A step-by-step guide for how to beat imposter syndrome once and for all

Many of us have experienced imposter syndrome—myself included. 

Stepping onto the college field my freshman year at seventeen with some of the top college baseball players in the country, I wasn’t sure I belonged. I was homesick and questioning the decision I’d made to go to Pepperdine over the Atlanta Braves, for whom I’d been a thirteenth-round draft pick. I struggled to find my stride in the preseason, which further eroded my confidence, and by midseason, it was obvious to me (and everybody else) that I wasn’t cutting it.  

College Hall of Fame Coach Andy Lopez sat me down and didn’t mince words. “When we recruited you, Damon, I thought you would be a great third baseman, but to be honest, I’m not so sure.” 

I couldn’t argue with the man. Mentally, I started planning my quickest possible exit—fly home or rent a U-Haul? Did I have to take my stuff, or could I ship everything home?  

But Coach Lopez wasn’t done talking. Watching me closely, he said, “It’s what’s in your head, and that’s what matters. I believe you have the talent and the ability to be a great third baseman and eventually a high draft choice, but what I believe won’t matter if you don’t believe it too. It takes talent and hard work and confidence to succeed at this level.”  

I had the talent and work ethic, but I was missing that final, crucial piece. I’d earned my spot at Pepperdine, but I didn’t believe it. Imposter syndrome had me in its clutches. Imposter syndrome is a crippling lack of self-confidence that can profoundly affect performance. Imposter syndrome is when an individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud.

Coach Lopez taught me to spot imposter syndrome in myself, and I’ve seen it since in others, including extraordinarily successful and valued members of my team and top leaders in a wide variety of industries. Here are the four things I’ve found that can help you develop real self-confidence and keep imposter syndrome from standing in your way.  

Work hard

I once had a senior salesperson complain of imposter syndrome in advance of an important presentation. When I asked what he’d done to prepare, he said, “To be honest, I could have done more.”  For some, that could be a symptom of imposter syndrome, but this guy just hadn’t done the work. If you’re trying to “fake it ‘til you make it,” it’s worth remembering that you’re the hardest person to fool. If you’re claiming authority and experience you don’t have, you have imposter consequences—not imposter syndrome.  

There are no shortcuts on the road to success, and putting in consistent, diligent effort builds not just the skills you’ll need but also your confidence in those skills. When I was in college, I started being the first guy to show up for practice and the last one to leave. Knowing that I had put in the work helped me convince myself that I’d earned my position and belonged on the team.  

Imposter syndrome is based on a negative, subjective assessment of your own abilities and often arises from feeling underprepared and being afraid you’ll be “found out.” But practice develops competence, and sustained effort leads to objective progress and genuine improvement that is hard to deny. With time and effort, the concrete evidence of achievement and growth makes it increasingly difficult to maintain an inaccurate view of yourself. And progress creates momentum. Small wins accumulate as evidence to counter your irrational doubts. 

Of course, if self-doubt makes you question your assumptions and test your conclusions, it’s working for you. A little residual imposter syndrome is completely normal and can keep you working on continual improvement. But when it’s time to perform, remind yourself that you did the hard work and earned your success. You can trust your training and the hours of preparation you’ve put in.   

Fine-tune your focus 

Hard work isn’t just about the hours you put in. Quality matters at least as much (and possibly more) than quantity. To ensure you’re doing quality work, make sure you have clear goals for each session and make those sessions shorter and more concentrated. You’ll get more done by bringing your full focus to a task for a shorter time than by trying to multitask or push through fatigue.  

Simply being fully present to whatever you’re trying to accomplish can do a lot to silence self-doubt. It’s hard to feel confident about anything when your attention is being pulled in every direction. To increase your ability to focus, practice removing distractions and bringing your complete awareness to the moment you’re in.  

Executing tasks with greater focus will also improve your performance which leads to better outcomes, creating yet more evidence you can use to silence that irritating inner critic and prove your imposter syndrome wrong. Finally, strengthening your ability to tune out distractions and channel your attention fully becomes another competency in which you can take well-deserved pride. 

Let go of perfectionism 

Imposter syndrome, with its fear of being inadequate, is highly correlated with perfectionism’s unrealistic standards. If you set impossibly exacting standards for yourself, it’s hard not to feel like you’re falling short of expectations. Both perfectionists and imposters have trouble internalizing success, tending to discount their accomplishments rather than taking pride in them. 

Recognize that nothing and no one is perfect and adopt a “better done than perfect” mindset. Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone handles them well. Of course, being in a leadership position means your mistakes are likely to be public, which can certainly increase the pressure you feel to avoid them, but a leader who’s trying to project an illusion of perfection will often be overly cautious, miss opportunities, and shrink from trying innovative approaches or asking for input from quality team members. A leader who never acknowledges mistakes or who tries to blame others creates a corrosive environment. Worse, such leaders don’t inspire their people. Seeing you bounce back quickly from adversity will motivate your team to do the same. A leader needs to lead, and that means taking risks and owning mistakes. 

Rather than trying to control everything to ensure that nothing ever goes wrong, work on learning how to control your response to things. If you can be confident of your ability to turn mistakes into opportunities, and if you know that you can always learn something, even from a bad outcome, you won’t fear failures. This gives you the courage to keep making bold decisions, taking smart risks, and learning from your own mistakes and the mistakes of others. This can inspire your team, liberating them to do their best work, and that will give you yet more tools to dismantle imposter syndrome. 

Become a learn-it-all 

In her powerful book, Mindset, Carol Dweck, an expert and researcher in human motivation, defines a growth mindset as one based on the belief that intelligence, personality, and other traits can be deliberately cultivated. Having a growth mindset?? (in contrast to a fixed mindset) requires putting your faith in effort over talent and attributing your good outcomes to hard work more than to innate ability. With a growth mindset, rather than letting undesirable outcomes become an indictment of your intelligence, your abilities, or of you as a person, you interpret failures and setbacks as a call to put in more or better practice.  

The most respected and resilient leaders I’ve known, no matter their length of tenure or academic pedigree, have been learn-it-alls. I believe anyone who wants to excel in today’s business climate (much less in the automated and AI-assisted future), needs to deliberately cultivate that combination of curiosity, humility, persistence, a growth mindset, and a passion for learning. 

Becoming a learn-it-all builds competence which increases confidence. The more you learn and upskill in your field, the more faith you’ll have in your abilities, and earning degrees, certifications, or other credentials in your field reinforces your qualifications and right to be there. Continuous learning also creates small gains, which add up to big confidence. The more you learn, the more you prove to yourself that you belong and have something meaningful to contribute. Knowledge really is power over self-doubt. 

Imposter syndrome causes anxiety, underperformance, and procrastination. But developing evidence-based self-confidence through hard work, increased focus, realistic expectations, and learning shuts down imposter syndrome and can reverse its negative outcomes. 

–Damon Lembi  is the CEO of Learnit and the author of The Learn-It-All Leader: Mindset, Traits, and Tools.