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🇸🇪 Sweden /Culture & Society

Realizing Leaders Are 'Just Ordinary People' Fuels Imposter Syndrome, Columnist Argues

From Svenska Dagbladet · () Swedish

Translated from Swedish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

Opinion Named sources Context piece
  • The article explores the concept of "imposter syndrome," where individuals doubt their accomplishments and fear being exposed as frauds.
  • It notes that this feeling is common across various professions, including surgeons, engineers, journalists, and lawyers.
  • The author reflects on how realizing that even highly accomplished individuals, like Albert Einstein and Barack Obama, experience similar self-doubt can be both comforting and unsettling for societal trust.

Do you ever feel like a fraud, constantly worried about being exposed despite your successes? This pervasive feeling, known as "imposter syndrome," is the subject of Anders Sundell's column. It's the persistent doubt that one's achievements are not deserved, regardless of evidence to the contrary.

Have you ever felt like a fraud? Worried about being exposed in contexts where everyone else seems much more knowledgeable than you? Experienced success, but thought it must have been due to luck? Received praise, but thought behind the smile 'if only they knew…'?

— Anders SundellDescribing the common feelings associated with imposter syndrome.

Sundell reveals that this syndrome is widespread, affecting individuals across numerous fields. He cites a study where all aspiring surgeons surveyed experienced these feelings. Even those in highly respected professions like engineering, journalism, and law grapple with the sense that their colleagues, despite their intelligence and expertise, are not infallible – a realization that brings a complex mix of relief and unease.

Even Einstein couldn't avoid feeling like an 'unwilling swindler' in his own cult of genius.

— Anders SundellIllustrating the prevalence of imposter syndrome among highly accomplished individuals.

The author draws parallels to historical figures, noting that even Albert Einstein reportedly felt like an "unwilling swindler" in his own era of genius worship. Similarly, former U.S. President Barack Obama has spoken about meeting powerful figures and realizing they were, in his words, "just ordinary people."

This idea that they were so special, so smart, so sophisticated – not really. If you sit down and talk with them, you realize they're just ordinary people.

— Barack ObamaRecounting his observations about powerful individuals.

Swedish research indicates that politicians, while slightly above average in intelligence compared to the general population, are not geniuses. This observation, Sundell argues, aligns with the democratic ideal of governance "by the people, for the people." If no one is infallible, then entrusting power to ordinary individuals becomes a necessary consequence of a functioning democracy, echoing Abraham Lincoln's vision.

rule of the people, by the people, for the people

— Abraham LincolnQuoted in the context of democratic governance and the fallibility of leaders.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Svenska Dagbladet in Swedish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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