"Will they realize at some point that I'm not as good as they think I am?" The "Imposter Syndrome", first diagnosed in 1976, describes this fear of being exposed as an imposter. And according to studies, around 70% of managers are confronted with this at least once in the course of their career. An extremely entertaining panel discussion developed in front of over 200 guests at the Aura in Zurich.

Welcome: "Who feels like an impostor?

In their welcoming address, Wirz CEOs Petra Dreyfus and Livio Dainese immediately put some of the high-ranking representatives from business and communications to the test by asking who had ever felt like an impostor in their own role. The vast majority of hands in the room went up, confirming the relevance of the topic.

As a quasi-professional con artist, magician Pat Perry then gave the panel some consolation by convincingly demonstrating that people generally like to be fooled. Beatrice Tschanz, Timm Klose, Stefan Büsser and Dr. Elena Gross then took to the stage together with presenter Mona Vetsch and provided one of the most exciting rounds of talks in the 52-year history of the Wirz Cocktail.

Impostor syndrome as a motivating factor

Significantly, it was difficult to find panel guests on this sensitive topic, mentioned Mona Vetsch, who, with her 10 cm heels at the beginning, outed herself as an impostor in the most direct sense. Beatrice Tschanz, still a highly sought-after communications consultant today and unforgotten for her confident Swissair crisis management, provided many spontaneous bon mots. Among other things, she revealed that she had accepted the job at the airline because the CEO at the time had honestly understated his own communication skills. The recently retired professional footballer Timm Klose spoke openly about the balancing act of the top athlete between a dominant appearance and the difficulty of being booed by 60,000 people every time he touched the ball.

Elena Gross, who is in the process of gaining a foothold in the American market with her company and a new migraine therapy, described the omnipresence of imposture in US culture. She also addressed the positive energy that can arise from the feeling of one's own inadequacy - as a drive and motivation to work even harder on oneself. A thesis that was echoed by successful TV presenter, comedian and entrepreneur Stefan Büsser, who himself - like the other participants - confessed to occasionally "Fake it til you make it" and was urged by Beatrice Tschanz to get more sleep.

Doubt is part of the trade

After the discussion ended to great applause, Petra Dreyfus and Livio Dainese dismissed the guests to the social part of the evening with the pleasant realization that occasional self-doubt is definitely a hallmark of particularly talented and successful people. And that it is probably more pleasant to put up with a few negative social media comments from time to time than to be shouted at by tens of thousands of angry people for a living.