How will you know when you’re ready?

I recently witnessed someone turning down an important opportunity because she didn't feel she was ready.

A C-suite level client hired me to support her maternity leave planning. She works for a small company and owns a function critical to the business. It's also the part of the business most likely to receive the founder's interference. She's worked hard to build trust with him while stepping into autonomy. In doing so, she's found the freedom to operate strategically and let her team do the bulk of the work. 

She's been carefully planning who will step in during her leave — besides the founder. Part of this planning is hiring. 

Her most promising new hire has valuable subject matter expertise and management experience. Her background is in a different industry, and my brilliant client sees that as a strength. The new hire, however, does not. She requested she not manage a team until she has a handle on the industry. 

She doesn't feel ready. 

What determines when you’re ready?

I spend a lot of time thinking about who steps into management. The management consulting firm McKinsey & Company has been studying the drop off in female representation at different levels for a long time and has found the first step to management is the most prominent drop. 

Some of that fall off — maybe even a lot of it — is tied to a lack of opportunity. Yet, here was a woman saying no to an opportunity. Something wasn't sitting right about her hesitation, despite how much I want to champion any woman making any decision. 

This woman was valuing her subject matter expertise above her management experience. Despite having the functional job knowledge, she devalued it because of the industry gap. 

She wouldn’t consider herself ready to manage until she had all the subject matter expertise.

This logic will break down eventually 

This expectation of subject matter expertise will eventually break down with any move into management. 

This approach won’t hold if you want to step into a higher level role at any point in your career. That level of ownership requires managing folx with subject matter expertise you don't have. 

Think about a CEO. They oversee large swaths of an organization within which they’ve never operated. They could never hold expertise at the depth required to deliver work in those functions. Yet they manage those functions. 

Do things before you feel ready

You don't always receive the opportunities you want. So when you do receive an opportunity, I want you to see the importance of taking it, even if you don't feel ready. 

Opportunities are about practice, not perfection. One condition that makes for good practice is having support. This new hire had the support of her manager to take on the management of something she hadn’t mastered. She turned down the opportunity to practice something big, because she expected perfection. 

You may be thinking you wouldn’t turn down that type of opportunity. Or maybe it feels irrelevant based on what you want for your career. This lesson is still important for you.

My bet is you've placed value in the wrong thing to determine whether you’re ready for something you want. And that most likely includes a tint of perfection. 

The key to shifting your idea of what ready looks like is to look at what you are valuing to assess readiness. What skills are you thinking you must have? Or what combination of skills? Are ALL of those really necessary? 

Call for reflection:

What’s something you don’t feel ready for? What will change if you let go of some of your perfection?

Shine on,

Alicia