Imposter Sydrome aka If People Only Knew That I Have No Idea What I'm Doing

A fascinating, not-so-recent article over at Psychology Today about "Imposter Syndrome". I would be very surprised if this is something that religious leaders don't also suffer from. It's certainly an interesting view into the discrepancies between external and internal identity/reality. The first few paragraphs go like this (ht JD):

Over the last five years, I've had the privilege of coaching quite a few leaders from several different labor unions. Often, I hear some version of the following: "If people only knew that I really don't know what I'm doing..." Such is the secret worry of almost every union leader I've ever coached. In this, union leaders are no different than others who have acquired some degree of authority, expertise, wealth, recognition, or power. Hardly a day goes by in my psychotherapy practice that I don't hear some version of this feeling voiced by my patients, whether they're professors, lawyers, or CEOs. Union leaders, however, seem to have their own special brand of what is commonly known as the "imposter syndrome." Understanding this problem is crucial to overcoming it.

This syndrome should be familiar to readers. Psychologists and Organizational Development folks talk and write about it all the time. It has even made its way into the mass media, sparked workshops galore, and spawned its own organization (impostersyndrome.com)! This state of mind is marked by the feeling that you're not supposed to have the type of authority or competence that you actually have, that you don't deserve it, that you didn't quite earn it. You feel like you're fooling others and that some day they'll get wise and expose you. It's a feeling that you've somehow snuck into a club in which you're not a legitimate member. The club might be the club of "real leaders" or "experts" or "people who know what they're doing." Since you don't belong in the club, you have to police your behavior so as not to draw the wrong type of attention to yourself, attention that might lead to your dreaded "outing." You see others whom you imagine belong in the club who don't have to be careful. You wonder how they do it. You go to sleep at night thinking, "How did I ever get here?"