Dr. Shadé Zahrai

Because I genuinely believed once you become a leader, once you achieve a certain thing, you don't have self-doubt.

But I actually found that sometimes those at the more senior levels, sometimes those who have achieved a lot,

They have even more self-doubt because they feel like there's even more opportunity for them to fall, more reputational damage if something doesn't go well.

So I thought, what is actually driving this?

And that's when I started looking into the research.

What do the most esteemed minds have to say about this?

And I want to share with you one particular study, which I have never forgotten from the moment that I came across it.

It's from the late 70s, early 80s.

So a psychology professor by the name of Robert Kleck at Dartmouth

He conducted this fascinating experiment, which really reveals how self-doubt works and where it comes from.

He brought people together, and with one group, he drew a scar on their face, on the right side of their face between their ear and their mouth.

This really noticeable, visible disfigurement.

He let them see themselves in a mirror, so they can go, okay, I have this scar on my face.

And then he sent everyone out into conversations with strangers.

Now, after the conversations, he then asked everybody, how did you feel the conversation went?

The group without the scar felt like it was a fine conversation.

The group with the scar reported feeling judged.

They felt like it was tense.

Their conversation partner was cold.

And they felt like they were treated differently because of that scar.