Exhaustion that persists despite rest means you are living someone else's story. When you are under-authored, you are performing a role written by others instead of embodying leadership from your own conviction.
I borrowed this term from Herminia Ibarra's work on professional identity. She describes being under-authored as living a life shaped more by external expectations than internal conviction. You are successful by every external measure, but something fundamental is missing.
The women I work with often describe this as a persistent sense of disconnection. They have the title. They have the influence. They have proven themselves over and over. But they feel like they are performing a version of leadership that was designed for someone else.
This is different from imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is about doubting your competence. Being under-authored is about doubting your authorship. You know you are capable. You just are not sure if this is your story to tell.
The symptoms show up in predictable ways. You over-function to maintain harmony. You lead through compensation instead of conviction. You manage perception instead of inhabiting authority. You are successful but self-disconnected.
The transition from manager to executive amplifies this. As a manager, you could succeed by executing someone else's vision. As an executive, you are expected to author the vision. That requires a different kind of authority. One that comes from within.
Becoming fully authored is not about rejecting external input. It is about integrating it into a coherent sense of self. It is about knowing what you stand for so clearly that you can make high-stakes decisions without over-explaining yourself.
This is identity work. It is not tactical. It is not a skill you can learn in a workshop. It is a process of clarifying what you believe, testing it against reality, and adjusting as you learn.
The women who RISE do not wait for permission to author their own leadership. They claim it. They stop performing someone else's version of success and start building their own.
That is the work.