If you feel like an imposter at work, you're not alone. MIT Sloan reports that a nagging sensation of not being smart enough plagues even the most influential employees.

Business leaders have told us the same thing -- it's common to feel like a fraud, and you shouldn't feel as if you're the only professional with a sense of self-doubt.

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The good news is there are things you can do to feel more confident. Here are five ways to stop imposter syndrome from holding you back.

1. Confront your challenges

Wendy Redshaw, chief digital information officer at NatWest Retail Bank, said she doesn't entertain the voice in her head that says she's an imposter.

"It's nonsense," she said. "The way I deal with imposter syndrome is to say, 'Well, if it's not you, Wendy, who would it be? And if you don't think you can do it, who could help you?'"

However, Redshaw also recognizes that anyone -- from a junior employee to someone at the top of the business like herself -- can be overcome by a sense of doubt.

"I don't think it goes away. I can have a straightforward meeting and I'm on fire and I'm on top of my game, and then I can have another meeting where I come out of it and feel defeated," she said.

"And actually, it would be very easy when you're feeling defeated by whatever it was in the meeting to say, 'Oh, I'm just not good at this job.' But that's not true."

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Redshaw said she confronts the challenges and turns a potentially difficult situation into a fresh opportunity.

"So, I'll turn down the voice that says I'm an imposter, which is nonsense, and evaluate what happened. 'What could I have done better or differently? Do I need to lean in and understand more? Is this something I need to learn?'" she said.

"By viewing the sense of being an imposter in that way, the voice has no relevance. And that's not because I'm amazing or perfect. I'm not. But I am human, and so is everyone else."

2. Always remember your best work

Carrie Jordan, global director of program execution at Microsoft, said she can suffer from imposter syndrome, but she has some strategies that help.

One of her mentors, Diana Parker, who's a general manager at Microsoft, shared a couple of tips many years ago that Jordan still uses today.

First, produce a highlight reel: "Create a Word document, and in there, you paste Teams messages, emails, kudos texts that you've gotten from anyone that, when you're having a bad day or when you're feeling like you're not confident in yourself, you can go back and sort of build yourself up and remind yourself that other people value you and your work."

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Jordan's second tip is to look back on times in the past when you felt unqualified and think about how you came through.

"Whenever I'm at the bottom of a new learning curve, I look back and remember when I started a job and I had no idea what I was doing, and I focus on how I overcame it, what my team did -- and that approach helps," she said.

"Reminding yourself of the times that you've overcome a big challenge or a big learning gap in the past can give you confidence that you can do it again in whatever situation you're feeling imposter syndrome over now."

3. Focus on delivering great projects

Adam Manning, digital identity and automation specialist at Specsavers, said delivery is the key to not feeling like you're a sham.

"Hands up, I often sit there feeling imposter syndrome," he said. "I think overcoming that feeling is about delivering something and getting the thanks."

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Manning drew on experiences from his team's recent first major release of a global audiology platform.

"It was quite a long implementation, and there's a lot of complexity in it. You might sit there in meetings and say, 'Should I be doing this? Shouldn't I be doing this?'" he said.

"But once it goes live, you see the system running, you get senior stakeholders calling you out and saying, 'Thank you,' and that praise helps. It probably helps more than someone turning around and giving you a big bonus for it. You can sit back and think, 'Yes, it's working, it's operating, and we are doing the right things.'"

4. Look to your manager for support

Phil Worsley, head of identity and access management (IDAM) at the University of Leeds, said it's not uncommon to feel like a phony, and managers need to treat these individuals with respect.

"You can't just turn around and say, 'You shouldn't feel like an imposter. You've got every right to be here with everybody else.' Success is about constant positive feedback but in a sincere way."

Worsley said people often feel like imposters when they move into a complex area like IDAM. Managers need to help them feel confident.

"If you break it down, this is a series of very sticky, very difficult problems that you need to solve," he said.

"And if you're good at problem-solving, bringing people with you, decision-making, getting things done, and driving things through, then you've as much right to be in the room as anyone else."

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Worsley said it's important to remember that technical skills are only one part of the puzzle. People who succeed often excel in other areas.

"I'd rather hire someone who's got three months' IDAM experience, transferable skills, problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and an ability to build business processes and understand and extract requirements than somebody who has 20 years of IDAM experience and only knows how to do one thing."

5. Work for a company with a good culture

Danial O'Shea, identity and access management product owner at Specsavers, said his company has a supportive culture.

Specsavers was ranked sixteenth  in Fortune World's 25 Best Workplaces in 2024. O'Shea said professionals need to know they work for people who care.

"The company culture is extremely supportive," he said.

"The people at the top say, 'We have hired you as the identity and access management experts. We trust you. We understand that you might not get everything right the first time. But tell us what you need to do the job to the best of your abilities, and we will support you in that.'"

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O'Shea said people in his team respond well to this support, and their outputs are respected by senior executives.

"So, we've been able to grow the team, expand our tooling, and take ownership of responsibilities that have previously sat elsewhere. We've done that with the full support of the wider technology team and business. And they're thankful for our successes."

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