About the event
We are thrilled to announce the next event in our Alumni Masterclass series where our guest Deena Gornick will talk about impostor syndrome.
Once considered a women’s issue, impostor syndrome afflicts many people. In our fast moving lives, so many successful people across all levels of business are afraid of being found out. They fear their clients or colleagues will think they are less than adequate for the good work they do. They are afraid they will be exposed as the least talented, least clever, least expert at their capability. For the past 30 years as an executive coach, Deena Gornick has worked with highly successful women and men who lead across the corporate world, defying their impostor syndrome every day.
If you manage someone who suffers or are indeed someone struggling with this difficult painful phenomenon, then this masterclass is for you. In this short session you will learn:
- a brief history of impostor syndrome
- how confidence is not a feeling but an achievable focus
- that you are not alone
- the different ways impostor syndrome affects women and men
- some hints at managing yours or someone else’s syndrome
About Deena Gornick
Deena Gornick is an executive coach, speaker and writer. Never one to use a ‘chalk and talk’ approach, Deena leads her sessions with an emphasis on exploration and discovery. Over the last thirty years Deena has worked across sectors with representative clients such as Red Bull, ITV, Lloyd’s Bank, HSBC, Baringa, Vitality, Womble Bond Dickinson, Allianz, and Oliver Wyman.
Over three decades of executive coaching and pitch/presentation rehearsal directing has given Deena Gornick a sharp insight into the practice of presentation and impact as a physical skill. Prior to this work, Deena was an actress and theatre director whose personal journey battling fear and stage fright brought her to facilitate others using their fear as an engine. In 1984 she left her native US to complete postgraduate theatre study in London, where she has continued to live, discover, learn and work.
Fascinated by her own idea that confidence is not a feeling, but a behaviour, Deena trained to be a psychotherapist at the Psychosynthesis and Education Trust in London. Gaining the psychological literacy she desired, she began coaching performance before coaching became a recognised discipline. In 1995 she qualified as a Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
What began as a passion for presentation skills and inspiring passion for performance, grew to an in-depth understanding for the facilitation of assertiveness, team building, leadership, and confidence building. Deena runs training events from one-to-one, to one-to-2,000 on these themes, and she brings her degree of insight from a vast degree of experience into her coaching and leadership development programmes.
Deena is currently writing a book about her personal journey with confidence aiming to make the physical practice of presence achievable to its readers.
Education, Awards and Professional Affiliations
University of California at Los Angeles, BA in Theatre Arts, Los Angeles, California
Post Graduate Diploma Webber Douglas School of Drama, London
Practitioner Qualification in NLP, Pace Personal Development, London
Professional Coaching Diploma, Coaching Development, London
Recipient of National Training Award
Active Member of International Coaching Federation
Qualified Emotional Intelligence Assessor (EQi)
Qualified Team Management Assessor (TMSDI)
This event will feel especially relevant for Imperial alumni who graduated within the last ten years, however all alumni, as well as students are welcome to join.