impostor syndrome

noun

A psychological condition that is characterized by persistent doubt concerning one's abilities or accomplishments accompanied by the fear of being exposed as a fraud despite evidence of one's ongoing success

-Merriam Webster

In other words, your team members might feel that they do not deserve their success or job, or that they are "tricking" people into believing they can do their job. This can have an intense negative effect on your team members, so it's important to keep an eye out for possible impostor syndrome in your team.

Here are signs to look out for:

• Sensitivity to small mistakes and apologizing excessively 
• Fear of failing the team
• Lack of self-confidence
• Working long hours or burnout from working hard
• Crediting others, like luck, for their successes - "Oh it was just lucky that..."
• Perfectionism and excessively high standards they set themselves

What you can do:

1. Talk openly about mistakes being Learning Opportunities
   Encourage a learning mindset in your team where mistakes are a part of the learning process instead of being punishable or crises. It will help them feel less stressed about mistakes. 
2. Use positive feedback/recognition often! Be specific about how their work/capabilities/skills have had a positive impact. It helps your team member see how their work resulted in success and it was not simply "luck". 
3. Implement Feedback as a tool.
   After each meeting, project, presentation, etc., always give each other constructive feedback. It can be as quick as answering these three in a few sentences:
   What went well?
   What could have gone better?
   What can we learn away from this?
   By normalizing a feedback culture that focuses on sharing, communicating, and learning, it can help combat perfectionism and unrealistically high standards. 
4. Create Career Development plans. 
   Focus on creating a career development plan and analyze together strengths and weaknesses, skills and capabilities, and how the team member wants to grow. It normalizes the idea that nobody is perfect as is, we all have strengths and weaknesses, and that growth is more important and meaningful than perfection.