Hillary Clinton, Experience, and the Imposter Phenomenon

Ever notice that experienced politicians always tout their experience. Often, though, the voters don't care.

Take the 1976 Republican presidential, for example. George H. W. Bush tried to derail Ronald Reagan's campaign with an ad attacking his inexperience and describing Bush as "a president we won't have to train" (Tarpley & Chaitkin, 1992, p. 339). It didn't work. Gerald Ford got the nomination over both of them.

In the current campaign, Hillary Clinton constantly talks up her experience, saying she'll be ready to go to work "on day one." She's pushing that theme even though most national polls indicate its not at the top of voter concerns. But she keeps pushing it anyway. Why?

The answer is a phenomenon called the "Imposter Phenomenon." It's a feeling of inadequacy that a person gets on their first day on the job. It's often expressed in terms of internal thoughts of "what happens if someone figures out that I've never done this before."

The imposter phenomenon was first studied in education, where it was identified as a common feeling that affected new teachers (e.g., Byrnes & Lester, 1995). Since then the education community has revised their curricula to include practice teaching requirements for their graduates.

It also cropped up in newly hired business workers (Fried-Buchalter, 1992, 1997). A number of professional schools established intern programs so students could get the feeling of inadequacy out of the way before they actually go to work full time.

The problem, though, is that there are some jobs - particularly in politics - for which there is really no way to prepare. And the position where this is most apparent is the presidency. There is simply no way to be fully prepared to be president.

The early days of his administration, for example, Gerald Ford was criticized for his "sudden entrance into the presidency and his new administration's inexperience at making policy" (Mieczkowski, , 2005, p. 138). Similarly, Bill Clinton's supporters acknowledged that his early days as president were marked by "ignorance, inexperience and overwork" (Hamilton, p. 2007 153). Clinton himself acknowledged the problem, joking that "There's nothing like learning at the top" (quoted by Hamilton, 2007, p. 485).

There are a couple of "internships" that help, such as serving as vice president. And Hillary Clinton believes her years as First Lady will keep her from suffering from the phenomenon.

The problem, of course, is that she can't come out and say that. She knows it's important because she's already experienced the imposter feeling. It probably came when she was working on her first health care plan, the one which failed because of her adamant refusal to seek compromise on key issues. But such an admission might be viewed as weakness.

Still, the imposter phenomenon is a perfectly normal feeling. Some folks argue that all successful people go through it, and work through it, on their way to successful careers. But nobody likes to openly admit it, because it might be an admission of a personal failure or self doubt.

The catch, of course, is that self doubt is not a bad thing. A reasonable amount of self doubt is the impetus for a person to catch their own mistakes, to double-check their facts, and to generally perform a better job.

Still, for a politician, it can look like weakness. And no politician wants to be weak. Instead, they'll just keep touting their experience as a positive trait, without telling the voters why they know its an asset.

And Hillary? Well, she just hopes the voters will figure it out for themselves. She probably still remembers the mistakes from her inexperience during her husband's administration.

References

Byrnes, K. D., & Lester, D. (1995). The imposter phenomenon in teachers and accountants. Psychological Reports, 77, 350.

Fried-Buchalter, Sharon (1992). Fear of success, fear of failure, and the Imposter Phenomenon: A factor analytic approach to convergent and discriminant validity. Journal of Personality Assessment, 58, 368-379.

Fried-Buchalter, Sharon (1997). Fear of success, fear of failure, and the Imposter Phenomenon among male and female marketing managers. Sex Roles, 37, 847-859.

Hamilton, Nigel (2007). Bill Clinton: Mastering the presidency. New York: PublicAffairs.

Mieczkowski, Yanek (2005). Gerald Ford and the challenges of the 1970s. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

Tarpley, W. G., & Chaitkin, A. (1992). George Bush: An unauthorized biography. Washington, DC: Executive Intelligence Review.