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At first glance, imposter syndrome could be describing being thrown in at the deep end, learning to swim. But in the talent pool, this can be a crippling fear holding many back from leading full careers.
A fraud. A persistent internal voice, dragging at confidence. I must be rubbish.
Imposter syndrome. Is it holding back bright people from realising their potential? Or is it yet another label forcing action back on individuals, and disproportionately women, rather than the industry itself?
Aimee Buchanan, CEO of GroupM in AUNZ: “The first time I stepped into a client leadership role, I’d worked on the business for six years, and I was still freaking out.
“As CEO, I was beside myself with anxiety for a few months. I had a five or six month old baby and was thinking ‘I’m barely getting dressed every day. How can I run a company?’”
Buchanan says people get confidence by succeeding and when you haven’t succeeded in a role, it gives cause to question ability.
“There’s a lot outside of your control in these agency leadership roles, where you’re desperately trying to keep all the pieces moving,” she says.
“It’s kind of like Whac-A-Mole (the arcade game). You rarely get a day when everything is going perfect. So it does cause quite a bit of self doubt.”
Buchanan surrounds herself with people who have confidence, who mesh well.
“And I do think that the more senior you get, you have to internalise a lot of that doubt, because people don’t want to look up and see someone in a panic,” she says.
“You need the people that you can confide in ... the people that you can call upon that give you that moment of clarity or just a quiet corner sometimes to go sit in and rock in.
“For many women, it’s accentuated in terms of the self doubt holding them back and preventing them from maybe taking that leap.
“I had a lovely client who, at one point in my career, I was talking to about what my next move would be.
“He said: ‘Ames, you’re crazy. You are so ready to do that.’ His comment was that a lot of women need to be 70% to 80% ready to make the move. Whereas in his eyes, for men it was perhaps 50% ready. ‘Have a bit of faith and back yourself,’ he said.
“It was a good insight. I had been thinking: I haven’t got that skill and haven’t got that skill. And he’s telling me I’ve got them all and, yes, I have some growth ahead.
“Repositioning that is: You step into these things for growth and it’s not expected that you should have all the answers. And I do think I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable.”
Start channeling that feeling.
Emma Robbins remembers a Billie Jean King quote: “Pressure is a privilege.” The tennis great, with 39 grand slams, talked about how the crowd expected her to win. Many would have been crippled under such a weight of expectations but King saw it differently.
Robbins, executive creative director at M&C Saatchi Melbourne, sees being in advertising as a privilege.
“In advertising, which is nowhere near as cool as being at Wimbledon, you feel the pressure in a pitch or to deliver a spreadsheet or whatever. Our job is a privilege. We’re doing cool stuff and every day something cool happens. If we start to think about that as a privilege and use that pressure to power us through that moment, we can look at the advantages of all the things that we get to do.”
She says imposter syndrome is a big part of conversation at the moment. “I think this is a great thing because the more we talk about it and the more we define it … the more we make friends with it.
“It’s not an ailment. It won’t be a disadvantage if you use it properly. The risk is that we become frozen by it, disabled by it.
“I feel like if you can flip it, embrace it, and just let it do the opposite, that’s the power that it also has.”
Robbins, at the start of her career, with a few years experience in creative, moved to the big smoke, Clemenger Melbourne, from Hobart.
“Clemenger Melbourne was insane for me because the names of all the people that worked there were all names in award books to me,” she says.
“And they were famous and walking among them was so humbling and intimidating and that’s truly where imposter syndrome set in.
“On the flip side of that, I told myself that Clemenger Melbourne wouldn’t hire me unless they thought I had the ability. It’s not like they’ve gone, ‘Oh, we’ll see how she goes’.
“It was pretty hard to get into as it still is now. I remind myself of that. That was my beginning of feeling something like ‘Am I good enough to be here?’ and then, ‘Oh, okay. Maybe I am because I got that idea through or we won that or this got great peer recognition.’
“But then it was like, ‘Oh, now I’ve got to do it again. Got to do it again. Got to do it again’.”
