"Don't Think You Are Incapable of Changing Things around You"

Watch our first Community AMA on impostor syndrome with Growth PM and author Phyllis Njoroge

Everyone needs to be talking about the fact that these are universal experiences, and failure is just a part of what it means to be human and to be learning.

In the first Community AMA by product qties, Phyllis Njoroge, Growth Product Manager and author of From Fraud to Freedom, talked in-depth about impostor syndrome, its systemic causes that go beyond the individual person, how it's different from self-doubt, and how it equally affects both leaders and their reports.

It was an intimate and cozy events with just a few of our members, which gave us the chance to go deep into a number of areas.

Plus, this time I didn’t mess up the recording either, so there’s that!

You Are Capable of Effecting Change

As a company, we're focused on growing revenue as a lot of companies are. And something that I had a hard time with last year is feeling like we were only praising things that grew revenue and not acknowledging other aspects of people's work. But knowing that I at least attempted to bring this to the attention of other people and present the value of talking about the work that we're doing in this way is something that I could relieve my conscience of at the very least. So don't think that you are incapable of changing the things around you.

Uncovering the Surprising Shift in Doubt for Successful Leaders

For people who are leading, the difference between questioning, can I do this, and then questioning, can I help other people do this? Now you're responsible for all these people and maybe up until this point, you've managed to figure out how to make yourself successful on the things that you yourself are doing. And now you're questioning, damn, can I really help other people be successful in the things that they're doing? I don't know if I know how to do that. It's what I'm doing for other people.

Growing without Being Hard on Yourself

Improvement can only be measured after compounded efforts so keep showing up even when the outcomes haven't yet shifted in a way that motivates you to feel as if you're continuing to improve. And I found that for myself and for other people that sometimes growth can be synonymous with self-criticism and there is a way to grow without not having the situation of always being hard on yourself. And a lot of people find that they are motivated to grow only when they're hard on themselves but I want to address a way to grow while taking pride in the progress along the way. So taking pride in accomplishing something even if it was harder or more time consuming than expected, or the opposite even if it was simple or easy to do right some people underestimate their own strengths and their values, the value that they add to certain spaces

If you’re in Berlin or passing through, don’t forget to register for the Queer Product Meetup Berlin on April 21 at 6:30pm CEST.