On today's episode of Decoding Destiny, Irina sits down with Ilene Landon, SVP of Global Professional Services and Delivery at HireVue, to discuss Imposter Syndrome and Confidence: Finding Your Swagger.

Imposter Syndrome is simply defined as doubting your own abilities and feeling like a fraud. It tends to disproportionately affect high achievers who find it difficult to accept their own accomplishments and are typically perfectionists. It also tends to affect women more so than men. Statistics show that, as compared to men, women underestimate their abilities and typically success is correlated to confidence versus competence. In many cases, women don't see a new challenge as something they can handle if they haven't done it before.

The way we are raised as women plays a big part in creating our imposter syndrome. Girls are taught to avoid risk and failure and to play it safe. Boys are taught to take risks, be brave, speak up, and they are rewarded for it. In cases where girls do the same thing, they are told that they are being bossy.

The confidence gap is a challenge to mid-career women. These women want to take the next step, but they also don't want to fail and only take assignments that are safe to set them up for success. But if you aren't taking the risks and moving outside of your comfort zone you aren't growing. Even if you fail, it may be the lesson that teaches you the most. As leaders, we need to embrace this and push our teams to grow and develop, even if it means they don't do it right the first time.

Irina and Ilene also discuss many tips for women to help them overcome imposter syndrome so that they can ultimately find their swagger in life.

About Ilene Landon:

Ilene Landon is SVP of Global Professional Services and Delivery at HireVue, the market leader in video interviewing and assessments, providing an end-to-end hiring experience platform that allows companies to build a faster, fairer, friendlier hiring process.

She has spent her career running large Professional Services organizations, helping to build, grow, and transform organizations to ensure customer success and delivery excellence. She is an empathetic leader, coach, and mentor who is passionate about helping other women find their swagger to succeed.

She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and dog and loves to travel, cook, eat, run, and do yoga.

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To learn more about the host, Irina Kapetanakis, click here or follow her on Instagram and LinkedIn.