Break Free From Imposter Syndrome

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Hello my friends! Great to see you. My name is Steve Haase and i am psyched to be here with you talking about breaking free from imposter syndrome. this is really important as leaders because if we're not showing up with full confidence being fully grounded in ourselves in our own vision for where we want to go then we won't succeed the way that we want to our people will be not as happy at work as they could be if we were able to fully show up and be there for them.

So that's why i am excited about this topic that's why it's important that's why i'm showing up here today and thank you for showing up as well. A little bit about me if we haven't met yet my name is steve Haase. I have been in business in the tech world and in leadership roles for over a decade i started founding my own company about 2008 or so i started it with some friends and it was a software as a service platform before anybody knew what the hell that was um eventually we transitioned and got jobs at other companies i went and joined hubspot before they had ipo'd and uh they're currently a huge global tech company spent four years there um really learning the ins and outs of how to run a great tech company one thing that was incredible about hubspot was how transparent they were how much i was able to learn just by showing up giving it my best and really growing as someone in the software space right what are you doing when you're working in software you're solving problems you're writing code you're helping customers you're developing systems lots of fun things so many learnings from my time at hubspot from there i shifted to work in the e-commerce space specifically at Shopify and went on to lead global teams there. My path to leadership was similar to many where i started by just being really great at my job i was a sales engineer and so i was kind of the technical person in the sales process really excelled there and then was promoted to lead the team and i learned so much about how to lead and also how not to lead my team covered the entire globe there were 19 of us at the um at the the largest with that team and i learned so many valuable lessons in that time i am currently a life and leadership coach and i help other new tech leads overcome imposter syndrome so that they can show up with their full authenticity and have the impact that they want to have and love their work again right oftentimes when you are really good at your job and that you're promoted to a leadership role you actually end up kind of resenting your people the company your situation the stress level goes up the responsibility goes up and meanwhile you didn't really have all that much training to do that new job right you were great at your old job they're like okay now you've got the team you're like what the heck am i supposed to do so that's a problem it can cause so much unneeded stress and concern and i know for me it was a real drain on my family my mental well-being my joan de vivre went down the tubes and so i want to help you avoid all those troubles and so that's why we are doing these sessions here on instagram and facebook okay so um here's the deal you're never actually proven at the next level of leadership right you get the promotion you get the job and it's kind of a hey i hope this works out right there's all kinds of management principles of what uh why that is but basically you haven't done it before and as i mentioned oftentimes the training isn't really enough to have you feeling confident and so oftentimes people will show up feeling rather unconfident right that's where the whole idea of imposter syndrome comes up is not feeling like you're right for the job not feeling like you have what it takes to lead at that level and so why that's a problem is you always feel like you're winging it right you show up and you're like i don't know if i'm doing this right so you just kind of make it up as you go and you hope that you learn from it as as you do so but really what you want is a system you want a way to just feel like you're doing it right because there's so much ambiguity right when you're leading a team when you're leading people you're making decisions that are going to impact lots of other people's lives and so if you don't know where you're coming from then it's going to be really easy to second-guess yourself and think that you're not really showing up as you should but that they're going to find you out right all of those things that imposter syndrome ends up feeling like so i'm gonna help you with that today and one of the other things that happens you know in that mindset of you know thinking that you're an imposter thinking that you don't have things figured out but that you should is you run the risk of losing your team that's actually what happened to me while i was at shopify that was one of the things that inspired me to really learn more about leadership and to go deep with coaching so that i could help other people not go through that same very painful experience.

at the same time when you're in that space kind of worried about all the things that could go wrong the stress and the risk of burnout go up as well so this is important stuff today as part of that system that i was talking about we're going to talk about your vision okay so the problem is feeling like an imposter thinking that you don't have it figured out but that you should and one of the things that you can do to actually uh push the momentum in the other way start to generate momentum that is going to help you and your team thrive is discovering your vision so that's the topic for today i want to start by um thinking about why you work but before we get into this question i want to just spend a moment on why not having a clear vision is a problem so many reasons but it comes down to if you don't have your own vision for why you work how you want to work the impact that you want to have then you're always going to be looking outside yourself for the answers that's one definition of imposter syndrome is thinking that somebody else has the answers and so if you don't have your clear vision of where you're going then you will just be looking outside yourself and so you'll be second guessing yourself you'll be looking to your boss you'll be looking to whoever on the team has the loudest voice or seems the most confident and you'll never come into your own as a leader and if you're not coming into your own as a leader then you're not coming into your own in your life and then you're not showing up for yourself for your family and for your own intention for how you want your life to unfold in the way that you could right so this is not just how to motivate your team we're talking about how to actually be happy at work be happy in your life and make the difference that you want to make so let's talk about vision begin with the question why you work just take a moment take a breath maybe close your eyes and ask yourself why are you doing the things that you're doing.

