Educational activities as a prevention of impostor syndrome

[Man]

Disclaimer: I am not a psychologist and do not even strive to become one. If you already have some symptoms, it is better to contact specialists. What I will describe is more of a preventive method and personal experience.

What is impostor syndrome?​

There have been many articles on this topic and I will not repeat the definitions again. I will write down my thoughts on where it comes from and what its principles are. We all know that some knowledge or skills seem difficult when mastered only until you have mastered them. After all the necessary connections in the brain have been formed and optimized, it begins to seem, well, what's so difficult, once and done. But this feeling comes only when knowledge or skills leave the area of active thinking, which is not very productive for us, and go to the cerebellum and default system areas that are more suitable for quickly solving already understood problems. Thus, knowledge or skills leave our conscious part and become automatic, a part of ourselves. What happens in the end? It begins to seem to us that if it is not difficult for us to do daily work and it does not cause any difficulties, then it is not difficult and the objective assessment of value, through subjectivization, begins to fall, it seems to us that we are doing some kind of nonsense and it does not deserve even the assessment in the form of our salary and recognition of colleagues that we have.

The Link Between Burnout and Imposter Syndrome​

More competent people can correct me in the comments. But I believe that these two syndromes go hand in hand and have common roots. When you don’t feel like you’re doing something meaningful, that your knowledge is valuable, and that your actions change the world for the better. Dull repetition of daily rituals and a bunch of work that, in our own opinion, is not worth doing, predictably leads us to a complete loss of interest in the activities we do, while devaluing ourselves as professionals. We don’t see anything new, no motivation to grow in the profession, because the brain is used to what it does automatically and simply starts to get lazy. Why strive for something if everything works out anyway. But without new motivations, without new applications of our knowledge, we just start to burn out.

How Teamwork Destroyed Our Motivation​

We all work in an agile environment and the like, these daily meetings where everyone expresses their pain, discusses problems and their solutions, everyone is listened to and discussed peacefully. But imagine how unusual this is for our brain, which is evolutionarily accustomed to interaction in a pack. Where there is a leader, high-ranking monkeys, low-ranking ones. Where everyone understands who needs to be listened to and who does not. Now we are all "solving a common problem" and, in general, no one dictates how we will solve it, and we are all equal among ourselves, which is good from the point of view of processes, but undermines motivation. Where can we endlessly get the strength for new rationalization proposals if it is simply dumped into a common backlog, broken down into tasks and sent to work, without any achievement in our reward system in the brain. Yes, you can imitate enthusiasm for a very long time, but in such a scheme of interactions, we all see what this leads to, a drop in motivation, burnout, impostor syndrome. So, in the end, just resign yourself and wait for a predictable result? You can try to get motivation from the outside. After all, the brain does not care where to get positive reinforcements, for someone it can be a hobby, some personal projects, any activity where you personally do something well and as a result your brain gives the cherished "What a great guy you are!"

What does educational activities have to do with this?​

Since we have already gone into associations and generalizations of everything and everyone, let's explain educational activities. I include any speeches at conferences, writing guides and recording online lessons, mentoring. Any activity where you are a source of knowledge and there is another party in the form of one or many people who accept this knowledge from you. I don't know what will happen to it now with the advent of a new law on the control of such activities, but I hope we will not be banned from speaking at conferences and teaching people what we know, otherwise we will not see the prevention of burnout and impostor syndrome. So, let's consider how such activities help us.

How to become the "leader" of your pack​

There is an interesting experiment on primates by Konard Lorenz. A low-ranking monkey was separated from its troop and taught to get a banana from a special box. Then all its relatives were added and they were allowed to watch how the monkey demonstrated a skill that was not available to all the others. Do you think that all the others immediately began to repeat after it? Not at all. They simply beat this monkey and took away the banana, and sent it to get the next one. Then the experiment was repeated with a high-ranking male. He was taught to get a banana and the others were released. Maybe because it was impossible to take the banana away from him, maybe because of his authority. But in the second case, everyone learned to get bananas themselves and the story ended there. Different conclusions can be drawn. But in general, in the context of the article, the assumption that by teaching someone, we feel a little higher in rank in this troop will be important to us and this feeds our hierarchical instinct will be important. After all, we all want to be appreciated, to receive approval and some praise. So, what's wrong with organizing a flock and becoming its "leader"? By sharing knowledge, preparing for conferences, writing down some guides or lessons, we not only provide ourselves with an audience, but also fight burnout and impostor syndromes. Because a simple attempt to re-state on paper or in printed form what is "simple" or self-evident for you makes you think hard about whether what you are doing is so simple. I have experienced something similar when conducting interviews, when a candidate hesitates and does not know what to answer questions that seem elementary to you, although, judging by his resume, he must have encountered this or at least guessed how to solve such a problem, but on the other end there is silence and the thought "hmm, it turns out not everyone knows this" appears in your head. When preparing for a conference or making an online lesson plan, the thought of how to explain this to a conditional beginner is also included, what in this knowledge is the structure and what is the content. I didn't even suspect what a positive effect it would have on me. When you try to structure what you already know, another, new level of understanding comes and the pleasure of the fact that now it will also be appreciated. (or hate in the comments, although with professional knowledge the probability is less)

"Proper" teamwork​

I have never spoken at conferences or done anything like that, it always seemed to me that people do it out of vanity, like look how cool I am. I didn’t think I needed such a boost. Sitting at home during the pandemic, like everyone else, I began to wonder what I was missing, why my motivation began to fall? But after I read from various sources how important teamwork, socialization and a common goal with a group of people are for a person, I began to look for ways to interact like that. It would seem that work itself should give us all this, but as I wrote above, the atmosphere of equality and agile rituals are synthetic teamwork, in fact, we do not really feel the goal and the interaction that would give our brain a sense of a “pack” and belonging to it.

That's why when I started interacting with various people who prepare conferences and conduct educational projects, I plunged into a new world for myself, without changing anything in essence. I still operate with my knowledge, but in a new way. Not practically applying it to solve work problems, but recollecting the same information, but in the form of educational content. Thus, the value of this knowledge for me increases and I feel that it is necessary and important. And teamwork in a new environment for me, new deadlines and calls, instead of stress, bring interest and a rewarding brain boost. The feeling that you are needed, important and someone is waiting for you to fulfill what you promised, and not at a boring job, but in your personal project, where the importance of what you do is key, without your content there will be no course, and without a speech there will be no block at a conference. Going further along this path, I can of course face the fact that such activities will become habitual and will no longer bring pleasure. But for now, burnout and impostor syndrome have been postponed indefinitely, and at their first sign, we can come up with something else. After all, why do we need a head, not just to wear a hat?

The main ideas of the article are as follows. New team activities where you have a key role prevent burnout, spark new interest in the activity and provide positive reinforcement. Reassembling current knowledge from a new angle allows you not only to reach a new level of understanding of the subject, but also increases the subjective value of your knowledge for yourself and increases self-esteem, which prevents impostor syndrome.

Thank you all, I hope I conveyed my simple thoughts in a comprehensive manner, I can answer questions in the comments. Write your stories and methods, how you cope with the impending symptoms of our professional diseases.

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