Self, situational, and systemic: The real impact of doubt

Impostor syndrome is the well-known poster child of self-doubt, with a level of profile and awareness that most coaches can only envy. Almost every client I work with, at some point, will say, “I think I have a bit of impostor syndrome about this.” As coaches, we have become highly skilled at working with it. We know how to unpack it, challenge it, and help clients move through it. In many ways, we have become experts in self-doubt, and for some of us, that expertise started with ourselves.

And yet, through my work, I have come to see the potential and power of doubt. It is not just something to resolve, but something to work with differently. The issue is not that our clients doubt; it is that we are still too quick to try and remove it. When we broaden our lens, doubt becomes more than an internal experience. It becomes a signal, one that can encourage change, challenge thinking, and strengthen the quality of decisions, creativity, and collaboration.

This matters even more in the context leaders are operating in today. In environments shaped by constant change, competing demands, and increasing complexity, certainty is often an illusion. The pressure to be decisive has not gone away, but the conditions for good decision-making have fundamentally shifted. In this context, doubt is not a weakness to overcome, but a form of leadership intelligence. It signals where more thinking is needed, where assumptions should be tested, and where better questions will lead to better outcomes.

We see the positive role of doubt in our own field with supervision, which is our professional space for both our own doubts and those of our clients. An insightful supervision session always reaps rewards for the coach and, ultimately, the client. It is one of the few spaces where doubt is not only welcomed, but actively worked with. When we avoid or prematurely resolve doubt, we risk losing its value. When we stay with it, and work with it deliberately, it becomes a professional asset.

This is where the shift matters, because self-doubt is only one form of doubt. Within what I call Professional Doubt, there are three forms that we can work with.

Self-doubt is the territory we are most familiar with. It is the internal voice that questions capability, credibility, and belonging. As coaches we are well practised in helping clients navigate it. We normalise it, explore it, and support clients to loosen its grip. However, if we only ever locate doubt within the individual, we risk placing too much responsibility on the person and not enough attention on the context they are operating in.

Situational doubt shifts the lens outward. It is a specific tangible doubt that arises from the situation around us. It is often triggered by complexity, ambiguity, competing priorities, or incomplete information. The questions it generates are different, focused on whether we have enough data, whether we are solving the right problem, and why key stakeholders are not aligned. This form of doubt is often an indicator that something in the situation requires closer attention. It is not a lack of confidence; it is a signal that better thinking is needed.

Systemic doubt sits at a wider level still. It is shaped by organisational structures, cultural norms, power dynamics, and incentives. It is often less visible and frequently goes unspoken. It may show up as a sense that something is not quite right, that certain conversations cannot be had, or that patterns keep repeating without being addressed. Clients can experience this as frustration, fatigue, or a feeling of being stuck, and too often it becomes internalised as self-doubt. In reality, the system itself may be generating the doubt. Here, coaching becomes more than individual development; it becomes a way of helping clients see and navigate the system they are part of, not just themselves within it.

I worked with a client who was deeply frustrated by his line manager and spoke at length about why he believed they were not competent enough for the role. Initially, this appeared to be situational doubt, focused on the person he was reporting into. However, as we unpacked it, it became clear that the doubt was located more deeply in the system. The organisational context was making it difficult for the line manager to effectively support their team.

This shift in perspective was significant. By locating the source of the doubt more accurately, my client was able to move away from personal frustration and towards a more considered response. It opened up different strategies for how he engaged with his manager and reduced the level of tension that had been building in the relationship. What had initially felt like a problem with an individual became something more nuanced, and ultimately more workable.

When we expand our understanding of doubt across these three levels, something important shifts. We move away from asking how to get rid of doubt and instead become curious about what it is telling us. Doubt becomes a source of data. It helps to surface risk, challenge assumptions, and open up better questions. It invites us to slow down just enough to think more clearly, without losing momentum, which is particularly valuable in environments that increasingly reward speed and certainty.

For coaches, this creates both an opportunity and a responsibility. It asks us to resist the urge to resolve doubt too quickly, to stay with it for longer, and to help clients explore it from multiple angles. When we do this well, doubt does not diminish our clients; it strengthens them. It becomes part of how they think, decide, and lead more effectively in complex environments.

Leaders do not need less doubt. They need a better relationship with it.

Our deepest thanks to Jenny for sharing this guest blog.

About Jenny Williams

As a leading executive and systemic team coach, Jenny has lectured at Cambridge University on leadership and entrepreneurship. She has spent thousands of hours working with exceptional leaders, helping them harness the power of doubt as a catalyst for clarity, creativity, and confidence. Her work has established her in the top 4% of coaches globally with an International Coaching Federation certification as a Master Coach. Jenny is a past graduate of the AoEC and also the author of Brilliant Doubt: Harnessing uncertainty to lead with impact, a book that argues doubt, not certainty, is the skill leaders need to thrive in an unpredictable world.