Impostor syndrome when working with contracts: how to help your team deal with it

Imposter syndrome can ruin both your career and your personal life. But the good news is that while it stays with you forever (doesn’t it?), you can make it less powerful with time. Not only for yourself but for the team you are managing.  

We want to share these three pieces of advice on how to do it from a senior legal executive with almost 20 years of experience in the industry — and, as he puts it, a dad to the world’s two best kids. :) 

Here we go.

"First is honesty, transparency, and vulnerability.

At the right time, I would share my own journey with imposter syndrome with each person. I would say: “This happened to me. It almost derailed my entire career.” 

The second thing is to let them know you are expecting them to screw things up.  

That it would be weird if they didn't. If somebody consistently does perfect work, that means I am not giving them enough challenging work to do. 

Say it however many different ways you can to let them know that you want them to make mistakes. That that's how they're going to learn. So they don't feel that trepidation of always being afraid to make mistakes. It's something that they should be expecting and that I'm expecting of them. 

The third is to give specific feedback, good and bad, to let them know the things that should be changed and why.

Or if they're not meeting expectations in one area, then be honest with them about that. Say, "Hey, I'm here to help you. But I am concerned that this is a recurring issue. What can we do to improve that?" 

Also, good feedback needs to be specific.

If you have constructive feedback and then you just say, "But overall this was good," most people are going to feel, "Are they just saying that? Do they really mean that? They listed all these nine things that they wanted me to do differently, but why are they still saying it's good?"

You have to take the time to say, “Hey, I thought this was good for these reasons. It was very well organized. I noticed that you fixed this time the mistakes that you had been making before. That was really good.”

If you give them that level of specificity, they're more likely to internalize it. And believe it.

And then you can have a more cooperative relationship where they feel, “Okay, I know what my manager says is really what they are thinking about me. They are not holding back. I feel comfortable now." 

Wishing you success!

*These tips are from an episode of the You Can Contract Show with Shaun Sethna. They have been shortened and edited for clarity.