What the Succession Finale Reveals About Impostor Syndrome
This article was originally posted on Time.com and is excerpted below. See the full article here.
It’s really not you.
There’s real irony in using Succession, whose whiteness is impossible to separate from greed, wealth, and success, as a reference point here, since the roster of wannabe CEOs are seemingly impervious to feeling like impostors. And yet there may be no more perfect showcase for the rottenness of the so-called system, with relentlessly dysfunctional workplaces that reward the most privileged. The characters are unapologetic because nothing has ever indicated to them to be otherwise. We viewers cannot emerge so unaffected.
If there was ever a show redeeming the idea that the world is the problem, not us, this is it. “Most people live and work in unjust systems that don’t serve them, and it’s time to stop asking individuals to tie themselves in knots ‘fixing’ themselves when it’s society and systems that need fixing,” says Morra Aarons-Mele, author of the new book The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Power. “Systems are racist, biased, patriarchal, and unjust. I don’t know anyone who would look at corporate America and say, ‘Wow, is this a healthy place to be!’”
How to prevail anyway? The rest of us don’t have the safety nets of the Roy siblings, but we can identify and curb behaviors in response to our fears of shame and failure. Researchers have identified two such areas, says Aarons-Mele. “One is the path of procrastination, which is a kind of self-sabotaging response to feelings of fraudulence: Worried they won’t succeed, these workers put off tasks until the last minute, and when they do succeed, they easily discount their success as undeserved or a stroke of luck,” she says. “Others take the path of overpreparation. These are the workers who overachieve, overwork, and overfunction.”
Being clear in what you stand for and centering your mental health are also key. “We do have power within us to change and lessen the impact of our impostor feelings,” says Aarons-Mele.