IntactTeams

The Imposter Cycle keeps some of the most capable leaders I know stuck in the same loop.

Here is how it works — and why it never produces lasting confidence:

🔄 Achievement

↓

🔄 Attribute to luck / timing / others

↓

🔄 Raise the bar ('now I REALLY have to prove myself')

↓

🔄 Over-prepare / over-deliver / avoid

↓

🔄 Succeed again

↓

🔄 Attribute to luck / timing / others

↓

🔄 Repeat.

The cycle never produces confidence because the evidence of success is never internalised.

It is always explained away.

Breaking the cycle does not require achieving more.

It requires interrupting the attribution pattern.

One achievement at a time.

One honest piece of evidence at a time.

Where in this cycle are you right now?

📩 This week's LeadershipLens newsletter goes deep on exactly how to break it. https://intactteams.com/leadershiplens-your-imposter-voice-is-lying-to-you/

Most career advice tells you to work harder.

I want to show you a better question: where are you on the Visibility Ladder?

The Visibility Ladder has four rungs:

1️⃣ INVISIBLE — High output, low profile. Known only within your immediate team.

2️⃣ RECOGNISED — Work acknowledged within your function. Starting to build an internal reputation.

3️⃣ VISIBLE — Known across the organisation. Invited into broader conversations.

4️⃣ INFLUENTIAL — Sought out. Sponsored. In the room where decisions are made.

Most high-performing women are on rung 1 or 2.

Not because of capability.

Because nobody showed them the ladder existed — let alone how to climb it.

Where are you right now?

And more importantly — what is your next rung?

📩 This week's LeadershipLens newsletter goes deep on exactly this. Subscribe at the link in my bio.