How people really feel about themselves on LinkedIn

There are tens of thousands of people in the My Brand Academy community now (thank you).

And every day, more people complete our Personal Brand Archetype Assessment.

So I wanted to understand what all that data was actually telling us.

Not about personal branding per se.

About people. 

We analysed the responses of 5,478 people from around the world who came to our assessment directly attributable to LinkedIn.

Thirty questions about identity, strengths, confidence, direction, visibility and how they see themselves.

And there is one finding I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.

92.5% believe they have something valuable to offer.

That’s brilliant.

But then look at what happens next.

90.6% underestimate what they bring to the table, at least sometimes.

90.2% hold back until they feel fully ready, at least sometimes.

79.2% worry about being judged when they put themselves forward, at least sometimes.

Think about that for a moment.

The overwhelming majority of people aren’t telling us they have nothing to offer.

They’re telling us almost the opposite.

I know I have something to offer.

I’m just not always comfortable showing you.

And I think that distinction matters.

Of course, people who choose to take a personal brand assessment are already curious about themselves, but even allowing for that self-selection, the patterns in what 5,478 people told us are striking.

We don’t necessarily have a self-belief problem.

We may have a self-expression problem.

71.5% of the LinkedIn group say they know what they’re naturally good at.

Yet only 39.3% find it easy to talk about their strengths.

That is a huge gap.

We know things about ourselves that we’re struggling to articulate to other people.

And in a world increasingly obsessed with visibility, personal brands, content and standing out, perhaps we are starting the conversation in the wrong place.

Because before somebody can communicate their value, they have to understand it.

And then they have to become comfortable owning it.

Then there is being seen.

79.2% worry about being judged when they put themselves forward, at least sometimes.

76.1% compare themselves with other people and feel behind, at least sometimes.

65% avoid opportunities where they might be noticed or put on the spot, at least sometimes.

And 53.6% describe being seen for who they really are as either a bit scary but important, or uncomfortable.

That’s an extraordinary thought when you consider where these people came from.

LinkedIn.

A platform fundamentally built around professional visibility.

We come here to be discovered.

To build networks.

To find opportunities.

To share ideas.

To demonstrate what we know.

And yet many of us are simultaneously worried about what happens when people actually notice us.

That’s quite a contradiction.

We know where we want to go. Sort of.

72.1% have a sense of the future they want to build.

But only 33.7% say they know their next step.

84.7% overthink simple decisions about their future, at least sometimes.

85% feel pressure to have everything figured out already, at least sometimes.

Again, I don’t read those numbers as people lacking ambition.

I see people who can often see something in the distance but aren’t completely sure how to get there.

And perhaps social media makes that feel harder.

Because we see everybody else’s announcements.

The promotion.

The new job.

The funding round.

The business launch.

The award.

The speaking engagement.

The book.

What we rarely see are all the moments of uncertainty that came before them.

So we compare somebody else’s visible outcome with our invisible uncertainty.

No wonder so many people feel behind.

And this isn’t just young people figuring themselves out.

This was another part of the wider assessment data that really interested me.

Experienced professionals and senior leaders make up 46% of respondents who answered our career-stage question.

These aren’t all graduates trying to work out what they want to do with their lives.

They’re people who have already built careers.

And yet the same tensions exist.

In the wider sample, even 85% of senior leaders say they hold back until they feel fully ready, at least sometimes.

Experience doesn’t appear to make these feelings simply disappear.

Maybe that’s because identity doesn’t stop developing when you get a bigger job title.

We change.

Our ambitions change.

Our circumstances change.

The things that once mattered to us change.

And occasionally the story we’ve been telling the world about who we are hasn’t caught up with the person we’ve become.

That’s the part I find most interesting.

Because the answer isn’t simply:

Post more.

Or:

Build your personal brand.

Or:

Be more confident.

I think it starts earlier than that.

It starts with understanding yourself.

What matters to you.

What you’re naturally good at.

What you’ve experienced.

What makes you different.

What you want next.

And what story connects all of those things together.

I’ve started thinking about this as the Identity Gap.

The gap between who someone is, how they currently express themselves, and how other people consistently experience them.

And perhaps that gap explains some of what we’re seeing in these numbers.

People know they have value.

But they underestimate it.

They know their strengths.

But struggle to talk about them.

They want opportunity.

But sometimes avoid being noticed.

They can see a future.

But aren’t certain about the next move.

The problem isn’t necessarily becoming someone better.

It may be becoming more comfortable understanding, expressing and acting on who you already are.

And maybe that’s worth remembering the next time you scroll through LinkedIn and feel like everybody else has it figured out.

According to thousands of people who came through our assessment from this platform, they don’t.

Neither do many senior leaders.

Neither do many experienced professionals.

Neither do many founders.

We’re all still figuring parts of ourselves out.

And perhaps that’s exactly the point.

Understand who you are. Build who you become.

And if you haven’t yet, and you’d like to understand yourself a little better, take our free Personal Brand Archetype Assessment and discover more about who you are.

Because understanding who you are is the first step to building who you become.

Take the free Personal Brand Archetype Assessment →

Source: My Brand Academy Personal Brand Archetype Assessment. LinkedIn figures are based on 5,478 respondents with captured LinkedIn acquisition attribution from a wider analysis of 10,000+, snapshot 1 October 2026. Figures are rounded, unweighted self-reports from a self-selected international sample. The findings describe assessment respondents and should not be interpreted as representative of all LinkedIn users.