The Judge's Favorite Target
Recognizing Imposter Syndrome in New Managers
In the last article, we looked at how the Judge works: the three modes (judging yourself, judging others, judging the situation), and started and exercise helps you recognize the Judge. If you missed it, it’s worth having a look as this piece builds on it.
The Judge1 (also known as your inner critic) does not need facts. It prefers ambiguity and uncertainty, and there is no role more reliably ambiguous than managing people for the first time. If imposter syndrome as a new manager is something you are living right now, your Judge is putting in overtime.
Why the Judge loves a promotion
As an individual contributor, your feedback loop was reasonably tight. You completed the task, and you got some kind of response; maybe someone said good job, or the deadline was met, or the client responded. The connection between your effort and the outcome was visible enough that you could use it to evaluate and motivate yourself.
As a manager, that connection feels looser. You invest time in working with an individual on your team, and you may not see the payoff for months. Or you navigate a difficult conversation well, but nothing changes. The Judge does not wait for long-term results. It fills the silence and draws its own conclusions. And because the feedback gap is ever present, the Judge’s commentary feels like truth rather than fiction.
What the Judge’s case looks like from the inside
Last week we talked about Chris Argyris’s tool for recognizing the Judge: the left column and the right column. The left column is the unspoken commentary running underneath what we actually say and do. There are four common shapes to that running commentary for new managers.
The competence loop. You make a decision, it does not land perfectly, and the left column immediately fills up. That is exactly the kind of mistake someone in over their head would make. The right column: you made a judgment call with incomplete information, which is, basically, every managerial decision ever.
The comparison trap. You watch a more experienced manager handle something smoothly. The left column: they always know what to do. I never know what to do. The right column: they have been doing this for years longer than you. The left column conveniently omitted that detail and drew the wrong conclusion.
The silence read. Your manager does not respond to your message for half a day or seems distracted when you meet. The left column: something is wrong. They are losing confidence in me. The right column: people are regularly busy and distracted for reasons that have nothing to do with you, but the Judge rarely entertains that possibility.
The measuring stick problem. This one is underneath all the others. Ask yourself: what would you need to see to believe you are doing this well? Most new managers say something like I would just know. But if your target isn’t well defined, the Judge keeps moving it. You hit a bullseye once, and the Judge moves the target further out. There is no version of your performance the Judge cannot find a flaw in, because the target was never defined.
The Judge is not running a performance review
Everything in the left column is an interpretation, not a fact. The Judge presents it as honesty when it is more often than not the worst available version of the story, delivered with authority.
The Judge is not measuring you against what someone with your experience, in your situation, could reasonably accomplish. It has never done that because it doesn’t know how to. It is not asking what a reasonable six-month baseline looks like. It is comparing you to some standard you cannot see and finding you short.
You are the expert in your own situation. The Judge has never managed your team. It has never dealt with your boss, your organization’s quirks, or your team’s particular history. It shows up with no knowledge or evidence and draws all the wrong conclusions.
What you do with this
You have already done the first step if you started the left column/right column practice from last week. The second step for a new manager is this:
Fix the measuring stick. Before the Judge can bring its case against you, you need to know what “doing well” actually means in your role right now. Given your team, your stage, your experience level, what would a reasonable observer say good looks like at six months? At one year? If you cannot answer that, you need to have a conversation with your manager and ask.
Apply the left column to the comparison. The next time the Judge runs a comparison between you and a more experienced manager, write it down. Right column: what actually happened. Left column: what the Judge concluded. Then put it on the stand the same way the last article described. What evidence do you actually have? What is the most honest interpretation you could hold? Would you tell a friend what the Judge is telling you?
Notice what the Judge is protecting you from. This is the question from the last article’s Act section, and it applies directly here. Imposter syndrome, at its root, is the Judge trying to protect you from something. Maybe it’s protecting you from being embarrassed, from failing publicly, from being found inadequate. That fear is real, but the cure is worse than the disease. The Judge has you questioning everything instead of building confidence.
Reflect and Act
Reflect: Which of the left column patterns above sounds most familiar? The competence loop, the comparison trap, the silence read, or the invisible measuring stick? Write out one recent example of that pattern. Right column first. Then left column. Ask yourself: is this true or just the Judge’s interpretation?
Act: This week, ask your manager one concrete question: what would doing this role well look like at this stage? This question is designed to help you find your target instead of just guessing. Note that this is different from asking if you are doing an okay job. Reassurance is nice, but a well-defined target will work better to help tame the Judge.
Concept from Shirzad Chamine’s work in Positive Intelligence.