Imposter Syndrome or Workplace PTSD Holding Women Back in Leadership?

By: Stephanie Diana Eubank

Last month I went to the Gallo Winery summit with fellow faculty members at Stan State and the Dean of the School of Business at Stan State.  (A big thanks to the talent acquisitions department at Gallo for having us). The point of the summit is to see where local Universities can help develop lesson planning for students based on real changes happening in business to better support our students. While at this summit, the discussion of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within Operational Management was brought up.  I sadly had to inform the representatives from Gallo about the fact of findings from, Mohr (2021), showing that since 2014 on average, women are only applying for jobs and internships ONLY if they meet 100% of the qualifications and skills. The study noted in, Mohr (2021); shows that male counterparts, on the other hand, apply when they meet 60% or less of the requirements.

The concept that we miss all shots we don’t take and the mantra of the worst anyone can say is no are concepts I live by.  So, when I heard this statistic, I was shocked, sad, and curious.  Women, especially, are often told that we suffer from imposter syndrome.  As detailed in, (Paulise, 2023), imposter syndrome is where one has the skills to do an activity but feels as if they are not worthy or like they are pretending to be someone they are not.  A great example of theatrical imposter syndrome can be found on the TV show “Big Bang Theory.” When Amy has a meltdown about the team trying to steal her work as their own.

This got me thinking about how much of our experience as women is imposter syndrome and how much of it is workplace PTSD?  And in researching to write this article, I came across a Harvard Business Review article, Tulshyan & Burey (2022), which argues that unconscious bias and racism in the workplace can contribute to women doubting themselves and seeming like imposter syndrome.  But these negative biases can also be causing workplace PTSD.

As detailed in the article on Lattice, Beaudry (2022), Workplace PTSD is defined as the multiple aspects people had difficulty coping with when they are engaging in a negative and abusive workplace.  Such as the emotional toll and how that can manifest physically when in a toxic or hostile work environment.  (This is why there are HR laws about hostile work environments).  However, over time multiple organizations are having toxic leadership (as I have said often because there is little on-the-job actual leadership training in the business world outside of college. Often, managers are promoted from top performers to leadership, and the first mistake they make is misreading fear as respect.

These factors creating workplace PTSD are hurting the economy and making major companies lose out on really skilled talent, all because we have organizational culture issues to work out systemically in business. So, to be the change I want to see in the world, I continue to offer my services in consulting for business and remote work development.  Also, I challenge all that read this article the next time you are applying to a job and not seeing yourself in 100% of the skills and qualifications, ask yourself, “How many of these skills do I meet that I may be questioning because of how people have treated me vs. if I know I can do an awesome job at this position?”

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Work Cited

Paulise, L. (2023, March 9). 75% of women executives experience Imposter Syndrome in the Workplace. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lucianapaulise/2023/03/08/75-of-women-executives-experience-imposter-syndrome-in-the-workplace/?sh=222bea96899a

Tulshyan, R., & Burey, J.-A. (2022, August 4). Stop telling women they have imposter syndrome. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/02/stop-telling-women-they-have-imposter-syndrome

Mohr, T. S. (2021, November 2). Why women don’t apply for jobs unless they’re 100% qualified. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified

CBS. (2019). The Laureate Accumulation S12.E18. United States. Retrieved July 12, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6674724/.

Beaudry, J. E. (2022, December 10). What is Workplace PTSD – and how can you support your employees who suffer from it?. Lattice. https://lattice.com/library/what-is-workplace-ptsd-and-how-can-you-support-your-employees-who-suffer-from-it#:~:text=Joyce%20Marter%2C%20licensed%20psychotherapist%20and,with%20negative%2C%20abusive%2C%20or%20traumatic