Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in Procurement

Does Kanye West have it? Apparently not, he sees himself as a God.

Back in the real world, however, do I have it? Yes - I absolutely do. But I have learnt to cope with and harness this part of my personality for the greater good. I’ve struggled with imposter syndrome my entire life – always trying to please, to fit in. But more recently, I’ve realised to focus on the positives of imposter syndrome. This is how I see these:

• Perfection – I strive for it and go out of my way to try to overdeliver. I may do this by researching a specific topic in order to further my understanding and perhaps come up with an innovative way to do things better.
• Recognition – I find praise and recognition hard to accept and always strive to do better.
• Knowledge – my imposter syndrome leads me to fully prepare myself for interactions. Think negotiations: I’ll get all pertinent information gathered and digested before I go into a negotiation. Senior stakeholder meetings? I’ll make sure I’m all over their business area and have versed it all before I walk in, hopefully heading off any and all of their questions
• Making a good impression – I always want to! I don’t want my stakeholders or team members to walk away from an interaction feeling as though I was difficult or reticent. I want my interactions to be positive ones, and take it pretty hard when they’re not.
• Body language – I really try to ‘read the room’ and take in how others are feeling and reacting. This possibly arises from my desire to fit in and can be pretty exhausting sometimes, but does work wonders in reading into non-verbal cues from stakeholders and suppliers.

So, what’re my coping mechanisms, and how have I harnessed these?

• Perfection – nothing wrong with striving for the best! But I’ve had to learn to cut myself a break from time to time to avoid potential for burnout. Delegation is a wonderful tool; putting tasks in the hands of people I trust gives me more time to focus.
• Knowledge – in procurement the more knowledge you gather (prior to negotiations, for example), the better! You’ll know the going rates, the budget, contractual hang ups, business drivers and so on. You can go for those win / win and win / ‘perceived’ win situations
• Making a good impression – interactions are so important. You want to influence your stakeholders, you want them to actively seek out your opinion. You’ve got to make yourself available, personable, you’ve got to build rapport, you’ve got to build trust. Positive psychology goes so far! But similarly, if I’ve had a bad interaction, I try to take remedial action where possible, and can always go back to my positive affirmations and positive feedback to ensure that I don’t slope back into feeling like that imposter.
• Body language – for me, there’s nothing better than a good working from home session to help recharge my batteries if watching my own and other’s body language becomes exhausting. From time to time, having a telephone call or a Teams call without my camera turned on gives me time to recoup psychologically and prepare for those perhaps more tricky interactions where non-verbal cues are important to pick up on.

A final note from a CEO I know. He once told me that a great proportion of people he comes across in business do not know what they’re talking about. But if they’re confident in what they’re saying and how they deliver the message, they’ll get bought into. So, if you’re feeling like an imposter, take comfort in knowing there are people that really don’t have a clue, and your imposter syndrome more than likely means you are not one of them!