it as a sign they are “not that good”.
• The soloist: feels that asking for help exposes weakness, so they insist on solving everything alone, which increases exhaustion.
• The expert: only feels ready when they master 100% of a subject, so they never feel ready enough.
• The superhero: measures their worth by the number of roles they can sustain at once, never showing tiredness.

How to start overcoming impostor syndrome

There is no switch that turns this pattern off at once. But there are consistent practices that, with repetition, reduce its intensity:

• Separate fact from feeling. Feeling like a fraud is not evidence that you are a fraud. Write down, concretely, the skills and results that brought you where you are, with no modesty filter.
• Name the pattern out loud. Talking about it with a mentor, trusted colleague or therapist usually reduces the power of the thought, because it removes the sense of a shameful secret and shows that the pattern is more common than it seems.
• Review your definition of competence. Nobody masters everything from the start. Making mistakes during the learning process is part of any high-level trajectory, not proof of incapacity.
• Keep evidence, not just criticism. Build the habit of recording positive feedback, successful deliveries and thanks received. Reread that record on the days when doubt appears most strongly.
• Accept praise with a “thank you”. Practice responding to recognition without deflecting, downplaying or justifying. It is a simple exercise, repeated, that helps the mind reprocess its own competence.
• Ask for structured feedback instead of being hostage to your own inner narrative. A Johari Window exercise or an open conversation with your manager helps confront distorted self-perception with real data.

When to seek professional support

This content is educational and does not replace evaluation or follow-up by a psychologist or psychiatrist. If the feeling of inadequacy comes with intense anxiety, persistent sadness or a significant impact on your routine and relationships, consider seeking support from a mental health professional. Recognizing that you need help is not weakness; in practice, it is an act of self-knowledge.