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Happy to refer to Deloitte UK.
Y'all wanna do a happy hour soon?
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I don’t know how to do a lot of things but I know how to find the people who do.
THIS. I always say I may not know the answer but I know somebody who does. There are a lot of days where I feel like I am a fraud or shouldn't have been hired but then again the things I do know and do, I do very well and a lot of people rely on me to do. So there is a reason that each of us were hired into these roles.
Leaders never know what they're doing, they just do it anyway; the key is action. Don't just sit on your hands waiting for the answer to fall in your lap; do something. Even if it's the wrong thing and you have to change course later, do something. In that same vein, always admit when you're wrong, but never admit that you don't know what you're doing.
Best of luck to you.
Everything here is a way I’ve felt during. Not knowing what is going on, work that I cannot catch up on, it is hard to overcome those feelings of you don’t belong, or you aren’t doing good enough. Really is just a step at a time, you keep learning and adapting and that puts you ahead of most already.
Give it time.
I see this type of post a lot here, it’s a feeling I’ve not had since I was in my 30’s.
So looking back I think what this “imposter syndrome” might be symptom of is people just literally aren’t comfortable being in leadership yet - because it really does take years of practice for most people.
Not to say you’re not capable- clearly you are capable, otherwise you wouldn’t have the job!
It’s also better to question yourself than to be overly confident in their abilities. Overly confident people don’t know what they dont know - and that can come back to bite them - and often does.
It’s totally acceptable to break down complex tasks into simple steps, and ask foundational questions.
It’s easy to feel like you’re drowning when people with more experience are throwing down insights and ideas and drawing conclusions about things that you’re just beginning to grasp. You’ll be one of those people too - in time.
Trust yourself enough to know that you will make mistakes or say the wrong thing- and that’s easily fixed as it is accelerated learning.
Also know for certain that you were hired to do a job because you’re qualified. You might be learning - but you’ve got this as much as a three year old is learning to perfect walking.
It’s not about getting it right all the time. Mistakes lead to learning and development. It’s about marginal gains, and continually moving forwards.
Having the right people around you, and having processes to involve teams, is one of the keys to making a business a success.
As others have said, leaders rarely have it all figured out.
A mentor of mine gave me some really good advice when I made senior analyst. He said something to the tune of “nobody save for a lucky few immediately knows how to do their job let alone do it well. It’s a learned skill, you just have to be honest with yourself to identify what to work on”
Talk to your peers, and don’t be afraid to ask the “dumb questions” in meetings. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been the bobblehead too, but when you dig into it about half the meeting has the same questions you have!
Identify what areas you want to work on and find some books/audiobooks or courses to up-skill yourself. For example, In my company being a senior means being part of leadership so I had to do a TON of work on negotiation because I was working with stakeholders a lot. If you can think of a topic, there’s a book out there to help you work on it, if you can’t, tools like ChatGPT can help you label the skills
It seems like you are a great analyst who cares a lot about their role. Take a breath, make a plan, and find some small things to start working on. Because you said meetings are a point of anxiety for you, maybe something small to start is to start writing down what people are saying in the meetings and then send your notes out after for people to add to or update.
You’re doing great I’m sure, and your company chose you for a leadership role for a reason.
If you were ready it wouldn’t challenge you and give you chances to grow. Learn , adapt, and set long term goals achieved by short term ones. Learn from failures and improve on successes. It’s a never ending process.