Addressing Covering and Imposter Syndrome in the Workplace

By: Jada Miles
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Many students and professionals can relate to feeling like an imposter or having to tone down their true self in professional environments. It is common for people to feel like they don’t deserve their accomplishments or they “just got lucky."

Brandi Boatner, Digital & Advocacy Communications at IBM spoke about imposter syndrome and covering in the workplace and ways to combat this. 

Boatner covered three main points during her session:

• Disrupt Diversity by defeating Imposter Syndrome

The term Imposter Syndrome was created by two psychologists in 1978. Defined as “referring to  high-achieving individuals marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a ‘fraud’”. Boatner then covered the impacts of imposter syndrome, how it leads to procrastination, over-working, self doubt and more when it goes unchecked. She also talked about the different types of Imposter Syndrome too, and left us with a way to beat it, “You can beat imposter syndrome by embracing it,” Boatner said.

• Understand the dynamics of the term “covering” and how it affects the employee experience

Covering is where a person will downplay a well-known stigmatized identity to blend in, similar to code switching. She also shared how 61% of employees in the workplace cover.  Some different ways people might “cover” in the workplace include:
- Altering their appearance
- Avoiding advocating for their group
- Avoiding behaviors associated with their identity
- Avoiding contact with other group members

• Develop a framework for how to infuse inclusion to drive employee engagement

Boatner talked about how to create a safe space for everyone to be who they really are. 
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At the end of the session Boatner left us with some key takeaways to help combat these issues. Organizations should increase psychological safety which is “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking,” which would then lead to benefits from diverse thinking. She also encouraged people to live their authentic lives, and adjust to a new normal.