Own your Greatness by Lisa Orbé – Austin and Richard Orbé – Austin - Review
Imposter Syndrome Literature.
Own your greatness (ISBN: 978-1-64604-024-7) is the next installation of our Creative Battles book review series. We´ve previously seen a handful of books that cover the topic of Imposter syndrome. The Gift of Imperfection by Brené Brown gave us permission to forgive ourselves through the authors own story and experience as well as clinical research. The Imposter Cure by Dr. Jessamy Hibbard introduced us to a great method to both understand how Imposter Syndrome develops in us and help us identify it while also giving a guided plan to both understand it and it´s mechanisms as well as how to work through the challenges.
Finally in the Secret Thoughts of Successful Women by Valerie Young, we learned a lot more about the institutions and environment that show that imposter syndrome is not just in our heads. That in many cases much of this comes from the environment and situation that, women specifically, are working in creates the phenomenon. So how does Own your Greatness contribute to expanding our understanding of imposter syndrome and how to does it complement our understand developed over these last many books.
Workbooks and self-help!
Own your Greatness is written to help you build yourself up directly and specifically through a curated plan that the authors, two licensed and experienced therapists and executive coaches. Their experience and the examples of clients and user stories they have are interesting and follow through the books to highlight the specific section with perspective through out.
They have built the book based on their professional experiences between coaching clients and working with them in therapy. The book itself is built around you the reading taking direct pen to paper action throughout the book working on exercises that the authors have outlined in a specific sequence that they call the three Cs, Clarify, Choose and Create. These three sections create a path of exercises and work pieces that work to both identify and scope your specific drivers of imposter syndrome, in the clarify part, while Choose, frames your voice and ownership of the narrative about yourself. The Create phase seeks to then build up the tools and mechanisms that let you move beyond the imposter thoughts.
The plan then outlines the content of the book as a specific set of sequential and interdependent exercises that seek to get you the reader to effectively journal and build up the story of your specific case of imposter syndrome. These exercises are the core of the book. There is a lot of space to journal within the book and they encourage the reader, to write by hand and freely to create the many models and shapes, matrixes, and collaterals they rely on to build into the next exercise.
The workflow if you will is built one upon the next meaning that each section will ask for a writing exercise, with the output of that being used in the next exercise, so that there is a connecting thread throughout the various questions and thoughts they ask you to work on.
As the book is mostly a workbook with exercises the downside is that this short book doesn’t have a lot of theory or supporting text. The exercises can be explained very briefly with little actual instruction. The follow up on the exercises are entirely the reader/writers own meaning that the follow on will be entirely up to the reader to proceed to the next step and continue the process. There is little space to get feedback on the exercises that were completed previously.
As for context and actual depth the book has a focus on the exercises and the reader participants own work, so depth of topic and explanations on why things are like they are or what might apply to you are very light. The topics are not explored in depth nor are they really expected to be. If you´re looking for more research or need more prose on Imposter syndrome, then any of the books I mentioned at the beginning would be better placed to give both explanations and answers. Own your greatness is a workbook meant to support a journey through the readers own version of Imposter Syndrome.
Summary
Own your Greatness is an exercise book to take you through your own instance of Imposter Syndrome. It´s light on explanations, theory and examples but rich in hands on exercises that focus on your specific situation. I feel they are mostly well done and provide enough insight to be of value, as they are connected in a clear workflow with each connecting to the next to create a narrative that you the reader help create. I do think that this book is best used by someone who is happy to journal work the exercises by themselves, or perhaps in a group or with a partner. I have a concern about the lack of input this can create as having written these exercises having some sounding board would be a wonderful compliment to the work.
I would also suggest that those who would decide to take the workflow and exercises in Own your Greatness compliment it with one of the other books specifically The Imposter Cure by Dr. Jessamy Hibbard. That would combine the depth and well told depth of Hibbard’s book with the interesting exercises in Own your Greatness. I feel they would complement each other well as they both have the same flow in their process of Imposter syndrome.
Own your greatness won´t tell you too much about imposter syndrome but will give you a lot of ideas on how to analyze and work on your own situations. I feel this book is a great compliment to the literature we´ve already read.
If you´re struggling with imposter syndrome or need support in reaching that next level, then reach out to us on our DM´s or by email to timh@department45.eu for a free consultation. We´ll explore how we can possibly help you achieve your best.
Thank you
Tim H.
Lead Consultant.
