A feeling that divides the top
There is a thought almost no one at the top says out loud and almost everyone knows: that their own success is a misunderstanding. That they got lucky, timed it well, knew the right people — but at the core don’t have what everyone assumes. And that it is only a matter of time until someone notices.
This pattern has had a name since 1978. The psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes described it as the “impostor phenomenon”. Their observation: it strikes especially successful people who cannot internally accept their performance as their own. It is not a diagnosis and not an illness. It is an experience. And at the top of a company it is not the exception, but the rule.
How common it really is
The numbers contradict the feeling of being alone. They say the opposite: those who know this are in the majority.
of women executives know the feeling
KPMG Women’s Leadership Study, 2020
of CEOs have experienced impostor feelings
Korn Ferry, survey of top leaders, 2024
of UK business leaders have felt like impostors
UK business-leader survey, 2023
A widely cited estimate in the research suggests that around 70% of all people experience the impostor feeling at least once in their lives (Sakulku & Alexander, 2011). What is added at the top: fewer people you can talk to honestly about it. The burden stays the same — the isolation grows.
How to recognise it in yourself
Success is explained away
Every win is attributed to luck, timing or the team — never to your own competence. Every mistake, by contrast, is personal failure.
Overwork as insurance
More hours, more preparation, more control — not because it is necessary, but to postpone the feared exposure.
Fear of the mask
The sense of playing a role that could be uncovered at any time. Praise does not feel like confirmation, but like a raised stake.
Avoiding visible risk
Promotions, stages, decisions under observation are avoided — out of fear of being seen there as insufficient.
The fallacy: more performance does not heal it
The obvious solution would be to earn your way out of the doubt — to get even better until the feeling disappears. That is exactly the trap. Every new success is immediately explained away and therefore provides no evidence that lasts. What lasts is the higher stake next time.
This creates a cycle that looks like discipline from the outside and works like fear from the inside. Overwork, perfectionism and avoiding visible risk are not solutions — they are symptoms. And they have a price: they are one of the silent precursors of what later leads to the failure of leaders, long before it becomes visible from the outside.
What actually changes things
The pattern does not disappear through self-reassurance (“you are good enough”). It changes through different mechanics:
Document evidence instead of explaining it away. Those who record successes in writing — what was the decision, what was the outcome — build a counter-archive to the inner voice. Facts are harder to talk away than feelings.
Separate self-doubt from self-worth. Doubt is a thought, not a verdict on your worth. The most capable often doubt the most — not despite, but because of their standards. Forgiving yourself your own yardstick here is not soft comfort, but a precondition for clear decisions.
Redefine responsibility. Not: “I have to prove I can do it.” But: “I stand for the result.” This is the Patron’s stance — responsibility for the result, not for the perfect self-image. It decouples action from the pressure to prove.
Have an honest sparring partner. The pattern lives on isolation. It falls apart the moment someone with an outside view names it. That is precisely the function of coaching — not a comforter, but a corrective that mediates between reality and self-image. It is also the basis of real entrepreneurial resilience.
Impostor syndrome is not a sign that you are not enough. It is usually a sign that your standard is greater than your willingness to grant yourself your own success.
75% of women leaders, 71% of CEOs: you are not the special case. The question is not whether the doubt disappears. The question is whether it leads you — or you lead it.