Staff training has started for a handful of camps, and is still a few days away for most. The night or nights before, you can’t quite name why you’re feeling on edge, but maybe you are.

Even with decades of experience and (maybe) a few wisps of gray hair, there’s still this nervous feeling right around now. Know what I’m talking about?

It showed up for me even recently on a phone call.

A camp director hired me to lead his training. He wanted a prep call to demo what we’d be running that week. At the end of the call, he said, “I just feel a lot better knowing this.”

He needed to see the work to feel ready for it. Honestly, so do I.

This exact conversation has come up with three different directors in recent weeks. Each time, the feeling was imposter syndrome. This part of me wondered if I really was the right person for the gig. Funny how that works.

The Reframe And The Causes

Imposter syndrome is a sign you’re alive. A sign you care. The people who don’t feel it are usually the ones you wouldn’t want running anything in the first place.

We’ve demonized it as something to defeat. There are entire industries built around helping you “overcome” it. Books, retreats, exercises for power-posing your way out of feeling like a fraud.

I take it as a symptom of something else. The question is what’s behind it.

Usually, it’s one of really only two things.

Either you’re tired, or you’re missing information.

When I’m tired, I need to find a way to recharge. Sleep, food, a Knicks game, family, friends, in some order (Knicks first?). If you’re not a Knicks fan (boo!), substitute your own thing.

When I’m missing information, I need to find the framing. Great storytellers know the framing of everything. They walk into a room with the contours of the story already mapped, even if they don’t have every detail.

Enough framing to place whatever the moment throws at you. Most of the time, it’s one of those two. Sometimes both.

The Staff Training Trigger

Why does this one specifically hit camp directors before staff training?

You’re walking into a room full of energetic young people, some you’ve barely, or never, met. For camp to run great, they need to like you and also agree with your ideas. Then they need to agree so much that they want to make your ideas their own.

That’s an enormous ask. Of course, it triggers imposter syndrome. The bar for the room is sky-high and you’re carrying it alone.

And the rooms are tougher than they look. Twenty-year-olds smell uncertainty from across a dining hall.

Before you walk into your staff training this year, ask yourself two questions.

Am I tired, or do I need more information?

If you’re tired, recharge. If you’re missing framing, find it.

Then go in. The imposter syndrome you’re feeling is the proof you should be the one standing up there.

Trust the symptom. It’s pointing you somewhere useful.

You’re going to feel uncertain walking in. That’s the point. Walk in anyway.

Sincerely,
Dan Weir

Senior Consultant at Immersive1st

dan@immersive1st.com