Ask Dr. AJ: Fitting in with Dual Interests and promoting workplaces that dissuade Imposter Syndrome

This month I’m answering two questions that I was asked when I spoke at the American Chemical Society Spring Meeting earlier this week.

Q1: I have interdisciplinary skills in chemistry and computing. I often feel like I don’t fit in in either field and am struggling to explain how my dual interests will make me a good leader.

You’ve probably heard the phrase Jack of all trades, master of none but did you know it ends with but often times better than master of one?

Interdisciplinarity is a superpower! It means you know how to integrate information from multiple sources to aid in problem solving and decision making.

Here’s a short exercise:

Make a list of times you used your skills in this integrated way and how it aided the team. What themes do you see?

Use those themes to complete this phrase:

I am the person who can _____ because I understand both _____ and _____. That is my value. That is why I can lead in this room.

I actually made a workbook to help interdisciplinary folks gain clarity on the value they contribute - and talk to their supervisors about it. Download the Clarity Conversation workbook here.

Q2: How do I create a workplace environment that doesn’t promote Imposter Syndrome? 

Experiences of the imposter phenomenon show up in the space between what we assume it takes to be successful at something and how we perceive our own skills or abilities.

So there are a few things you can do to help employees not get stuck in that gap:

Set clear expectations for what success looks like. Repeatedly. More often than just once per year during a performance appraisal.

Hold folks to those expectations. This includes making sure they meet those expectations AND making sure they don’t get stuck in a perfectionism trap of trying to exceed those expectations. e.g. If you find one of your employees or colleagues staying up until 3am to perfect a presentation, have a conversation with them about it.

Keep an eye out for the top compensation techniques for imposter syndrome: procrastination, avoidance, and perfectionism. Address these when you see them in a kind, caring way. All three can lead to burnout.

Make sure your team knows that race, gender, ability status, etc are not factors in what it takes to be competent at their jobs. Often when people with minoritized identities walk into rooms where they are ‘the only one’, the unspoken message is that they aren’t the right person to be in the room. And that causes imposter syndrome. Remind them they are there due to their skillset and back it up by making sure their ideas are heard and valued.

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