Inspired by the incredible story of my guest for this month, Faith Opiyo who has continued to face a lot of odds, including self doubt , while navigating her career as a black woman in tech, this month on the podcast we are reflecting on impostor syndrome and why we should rethink it through a more systemic lens as opposed to an individual one, particularly in underrepresented groups.
Impostor syndrome is the phenomenon of experiencing self doubt or feeling like a fraud despite your accomplishments. More often than not, it is a topic that resonates with women and other underrepresented groups. A whole million dollar  industry dedicated to fixing impostor syndrome in these groups has been built around this topic, including books, articles and experts. However, the industry misses addressing why impostor syndrome occurs in the first place..
Impostor feelings, particularly in underrepresented groups are a result of repeated exposure to systemic bias, be it sexism, racism, xenophobia or any other form of prejudice. To paraphrase my favorite paragraph in a landmark HBR article on the topic, as a member of any underrepresented group, when you feel like you do not belong, it is because you were never supposed to belong! Most institutions are still very much rooted in white supremacy and the ‘ole’ boys club, and bias across these systems routinely inhibits the ability for underrepresented groups to thrive.
Listen to this episode for my thoughts on impostor syndrome, including an account of my experiences with it and what we should be doing to address it.
Top 3 takeaways from this episode:

As a Woman of Color, if you ever feel like an impostor, your feelings are absolutely valid!
To truly address impostor syndrome, we should be addressing systemic bias, that perpetuates these feelings of inadequacy in underrepresented groups
A healthy dose of self doubt when up against challenges is normal and we should learn to embrace it

Listen to Faith’s episode here: https://bit.ly/BsquaredCBusiEp
HBR article on impostor syndrome in women: https://hbr.org/2021/02/stop-telling-women-they-have-imposter-syndrome 
Fast company article on self doubt : https://www.fastcompany.com/90402783/why-self-doubt-is-an-important-part-of-success 
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