The one that rocks up and never gets a round in – many of us have experienced the uninvited guest that is imposter syndrome. Here’s someone that is very much invited though – Jo Campbell – Chief Operating Officer at Verve, to tell exactly what to do with the imposter and she’s even backed it with a bit of science too.
Ever finished a suitability report, sent it off, then immediately convinced yourself it was rubbish, that you’ve somehow fluked your way through another case, and that any minute now someone senior is going to tap you on the shoulder and ask you to hand back your laptop?
Congrats, you’ve met imposter syndrome. It’s basically paraplanning’s uninvited plus one. Turns up to everything, never buys a round.
The dictionary definition is:
“A psychological experience where you persistently doubt your abilities and feel like a “fraud” despite your proven success. People with this mindset attribute their accomplishments to luck or timing rather than their own competence, and live in constant fear of being exposed as unintelligent or undeserving.”
I’d go as far as saying it’s less a psychological quirk and more an occupational hazard, and here’s why.
You’re the invisible expert. Paraplanners do an enormous amount of the thinking that goes into a case, yet clients rarely know your name and advisers get the credit for the advice you helped shape.
When your work is largely unseen, it’s easy to start believing it’s also unimportant, or worse, that you got away with something rather than actually being good at your job. Recognition (or the lack thereof) plays a huge part in how confident we feel doing the work.
The bar keeps moving. Regulation changes, product knowledge needs updating constantly, and just when you’ve nailed something new, along comes Consumer Duty (other examples are available) to remind you there’s always another layer to master.
Plus, it was a while since you did those diploma exams and you worry that things have changed too much. That constant sense of catching up can feel a lot like not being good enough, when really it’s just the nature of a profession that never sits still.
Perfectionism is baked in. A lot of us landed in paraplanning because we’re detail people. We like getting things right. Brilliant trait, terrible bedfellow for imposter syndrome, because there is always one more thing you could have checked, tweaked or double referenced. Perfectionism doesn’t protect you from feeling like a fraud. If anything, it feeds it.
Good news (as always with these articles) is that once we know about it, we can at least acknowledge it, address it and hopefully do something about it. This isn’t groundbreaking stuff, but sometimes the obvious things need saying out loud and (absolutely not for anyone nearby) lucky for you I like talking loud over annoying little inner, imposter voices.
Talk about it. Genuinely, just say it to another paraplanner or adviser. I promise you it will be met with a look of relief and probably a “oh thank god, me too.” Imposter syndrome thrives in silence and shrinks the moment you realise everyone around you has felt exactly the same once they’ve hit send on that last client comms.
Keep evidence of your own competence. Not for anyone else. Not for the CPD register. Not for the regulator or the CII. For you. A folder of positive feedback, a note of the tricky case you untangled, the time you spotted the vulnerability nobody else had flagged. Your brain is very good at remembering the one typo and very bad at remembering the fifty things you got right.
Here comes the sciency bit – The brain can absolutely forget the fifty compliments I receive on an outfit, but you better believe I’m remembering that one time someone paused for a nanosecond too long when I said, ‘does this colour suit me’?
It comes from the same place. A terrible place called the Amygdala, which perceives criticisms as threats to our survival and can retain this information for over 20 years. TWENTY YEARS.
By contrast, compliments and positive feedback trigger the prefrontal cortex, are seen as a ‘safe signal’ and therefore are retained for around 30 days. THIRTY DAYs. Stupid brain.
Separate feelings from facts. Feeling unsure is not the same as being unqualified. You did the exams. You do the job, daily, competently, for real clients with real money. The feeling is data about your nervous system, not about your ability.
Take a moment and ask yourself if those feelings have any basis in any actual fact. If the answer is yes, then congratulations, you’ve identified a training or development need. You’ve bettered yourself. You’re doing a great job at keeping up to date and improving yourself and your firm.
Remember what the job actually is. As I’ve said elsewhere, a suitability report doesn’t make a paraplanner. Interpreting, reading between the lines and turning huge swathes of complexity into something a client can actually understand, does.
That’s a skilled, nuanced, distinctly human thing to do well. It is not luck. It is not fluking it. It is the job, done properly, over and over again.
Paraplanning is one of the most difficult and challenging jobs in all of finance. Remember that. Own that. Be proud of that.
So next time that little voice pipes up mid report to tell you you’re winging it, maybe just let it know you’re rather busy being excellent at your job right now, and it can take a seat or better yet, go get the bloomin’ round in!
Main image: imposter, resume-genius-f2JMVDnarks-unsplash
