Leila Ainge on imposter phenomenon - and why you are not broken!

Middling Along

My guest today is Leila Ainge - an accredited psychologist with 20 years of cross industry business consulting experience. Leila’s research focuses on how entrepreneurs experience imposter phenomenon - but is relevant for all of us! She’s also the host of the Psychologically Speaking podcast which is currently exploring various experiences of imposter phenomenon.

We start by delving into why Leila prefers to talk about imposter phenomenon or imposter feelings, rather than imposter syndrome and review the origins of the term ‘imposter’ in this context. We move on to how Leila approaches and interrogates her own imposter feelings, when they arise - beginning with her first imposter experience with a small baby in the NICU and then fairly soon after, the arrival of anxiety in perimenopause.

Leila’s advice on managing imposter feelings includes: interrogate your current surroundings and context - who are you around at that moment? What’s different? What is this environment giving or not giving you? What else is going on for you?

It’s easy to feel like you’ll always feel like this, but actually imposter is a transient feeling…it comes and goes.

We talk about social comparison and context collapse, particularly in the technology and online sphere, and the problems that stem from the speed at which we adopt technology - we don’t have the ground rules! We also touch on navigating online spaces with the myriad individuals and relationships to factor in - and how a lack of objectivity can cause us to struggle.

Often in online spaces there is a bit of ‘shiny new thing’ syndrome!

We discuss the importance of establishing boundaries around how we use online spaces and compare the experiences of using LinkedIn and Instagram - should we be putting more responsibility back on to platform providers?

We move on to the positive side of comparison for women in business - finding ‘pockets of belonging’ where we can be authentic and gain objectivity.

We wrap up by looking at the topic of Leila’s PhD: ‘what do we get out of being online?’ - and I ask Leila what it’s like to start a PhD in later life!

I do hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed chatting to Leila - who is a friend as well as an interviewee! You can find Leila and her brilliant podcast at https://www.leilaainge.co.uk/

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