Imposter Syndrome: Your Secret Edge in Senior Leadership
It is the silent secret of the executive track.
You are sitting at the senior table, a Director, Head of Function, or Senior Manager surrounded by colleagues, preparing to present a case that affects millions in revenue or thousands of employees. On paper, your success is undeniable. Yet, in a quiet corner of your mind, a voice whispers: “I don’t belong here. They’re going to find me out.”
That is imposter syndrome. Research suggests that up to 73% of high-potential leaders experience this persistent feeling of being a fraud despite overwhelming evidence of competence.
It’s often treated as a psychological flaw to be eliminated, a career-limiting weakness. But what if that internal friction, that self-doubt, is actually a fundamental sign of high-level intelligence and a powerful, hidden advantage for senior leaders?
The Problem with the ‘Fix-It’ Approach
Most advice on imposter syndrome tells you to suppress it, ignore it, or ‘fake it till you make it.’
But when you try to suppress a feeling, you disconnect from a valuable source of information. Senior leaders with genuine presence do not try to project an armor of operational perfection. They allow their competence to speak for itself while remaining open to the possibility that the Board may see a flaw they missed.
The goal is not to eliminate the feeling entirely, which is often impossible, but to reframe its meaning.
Reframe: Imposter Syndrome as a Leadership Advantage
Imposter syndrome is not a defect; it is a symptom of two powerful qualities essential for transitioning from managing operations to setting strategy:
1. It Signals Humility and Growth at the Edge
The instant you believe you have nothing left to learn, your leadership plateaus. The feeling of being an ‘imposter’ arises precisely because you are operating at the edge of your competency, stretching your authority to lead enterprise-wide projects or presenting to the highest level of governance.
Imposter syndrome is the price of admission to the next level of senior leadership.
It acts as a constant internal audit, reminding you that:
You are surrounded by highly capable people (including the Board).
The challenge is big enough to require your absolute focus and preparation.
You are dedicated to continuous growth and improvement, which is required at this level.
This inherent humility makes you a more effective and approachable leader. It stops you from becoming arrogant or complacent in your execution.
2. It Highlights the Competence-Confidence Gap
Many high-performers feel like imposters not because they are incompetent, but because their confidence lags behind their actual capability.
This is the competence-confidence gap. You only allow yourself to be judged on what you don't know or what you didn't include in your strategic presentation, ignoring the decades of operational success and knowledge you do possess.
Leveraging Self-Doubt: From Paralysis to Preparation
Instead of letting self-doubt paralyze you before a high-stakes presentation or decision, use it as an operational tool:
Doubt as a Checklist: When self-doubt surfaces, do not dismiss it. Instead, ask: "What specific data or preparation do I need to feel resourceful for this particular risk I am presenting?" This converts an abstract fear into a concrete action plan (e.g., "I need to get the CFO's pre-approval on the worst-case scenario analysis").
Evidence Collection: Keep a running log of your successes, particularly complex projects you led from inception to completion. Before presenting a critical business case, spend 60 seconds reviewing three recent wins. This anchors you in proven competence, calming the anxious mind.
Own the Unknown: A confident senior leader does not know every single detail; a confident leader knows how to clearly state what they do not know and who on their team has the answer. This is a sign of strategic capability, not weakness.
By reframing the feeling as a signal for preparation or a reminder of strategic humility, you move from being paralyzed by doubt to being empowered by it.
The Deeper Truth: Authentic Leadership Requires Doubt
The leaders who inspire the most trust, from your team to the Board, are not the ones who appear flawless. They are the ones who are congruent, who match their inner experience with their outer expression, even if that inner experience includes self-awareness and doubt.
When you stop performing the role of the infallible Director and start inhabiting the role of the capable, yet learning, human being, you grant permission to your team to do the same.
Your ability to acknowledge, reframe, and use your self-doubt is a true mark of senior leadership maturity. It is time to stop viewing it as a silent career killer and start using it as your secret leadership edge.
Former senior leader in a FTSE100 organisation, now executive coach specialising in leadership transformation through NLP, hypnosis, and state management. I believe my clients are already resourceful, my job is to help them access it.
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