Whether you are the CEO of a global empire, or have just accepted your first team leader position one question you may be asking yourself is “Am I a good leader?” If you are, then you are not alone.
Effective leadership is not something that is static – it changes and develops in response to societal norms. Furthermore, it is a widely held belief that it is impossible to have a ‘leader for all seasons’. This being the case, it is not surprising that those small niggles of self-doubt can creep in. These doubts, known as imposter syndrome, can affect your confidence and outlook.
Imposter syndrome is a recognised condition. It is the feeling that you are not as good as other people think you are and that, at some point, they will find this out. Imposter syndrome is found in high achievers in all walks of life – not just managers.
Imposter syndrome should not stop you. A small amount of self-doubt in managers is healthy – it will spur you on to continually improve what you do and how you do it, so helping you to become a better leader.
The opposite to imposter syndrome is the so called Dunning-Kruger effect. This is where people are so convinced of their own abilities that they never question or analyse whether they are competent or not (and usually they are not as competent as they like to believe!)
To put it another way, the truly incompetent rarely worry about being truly incompetent! The Dunning-Kruger effect is, therefore, particularly dangerous in managers as the actions managers take are amplified through their teams.
The conclusion, therefore, is that it’s good to ask ourselves whether we are a good leader. Only by doing so can we recognise the need to continuously improve our leadership skills.
In our next blog we will look at the five fundamental areas all leaders need to focus on in order to continuously improve their skills.
