One of the many things that people tell me is that women are less likely to get promoted because they suffer from "imposter syndrome" and that they won't put them selves forward for higher paid or better jobs because of this. But it is not just women, men also suffer from this fear of being found out, this anxiety that they are not as good as other people think they are, this stress about being discovered.

In the 1960s a couple of US therapists invented a term for a severely debilitating and self limiting condition: the fear of being found out suffered by high achievers. People who felt that they were imposters, that they did not deserve their success, that they were not really qualified for the job they were doing. These were not people who suffered the odd wobble of confidence but people whose lives were being riven by constant terror of being exposed.

The very early research found that imposter syndrome was a feminine thing but more recent research reveals that it is equally distributed between the sexes.Since the 1960s there has been considerable research into 'imposter syndrome'. Research done in the early 1980s estimated that two out of five successful people consider themselves frauds; other studies have found that 70 percent of all people feel like fakes at one time or another. "Some people, the more successful they become, the more they feel like frauds," says one researcher.

Most likely to affect people whose lives have been an uninterrupted string of successes, they feel a fake, discount praise, dismiss their achievements, focus on their mistakes and finally attribute their success to luck or chance. The consequences include a tendency to over perfectionism; the individual puts in more effort, studies obsessively, practices every detail compulsively, works and reworks the report in the small hours. This strategy increases the chances of success but re-inforces the individual's sense that they are not really talented, they have only achieved the success because of the extraordinary amount of work. So they repeat the efforts.

Alternatively the imposter fails to prepare thoroughly or work hard. They then attribute the success, not to an ability to 'wing it' but to pure luck, a fluke, to the fact that no-one spotted the flimsy nature of the work. Imposters will go to great lengths to ensure they are not 'found out'. They work harder than others, they don't ask questions in case it is seen as exposing their ignorance, they don't ask for help as it will expose weakness, they can be belligerent when challenged and turn aggressive if offered help. Often they won't apply for promotion, they don't ask for pay rises, they underestimate their abilities and they suffer constant anxiety as they continually benchmark their efforts against those of others.

Suffering from this is debilitating and self limiting, managing someone who suffers can be challenging and frustrating as they decline additional responsibilities or obsess over details. So can the cycle be broken?

Give detailed feedback on precise things that the person did that made the work a success

Point to the skills or talents needed rather than the effort

Help the person to make the causal connection between what their talent and the end result

Draw comparisons between them and those who can't do what they can (they will be comparing with others who can do it better)

Help them value what comes easily to them, to recognise their accomplishments Help them identify their development needs constructively

And if it is you that is suffering: take this medicine for yourself, review your successes in detail and explore your precise contribution and ask 'what would have been different if I had not been there?' Get support from a third party to identify what you can do, understand that the small things add up to big things and be kind to yourself.

Mary Hope Career Success provides support and help people to get paid more, promoted faster and feel more satisfied. With 30 years as an HR professional, career coach and trainer, I share my expertise with people who are at a career cross roads, are redundant or who want to get on better in their jobs. Everything you need for career success just add your own talent and stir. Visit http://www.maryhopecoaching.co.uk today to see how I can help you.