That doubt can be a healthy fear. The opposite is thinking you are always right, and are going to win, because your decisions are bang on.
“I guess that the beauty of this industry is no one’s right and there are millions of different ways to come at a problem and solve it,” says Robbins.
“I’ve used it as a fuel to keep myself honest and working hard. It’s an insecurity that I don’t like about myself, but that I also really do like about myself because it’s never let me settle.
“I’ve never felt comfortable in where I am at that particular moment, because I always think I could do better or we could have done better. It can be exhausting to think that way but it’s also what powers you on. That’s my kind of experience.
“Without it you could possibly become smug. It could play out in complacency, ‘That’ll do. I don’t know if that’s right. I don’t really know what I’m doing, but that’ll kind of do.’ It’s wicked from all angles but I’ve learnt to become friends with it.”
Rachel Lounds, of Poschology Coaching, spent time in agency land before helping people with imposter syndrome:
“When I started a new job, I would have this awful first couple of days, where internally I am saying, ‘What have I done? I don’t know what I’m doing. They’re going to find out I’ve lied.’
“It’s really bad, a state of panic almost. People who have imposter syndrome feelings measure competence in a different way; they distort what competence means.
“My version of competence meant that I would step into a job and immediately know what to do, being able to hit the ground running, master everything quickly and easily.
“I’d be very hard on myself if I didn’t master something quickly. And so my immediate reaction would be, ‘Well I’m obviously no good. I’m a failure. I’m a fake. I don’t know what I’m doing. Someone’s going to work it out.’
“I focus on those women, because I know the landscape. I’ve got a very personal experience … within the advertising industry. Agencies can be quite toxic. Not all of them, but I have worked in some that are.
“Advertising as an industry fuels self doubt. It’s quite competitive and you’re only as good as your last campaign, your last ad, your last idea,.
“You’re coming up with creative ideas which can be viewed subjectively. Others are often there to criticise your work. It’s a bit of a backstabbing industry in that people are always trying to bring each other down, or get one up on each other.
“I think those in creative fields are quite apt to feel imposter syndrome. There’s plenty of examples of that across entertainment. Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Tom Hanks; they all talk about their fear of being found out, or not being good enough.
“That’s just as pertinent in advertising, where you are putting your ideas forward. It’s scary.”
Lounds says she had tried to fly under the radar, one of the notable behaviours of imposter syndrome in advertising.
She avoided leadership roles and was terrified someone was going to find out she didn’t really know what she was doing.
“In one sense, advertising is a good place for someone like me,” she says. “Because you can hide in an agency, where you say, ‘Well, I’m pretty sure no one around here knows what they’re doing, but that’s okay.’
“But it kind of exacerbates that feeling. And as you get older, you do go up the ladder, get better jobs, more money, and you are expected to lead. And I just avoided it at all costs.
“Other sabotaging behaviours include being defensive and over personalising any criticism. And then you think: ‘Well, obviously I’m no good and they don’t value me here.’
“Again, terrified that they’re going to find out I’m an utter fraud. Get out of here, before they really realise it, and fire me.”
Lounds says she hears many say they don’t enjoy working and want to leave advertising but don’t know where to go.
“In 2019, I left a job, under not very good circumstances. I had suffered burnout. I was getting to the point of panic attacks, bad anxiety, bad stress. I was being bullied and harassed and I told myself, ‘Right. Let’s get out of here. I’ve got to change my life’.”
That’s when she landed on coaching.
“I retrained and decided to focus on this particular area, because having looked into it a bit more, and when talking about imposter syndrome, I realised just how much it had pervaded my career, and my life. And I didn’t even know that at the time. Had I known earlier on in my career, I perhaps could’ve done something about it, and things would’ve been different.
“Maybe I would’ve been more successful. Maybe I would’ve had a general manager role. I just thought, ‘Okay, now I need to give this information to other people.’
