Do you have coaching clients who are perfectionists, who struggle accepting help from others or who procrastinate for a long time before starting a project or side hustle?

Well, they are showing some signs of imposter syndrome :) In this short and sweet power-packed video and podcast episode, we will succinctly lay out the 4 signs and symptoms of imposter syndrome.

Transcript

Today, we will be discussing 4 clear cut signs of imposter syndrome. If you are an experienced coach, this can serve as a reminder for you. This is helpful because refreshing our memory is part of learning and gaining knowledge :)

If you are a new coach, this video will help you identify if someone has imposter syndrome. And create strategies to help them reduce it.

How can we define imposter syndrome?

We can define imposter syndrome as someone who has a belief that they lack skills, knowledge or experience to do something. They have this belief even though they have many pieces of evidence which prove that they are capable.

It’s more of an ‘irrational’ belief because it is based on their emotions, and not facts. If someone also has an unconscious belief that they don’t deserve success, that is also a sign of imposter syndrome.

Why do they - or we - have imposter syndrome? It likely stems from the thought that they have nothing special or valuable to offer the world. It originates from their experiences during their childhood to teen years.

Why do we have to help our clients reduce imposter syndrome?

Reducing imposter syndrome is beneficial. It allows our clients to live with courage, be brave enough to try new things, face failures head-on, and essentially, live a rich and vibrant life.

On the other hand, living with imposter syndrome means they have many unfulfilled dreams.

Our clients don’t start the projects that they want because they are scared of failing. They take too long to execute their plans.

They procrastinate because they want everything to be ‘perfect’ before they launch or start something. I dare say that we will have with many regrets if we let imposter syndrome stick around.

Let’s dive in to the 4 clear cut signs and symptoms of imposter syndrome

#1 Perfectionism

The first sign is perfectionism. This is a no-brainer. Perfectionists will overwork themselves to burnout or take way too long to start a project. They want everything to be flawless before launching something.

They don’t like mistakes, they view mistakes as shameful, so they will go to all lengths to prevent mistakes and failures. Perfectionists will focus on even the smallest, irrelevant details of their project before making it public.

They overwork because they have such a low opinion of their own skills and talents. So they work themselves to death to feel secure. The flipside can happen too.

Many perfectionists have bucket lists which are unfulfilled because they procrastinate to start something. They place such a high standard on themselves, that they feel overwhelmed just at the thought of starting their project. So what happens? Nothing happens!

They also want things to be perfect from the get-go. When they are starting a blog for the first time for example, they expect everything to go smoothly even at the first try.

They are like this, because they have high standards on themselves. And when things do not go smoothly - which is normal if you are doing something for the first time- they get discouraged and feel down. So perfectionism as you can see, is a sign of imposter syndrome.

By the way, you can download my free perfectionism test which you can use as a lead magnet. This will help your clients gauge how severe or how mild their perfectionism is. The link to download this below so click the link if you want a free perfectionism lead magnet.

With that out of the way, let’s go to the next sign of imposter syndrome.

#2: Collecting knowledge and not implementing them

The next sign of imposter syndrome is someone who likes to ‘collect knowledge’. These are the people who buy courses after courses and do not implement them. They may also chase qualifications after qualifications. Maybe they have multiple certificates : degrees, diplomas and everything in between. They collect knowledge because they don’t feel confident of the knowledge they already have.

Learning and upgrading ourselves is crucial, but if they buy courses because they feel insecure in their own skills, that’s an issue. Sometimes they do this because they believe that they need to have a ‘certain level’ of knowledge before starting a business, for example.

And that imaginary level is of course a very high standard they put on themselves. At this rate, they will never start their project or launch their business. Or they will sit on an idea for years before actually taking action. This is another sign of imposter syndrome. They never feel that they are ready, skills-wise.

#3: Does not like accepting or asking for help

Another sign of imposter syndrome is not accepting help from other people. These lovely people like to do things themselves. They believe that if someone is ‘competent’, they have to be able to do everything themselves.

To them, accepting help is a sign of weakness. And they think that their success is not counted unless they do it themselves. If they get help, they will credit their success to the people who help them, and not to their own talent. Again, they have such a low opinion of their own abilities that they follow this high, impossible standard so that they can feel ‘worthy’.

#4: Wants to play ALL roles ‘perfectly’

The next sign of imposter syndrome is wanting to be the perfect wife, the perfect mum, the perfect daughter, the perfect employee - all at one go. It sounds tiring just saying it. They don’t trust their own abilities, so they will work really hard to be ‘perfect’ in all areas. What happens? Burnout happens.

They may find it hard to let go and relax. They don’t like making mistakes in any life area because that is a sign of incompetence in their eyes. In reality, nobody is expecting them to perform at 100% all the time. And people are actually more forgiving than we think.

These lovely people are intent on playing perfect roles so that people do not have the ammunition to ‘attack’ or criticise them. They are sensitive to criticism because they feel that they are such ‘low value’ human beings that every criticism is a blow to their confidence.

If you want to accelerate your coaching results, be sure to check out the Overcome Perfectionism Workbook I have in my online shop. You can use the coaching tools in the workbook to coach clients with perfectionism, which is one of the causes of imposter syndrome.

I’ll see you in my next video. Bye!

Four tell-tale signs of imposter syndrome in your coaching clients