By Nettie Owens, CPO-CD  ·  The Sappari Group

Originally explored on the Victoria & Nettie LinkedIn Live — Episode 5

There is a particular kind of stuck that does not look like stuck from the outside. Your calendar is full. You are delivering results. People respect your work. And yet underneath all of it, there is a persistent, nagging sense that you are not quite where you are supposed to be — that something bigger is waiting, and you cannot figure out why you cannot seem to reach it.

Imposter syndrome in women leaders is widely documented and and a barrier to professional growth. It is not a character flaw or a confidence deficit. It is a pattern — one that is especially common among high-achieving women, and one that, once understood, can be systematically worked through.

In Episode 5 of Wake Up Women Leaders, Sensei Victoria Whitfield and I went straight into the heart of this. Victoria opened with the question that most of our listeners are quietly living with:

“What do you do when you know you were meant for more but are still feeling stuck?”

— Victoria Whitfield

That question is the starting point for everything in this episode. And the answer is more practical — and more hopeful — than most people expect.

Imposter Syndrome in Women Leaders: A Brief and Important History

The term “imposter syndrome” was coined in 1978 by clinical psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes. They developed it to describe a pattern they observed in high-achieving women: qualified, accomplished professionals who persistently believed their success was undeserved, and who feared being “found out” as frauds — despite substantial evidence to the contrary.

It is worth pausing on that origin. This concept was not created to describe a universal human experience of self-doubt. It was first identified specifically in women — and particularly in high-achieving women — because that is where the pattern was most pronounced and most consequential. As I noted during our conversation:

“It’s not a diagnosis, it’s more of a description of an experience. But I do think it’s relevant that it was first noticed in women — particularly high-achieving women.”

— Nettie Owens

That relevance matters because it means the pattern is not random. It is shaped by specific cultural and professional conditions — conditions that many of the women who lead organizations, associations, chambers, and businesses navigate every single day. Understanding the history does not fix the problem, but it does take it out of the category of personal failing and put it where it belongs: as a predictable response to a specific set of pressures.

What the research shows:

A 2020 KPMG study found that 75% of female executives across industries had personally experienced imposter syndrome at some point in their careers. Of those, 85% said it limited their willingness to share ideas or speak up at work. The research also found that imposter syndrome in women leaders peaks during career transitions, new leadership roles, and high-visibility situations — precisely the moments when confidence and decisive action matter most.

This is not a personal quirk. It is a documented, measurable pattern — and it has a solution.

Why the Most Capable Women Get Stuck the Hardest

Here is the counterintuitive truth at the center of this conversation: the traits that drive excellence are often the same traits that fuel imposter syndrome in women leaders. High standards, sensitivity to quality, attention to detail, and a deep commitment to getting things right are real professional assets. They are also the raw material for perfectionism, over-analysis, and paralysis.

Victoria named this dynamic directly:

“We get stuck because we get in our heads. Perfection paralysis, analysis paralysis. We’re highly sensitized to doing things with excellence.”

— Victoria Whitfield

High-achieving leaders often notice more, feel more acutely when something falls short, and hold themselves to standards that most people around them would never even think to apply. That sensitivity is a genuine strength in execution. It becomes a liability when it prevents you from starting, shipping, or selling. Victoria described what being stuck in this pattern feels like from the inside:

“It’s as if you’re spinning your wheels or running in place in your career.”

— Victoria Whitfield

If that image resonates, you are not imagining it. And you are not failing. You are experiencing a very specific form of friction that has identifiable causes — and identifiable solutions.

The Gap Between Knowing and Doing

One of the most important distinctions in this episode is the gap between being a learner and being an earner. Imposter syndrome in women leaders often expresses itself as a relentless drive to acquire more credentials, more certifications, more expertise — as if there is some future point at which you will finally know enough to deserve the results you are pursuing.

There is not. That point does not exist. And the pursuit of it, while completely understandable, is one of the most reliable ways to stay stuck. The leaders I work with who are already deeply qualified, already delivering exceptional work, already trusted by their clients and communities — are still asking whether they have earned the right to charge appropriately, to step into bigger opportunities, to claim the level of leadership they are already demonstrating. The knowledge is there. The permission is the missing piece.

For example, Victoria spoke to this from her own experience—specifically the shift from giving away expertise to charging for it, and the reframe that made it possible:

“When I close sales, I’m helping people. When I make good money, more good happens in the world. That’s why I should be selling.”