“Particularly young women who are in the advertising industry, which can be very male dominated. It’s hard for women to speak up, and help them find that confidence, so they’re not in a position where they’re in their mid forties, like I am now, going, ‘I really could have done a lot more in my career, but I didn’t, because I was too scared’.”
And she’s making a difference. “Some come in and it’s almost like they’re broken at that point. And then when they leave, they’re completely different. There’s a change.
“To me, it doesn’t look like a lot … but there’s simple mindset shifts that take people from one space to another.
“And it’s just that repeated behaviour, understanding, looking at things differently. I’ve had people come into my programs, and they’ve also been bullied in their careers. They don’t believe that they’re good enough, worthy. They struggle to find another job, because of those things.
“And then they have a new perspective, very positive, very confident, going out and getting jobs that they wouldn’t even consider before. Making decisions that are aligned with what they really want, and also setting some really clear boundaries about what they want to do. How they want to do it. And this then brings a lot more joy to people’s lives. It’s so amazing to watch this transformation.
“There’s the confidence gap between men and women. That’s quite well documented. I think maybe organisations could help focus a little bit more on helping women to become more confident, because the myth of the ever confident male is just that - a myth. There are plenty of men who experience imposter syndrome.
“There’s also diversity and inclusion factors. If you are one of, or a few of, the only people who look or sound like you in your company, then you’re not going to feel as confident because you might not feel like you belong. We’ve got a transient industry, where a lot of people are coming from overseas. Doing business in a different language, and a different culture, can make you feel like you don’t belong.
“Your work is looked at from subjective standards and you are apt to judge yourself more harshly, because you’ve got high expectations. Imposter syndrome is very much linked to high achievers and achievement arenas as there’s a lot of pressure to perform.”
Aimee Buchanan at GroupM: “We try to spend our whole career glossing over weaknesses, but basically, we are all deeply flawed human beings..
“When a team understands each other’s strengths and weaknesses, in a very transparent, real, genuine way, it’s the ‘unlock’ because you suddenly accept those things. Don’t try to hide it or overcompensate for it.
“My gut guidance on that from a leadership point of view is we’ve all got things we’re not good at. And I’ve done it here … this is the thing I need to work on and this is what I’m hearing from your feedback.
“We’re all flawed. Its acceptance and acknowledgement is growth.
“It’s usually inherent for your entire career. It’s the same one or two things you’re juggling. It’s way better to get that out in the open: ‘Go hold me to account when I’m not practising that properly.’
“That was a massively liberating thing for me, because I felt the anxiety about the things you’re not good at.”
Suzanne Roberts, managing director, VCCP, said: “As a leader, I don’t feel that imposter syndrome has crept up on me throughout my career. This is because I’ve surrounded myself with good mentors and role models who nurtured me, giving me positive and negative pointers. And this is something that I implement for my team - to ensure that I build them up and bring in people who positively contribute to their careers and not hold them back.
“On the flip side, as a junior account handler coming up the ranks, I can see how imposter syndrome manifests itself from early on.
“Young account team members are expected to sit in meetings and reviews with far more senior people and specialists and have an opinion on the strategy, creativity, and media. A lot of the time, creativity is subjective and there’s no right or wrong. This can be incredibly intimidating.”
Kara Bombell, chief operations officer, Digitas: “Traditionally, women are groomed from birth to be unassuming, to act small, to be invisible. And often, women who challenge that paradigm are made to feel like they ‘take up too much space’, are ‘too loud’, or worse, are labelled with the dreaded ‘bossy’ title.
“As a result, an individual’s inclination to spruik their skills or negotiate their worth erodes with time.
“It’s been shown that these issues deepen during the mum years because of the biological impacts of being pregnant, childbirth, feeding, sleep deprivation, primary caring and more.
“I read that the same chemicals that make you bond with your child, reduce your sense of self and self-confidence – and that typically, it takes up to 10 years after birth for a woman to re-establish that sense of identity. So it would seem it’s no coincidence that it’s also during these prime years that women tend to lose career velocity.
