Suzanne Mercier - Monday, May 17, 2010
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Recently, I participated in the Hire and Rental Industry Association
Conference on the Gold Coast. I've been fortunate enough to work with
this association over the past 3 years and am constantly reminded of how
wonderful these people are. They are genuine, down to earth, caring
and treat each other as family. Many of them own and run family
businesses, and a high proportion of them are very wealthy. I've now
been embraced as part of the family by those I've worked with over the
time. I really enjoy being around them and truly experience that what
you see is what you get with the people who own and run the hire and
rental businesses.
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As it often does, my thoughts went to exploring the differences between these people and some of the other people I work with. Now, I believe people are people and it's not that one person is a warmer, kinder, more genuine person than another. I think it's contextual.
My hire and rental clients / colleagues work in an area where they buy and rent out equipment of some kind. Their work is tangible. They can see what they do on a day-to-day basis. They can assess a piece of equipment in terms of its functionality, appearance, quality and so on, on objective criteria. Their equipment is used for tangible projects from DIY to building bridges and buildings.
On the other hand, many of my other clients work with ideas and information (as I do). Intangible! How do you compare one idea with another? Who can assess the idea or information on objective criteria? Given that we interpret life around us according to our own filters, it is unlikely that we would come up with "objective" criteria that we would agree with 100% anyway. How do we know if we have thought up something worthwhile? How do we know if we are intelligent particularly now that we are more broadly focussed than IQ? When we are dealing with something as intangible as an idea or information, I believe we are more likely to doubt ourselves. Even Einstein was quoted as saying "I have no particular talent. I am merely curious!"
Many of you have heard me talk about what causes the imposter syndrome. and those feelings of being a fake and fraud, not good enough. I talk of the perfection driver and citicism, both of which set us up to experience feelings of imposterhood. When something goes wrong with a piece of equipment, or it doesn't deliver to expectations, that something can be fixed. It's about the equipment. However, when something goes wrong with our thinking, our ideas or something that emanates from that thinking, we tend to make it about us - who we are not what what we did - and that reinforces that feeling of not being good enough.
I think an influence on feelings of imposterhood - not necessarily a criteria for imposterhood - is whether we work in an area which is intangible and which involves our unique intelligence and perspective.
What do you think? I'd love to hear.
All the very best
Suzanne
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