Imposter syndrome in HR: the voice saying you don't fit in is lying to you

The voice saying you don't fit in is lying to you. Your clients never heard it. Only you did.

I shared a post about this on LinkedIn last week and it got more than 30,000 impressions. The response told me that this is not a niche problem. And it deserves more than 300 words, so here's the longer version.

Being in HR makes imposter syndrome worse, not better

In HR, you are the person other people come to when they're struggling with their career, their confidence and their sense of direction. And yet behind closed doors, you're dealing with exactly the same thing.

You're the expert on people. You've sat across from hundreds of employees over your career. You know all the frameworks. And still, that voice is there.

Part of what makes it worse is that HR is structurally isolating. You sit at the edge of the business.

You're close enough to the leadership team to know everything, but not close enough to fully belong. You hold confidential information about people who are also your stakeholders. It's hard to build real relationships in that position. It's easy to feel like you're on the outside looking in.

And the assumption that HR is easy doesn't help. I've lost count of the number of times someone outside the function has explained my own job back to me (including my own husband, who works in IT). Non-HR people tend to think what you do is common sense, which makes you question whether the complexity you feel is real or just in your head. (HINT: It's real!).

My own version of this

When I was an HR Business Partner at Barclays, I supported the investment banking division. My business stakeholders earned many multiples of what I made in any given year. They wore designer clothes, had attended fancy prep schools and had club memberships. I didn't have any of those things, and didn't particularly want them. But I still felt the gap.

And (like many of us in HR), I was regularly in the position of delivering unpopular news like headcount cuts, shrinking bonus pools, and yet another change to the performance management process. That doesn't make you popular. And it doesn't make you feel secure.

I remember sitting in long meetings with senior Managing Directors and wishing that the agenda would run over so that I wouldn't have to speak up. My items were always at the bottom, as HR items tend to be. I didn't want to make a mistake. I didn't recognize that as imposter syndrome at the time. I do now.

When I eventually left Barclays, I assumed I'd never hear from most of those people again. What actually happened was the opposite. After I started coaching, a number of those senior bankers reached out to take me out to lunch, ask for career advice, or get HR consulting support on their new ventures. One of them is a close mentor to this day.

My clients didn't see my imposter syndrome. They just saw me, working hard to deliver and make things better for them and their teams.

You're not alone in this. The data says so too.

The UK's only dedicated survey on the mental health of HR professionals, the 2025 HR Mental Wellbeing Report*, surveyed over 1,400 HR professionals and found that 59% feel bad about themselves. Nearly half meet the clinical threshold for depression symptoms — more than double the rate in the general population. These are not people who are struggling to do their jobs. These are professionals who are doing their jobs, often very well, while carrying a weight that nobody else can see. That weight is what keeps so many HR leaders stuck in roles they have outgrown, too afraid to try something different in case it confirms what that inner voice has been telling them all along. 

*I haven’t seen a report for Asia. Have you? If so, drop me a note in the comments!

What it looks like in practice: Jackie's story

My client Jackie had been Head of HR for APAC at the same company for seven years. By every external measure, she was successful. But her success felt hollow.

Her learning curve had flattened. And despite her title, she still felt like the most junior person in the room whenever she sat with the mostly male management team. She described herself as feeling like "a little girl" in those meetings. She was stuck in execution mode, rarely contributing strategically, and had almost no confidence in her own abilities.

When we started working together, we used the Hogan assessment to map her strengths. What she discovered surprised her. The picture it painted of her looked nothing like the person she'd been telling herself she was. She had real capabilities that she'd been underselling for years.

Over the following months, she shifted from execution to strategy. She started showing up differently in leadership conversations. She contributed her perspective and backed it. She stopped waiting to be invited and started taking her seat.

She also got clear on what she wanted next. It turned out that wasn't another HR role. That clarity alone took significant pressure off. She'd been measuring herself against a version of her career that didn't actually fit her.

Her imposter syndrome didn't disappear overnight. But once she could see the gap between how she perceived herself and how others experienced her, she stopped letting it make decisions for her.

Three things you can do about it right now

1. Start noticing the pattern

Imposter syndrome tends to arrive in recognizable moments such as before a big presentation, when you've been passed over for something, or when you walk into a room where you feel outranked. Start tracking when it shows up. The more specific you can get about the trigger, the less power it has. A vague, pervasive sense of not being good enough is harder to challenge than a specific thought tied to a specific situation.

Ask yourself the following questions:

·       Do I consistently undervalue my contributions?

·       Do I attribute successes to luck rather than skill? (I hear this one all the time!)

·       Do I avoid opportunities because I'm waiting to feel ready?

If the answers are yes, you're dealing with imposter syndrome.

2. Challenge your thought

When you catch yourself in a downward spiral, ask yourself, "What's the evidence for this thought?" and "What's the evidence against it?" This is not about forcing yourself to be accurate.

You can also use a simple check-in throughout your day. Every time you refill your water bottle (or get a cup of coffee, etc), pause for 10 seconds. Ask yourself, "Am I stuck in my head right now?" Sometimes catching it is enough to interrupt it.

3. Find out what others see

One of the fastest ways to close the gap between how you see yourself and how others experience you is to ask. A strengths-based assessment, honest feedback from someone who will tell you the truth, or even a structured coaching conversation can give you useful data. Most people are genuinely shocked (in a positive way) by the difference between their internal experience and how they come across to others.

Jackie was one of them. Seven years of underselling herself, and it took a 90-minute Hogan debrief to show her what everyone else already knew.

The voice is loud. It's not always right.

Imposter syndrome is loudest in the rooms where you belong most. That's not a coincidence. These are rooms with high stakes, high visibility and high standards. Of course your inner critic will show up there.

But your stakeholders, your team and your clients don’t hear it. They're watching you work. And what they see is usually very different from the story you're telling yourself.

Don't let that voice cost you the career you've already earned.

If this resonates, I'd love to hear from you. Book in for a confidential consultation here.

🎧 Have you managed to catch the "Women in HR" podcast? Tune in to hear more stories like mine and Jackie's from women who are designing careers aligned with their strengths, not just their job titles. Listen here: https://www.rchrconsulting.com/podcast.

I work with female senior leaders in Human Resources who feel stuck to help them love their work or find work they love. I write about:

👂 Executive & career coaching

📄 Career development and career transition

🎯 Job search strategy

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