Book Nook - Your Child's Greatness: A Parent's Guide to Raising Children without Impostor Syndrome

 Create healthy relationships, identify key conflict resolution tools, and build a healthy, emotionally regulated, and impostor syndrome–free family with help from authors Lisa and Richard Orbé-Austin, recently featured on the TODAY show.

Introducing Your Child's Greatness: A Parent's Guide to Raising Children without Impostor Syndrome [Ulysses Press; February 2025], a new book in the best-selling impostor syndrome series from Drs. Lisa and Rich Orbé-Austin. Your Child’s Greatness will act as a manual to the principles and skills that are critical in the development of healthy self-esteem in children, including.

I saw a review copy of the book, and although my kids are nearly grown, I agreed with a lot of what was in the book. It's important to help kids be resilient and adopt a healthy sense of self - but it's not always easy for parents and caregivers to figure out how to do that. This book is practical and helpful, and will be a great guide for new parents.

I had a chance to interview Drs. Lisa and Richard Orbé-Austin to learn more.

Why is it important to recognize impostor syndrome in children?
It is important to recognize impostor syndrome in children so that you can address it as early as possible. Impostor syndrome can have a negative impact on children, making them less inclined to take risks about learning new things and building new skills, making mistakes and sharing struggles which can affect their long-term development and mental health.

What are some things that can contribute to children dealing with impostor syndrome?
If a child is given a certain fixed role in the family, like the “smart one,” or the “hard working” one, it can lead to believing that you are only seen as valuable in those roles. These early childhood roles often lead to the rigid roles of Impostor Syndrome, where individuals feel that they only have worth in certain circumstances. Other things that can contribute to the development of Impostor Syndrome are fostering people-pleasing,
difficulty dealing with failure or making mistakes, perfectionism, and relying on external validation among other things.

How can families encourage kids to be resilient, even in the face of critical feedback?
Families can work with children to understand that constructive feedback is meant to help you grow and often demonstrates a desire to see you obtain the next level in your development. It’s also important for adults to be able to take constructive feedback from their children as well. This models the belief that constructive feedback is meant to support you, and it shouldn’t be unidirectional. It also helps your child learn how to give constructive feedback and use language to express difficult moments with others.

How can families build community to help support their children?
It’s important that your family have a variety of communities as one community doesn’t often meet all needs of the family. As you are building these communities, it is important to think about your values and priorities and communities that share similarities and differences. It’s OK for your child to have a different community from the adults in the family (e.g., you don’t have to be friends with the parents of every child your child is friends with). It can be very positive for your children to have separate communities. It shows that there doesn’t have to be absolute similarity in the family to be respected or loved. It’s important to show your child the value community can provide like mentorship, emotional support, companionship, challenge, and even opportunities.

Dr. Lisa Orbé-Austin is a licensed psychologist and executive coach. She earned her doctorate in

counseling psychology from Columbia University. Her expertise on impostor syndrome is regularly sought by the media, and she has appeared in outlets such as the Financial Times, the TODAY show, Good Morning America, Forbes, HuffPost, Refinery29, and more. Dr. Orbé-Austin has been an invited speaker at various national conferences. She recently gave a TEDx talk entitled "The Impostor Syndrome Paradox: Unleashing the Power of You." She is a contributor to the American Psychological Association’s The Impostor Phenomenon: Psychological Research, Theory, and Interventions (APA Press, 2024). Her first book, Own Your Greatness: Overcome Impostor Syndrome, Beat Self-Doubt, and Succeed in Life (Ulysses Press, 2020) coauthored with her partner, Dr. Richard Orbé-Austin, was a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book Award. Her second book, Your Unstoppable Greatness: Break Free of Impostor Syndrome, Cultivate Your Agency, and Achieve Your Ultimate Career Goals (Ulysses Press, 2022) is focused on dealing with the systemic dynamics that keep impostor syndrome in place and how to directly combat those dynamics.

Dr. Richard Orbé-Austin is a licensed psychologist, executive coach, and consultant. He was the founding director of NYU’s Graduate Student Career Development Center, leading a team responsible for managing the career needs of over 14,000 master’s and doctoral students in over 100 different disciplines. Prior to his tenure at NYU, Dr. Orbé-Austin served in a variety of leadership roles, including as the chief diversity officer at Baruch College-City University of New York and as president of the NY Association of Black Psychologists. In his practice, Dr. Orbé-Austin works with executives and mid-career professionals to overcome impostor syndrome, identify their best-fit career options, and strengthen their leadership skills. He also regularly consults with academic institutions, corporations, and nonprofit organizations on issues related to leadership, diversity, equity and inclusion, and burnout prevention. Dr. Orbé-Austin’s opinions and writings have appeared in Forbes, Fast Company, ThriveGlobal, Diversity Executive, the Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development, and the Handbook of Racial-Cultural Counseling and Psychology. He earned his PhD in counseling psychology from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education and his BA in psychology from NYU. He is also a TEDx speaker. Dr. Orbé-Austin lives in New York City with his partner and their two daughters.