Fake It ‘Til You Make It: Leadership Educators and the Imposter Syndrome

• In Event: Leadership Educator Identities: Exploring the Complexity of Becoming and Being a Leadership Educator

Short Description

There is a lot to know as leadership educators and very little training to learn it. This results in many educators questioning their own legitimacy to be in their roles. This presentation will provide an overview of the pervasiveness of the Imposter Syndrome in leadership education and suggestions for reducing it.

Detailed Abstract

In order to teach a course or facilitate a program, leadership educators must have both a broad and deep understanding of leadership. They need to know theories, models, research, and concepts that span this interdisciplinary field while being able to readily apply these to real-world leadership situations. Essentially, there is a lot to know. But, with a young field that offers few training opportunities, even fewer advanced degrees in leadership, and smattering of networking opportunities, it is not surprising to find leadership educators questioning their competence and ability to effectively serve in their roles. This questioning can manifest into a lack of confidence and issues with professional legitimacy. But, knowing they must perform in these roles, many leadership educators take a ‘fake it till you make it’ approach to appear credible (Priest & Seemiller, unpublished). This behavior is reflective of the “Imposter Syndrome” (Clance & Imes, 1978), which occurs when an individual possesses concerns about their own credibility and adequacy while maintaining the appearance to others otherwise (Pedler, 2011). The notion of the Imposter Syndrome emerged in our first qualitative study examining leadership educators’ stories of professional experiences. We drew from a biographical narrative approach and deductive content analysis to examine and categorize these stories through the leadership educator identity framework (Seemiller & Priest, 2015). Many leadership educators made note of feeling unprepared, unconfident, and incompetent to serve in their roles and noted trying desperately to stay one step ahead so no one, peers and students, would notice that they were not sure what they were doing.

Our second study also used a narrative approach to understanding leadership educator identity. Participants at a professional development experience had the opportunity to reflect on their identity development through a series of guided narrative exercises. What resulted was a set of rhizomatic stories (Serminj, Delieger, and Loots, 2008) - or multiple entry points into educators’ journeys. Each entry point offers a temporary representation of selfhood. Rather than construct a “journey narrative,” these stories created a polyphony of different voices that offer insights into the critical incidents and influences of professional identity development. One of the prominent findings of the study was the pervasiveness of the Imposter Syndrome. Participants made comments such as, “When would they figure out that I was an impostor? When would they figure out that I didn't have all of the answers, and sometimes didn't understand where others were getting theirs?” or “I am supposed to be a ‘master’ of this thing we call leadership, so I better fake it till I make it, I suppose!” Not only were there comments about feeling like an imposter as a leadership educator, some made reference to feeling like an imposter as a leader and then trying to teach leadership. “What in the world did I know about leadership that gave me the ‘authority’ to be teaching this stuff?”

The issue of the Imposter Syndrome is symptomatic of the larger conversation needed regarding training and preparation for leadership educators, formal mentoring programs, and active communities of practice. As a field, it is critical to find ways to not only recruit individuals into the leadership education profession but also provide the training and support necessary for them to feel confident and competent in the work they do.

This presentation will showcase findings about the Imposter Syndrome from both studies as well as offer suggestions for individuals, institutions, and professional associations for both acknowledging and reducing the Imposter Syndrome in the field of leadership education.

Participant

• Corey Seemiller, Wright State University