Self-doubt cripples many women’s careers – but with a little time and training, it’s easier than you think to hone your skills and trust your perception.
If you’re a woman in business you are no doubt familiar with the term ‘Impostor Syndrome’. Much has been written about it and although men occasionally suffer from it, there is tons of research underscoring the fact that women tend to doubt themselves and question their abilities far more than men.
“Women tend to experience the syndrome in terms of their ability to perform; it manifests more in men as a fear of being unsuccessful. But in both cases the impact on confidence can be enormous,” explains Mark Ritson in his recent article on the subject, ‘Suffering from impostor syndrome? The cure is simpler than you think’.
It seems particularly prominent in the marketing, communication and media industry. Perhaps it’s made more difficult by the fast pace of change and the fact that for most topics, one can find thought leaders that either passionately endorse a way of thinking or vehemently criticise it.
The raw truth is that most people, some of the time, are winging it. It’s just impossible to know everything, and there is always someone in the room (usually) that will know more than you, or appear to.
Ritson states: “Marketers are prone to impostor syndrome, but solid training and a more realistic view of your peers’ achievements will show your worries are unfounded.”
He reckons that, actually, most often you will be the smartest person in the room by a long shot, and that the trick to believing this is to do two things: stay up to date with training; and back yourself more often.
What sort of training? Well, if you’ve come in from outside of the broader marketing industry and told yourself (or been told) that marketing is something you learn on the job, that’s all very well – but it’s not enough. Regardless of your position in the industry – whether client or agency side, and whether in media, PR, advertising, social media, product development brand management R&D – there are some core foundations you simply must know. The principles of marketing, consumers, purchasing, media consumption, creativity and so on, are all essential building blocks.
While developing The School of Thought, I came across an interesting insight: that ‘foundational’ courses are not just for beginners or those new to a particular field; sometimes the Peter Principle applies (when people rise in the hierarchy of an organisation through promotion until they reach a level of respective incompetence), and executives land up being too senior to raise a hand and say: “Apologies, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
One of the never-ending challenges in this industry is that people tend to chase after shiny new toys (metaverse, AI etc), and if you don’t appear to be au-fait with these, you start doubting your relevance.
But relevance is built by understanding a mix of both classic thinking as well as ‘new predictions’, many of which are pie in the sky, with the data simply not supporting their cheerleaders.
Lifelong learning is to be encouraged in this field; build the basics and stay up to date with the trends. Most importantly, know enough to have a point of view.
There is a wealth of tools and resources on ways to build knowledge and stay up to date on all topics, at our fingertips – but the biggest single obstacle is simply that the one thing none of us ever seem to have enough of: time.
There are many time management tricks, but when it comes to making time for learning, I am a firm fan of the importance of applying Steven Covey’s Time Management Matrix, a classic tool for prioritisation, that helps you focus your attention on the tasks that matter most to your business and personal growth. It divides your time into urgent and important; not urgent and not important, and combinations thereof. The tool uses a table with four quadrants, and asks you to sort each of your tasks or activities into one.
The four quadrants are:
? Necessity (urgent and important): Emergencies, deadlines, well-prepared meetings. These need to be done first.
? Quality (important, but not urgent): Planning, implementation, and your own development. Maximise the time spent in this area because it generates value in the long run.
? Deception (urgent but not important): emails, paperwork, badly prepared meetings. Try to get rid of as much as possible.
? Waste (not urgent and not important): Browsing. Reading random posts on Facebook. Junk mails. Waste is toxic. Don’t touch it!
Covey compared the percentage of time that highly effective people spent in each block compared to those with average time management.
The differences are staggering.
? Necessity (urgent and important):
- Average: 25% – 30%
- High Performing Individuals: 20% – 25%
? Quality (important, but not urgent):
- Average: 15%
- High Performing Individuals: 65% – 80%
? Deception (urgent but not important):
- Average: 50% – 60%
- High Performing Individuals: 15%
? Waste (not urgent and not important):
- Average: 2% – 3%
- High Performing Individuals: less than 1%
If you shift time from urgent and not important activities to important but not urgent activities – your productivity and efficiency will massively improve. Learning and training sits firmly in that block. It’s usually not urgent (unless you have a KPI to achieve by a certain date), but it’s important. So, ask yourself: what can you remove from your diary that will allow you to gift yourself learning and career development time?
Lastly, training doesn’t have to be formal either. Certainly workshops or online modules are useful to grow surface level understanding, or dive in deeper into a masterclass of learning. But reading books and articles, watching recorded videos and attending conferences (both online and face to face) are equally helpful to growing your knowledge base and building your own thought leadership (and confidence).
Choose a few key thought leaders in spaces you need to find out more about, and follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn. (PS: For the metaverse and all things futuristic I would recommend Zoe Scaman.) Join The School of Thought and follow the many articles posted, or search in the library.
If you take anything out of this article, make it that you understand it’s that while ongoing learning is a sure way to get ahead, it is essential you make the time for it; your future self will thank you.
Gillian Rightford’s career is a mix of marketing, strategy, advertising, teaching and leadership. She founded Adtherapy (helping marketers & agencies produce more effective output), launched The School of Thought (a knowledge-sharing, talent-building platform), she consults, trains, lectures, coaches and speaks across the sector.
Links
- The School of Thought
- Steven Covey’s Time Management Matrix
