An impostor or an unrecognized genius: how to soberly assess your expertise

How do you differentiate the impostor syndrome from a situation where you really don’t have the expertise? Understanding what to do if you think you don’t deserve your success – or, conversely, that others don’t appreciate your talents

What is impostor syndrome and how does it manifest itself?

The impostor syndrome is a person’s belief that he does not deserve the success achieved and the feeling that he is a deceiver who is about to be exposed – despite external evidence of professional solvency.

American psychologists Joan Harvey and Cynthia Katz identified three signs of impostor syndrome:

• you are convinced that you are deceiving other people;
• you are afraid of being exposed;
• you are unable to recognize your accomplishments, abilities, intelligence, or qualifications.

People with impostor syndrome are often accompanied by feelings that they do everything imperfectly all the time. They perceive their success as an accident and cannot appropriate their own merits. They think that other colleagues are smarter and more professional.

There is a paradox here: out of a sense of anxiety and a desire to prove that they are worthy of their positions, “imposters” begin to read more, take refresher courses, and work on their mistakes. Therefore, most often people who are prone to impostor syndrome are actually really competent professionals.

But, nevertheless, the impostor syndrome causes a lot of suffering to people. For example, because of the fear that he does not have enough knowledge and skills, a person does not allow himself to begin to do what he aspires to.

Imposter syndrome is associated with the Dunning-Kruger effect: a cognitive bias that causes low-skilled people to overestimate their knowledge and high-skilled people to underestimate and doubt their abilities.

How to understand if you are a real impostor or … an impostor

It is important to understand that impostor syndrome is a subjective experience. Therefore, the first thing to do is to get out of the plane of your opinion of yourself and find a way to look at yourself from the outside. What can be done for this:

What to do if you realize that your expertise is still not enough?

Often we are afraid to admit that we do not know something. After all, many of us have been taught since childhood that it is bad to make mistakes, and it is a shame to admit that you do not know everything. But with the growth of professionalism, everyone understands that he or she has room to grow. If you find yourself lacking in expertise, don’t take it as a failure of failures. Recognizing your weaknesses and developing in them (if necessary) is the path to success.

But what if a person considers himself an unrecognized genius?

There are several reasons why a person may consider himself qualified in some area, being surrounded by people who do not agree with such an assessment.

This may be tritely associated with inflated self-esteem – then you should try to listen to the arguments of your environment, take a sober look at reality and descend from heaven to earth. By the way, increased production of dopamine can lead to this feeling. There is nothing wrong with this – except that this situation can lead to disappointment. But sometimes inflated self-esteem can be an indicator of narcissism.

It may be so: the point is not at all in the “unrecognized genius”, but really in those around him. If you don’t think that everyone around is stupid, then perhaps the point is really that your loved ones are used to limiting attitudes – “it’s too difficult”, “it won’t work”, and so on, and transfer them to you.

There are many examples of human progress drivers who do things that everyone before seemed impossible. And if this is you, perhaps you should look for like-minded people who will support you.