Scaling for Success: Imposter Syndrome

This is the last part in a four-part Scaling for Success workshop series hosted by the Greater Vernon Chamber and Women’s Enterprise Centre. 

We often assume that people who “have it together”, appear confident, or who have achieved a certain level of success will never feel as if they are an imposter. That is not true. Even Tina Fey admitted that she has often felt like a “fraud.” Notice that she says she feels like a fraud. Not that she is a fraud.

In this powerful session you’ll have the opportunity to share ideas and collaborate with peer-to-peer learning, hear from other women entrepreneurs about their real-life experiences, and examine imposter syndrome in more detail.. Whether you have experienced it yourself or are curious about the topic, taking steps to understand those feelings when they arise, will help you to keep moving in the direction of your dreams.

By the end of this session, you will be able to confidently:

• Identify risk factors, causes, predictors and negative outcomes of imposter syndrome.
• Outline three strategies for minimizing the feelings of imposter syndrome.
• Identify the benefits of reducing the feeling of being an imposter.

Facilitator: Susan Washington, Owner and Advisor, The Washington Group

Panelist: Andrea Helleman, Owner/Director/Founder, MAVEN BUSINESS + BRAND DEVELOPMENT

A recording will be available for 30 days after the live sessions.

Open to everyone.
 

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

Susan Washington is an accomplished entrepreneur, educator, and coach committed to community, people, learning, collaboration & decolonization. As a white settler, reconciliation and ending marginalization / white supremacy culture is one of her top priorities and is not separate from her work or her life. Naming power dynamics and being part of the change is driven by the desire to contribute to a more equitable world.

Susan loves coaching, facilitating and mentoring with WEC and has done so for 10 + years. Self-directed change, like Susan went through when she left the academic world to start her own coaching and training business 20 years ago, takes courage, accountability, good planning, and support. Not to mention an honest look at yourself and the systemic barriers women and racialized/marginalized peoples face. Susan’s goal is to embody mindful changemaking. People often have too many priorities in a finite amount of time and can benefit from the principles of empathy, incrementalism, patience, effective thinking, emotional mastery, and powerful mental models diversity and have respect for the multi-dimensional nature of living sustainably. There are multiple complexities to lasting and inclusive change.

Susan holds a Master, Bachelor and Candidacy for Doctor in Education at the University of Toronto. A problem-solver, parent and community advocate, she is agile and believes in collaborative leadership for ever-changing environments, in both structured or consultative situations. Susan’s one piece of advice is: You can do a lot, just not all at once, or you’ll burn out, so sequence and timeline goals so that your aspirations have an achievable sequence.

Susan resides, with gratitude, on the unceded territories of the the ancestral, traditional land of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations., currently referred to as Vancouver, and is originally from Winnipeg