oftentimes we commit to a path of action you say okay i'm going to lead this team okay i'm gonna build this business and then we just do it like we just let the momentum of that business or the team or the company kind of propel us in this sense of obligation or fear of failure right it's like indiana jones running away from the giant boulder that's about to crush him he's like i just have to keep running or else i'm gonna die right so then your purpose your vision becomes just don't die

we talk about the sources of stress that's a really big one right trying not to die definitely a source of stress so when we want to consider your vision to break free from imposter syndrome we have to get back to the fundamentals why did you say yes to that position in the first place why are you doing this instead of the thousand other things you could do

it's not just to put food on the table maybe that's part of it and maybe your vision is how you provide for your family how you create a better future whatever it is it's personal to you so spend some time getting in touch with that and don't think you have it sorted out and that it's all you know hey you got it if you're feeling a sense of self-doubt if you ever question if you're going to succeed or if you're doing the right thing this is at the heart of it right this is the beating heart of your impact as a leader your contribution as an owner of the business right that's another way of thinking about leadership is you own that section of the business

so having that guiding light will save you from checking in will save you from second guessing yourself because even if you are you know looking around the room to see which way the wind is blowing you'll know that you have that source of confidence within and that's liberating it's inspiring and when you feel inspired that is how other people can resonate with it but you can't inspire others if you're doing it because you're trying to lead the right way that's part of that kind of negative feedback loop of imposter syndrome is you don't feel like you have the authority or right to be there so you try to show up the way that you think you're supposed to show up and so then people don't really respond the way that you'd like them to and you wonder why you're doing it wrong or how you know how come you're not having the effect that you want to it's because you're not coming from your own inspiration

now having that vision and inspiration does not mean you'll always be successful but it means that come what may you're following your course

and so then maybe things don't turn out the way you'd like maybe you lose the team maybe people quit maybe you don't deliver the results that you're looking for but you know that you are coming from a place that is sustainable that's not going to burn you out that's not going to sacrifice your family for the sake of the bottom line right the sake of results at work you're actually showing up with the vision that you have for your life and your team the culture that you want to create the business that you want to create

and that means the work environment the experiences that your employees your teammates your customers everyone will have is coming from that place right you set the vision this is fundamental to your success to your well-being and so you commit to it and you commit to it each day you spend time thinking how can i bring more of my vision to life you spend time communicating it with people you spend time clarifying it for yourself you make sure that activities are lined up that help you achieve that vision

so this is the most powerful thing and one way to dramatically shift your thinking into this space of leadership especially if you're new to it especially if you came from just doing the work to now running the team that's doing the work is the awareness that your output as a leader is the output of your team plus those you influence i'm going to say that again because it's such a big shift in how we think about leadership and how we think about work especially if you come from a place where you know got to get sweaty got to get dirty got to be doing the work as a leader your output is the output of your team and those you influence

so that means you shouldn't always be in the details doing the work if you think hey we're set you know we know where we're going we just got to get busy we just got to do the work you're not really embracing your role as the leader which is to get things done through those that you are motivating and rewarding and leading

so that single shift of realizing that your output is not just the things you do the things you type and say and create and produce and publish and deliver but your output is actually that of your team

gives you like you can start to get a picture of why vision is so important and why not having it leads to a feeling of being an imposter being a fraud

and particularly if your sense of worth your sense of accomplishment at work is tied to um the things you do right the stuff you ship the stuff you can say hey that's my ebook that's my widget that i made you can feel like an imposter if you're not shipping that each day if instead you're having meetings and you're making decisions and you're writing documents and you're creating proposals like suddenly that's that doesn't feel like the stuff of work but that's what creates the space for your team to succeed so spending time on that spending time on the where are we going how will we know when we get there is how you motivate yourself how others can then resonate with that motivation and then how you can have an impact not just through you know sitting down and typing at your computer but through others through others it's not cheating it's your job right you were hired you stepped into the role as leader to have an impact through others that's profound so your vision is how that happens that's why you spend time on it um and finally so what should you do about that schedule thinking time

if you don't have time to reflect on your calendar it could be during your morning walk it could be you know before lunch it could be during meditation something where your job is actually to just sit and think you're missing out on one of the most powerful tools you have as a leader because if your team is focused on job a but the biggest impact is going to be on job b and you don't have time to think about the differences between those two jobs or where you can have the biggest impact then you are not fulfilling your potential as a leader so the way you do that is you schedule thinking time you block it out and it sounds scary at first you're like i don't have time to think i don't even have time to clear my own inbox

creating the time to think is how you bring the right people on to solve the right problems that your inbox is currently filled with your inbox is always going to be full right let's just get that off the table you're never going to be at a place where you know in box zero i'm done work is over that means you're dead or something right something something catastrophic has occurred if if it's all over so the point is not to get the work done the point is to do the right work and you do that through reflection through stepping back and it doesn't mean that you are not doing it that is how you do the stuff of leadership right that is how you go from thinking that you're an imposter to actually stepping into your authenticity being the leader that you can be that you want to be that you envision yourself as so take the time show up for the time develop a vision that is inspiring for you and share it and share it and share it and share it right you have to be so repetitive with your vision that your people can make fun of you for it like oh there he goes again on his you know vision kick again for me my vision is that millions of people believe in the inevitability of their own success like that's why i show up that's why i'm doing the work that i'm doing at my company i could be doing many many other things right now but instead i'm here talking to you because i want millions of people i don't i don't just want it i see it i know that if i show up in the way that i'm drawn to millions of people can believe in the inevitability of their own success and that lights me up right so that's what i spend time cultivating within myself that's what i hope to impart to you through the different things that i create and through these conversations so thank you for joining me today i'll be here every wednesday at two o'clock eastern for these conversations on leadership breaking free from imposter syndrome it's a big barrier that so many people needlessly suffer from so i look forward to helping you with that if you want more help with this more information i have a free course a five-part course that is available on this topic how to break free from imposter syndrome it's at the link in my bio and check it out drop me a line i'd love to hear how i can help you take care