There’s been various articles written on the phenomenon of Imposter Syndrome, such as this one by Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey called “Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome” and this one by our colleague Esther Saehyun Lee, titled “You’re not feeling imposter syndrome, you are an imposter: Identity and belonging in nonprofit work.”
I’m glad to see the pushback against the concept of Imposter Syndrome, since it often places the burdens on individuals who are often already marginalized to examine themselves and change their behavior, instead of forcing systems to stop being so inequitable.
All that said, over the past couple of decades of doing this work, one pattern I’ve noticed among people in the nonprofit sector is that we’re often full of self-doubt. Even the most brilliant people I know are always stressed out about whether their work is good enough, or if they are qualified to apply for so-and-so job. Heck, even just last week, as I was finishing up my book, I felt a wave of self-doubt washing over me, and I could hear my 12-year-old’s words when he read a novel assigned for his language arts class: “Daddy, this book is mid.”
We need to control this. It’s one thing if we’re just talking about an ED position that people may falsely feel they’re not qualified for, but right now, our sector and world face relentless coordinated attacks. We just don’t have time to spend second-guessing ourselves. It feeds all sorts of bad things, such as learned helplessness, stunted imagination, and toxic intellectualizing, none of which are helpful as we try to save democracy and fight fascism.
Seriously, the past few months should have put an end to all imposter syndrome forever. Look at who’s in charge right now. Some of the most awful people in existence, whose incompetence is only matched by their corruption. We have a president who has been convicted of 34 felonies, has multiple bankruptcies, been impeached twice, who can barely read or string a sentence together. Surrounding him are some of the most profoundly inept people to ever hold public office.
And yet we’re doubting ourselves? I am 100% confident anyone reading this post right now would be a better President or VP or Secretary of Health or State or Education or literally any other cabinet position than the people we currently have.
…
Read full article here.
