{"id":30567,"date":"2025-06-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=30567"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:10:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:10:41","slug":"jacinda-ardern-impostor-syndrome-is-just-a-confidence-gap","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/jacinda-ardern-impostor-syndrome-is-just-a-confidence-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacinda Ardern: ‘I Prefer to Describe Impostor Syndrome as a Confidence Gap’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 24 Jun 2025 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Jacinda Ardern: ‘I Prefer to Describe Impostor Syndrome as a Confidence Gap’<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/jacinda-ardern-impostor-syndrome-is-just-a-confidence-gap\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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As the former New Zealand PM explains, the better question isn\u2019t whether you\u2019ll experience impostor syndrome but how you\u2019ll act when you do.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
At the 2017 APEC [Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation] meeting in Vietnam, the then-Prime Minister of New Zealand, Dame Jacinda Ardern, was physically barred by security from entering the main meeting room.<\/h6>\n

\u201cIt was a leader-only event and they\u2019d decided I was not a leader,\u201d she told an audience during an onstage appearance at Westminster\u2019s Methodist Central Hall earlier in June. \u201cI find myself really holding back from saying \u2018I\u2019m the Prime Minister\u2019 as if somehow it\u2019s name-dropping,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

Within moments, Malcolm Turnbull, the then-Prime Minister of Australia, with whom she had been talking in the corridor, returned, grabbed Ardern\u2019s arm, and walked through with her while indignantly uttering the words \u2018she\u2019s the Prime Minister of New Zealand\u2019.<\/p>\n

Leaders at that APEC meeting had been given identifying pins to wear, but Ardern\u2019s was covered by her long hair.<\/p>\n

Ardern, who served as Prime Minister of New Zealand between 2017 and 2023, has spoken of her impostor syndrome during various public appearances and also in her recent memoir A Different Kind of Power<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The APEC security staff may have perceived her as an impostor due to her gender \u2013 she was one of just three female leaders at that meeting \u2013 but that was not an issue for Ardern herself. New Zealand has long had women serve in senior governmental posts, including Prime Minister [three], Speaker of the House, and Governor-General [four]. \u201cI didn\u2019t look out at the world and think that a woman couldn\u2019t lead,\u201d said Ardern, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t think you could lead with my personality.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was 14 when her favourite teacher introduced her to the concept of impostor syndrome, \u2018a phrase,\u2019 she writes, \u2018I would remember for the rest of my life\u2019. It represented \u2018puzzle pieces clicking together\u2019.<\/p>\n

Some telltale signs of Ardern\u2019s impostor syndrome<\/strong><\/p>\n

Impostor syndrome is not a recognised psychiatric disorder but it is experienced by a whole range of people regardless of their accomplishments.<\/p>\n

Ardern alludes to three areas where her impostor syndrome has tended to manifest.<\/p>\n

Her perfectionism:<\/strong>\u00a0as she explains in her memoir, she was noted as a skilled public speaker and debater at high school. Nevertheless she suffered from debilitating nerves. Even with her exhaustive preparation she \u2018could not shake the feeling that something could go terribly wrong. And when it did, it would also be proof that I wasn\u2019t good enough to be there in the first place.\u2019<\/p>\n

Unrealistic personal expectations:<\/strong>\u00a0during her recent appearance on HBR\u2019s IdeaCast<\/a><\/em><\/u>, Ardern spoke of the notion in leadership \u201cthat confidence is built through absolute knowledge and displaying a sense of the fact that we have all of the answers all of the time.\u201d It is an idea she has come to refute.<\/p>\n

Unfavourable personal comparisons: <\/strong>Ardern\u2019s father once protectively described her as \u2018too thin-skinned\u2019 for politics. There were times when she concurred. She noted the resilience of Helen Clark when she worked as a researcher in the former New Zealand Prime Minister\u2019s office in the early 2000s. \u2018And while Helen Clark had shown me that it was possible to be a woman in politics,\u2019 Ardern wrote, \u2018no one had shown me that you could be sensitive and survive\u2019.<\/p>\n

How Ardern deals with it<\/strong><\/p>\n

She accepts that impostor syndrome doesn\u2019t go away<\/strong>. \u201cIn my experience, it does not,\u201d said Ardern onstage. In any case, \u201cit\u2019s such a broad turn of phrase,\u201d she added. \u201cI would prefer to just describe it as a confidence gap because I think there\u2019s a spectrum and, at any given time, you can be in different places on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She does not accept it as a sign of weakness<\/strong>. When she was asked to go beyond her perceived areas of competence, her instinctive response as PM was \u201cto anticipate risk, to prepare, to bring humility to what you\u2019re doing, to bring in experts, to bring in advisors. And don\u2019t we want that in our leaders?\u201d<\/p>\n

She does not believe that impostor syndrome is always bad<\/strong>. \u201cJust remember all that it brings you,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t take everything, it brings you something as well. Just remember that I existed as Prime Minister for five years with my monkey on my shoulder and I do believe it made me better at my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir <\/em>by Jacinda Ardern. Available now from Penguin Random House.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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