Do you feel like an impostor in your field?

Sally's work experience, educational credentials and reputation were impeccable. Yet she felt like a failure. She lived in constant fear that some day someone would discover that she was a fake.

Sally was surprised to learn there's a name for how she feels: the impostor syndrome.

Clinical psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes coined the term in 1978.

While impostor syndrome isn't an officially recognized condition, Wikipedia defines it as "a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments. ... Regardless of what level of success they may have achieved in their chosen field of work or study or what external proof they may have of their competence, those with the syndrome remain convinced internally they do not deserve the success they have achieved and are actually frauds.

"Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they were more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be."

If you suspect you share Sally's affliction, here's an online quiz: www.kalimunro.com/self-quiz_imposter.html.

What Sally lacks is self-efficacy: believing in yourself. If you have self-efficacy, you have faith in your ability to pull together your social, physical, thinking and behavioral skills and accomplish your goals.

Albert Bandura, a psychologist and author of "Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control," tells us that self-efficacy "touch(es) virtually every aspect of people's lives: whether they think productively, pessimistically or optimistically; how well they motivate themselves and persevere in the face of adversities; their vulnerability to stress and depression, and the life choices they make." Bandura points to four sources of information and inspiration that will increase your self-efficacy.

1. Mastery experiences: Best described as your successes, the most robust sources for building your belief in your abilities. How do you capitalize? Recall the times when you did well and use those situations to affirm that you can, and do, produce results.

2. Modeling experience: Observing other people who are similar to you succeeding at a task. Seeing their success can strengthen your belief in your abilities to effect a similar successful outcome.

3. Social or verbal persuasion. This is hearing from other people that you are capable and competent. When you hear from others that you have the capabilities to master an activity, you feel affirmed and are more likely to believe in your abilities. When people give you accolades, resist the temptation to discredit what they say. Thank them and reflect later on their input.

4. Emotional state. This is the status of your feelings. Reject the notion that failure is to be avoided. Fear of failure will limit your options, and hence your future successes. Looking on the proverbial bright side can boost your sense of competence, while anxiety can undermine it.

Building your sense of self-efficacy puts you on the road to gaining self-confidence, which, as Samuel Johnson says, "is the first requisite to great undertakings."

Jane Perdue is a leadership consultant, coach, speaker, author and CEO, Braithwaite Innovation Group.

The Job Coaches are volunteers from the Center for Women's Job Counseling Program. Call 763-7333 or e-mail info@c4women.org. A donation of $35 is requested for counseling appointments.