When I meet leaders, do you know what I see? Imposters. Imposters wondering if you really belong the position you hold. But what is amazing is that is exactly why you do, in fact, belong. Even though you felt like an imposter, you raised your hand and took responsibility for your team, because you believed in yourself and your team enough to invest in leading them.
Not an imposter, but a masterpiece in progress
In my favorite podcast “How I built this,” Guy Raz interviews start-up founders. The episodes always start with a devastating moment when the founder had failed: out of money, rejected, a friendship ruined. You realize that inevitable success was never certain. They were just too stubborn to give up. Every Single Time. They failed. They were imposter CEOs. But that didn’t stop them. They changed the world: Airbnb, Netflix, Lyft, Wikipedia, Khan Academy.
Consider this quote from Raz: “Take a look around you right now. At the seat you’re sitting on. The light bulbs illuminating the space you’re in. Even the cover of this book you’re reading. If these items have anything in common, it is that none of them looked like they do now when they were first conceived by the people who designed them. A lot happens between conception and first production. Shape changes. Materials change. Offerings changes. Names change.”
You are not the finished version of yourself. It is time to stop thinking of yourself as an imposter and instead see a masterpiece in progress. You are becoming the best version of yourself that you can be.
Time is your greatest asset – Use it to remold your professional self
You have to be willing to invest in yourself to truly achieve those dreams deep inside you. Time is your greatest asset – it is your primer for remodeling the masterpiece of your professional self.
When I went to get an MBA 14 years into my career, my husband told me “Honey, this is your year. We’ve given up a lot for this, take every opportunity they give you.” I followed his advice, and I feel like I acquired 10 years of professional experience in a single year. I emerged a confident leader, an astute businesswoman, and a proud alumnus. I am the best version of myself that I have ever been.
Now its your turn. Here is my advice:
- Practice telling your story. Look up “tell me about yourself videos” and then practice by videoing yourself. I did it 12 times before I was satisfied.
- When you can’t read, listen. Colleagues and friends will often great books in front of you, but it will be too much for you, so get audio books. Listen while driving, cooking, or in the gym. Books transform your thinking and give you tidbits to share in networking opportunities and client meetings.
- Be the most prepared for every meeting. Raise the bar for yourself on this. Encourage your teams to compete for who is the most ready. Get into this habit now and you will change the game in your business, right away.
- Study your way to a strong network. Block out 15 minutes before every first meeting to just learn about who you’ll be meeting with. You’re at a new level now, and that means paying attention to people more than projects.
- Accept that you are going to fail, but fail fast. We have all failed and will fail again soon. Write down your every failure. Make it exhaustive. Then cross them out, one by one, and write, “Thank you for not giving up.”
What will you commit to do? Write it down and get started.
When you raise the bar for yourself, you raise it for your whole organization
Remember, you will carry your current company with you for the rest of your professional journey. It is always going to be there on your resume. When you raise the bar this year, when you end this coming year smarter, more confident, and better equipped to be world-changing leaders and entrepreneurs, you affect everyone in your company, past and future, who will ever bare its name. As you become the best version of yourselves, you will also make your team and company the best version of itself that it has ever been. And that, my friends, is something to be proud of.
This article is an adaptation of the speech I gave to the new crop of MBA students at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management in October 2020. You can find my original speech at https://blog.frankfurt-school.de/become-the-best-version-of-yourself-that-you-can-be/