“Saying Imposter Syndrome is to blame puts the onus on the individuals to resolve. It frames the issue as an ailment in need of a singular, personal remedy, when really,
I feel it’s a symptom of a systematic problem. A symptom of cultures and structures that need to be actively dismantled to create more inclusive and diverse environments.
“To create meaningful and sustainable impact, we need to take stock of the underlying conditions, re-evaluate ‘the rules’ and meet women where they are – and for who they are.”
Justine Leong, general manager of Sydney at whiteGREY: “I moved from the BBC to my first agency role as an account director full of excitement and ready to take on the world. That was until a very senior creative swiftly told me, ‘You won’t last a month’. Cue second guessing my place in the agency and my new industry.
“Imposter syndrome is only an issue if leaders don’t build safe, supportive, diverse environments – the best context to operate in. Perhaps then we can help people manage imposter syndrome so they, and their organisation, fulfil their potential.
“I’m a self-confessed introvert in what sometimes feels like an industry of extroverts. If we have a bias to celebrate those who more readily jump into the spotlight, this can fuel imposter syndrome. If introverts don’t live up to the industry’s perception of what a successful person looks like, self-doubt can be triggered. It’s about performance cultures over popularity contests.
“Being an outsider fuels imposter syndrome. Feeling like a fraud (despite being capable) can be more pronounced if you sense you don’t belong.
"If you’re the only one in the room (the only woman, the only person of colour, the only person with a disability, etc) then you’re going to feel like you shouldn’t be there. Imposter syndrome isn’t just in our minds, it’s in what we see as well. More reasons to be conscious of diversity in the industry.”
Nancy Lan, national managing director, Starcom: “My first experience of Imposter Syndrome was in 2013, when I found myself re-launching and running an agency’s content team in Shanghai.
“I managed a more experienced team, who I felt must have questioned my appointment into the general manager role from the head office in London. I found myself in my first ever personal office, needing to get to know the complex media landscape in China, and wondering how I was going to convince myself – let alone the team, my peers and our clients – that I was cut out for the job.
“So I chipped away, learning earnestly, working relentlessly and importantly, I valued the people around me. Within twelve months, we tripled the team, our client base increased four times and we increased revenue by over 450%.
“Two years later, I was asked to run the Shanghai Optimedia (now Spark Foundry) office. Once again, Imposter Syndrome struck. I vividly recall a conversation, which centred around my level of planning, investment and general agency experience. I went about re-applying the same formula – learning from anyone and everyone, working harder than I had ever worked and putting people first. I did this knowing that I would only succeed if they did. They did, and so did I!
“What stopped the Imposter Syndrome from being paralysing was the fortune of having leaders who truly recognised my potential, having the courage to believe them and the tenacity to not let them down.”
Amanda Wheeler, Leo Burnett’s chief client partner, believes the industry generally isn’t very good at preparing people for leadership.
“We sometimes mistake ambition for leadership,” she says. “Furthermore, we often reward negative behaviours such as taking on more responsibility (without understanding the impact) and mistaking proximity to leadership as leadership.
“It’s further complicated by not always clearly understanding when recruiting entry leadership roles what qualities make good leaders and how you are going to grow those.
“More recently, we are seeing a greater focus on leadership behaviours and creating training to develop those skills, as well as an understanding of the value of mentoring and that agencies should help facilitate that, hopefully leading to more value-based leaders in the industry.”
The “am I good enough?” feeling either holds people back or can spur them on.
“What it does mean is that only people who are motivated to push through that emotional/conditioned barrier to move forward end up succeeding and we lose others because they get frustrated by the lack of recognition and the career gaslighting, regardless of their skills and values. But it also holds women back from challenging management structures and getting ahead.
“I’m not a fan of the term ‘imposter syndrome’ because it validates it, rather than questions why women are being held back. It normalises the frustration and the anger and hides it with a glib label. I’ve worked on the client and agency side for nearly 30 years and yes, it’s held me back and it’s held others back. And it still holds many women back.
