104 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP
inadequacy he was so anxious to conceal. In his personal life, for
example, he indulged in conspicuously self - destructive behavior, such as
public affairs with numerous women and a drinking spree that resulted
in a disastrous car accident. At work, he found it increasingly diffi cult
to concentrate and make decisions. He worried — with good reason —
that his problems at the offi ce would be noticed by the CEO and other
members of the board. When would they realize that they had made a
horrible mistake in promoting him to the senior executive team?
When the fear and stress eventually overwhelmed him, Holmes quit
his job and accepted a junior position at a larger organization. Given his
genuine talent, however, it didn ’ t take long before he was asked to head
up one of that company ’ s major country units, a known stepping stone
to the top. In this new role, Holmes ’ feelings of doubt resurfaced. Rather
than risk being exposed as incompetent, he left the job within a year
and moved to yet another company. There, despite his performance, top
management looked at his employment record and concluded that
Holmes didn ’ t have the right stuff to make it to the highest levels of
leadership. Holmes couldn ’ t let himself move up to the most senior levels
in an organization because, deep inside, he feared that he was an impos-
tor who would eventually be discovered.
Listening to his tale of woe, I recognized the features of neurotic
imposture. I felt that what he needed was to see the connections between
his past and his present behavior and to realize that a certain type of
behavior, which might have been quite effective at one stage of his
development, was no longer working. He was no longer a child; he was
an adult. He also needed to build up his self - confi dence and have a more
realistic assessment of his capabilities. I suggested that he should see a
psychologically trained leadership coach, and at the same time take my
top executive seminar, ‘ The Challenge of Leadership ’ (see p. 245 ). I felt
that it would be a good experience for him to work together on indi-
vidual and organizational issues with a group of senior executives for a
signifi cant period of time to build up his sense of self - effi cacy. The dis-
cussions in the group setting were a revelation to him, making him
realize that he was not alone in having imposturous feelings. Further-
more, these interactions also made him aware of the fact of how com-
petent he really was. Considering how his career has progressed since,
the intervention seems to have worked.
Neurotic impostors can be found at all levels of an organization.
Typically, misgivings begin with the fi rst job, right after graduation,
when people are fraught with anxiety and particularly insecure about
their ability to prove themselves. Promotion from middle management
to senior management is another tricky time because an executive must
negotiate the diffi cult switch from being a specialist to becoming a