LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

You’re Never Too Experiencedto Fake It Till You Learn Itby Herminia Ibarra

JANUARY 08, 2015

Novices emulate favorite bosses and

colleagues in an effort to look and talk as if

they know what they are doing — even when

they have no clue. It’s how they develop and

grow (just as children do, first imitating their

parents, then their peers). But this natural —

and efficient — learning process tends to break

down as people gain experience and stature.

As we become more certain about what we

“know” and who we are, the idea of

mimicking others feels artificial, even

distasteful. So we stick with what’s natural

and comfortable. And that’s precisely what

gets us in trouble as we hit career transitions

that call for new and different ways of leading.

In my research on how experienced managers

and professionals step up to bigger leadership

roles, I have observed both the value and the

difficulty of returning to our youthful, fake-it-till-you-learn-it strategies. The only way to pick

up the “softer” skills that we need to lead with greater impact is to observe and emulate

people who already have them, trying their strategies and behaviors on for size before making

them our own.

Take, for example, Clara, an HR specialist who was promoted a level above her boss to

become her company’s director of operations. The new assignment meant managing people

who had been her superiors and overseeing functions, like finance, in which she had no

expertise. “I understood in theory that a good manager should be able to manage areas

without understanding the technicalities of the work,” she told me, “but in practice this made

me feel like a fraud.”

At a loss for what to do, Clara decided to emulate people she saw as effective leaders. When

she met with the finance manager, one of her new direct reports, Clara greeted her warmly,

putting an arm around her shoulders as she’d seen her own boss do in the past.  And in her

first staff meeting, she tried out the blunt and direct way of speaking that she’d frequently

noticed other directors in the company using.

“I went home exhausted each day from playing the role of ‘Director of Operations,’” she said.

It was depressing — even embarrassing at times. Still, she persisted, adjusting her tactics

along the way. After about a year, in the course of leading a successful meeting, she realized

she had grown into the role. “As I began to gain confidence in my own ability to do this job, I

also began to fall into a leadership voice that felt more like my own and less like an imitation

of my former bosses.”

This kind of identity stretch-work comes more naturally to some people than to others.

Psychologist Mark Snyder identified the profile and psychology of “chameleons,” people who

are naturally able and willing to adapt to the demands of a situation without feeling like a

fake. Chameleons have core selves defined by their values and goals but have no qualms

about shifting shapes in pursuit of their objectives. Then there are the “true-to-selfers,” as I

call them, those who view situational demands that push them away from what they do

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naturally as threats to their authenticity. Their self-definitions are more all-encompassing,

including not only their innermost values, but also their leadership styles, speech, dress, and

demeanor.

A quintessential chameleon, author Michael

Lewis famously describes how imitation

helped him transform himself from an

inexperienced trainee into a highly successful

bond salesman in his best-selling book Liar’s

Poker. “Thinking, as yet, was a feat beyond my

reach. I had no base, no grounding,” Lewis

writes. “So I listened to the master and

repeated what I heard, as in kung fu. It

reminded me of learning a foreign language. It all seemed strange at first. Then one day, you

catch yourself thinking in the language. Suddenly words you never realized you knew are at

your disposal. Finally you dream in the language.”

People gravitate more readily to chameleon strategies like Lewis’ earlier in their careers, when

it is easier to accept and express ignorance. With experience and success, our habitual ways of

thinking and doing become more entrenched and our work identities solidify. We value

authenticity, so we continue to act in accordance with our sense of who we are — even when

it becomes patently ineffective. Unfortunately, the effort we put into protecting our “true”

identities can really hold us back later in our careers, when we’re trying to build on past

successes to take on new and bigger roles or responsibilities as leaders.

Suppose you have become known (and been rewarded) for your ability to use rigorous

analysis to figure out solutions to organizational problems. What happens when you’re

suddenly expected to start selling your good ideas to diverse, skeptical stakeholders outside

your area of expertise? Intellectually, you know you need to persuade and inspire, but you

just can’t bring yourself to do it. So, you put more work into your facts and figures — and

when your ideas repeatedly go unheard, you conclude that the organization and its key

players are “political.”

A better option is to look around to identify people who are good at selling their ideas — and

watch carefully what they do and how they do it. People who use this strategy concentrate

their efforts first on reproducing the behavior they have observed, even if they don’t fully

understand it. Then with practice, like Lewis, they try “to get inside the brain of another

person.” In their minds, they’re not being inauthentic — they’re simply evolving so they can

get the job done. After a while, they find they have acted their way into a new way of

thinking. They haven’t just developed their persuasion skills; they now value a different way

of working and see themselves as the kind of people who are good at getting others on board.

By definition, transformative learning starts with unnatural and often superficial behaviors.

When we are working at improving our game, a clear and firm sense of self is a compass. It

helps us navigate choices and work toward our goals. But when we are looking to change our

game, a rigid understanding of authenticity is an anchor that keeps us from sailing forth. By

viewing ourselves as works in progress, we multiply our capacity to learn, avoid being

pigeonholed, and ultimately become better leaders. We’re never too experienced to fake it till

we learn it.

Herminia Ibarra is a professor of organizational behavior and the Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and

Learning at Insead. She is the author of Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader (Harvard Business Review Press,

2015) and Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career (Harvard Business Review Press,

2003). Follow her on Twitter @HerminiaIbarra and visit her website.

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Valencia Woodard 10 months ago

Best article EVER!

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