“There are virtually no women of my generation left in the industry. We can’t blame the individuals for lacking the fight and the endurance to persevere”
What can be done?
Amanda Wheeler: “I’m lucky to work in the Publicis Groupe where it is more than lip service. Parity of women in leadership roles is an ambition. Course correction doesn’t happen by accident, it takes planning and looking at some hard truths about behaviours, practices and traditions.
“Leo Burnett’s global CCO Chaka Sobhani was talking to the Australian team recently and what a breath of fresh air that was; firstly to see a women in that role and secondly to see the energy and drive she brings – and an energy and drive that is very different to that of her male colleagues. Breaking down generational walls will take time but what I’ve found that really makes a difference during my career is women supporting women. For every woman who succeeds, she should ensure more follow in her footsteps.”
Ross Hastings, managing director of The Ne-Lo Group, says the self-doubt associated with a negatively framed question such as “Am I good enough?” can lead to risk avoidance, reactivity and defensive behaviours.
He recommends re-framing that question to “What do I need to do to be great?”. This can lead to a healthy balance of proactivity and confidence.
What can be done?
Hastings:
Agencies: Promote people for their people management skills and cultural fit; Be clear on what success looks like as you promote them; Make sure you provide structured learning and support to set them up for that success.
Individuals: Reframe “am i good enough?” to “what do I have to do to be great?”; Know what success looks like; Break goals into bite sized chunks and celebrate little wins along the way; Seek out support and mentorship inside and outside the agency; Find new ways to utilise your strengths.
Rich Lloyd, managing director of Media.Monks Content AUNZ: “I hate winging it. In my personal life, I’m the guy that gets to the airport early. That prints out his boarding pass. Boooring.
“In my professional life I like to understand context, I like to prep for meetings, I like to look clients in the eye and talk with integrity.
“To avoid winging it with clients, I decided very early on that I’d work in different types of agencies to be able to view the same brand and commercial issues through different lenses: big ads, conversion funnels, performance media, first-party data, influencers.
“Naturally, this means you constantly land yourself in places of discomfort from which to learn. The by-product of this is impostor syndrome; where I question if I’m the right guy to do this job.
“Luckily for me, this mindset is valued by my employers, as generalists can open doors to the right specialists vs being pre-programmed to only offer one solution.
“To me, it shows a hunger to learn. Ambition. That you’re open to solving things in a new way. In fact,
I think we look to hire these people.
“And it’s also the sort of work we look to do. Creative that makes us uncomfortable. Metaverse campaigns are things that haven’t been tried before. A scale of asset production that makes my head spin.
“Ultimately if I worked with people who were sure they had it all worked out, I’d really worry. So here at Media.Monks, Imposter.Monks are always welcome.”
Clementine Ford, host of the Nova Podcast Dear Clementine and best selling author: “I’m an objectively ‘successful’ person. But even after fifteen years of establishing a solid reputation as a writer and content producer,
I still find myself occasionally locked in self doubt. Am I good enough? Smart enough? Do they like me? Can I do this?
“I often feel like an outsider at meetings and industry events - I’m always waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and tell me I don’t belong. But I wonder how much of that is also the paradoxical nature of creativity. Imposter syndrome certainly isn’t reserved for the creative industries, but a lot of people working in the creative fields spent their adolescence feeling like they didn’t belong.
“Our terrible insecurity exists alongside our unrelenting egos, and it can be a hard beast to manage! And it becomes even harder when you’re in industries that are not only competitive, but also often operate like a closed shop.”
When she feels the weight of imposter syndrome, she tells herself: I have as much right to be here as anyone else; I’m here because I have a body of work that speaks for itself; There’s no such thing as “good enough” only “always improving”.
“We have to start unpacking whether or not what we mean by ‘imposter’ is actually ‘outsider’. Do we really feel anxiety about our presence in certain places because we’re not qualified enough, or is it because those places have traditionally excluded us? And so when I speak to other women about these things, I always ask them one question: ‘Why not you?’.”
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