“You know, at your level, you are not supposed to be this good,” my former manager said to me. “How are you this good?”
This was after he asked me to present to the top 200 leaders of our company at an annual off-site event. He had given me less than a week to prepare and snapped at me when I asked follow-up questions on the deliverables. I was only three months into my new job. I did everything I could to pull together research and a thought-provoking presentation with clear takeaways.
After the presentation, I had dozens of leaders stopping me in the hallway and sending me emails and texts, letting me know what a powerful presentation I had delivered and how they had learned so much from me. I had hoped for a similar positive reaction and accolades from my manager when he had called me into his office a week later.
Instead, I was met with a mix of shock, sarcasm, and manipulation. There was no praise, accolades, or acknowledgment of the impact I had. Instead, this was the start of this former manager helping me understand that it’s not always imposter syndrome we experience in our workplaces. Sometimes we are the target of career gaslighting.
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