5 Red Flags That Are Destroying Your Career Confidence

By
Hannah Kissel
December 2, 2025
17
min
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About the episode

When you feel like you are losing your edge and shutting down in important meetings despite being told you are objectively exceptional, you are experiencing true imposter syndrome. You can take your power back by distinguishing between a genuine skills gap and a protective firefighter part that is overwhelming your nervous system. In this episode, Hannah explains the five red flags that crush your career confidence and how hyper vigilance causes perfectionism. She details how to use graded exposure to put out B+ work, anchor on your personal values to stop constant comparison, and introduce micro boundaries to heal the martyrdom of overgiving.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • A genuine skills gap requires you to figure out who can teach you those specific skills in the quickest way possible.
  • Shutting down in a big client pitch means a firefighter part has flooded your nervous system because it feels a huge amount of stress.
  • Perfectionism sends your system into hyper vigilance to feel safe and requires graded exposure to putting out B+ work.
  • The antidote to constant comparison in competitive environments is getting super clear on your personal values and how you live them on a daily basis.
  • Self-doubt becomes louder than evidence when a young part of your subconscious holds onto a programmed belief system.
  • You must introduce micro boundaries like declining holiday parties to stop overgiving and people pleasing to prove your worth.

I'm Hannah

Executive Coach, columnist, podcaster, and speaker.

My mission is to help high-performing leaders become more confident, successful, and fulfilled in thier careers.

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