Leadership Secret: Fake It ‘Til You Make It
A mentor shared the following story with me:
“I was at a luncheon with 50 other CEOs and company Presidents. The speaker, a well-known leadership expert, asked the group, ‘How many of you feel like an imposter at times?’ I looked around the room and 100% of these leaders had their hands in the air.”
Imposter, a person who pretends to be somebody else: 100%! Not half, not three-quarters, every single one of them raised their hand.
Wait, aren’t leaders supposed to “know the way, go the way, show the way”? What happens when they don’t know the way?
Sounds like maybe…they fake it.
‘Faking it’ is different than lying
I’m not suggesting great leaders make a habit of lying. We know that true leaders are typically radically honest.
I’m merely wondering if there’s a different kind of faking it, a good kind of faking it.
The reality is this: Most people struggle with self-doubt at times. If leadership is truly about “seeing the future” and most sane individuals know we have, at best, a batter’s odds of seeing the future perfectly, then it’s natural for leaders to doubt themselves now and then.
So when self-doubt creeps up, how do leaders cope? I suspect that “feeling like an imposter” is simply the feeling you get when you’re “pushing through self-doubt.”
Think of Churchill. When Britain stood alone against the Nazis, he must have doubted. But battle after battle, when Britain was on the brink, he always projected pure confidence.
Faking it and body chemistry
The Harvard Business School has done some interesting research on the power our body language has over our influence. The research says that faking it (by holding our posture in ‘high-power’ poses) stimulates testosterone, the hormone linked to power and dominance, and lowers levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.
So next time the voices in your head remind you that “You can’t read the future,” remind the voices, “No, but my odds are as good anybody else’s.” Then, strike your best Hulk Hogan pose; and fake it ‘til you make it.