#64 | 3 Simple Ways To Quiet Imposter Syndrome And Build Influence Fast After A Promotion.

Have you been promoted into leadership and found yourself waiting to feel confident before acting like a leader?

For many newly promoted managers, imposter syndrome shows up most strongly in the small everyday moments: team meetings, one-to-ones, and the constant pressure to appear certain. This episode shows why influence is not built by having all the answers, but through small, repeatable leadership habits that create trust, clarity, and confidence over time.

• You will learn three practical leadership habits you can use straight away in your next team meeting or one-to-one
• You will see how these small habits help newly promoted managers build influence without pretending to feel fully ready
• You will understand how to create more trust and confidence while still leading through uncertainty

Play this episode to discover three simple ways to build influence after promotion, even if imposter syndrome is still tagging along.

More from the show

A Cheat Sheet For Shrinking Your Imposter Syndrome

A 90 Day New Manager Checklist

New episodes are released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.

Stuck, simmering, or onto something juicy? I want to hear it. Drop me a line at caroline@inspireyourgenius.com - I read them all.

And here is the Spotify Playlist to accompany UnShakeable Her.

This podcast explores resilience, imposter syndrome, and credibility while unpacking how boundaries, conflict, and feedback shape the way we handle pressure, influence, and guilt at work. It also looks at promotion, work-life balance, people pleasing, decision making, and visibility, offering honest conversations about how to grow professionally without losing your confidence or yourself.

Transcript

Caroline Esterson (00:00)
Hello there, happy Friday. So this week we've been working with Mia who is new in role and dealing with the possibilities of restructure. Wednesday we covered why early leadership feels nothing like it looks like from the outside and what the little moves of excellent early leaders actually are.

Today you're getting the following. Firstly,

A song that is going to make the unmapped territory feel like possibility rather than a threat. And the science of why that shift matters before you walk into your next one-to-one. Then you can get three moves so specific to the new manager that you could use all three before your next team meeting on Monday. And none of them require you to have all the answers. All of them require you just to show up. And three...

Caroline Esterson (00:52)
You're leaving this episode with a sentence.

Caroline Esterson (00:55)
the most important sentence a new leader can learn to say, and it will do more for your teams trusting you than anything else we've covered this week.

Caroline Esterson (01:06)
Hello, I'm Caroline Esterson and this is Little Moves Big Careers, helping women in corporate leadership who are constantly second guessing themselves to build the daily habits that compound into unshakable confidence. Yep, that's you.

Caroline Esterson (01:24)
goody, so let's start by going straight into the song. So this song is for Mia and for every woman who has stood at the edge of something she wasn't sure she was ready for and decided to walk into it anyway.

Why, I hear you ask, because it is literally, precisely, exactly about leading without a map. Bedingfield wrote it about the blank page, that terrifying, yet exhilarating, wide-open space of something that hasn't been written yet. Feel the rain on your skin, no one else can feel it for you, only you can let it in. Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten. Well,

That's Mia's third week, isn't it? That is the every first week, first month, first year of leadership. The map doesn't exist yet. She's making it up as she goes along. And this song says that's the whole point.

So, unwritten is your anchor track this week and for Mia, it reminds her that uncertainty isn't the enemy. She doesn't have to have all the answers. Add it to your little moose playlist, play it on a Monday morning when the week ahead feels unmapped. The rest is still unwritten. And that is where all the best things happen.

So let's move on to three quick fire career moves. And these are for the new leader who is just figuring it out in real time. Number one, the weekly unknown list. Every Monday morning before anything else, write down three things you don't know yet that you need to find out this week. Not a to-do list, not goals, specifically gaps.

Questions, things that are currently in your blind spot. Then next to each one, write down who or what is going to help you close that gap. This becomes your map. Build it yourself, one week at a time. The leaders who navigate uncertainty best are not the ones with most answers. They are the ones with the clearest view of their own questions.

Quickfire move to the three word check-in. At the start of each team meeting or one-to-one this week, open with, how are you? Honestly. And then wait. Make it a genuine question. The pause is the move. Most leaders ask how someone is and have moved on before the person has decided whether to tell the truth, let alone spoken.

The pause, whether it be three seconds, five seconds, whatever it takes, signals that you actually want to know. This is how Mia learns what's really going on with Matty and Jess before it becomes a problem she didn't see coming.

Matty's uncertainty about the restructure face to face instead of in an email.

Quitfire move three, the end of week letter to yourself. Every Friday takes five minutes, write three sentences to yourself. What did I do well this week as a leader? What did I learn? And what will I do differently next week? It's not your performance review, it's a navigation log. Mia, in week 12, reading back her week three entries, we'll see something she can't see right now.

that she was growing the whole time, even when it felt like standing still. That log is the evidence base for her own development,

to the feeling that nothing is changing.

So whether you're a new leader or a veteran leader, all these moves can help you. We often say, don't we, know, go back to the beginning, think about those feelings right at the start.

We can forget some of the basics that are so important to us. So I encourage you wherever you are in your career to start doing those three little moves.

Next week, we're moving to the weight you carry, the mental load. Guilt, the invisible labour that goes completely unaccounted for in every performance review you've ever had. I'm already looking forward to sharing that one.

This weekend, find and written, listen to it and write down one thing you don't know yet that you're going to find out next week. The map builds itself one week at a time. And if me as week three felt familiar, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it because the most important thing a new leader can know is that feeling of not quite knowing what you're doing is not a sign you're in the wrong place. It's a sign you're at the beginning.

If you're not subscribed yet, do it now. Monday's episode of The Weight You Carry will be waiting in your feed after the weekend. I'm Caroline Esterson. This is Little Moves Big Careers. Have a wonderful weekend.