Rita Clifton - Love Your Imposter: Be Your Best Self, Flaws and All

Rita Clifton, as anyone who has ever heard her speak knows, is warm, witty, wise and wonderfully inspiring, and her new book is all of those things too. Reading this book makes you feel like you are in the room with her, with Rita as your own personal mentor as you navigate your life and career. Her advice to people going to speak in public at a gathering of any size is show up as a human and nowhere is Rita more human than in this book.

PROFESSOR HEATHER MCGREGOR, CBE (MRS MONEYPENNY), EXECUTIVE DEAN, EDINBURGH BUSINESS SCHOOL, HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY

Finally someone tackling the imposter syndrome head-on! Enough talking about the fact we have it at last a book that actually deals with it! If I could have her beside me throughout my own business journey I would. Relatable, funny, down to earth and a woman whos been there, done it and knows what she is talking about. A must-read for every woman across the country.

HOLLY TUCKER MBE, FOUNDER, NOTONTHEHIGHSTREET.COM

Love Your Imposter is a brilliant book and it couldnt have come a better time. We are seeing a human revolution where professional and personal boundaries are blurred, especially for women. This book gives us inspirational yet practical tips on how to navigate this new world. Rita Clifton writes with refreshing honesty about her career and beginnings and explores concepts such as strength in vulnerability, communication and ways we can all be more empathic to ourselves. I loved it!

BELINDA PARMAR OBE, THE EMPATHY BUSINESS

Rita Clifton has always been a great champion for helping people be their best selves, professionally and personally, and this book helps that cause in a fabulously human way. She is funny, insightful, practical and inspiring.

Nicola Mendelsohn CBE, VP EMEA, Facebook

Most people have felt like an imposter at some point in their career but it takes a modern, twenty-first-century leader like Rita Clifton to put it into a book and have you embrace this emotion of vulnerability.

KANYA KING CBE, FOUNDER OF MOBO AWARDS

Do you have a voice in your head telling you youre not good enough? Yes? Join the Imposter Syndrome Club! Womens inequality in the workplace is costing the economy trillions of pounds a year. Much could be solved by replacing that voice with the voice of Rita Clifton instead. This jargon-busting business icon and brand guru will get inside your brain and give you the tools you need to get to the top and, most importantly, know you deserve to be there.

KATHRYN PARSONS MBE, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, DECODED

A warm, wise and wonderful leadership manual, full of fun and humanity.

DAME CILLA SNOWBALL CBE, CHAIR, WOMENS BUSINESS COUNCIL, AND GOVERNOR OF WELLCOME TRUST

Dedicated to my late mum, my daughters, and all the women who will make the world work better.

And my husband too.

Rita Clifton started her career in advertising, becoming vice chairman and strategy director at Saatchi & Saatchi in its most successful period, and was London CEO and then Chairman at the global brand consultancy Interbrand over a 15-year stint. She has advised leading businesses around the world, as well as start-ups and growth-stage businesses of all shapes and sizes. In 2013, she co-founded the business and brand consultancy BrandCap, which she recently sold on to the management group.

She is a regular commentator across all media, including CNN, BBC, Sky and social channels, as well as a columnist. She was recently a mentor and judge on the CNBC award-winning series Pop Up Start Up.

She is a non-executive director on the boards of businesses including ASOS and Nationwide Building Society, and previously Bupa and Dixons Retail plc. Her non-profit work has included being a board trustee of WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature) and a member of the UK governments Sustainable Development Commission.

Rita received a CBE for services to the advertising industry in 2014.

She is the author of best-selling books including The Future of Brands and two editions of The Economist: Brands and Branding. This time, its more personal, and Love Your Imposter is a book she has been wanting and meaning to write for some time. It builds on her experience of leading, coaching and mentoring, and captures her own unique take and tips on how to get on and make your own difference in the world. She feels strongly that we need new kinds of (very human) leadership and many (many) more women running organizations of all kinds.

Theres just a small matter of how

In my imposter dreams

Ive always been a bit of a dreamer. Not always in a good way.

Aside from the ballet dancer and saving-the-world stuff of daydreams, Ive also managed to have the full range of anxiety dreams pretty much all my life. My own imposter has been alive and kicking both day and night.

Obviously, most of those dreams dont make sense, but I can guarantee that they will involve any or all elements of:

• being in a plane that cant take off high enough or brushes tall sliver-like buildings;

• being chased by someone/something of varying degrees of weirdness;

• having to retake exams when I havent revised/make a presentation that Im completely unprepared for.

And, of course, more often than not ending up stark naked. Usually in front of crowds of people. You dont need to delve into the book of Meaningful Anxiety Dreams for the symbolism.

I know Im not alone. Apparently between 50 and 85 per cent of people claim to have (or rather, remember) these kinds of anxiety dreams and nightmares. And women seem to experience these slightly more than men.

One of many theories is that theyre apparently to do with something called threat simulation. That people rehearse frightening situations in their dreams, and this equips them to face those situations better in real life. (Mmm fighting your way through writhing snakes on the floor, anyone?)

The same academic study also found that the students who had the most anxiety dreams the night before an exam scored the highest marks.

This 5085 per cent dream figure is also broadly similar to those claiming to have imposter syndrome at work (c. 70 per cent of people, and around 90 per cent in creative industries).

And recently, there has been something of a torrent of actors, celebrities and business leaders talking about their insecurities and personal imposters.

Good for their honesty. And, judging by the success of so many of these people, it can often be used in a positive way.

Whether you personally have exactly the same feelings and experiences, a few things emerged from discussing some of these issues with others:

1. That imposter syndrome is so common that it ceases to feel like a syndrome and starts to feel like a normal part of the human condition.

2. People were very keen that I should be as honest as possible about the Im a bit crap, me feelings that lots of us have from time to time.

3. Many of these worries and insecurities in dreams and in general are also normal and can, in fact, be great sources of empathy with other human beings.

Which is funny, because a bit more honesty, empathy and basic humanity are just what business and the world needs at the moment. I hope that means you.

In fact, you can use some of this kind of personal stuff to help you (and, indeed, people and things around you) to shine and make it to the top. And as you, yourself. Not some corporate construct.

Were obviously all different, and this book is not intended as a self-help prescription. Its a collection of experiences, ideas and (yes, sorry) tips that Ive picked up along the way of life. I offer them as a