— Victoria Whitfield

That reframe is worth sitting with. Selling is not self-promotion. It is service delivery. Every time a leader holds back from making an offer, charging appropriately, or pursuing an opportunity because she does not feel ready, someone who needed what she had to offer goes without it. And someone equally or less qualified gets the work.

The credentials are not the barrier. The permission is. And the only person who can grant it is you.

Stop Discounting What Comes Naturally

Imposter syndrome dismisses natural ability. There is a cultural bias — subtle but pervasive — that suggests anything that comes easily cannot be particularly valuable. If it did not cost you struggle or years of grinding effort, it must not count for much.

This is one of the most damaging beliefs a leader can carry. The things that come naturally to you — the work that energizes you, the problems you solve with apparent ease, the skills you have developed so thoroughly that they feel like second nature — are precisely what your clients, your organization, and your community need most from you. With that in mind, I put this as a direct question during the episode:

“Are you dismissing, discounting the expertise, excellence, joy that you find in doing the things that just come easily to you? Are you trying to make it harder than it needs to be?”

— Nettie Owens

Everyone hears this question from their own perspective. For some, it is the realization that they have been undervaluing a skill they assumed everyone had — only to discover it is genuinely rare and deeply needed. For others, it is the recognition that they have been avoiding their most natural work because it felt too easy to justify charging for it.

There is always a spark that happens when someone moves into alignment with work that genuinely suits them:

“I just absolutely love this work because there’s always this spark, right, that comes when you start to notice that you can stay focused, you can stay in the zone with the work that you’re doing, even if there’s a lot of distraction.”

— Nettie Owens

That spark is information. It shows you where to invest your energy and where your work most powerfully aligns with the results your clients need. Do not dismiss it because it feels too natural. That naturalness is the point.

The Mindset Shift That Changes the Trajectory

Imposter syndrome in women leaders does not dissolve through affirmations or willpower alone. It shifts through aligned action — through doing the thing, imperfectly if necessary, and discovering that the catastrophe you feared did not materialize. It shifts through community — through being in spaces with other leaders who are navigating the same terrain, and discovering that your experience is neither unique nor shameful. And it shifts through systems — through building structures that support consistent action even when confidence fluctuates.

Victoria put the wellbeing dimension of this clearly:

“When you feel better, you do better. Pair that together with going and getting those goals, feeling better and doing better, and you get the outcomes that you’re looking for.”

— Victoria Whitfield

That pairing matters. The emotional and the strategic are not separate tracks. When you are operating from a place of chronic self-doubt or depletion, your decision-making suffers, your visibility contracts, and the gap between where you are and where you know you could be feels impossible to cross. Addressing how you feel is not a detour from doing the work. It is part of the work.

Four Places to Start This Week

• Name the pattern. When you notice yourself holding back — from making an offer, sharing an idea, or pursuing an opportunity — ask honestly whether it is a legitimate concern or a fear of being found out. In fact, naming the pattern interrupts it.
  
• Take imperfect action. The antidote to perfectionism paralysis is not perfect preparation. It is consistent, directional movement. Done and delivered will always outperform endlessly refined and never launched.
  
• Inventory your natural strengths. Write down three to five things that come easily to you that others find difficult or genuinely valuable. Those are not disqualifiers — they are differentiators. Build from them.
  
• Reframe selling as service. Every time you make an offer or charge appropriately for your work, you are giving someone access to something that can genuinely help them. The withholding is the unkindness, not the ask.

You Are Not Behind. You Are Human.

Imposter syndrome in women leaders is not a permanent condition. Instead, it shifts through accumulated evidence that your work creates real value, through community that reflects your capability back to you, and through systems that support consistent action—even on the days when confidence is in short supply.

The feeling that you are meant for more is not arrogance. It is not delusion. It is information — the same kind of information that every effective leader has had to learn to trust. And the fact that you have not yet reached that “more” does not mean you will not. Rather, it means you are still in the process of getting there.

You are not alone in this. Every Wednesday at 3:30pm ET, the women who join our LinkedIn Live are navigating this exact terrain. The executives who reach out for coaching are carrying the same weight. Imposter syndrome in women leaders is a shared experience with a shared set of solutions — and you do not have to work through it in isolation

In Episode 6, Victoria and I are shifting from mindset into mechanics. If you have gotten people into the room — if the attendance challenge from Episode 4 is behind you — the next question is what you do now that they are there. How do you design an experience that converts attendees into advocates, clients, and community? That conversation builds directly on everything we covered here, and we will see you there.

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