Businesswoman’s career took a leap when she was confused with the person who served the coffee

“Impostor syndrome,” sometimes called “fraud syndrome,” is a psychological disorder in which successful people are unable to recognize their achievements.

Those who suffer from it feel that they are not up to the task or that they do not deserve what they have obtained as a result of their work.

The impressive thing about this story is that the protagonist managed to turn that weakness into an advantage.

A coffee please?

When Sarah was in her twenties she had a highly responsible job: she was in charge of the challenge of finding the best acquisitions for a famous restaurant chain in the UK.

It was a huge business responsibility that depended, in large part, on his negotiating skills to get the best deals and close contracts worth thousands of dollars.

One day, he was two minutes late for a key meeting where the terms of a new contract were to be discussed.

“One of the lawyers, who was sitting at the other end of the table, looked up at me and said: ‘Thank God! I would like a coffee with a little milk and a spoonful of sugar,'” says the businesswoman. , realizing immediately that he had mistaken her for an office assistant.

How did the entrepreneur react? She turned around, poured him the coffee, and asked the rest of the negotiators if anyone else would like a coffee.

No one else asked for the service. So she poured herself a coffee and sat on the other side of the table, right across from the lawyer who had confused her.

When he realized what had happened, Willingham says, he became transparent.

At that moment, he understood the assumption that had led him to make a mistake.

“It was a beautiful moment in my career, really empowering, because I realized that imposter syndrome became, at that moment, my superpower,” he says.

“Guess who came out of that meeting with a good deal?” he asks with a smile on his face.

That is the experience that this businesswoman lived when facing the prejudices that for several years made her feel that she did not deserve the place where she was.

However, by facing her fears head-on, she ended up realizing that she could handle them, and even change the circumstances to turn them in her favor.

The positive side of a negative syndrome

For many who experience imposter syndrome in the world of work—often feeling that their job accomplishments are undeserved and that they are likely to be exposed as a fraud at any moment—things become very challenging.

It can become detrimental to success, because if you are worried that someone is going to expose the hoax, you are under such a high level of pressure that it can ultimately affect your performance for fear of failure.

However, it is not so, because there is another side of the coin.

According to scientific discoveries made by Basima Tewfik, Scholar of Labor and Organizational Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, the behaviors that “imposters” exhibit in an attempt to offset their self-doubt can make them good workers.

By allowing feelings of inadequacy, instead of trying to resist them, Impostor Syndrome Sufferers May Outperform Their “Non-Imposter” Peers.

According to Tewfik, this means that a trait that most people don’t like about themselves may actually motivate them to perform better, according to the results of their experiments.

“All this makes me feel very excited,” the academic tells the BBC. “It could be an advantage and maybe we should start thinking about taking advantage of it.”

The benefits of feeling “an impostor”

His research suggests the tangible benefits that can arise from imposter thoughts in the workplace.

This occurs, he explains, because one of the main defining points of impostor syndrome is the gap between how individuals perceive their own competence and how competent they actually are.

So the syndrome is more related to perception than to performance.

In that sense, this perceived job skill gap may not be negatively impacting the quality of your work after all.

And, if self-doubt leads them to put more effort into their interpersonal connections, it may even help them outperform their peers in developing their social skills.

It’s not wrong to doubt yourself

Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist and professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, tells the BBC that the academic’s findings are novel, because impostor syndrome has historically been seen as something exclusively negative.

“His research is breaking new ground by highlighting that imposter thoughts can be a source of energy,” he says.

“It can motivate us to work harder to prove something to ourselves and to work smarter to fill gaps in our knowledge and skills,” he adds.

Although there are several recommendations to help workers try to overcome their impostor feelings, several experts believe that the real goal should be to challenge the assumption that imposter syndrome is purely harmful.

It’s true that some people have a chronic belief that they are a fraud, but for most of us, Grant explains, it manifests as common doubts about whether we are up to the challenges we face.

And while this can cause stress, fear, or decreased self-confidence, she adds, it also reveals self-doubt that is normal and even healthy.

“Instead of holding us back, they can boost us”says the expert.

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