Female Leadership helps with Imposter Syndrome

We learn about Female Leadership in college and how diversity can build creative, happy, and motivated environments. My experience is that it is one thing to study it and another thing entirely to see it in practice. My previous job was very male dominated, and I only came across sporadic female leadership in the two years I was there, but I have been delighted to see its impact in SalesSense where I am doing my internship in Marketing. As a student I am still learning but this period of work placement has taught me some key lessons that can help me and other female graduates.

But first some background. At school Business was always a subject at which I excelled, and I felt I would have an aptitude to excel in it when I stepped out into the workplace. When the CAO came around, I chose Business and Marketing, and I succeeded in gaining a place in Munster Technological University (MTU). Several moments over the last three years have made me realise that I made the right choice, particularly the module in “Personal Selling” in which we developed a product, devised a sales plan, and completed each step of the sales cycle process. My internship with SalesSense began eight weeks ago and experiencing a Marketing job first-hand has convinced me that this is where I want my career to go.

In reflecting on the female leadership team members who have been supporting me in SalesSense, a common theme has been friendliness and empathy, particularly as I am making this first step of the transition from college to work which was quite daunting at first. I wondered had I earned the right to put what I learned in college into practice, and whether I would understand the real world marketing tasks. I think I was suffering from a phenomenon we now know as Imposter Syndrome, an internal belief that I was not as competent as others perceived me to be (Clance and Imes 1978), but through the support of the female leaders around me I have been translating what I learned in college into real world applications. Our culture of diversity has helped me deliver on the structured tasks I was to complete, and the creative approach in the teams has turned something nerve wracking and outside my comfort zone into something altogether more rewarding.

I am now over halfway through my internship with SalesSense and feel that the experience I have gained will empower me wherever my career takes me. I have a feeling of optimism and I think that female leadership will be part of my journey.

Clance, P. and Imes, S. (1978) The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, Vol 15(3), Fall 1978, 241-247