10 Ways to Make Your Best People Feel Like Frauds (Without Even Trying)

If you’re a manager, a leader, or a company that wants to quietly destroy confidence while keeping output high, I have a helpful guide.

(Yes, I’m being sarcastic. No, I’m not joking.)

Here are 10 incredibly effective ways to manufacture imposter syndrome in high performers — the kind of people who already care, already try, and already hold themselves to a ridiculous standard.

1) Keep the goalposts moving

Change what “good” looks like every few weeks, then act surprised when they stop trusting their own judgement.

2) Be vague on purpose

Tell them they’re “not quite there yet,” but never define what “there” is. Bonus points if you use words like presence, gravitas, or readiness.

3) Praise them privately, block them publicly

“Great work” in a 1:1. No visibility in the room. No credit in the meeting. No promotion in the cycle.

4) Make them guess what matters

Reward the loudest person in the room, then tell the most competent person they need to “be more strategic.”

5) Give feedback only when something goes wrong

Silence when they’re doing well. A sudden “we need to talk” when you’re annoyed. Keep them permanently braced.

6) Exclude them from information, then judge the outcome

Don’t invite them to the meeting. Don’t share the context. Then criticise them for not anticipating what they couldn’t possibly know.

7) Create a promotion process that’s basically a myth

Tell them to “keep doing what you’re doing,” then reject them because they didn’t demonstrate the thing nobody told them was required.

8) Confuse busyness with value

Reward overwork, responsiveness, and availability — and call it “commitment.” Watch them burn out while thinking they’re still not enough.

9) Put them under insecure leadership

Give them a manager who feels threatened by competence. Then label the employee “difficult” for having standards.

10) Treat self-doubt as a personality flaw

When they start questioning themselves, tell them they need confidence training — instead of fixing the environment that’s breaking their confidence in the first place.

Now the serious part.

I need to add something more personal here, because I’m not writing this as a commentator. I’m writing this as someone who sits with people while this is happening in real time.

I work with high performers — people who are competent, conscientious, and already carrying more than their share. And I watch what these environments do to them. I watch them start sentences with an apology. I watch them over-prepare for meetings they’re more than qualified to be in. I watch them second-guess decisions they would have made confidently a year ago. I watch them shrink, not because they’ve become less capable, but because the ground under them keeps shifting.

And sometimes, in the middle of a session, I catch myself thinking: I know this feeling. Because I’ve been there too. I’ve had moments in my own career where I didn’t suddenly lose skill — I lost clarity. The expectations changed, the feedback got vague, the rules became unwritten, and I did what so many good people do: I turned it inward and made it mean something about me.

That’s why I care so much about this topic. Because imposter syndrome isn’t always “in your head.” Sometimes it’s what happens when smart, capable people are trying to survive inside systems that keep moving the goalposts — and then calling the emotional fallout a confidence problem.

I work with people across industries and seniority levels — and I see imposter syndrome everywhere. Not just in women. Not just in junior employees. Not just in people who “lack confidence.”

And what’s heartbreaking is this:

A lot of imposter syndrome isn’t something people bring to work. It’s something work creates.

Because when you’re in an environment that’s inconsistent, unclear, political, or emotionally unsafe, your brain does what it’s designed to do: it tries to protect you.

So you over-prepare. You second-guess. You stay quiet. You wait for permission. You hold back ideas until they’re perfect. You work twice as hard for half the recognition.

And then you call it a “confidence problem.”

It isn’t always.

Sometimes it’s a leadership problem. A culture problem. A systems problem.

If this is you, here’s what I want you to do this week

Not a full life overhaul. Just three moves:

• Name the pattern. Write down what keeps changing, what’s unclear, and what “success” supposedly means this month. Clarity is power.

• Stop trying to mind-read. Ask direct questions: “What does ‘ready’ mean here?” “What would make this a clear yes?” “What does good look like in 90 days?”

• Track reality, not feelings. Keep a simple wins log. Not to inflate your ego — to protect your memory when the environment starts gaslighting you.

And if you lead people, read this twice

If your best people are doubting themselves, it’s not automatically because they’re fragile.

It might be because you’re:

• unclear,

• inconsistent,

• rewarding politics over performance,

• or creating a culture where people feel watched, not supported.

High performers don’t need more pressure. They need clarity, fairness, and psychological safety.

Because when you manufacture imposter syndrome, you don’t just damage confidence.

You lose talent.

Emma