A New Superintendent鈥檚 Guide to Self-Doubt
February 01, 2026
Leaning into uncertainties, not fluffy affirmations, to take on feelings of 鈥榠mpostor syndrome鈥�
If experience is the best teacher, you鈥檙e the star student. You鈥檝e worked your way up the ladder and now have reached the highest echelons of leadership, as a superintendent or assistant superintendent. You鈥檙e waiting for the feeling of grounded confidence to sink in. Surely, after all this time, a steady self-assuredness will wash over you, clearing away the nagging suspicion that you are, in fact, an impostor with no right to be where you are.
Apparently not. Although you鈥檙e a veteran leader, beginning what should be the crowning achievement of your career, you find yourself feeling like a terrified newbie, wondering what you鈥檝e gotten yourself into. You thought you knew what leadership was all about. Everyone else certainly thinks so. Every day, they pelt you with questions that demand immediate, confident answers. They hold you accountable for other people鈥檚 actions. They grow downright vicious at your missteps.
Superintendents and their ilk face challenges for which there is simply no training, no graduate-level preparation. They鈥檙e jugglers, attending to the teachers鈥� union, the state education department and the board of education and trying not to let anyone down.
This Content is Exclusive to Members
萝卜AV视频Member? Login to Access the Full Resource
Not a Member? Join Now | Learn More About Membership
When Doubt Is Right: Acting When You鈥檙e Out of Your Depth
鈥淏elieve in yourself,鈥� they say. 鈥淵ou can do it,鈥� they say.
But sometimes you can鈥檛.
Maybe you鈥檝e tried everything to address your self-doubt. You鈥檝e been patient with yourself, leaned into the discomfort, relied on others for support and stretched your skills as far as they will go, but now you鈥檙e at a breaking point. Situations others handle easily fluster and torment you. You鈥檙e in a constant state of panic, and every day feels like an agonizing ordeal. You are, in other words, out of your depth.
It happens. You might be out of your depth because of personal circumstances, such as a family crisis, that prevent you from showing up to work in the way you鈥檇 like. You also might be out of your depth because you were promoted before you were ready or because the job you鈥檙e doing wasn鈥檛 what you thought it would be. These situations are all difficult to accept because you are wired to achieve and acknowledging that you can鈥檛 achieve in your current role feels like failure.
Personal Analysis
Admitting you鈥檙e out of your depth, however, isn鈥檛 the same as admitting failure. In fact, it takes serious emotional intelligence to know when you鈥檙e not in a context for success. Give yourself credit for self-awareness. You鈥檝e done the right thing by trying it out, reflecting and coming to an appropriate conclusion.
Give yourself grace, too. It is OK not to be suited to every role. The world of educational leadership is vast and varied, and one mismatch doesn鈥檛 indicate failure.
You need to extricate yourself from any role where you aren鈥檛 thriving. To avoid another mismatch, however, do some analysis. What about your current position isn鈥檛 working for you? The more specific you can be, the better. You want to understand exactly what aspects of the job are going sideways so that you can look for a better option. List out the precise issues causing your well-justified doubts while giving yourself grace.
For example, you might say, 鈥淚 am not yet ready for the high-stakes politics or the snap decisions that come with being an assistant superintendent.鈥� Now, phrase your next step in contrast to that: 鈥淚 am looking for a role with less politics, in which I can make decisions more slowly and deliberately.鈥� You鈥檙e describing the context in which you would thrive. This helps you to focus when looking for your next step.
A Graceful Transition
These verbal summaries not only help you frame your situation to yourself, they also help you frame it to others. This is where many people struggle. They don鈥檛 know how to say 鈥淚鈥檓 out of my depth鈥� to their boss, their colleagues or even their friends without feeling defeated.
A clear, specific description of what you鈥檙e looking for in your next position will help you to segue out of your current one gracefully. 鈥淚鈥檓 looking for a role with a better work-life balance while I build up my skills鈥� is a lot easier to say than 鈥淚 can鈥檛 handle this constant chaos.鈥� Once you get the phrasing right, you鈥檒l be able to have better conversations about your next steps with your colleagues, and you鈥檒l be more likely to find yourself in a role where you will thrive.
鈥� Elizabeth Dampf
Women and Impostor Syndrome
Is institutional sexism even relevant in 2026? More than half of all school principals are women, more women than men earn advanced degrees every year and cultural awareness of women鈥檚 issues is more widespread than ever.
With such a seemingly level playing field, it seems baffling that women still experience impostor syndrome at higher levels than men, according to a 2023 study by the American Enterprise Institute鈥檚 Survey Center on American Life. Shouldn鈥檛 we have gotten over that by now, after decades of progress and abundant female mentors in nearly every workplace?
Maybe we should have, but we鈥檙e not there yet. Tragically, old-fashioned sexism still weighs on female leaders, hampering their confidence and augmenting their self-doubt. A 2023-24 Women Leading Ed Insight Survey revealed pervasive biases in the educational leadership landscape. 鈥淚n matters both big and small, these women say that they are treated, spoken to and viewed differently than their male colleagues and this impacts everything from salary, promotions, sponsorship and career ladder opportunities,鈥� the report said. Respondents cited shocking examples, from being asked to wear a skirt in order to appear less intimidating to being told, 鈥淵ou need to overcome being a woman. What does your husband think?鈥�
These comments likely added self-doubt where none had existed. Here we are, thinking about educational policy, but apparently we鈥檙e supposed to worry that our outfits might make us look 鈥渋ntimidating.鈥�
Then, too, we鈥檙e told that we need to overcome being a woman 鈥� something we never thought of as a hurdle. What other handicaps and invisible rules guide our leadership journey as a result of our gender?
An Electric Fence
When women accidentally 鈥渢ransgress鈥� 鈥� perhaps by appearing too assertive or by maintaining too firm a commitment to their families 鈥� they hit up against the electric fence of institutional sexism. The responses we receive send the message that we are wrong, errant, offensive. Male colleagues bristle, question and 鈥渃orrect鈥� moves they deem unsuitable for a woman (and heaven help the woman who appears too heated in a discussion, forcing male colleagues to calm her down). What more insidious way to stir up doubt than by making women feel wrongfooted by artificial rules?
Then, too, female leaders know they have to appear confident and to combat impostor syndrome, which is in itself worsening the process. It鈥檚 contradictory: appear confident, but not too confident. Believe in yourself but know that you mess up a lot.
In many ways, women are being gaslighted. They get the message that impostor syndrome is 鈥渁ll in their head鈥� 鈥� the result of their own lack of confidence, their crazy perceptions of workplace bias, the irrational pressure they put on themselves. But it鈥檚 not. It鈥檚 the natural result of a stream of institutional misogyny making them feel constantly wrongfooted.
That鈥檚 why, at the end of the day, women鈥檚 response to self-doubt must encompass an understanding of how sexism operates and a refusal to allow it space in our brains. Sexist treatment will occur, but it will not change our self-worth or make us believe ourselves constantly at fault.
鈥� Elizabeth Dampf
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement