You’ve decided that you want to take the next leap in your career or business, but you’re waiting until you’re 100% prepared for this big shift. Sounds sensible, right?
Wrong.
Waiting to be completely prepared — honing your skills, building your network, getting permission — is where so many dreams go to die.
If YOU want to make your next big leap — to build your dream business, make a career shift or climb the corporate ladder — then you CANNOT wait for the approval of others. You CANNOT wait for your skillset to be 100% complete. You need to get approval from YOURSELF. You need to have confidence in the skillset you’ve ALREADY cultivated.
On today’s episode of Fierce Feminine Leadership, I discuss the importance of not waiting for permission for the next big move in your career or business AND I lay out the four signs that indicate it’s time to take the next leap.
If you want to make a change but you don’t think you’re ready, you need to listen in.
Full Podcast Transcript:
Eleanor Beaton: You are listening to Fierce Feminine Leadership Episode #263: You are ready if you say you are.
Voice over: Welcome to Fierce Feminine Leadership: the Success Podcast for Women in Business. Each week we feature interviews and advice to help you step into your power and lead your way. Now here’s your host women’s leadership expert Eleanor Beaton.
Eleanor Beaton: Hello there fierce ones. Welcome back to Fierce Feminine Leadership: the success podcast for ambitious women in business.
This is episode #263 and today we’re going to be talking about why you are so ready for that next promotion, that next client, that next big leap if you say you’re ready. So if you are new to the show, welcome to the world of Fierce Feminine Leadership. We are so delighted that you’ve taken the time to join us on this podcast. And if you are one of our loyal listeners, one of our loyal fierce feminine leadership tribe members, welcome back woman. Thank you so much for joining us being a part of our fierce tribe and for lending me your time and attention, day after day, we so appreciate it. And that’s why we get up and put all the effort that we do into creating this podcast. We do it for women like you. Women who, in your subtle and not so subtle ways, are totally changing the world and redefining the narrative of women, success, leadership and ambition. So thank you so much for joining us.
If you haven’t subscribed to the show on iTunes or left us a review on iTunes, get on over and do that please. It is so important to us and we really appreciate it if you’re able to take the time to do that for us today. So again thanks for joining us.
For those of you who don’t know who I am. My name is Eleanor Beaton. I am a Women’s Leadership Development mentor and my mission is to empower you with the practical skills, the tactical advice and the inspiring stories and wisdom to step into your power, smash the glass ceiling and take your seat at the tables where the big deals and decisions are made. And my intention is that when you take that seat you have not only a chair but you also have a strong voice that is heard and acted upon.
So I am really psyched about this time of year because, again, as I’ve said in a previous episode April is my birthday month. But not just that we’re going to be kicking off our live cohort of The Leadership Lab. So The Leadership Lab is our signature program. It was developed by me really based on tactical practical wisdom that I have learned over the last decade of advising consulting with and coaching some of the continent’s most successful women in business these are women who have advised presidents and prime ministers. These are women who have scaled multibillion dollar organizations. These are women who are among the 2 percent of women leaders who built seven figure plus businesses. These are women who have launched international think tanks, who have been responsible for some of the globe’s most successful advertising campaigns. I mean, say no more, these are powerhouse women in leadership. And what I’ve noticed is that while they have different skills and backgrounds and so on what they share is a powerful and nuanced set of leadership influencing and communication skills that has allowed them to navigate gender bias and move to the top in a graceful authentic way. And so if you’d like to uncover some of those strategic insights, if you are looking for that extra edge, if you are tired of wasting your time with leadership courses or professional development to help you grow your business that does not get the big picture then head on over to www.leadershiplabforwomen.com. Check out what we have to offer. Read more about me if it’s a good fit. We’d love to have you join us. Our graduates come from all over the world. They have won prestigious awards they have negotiated significant pay raises. They have stepped into significant promotions. They have driven millions in revenue growth for their organizations and we would love to have you in that fierce tribe. So again. Head on over to www.leadershiplabforwomen.com. Check it out see if it’s a good fit.
All right so today we are continuing with our series on the 5 lessons powerhouse women leaders had to learn in order to unleash their ultimate potential. If you haven’t listened to the rest of the series, make sure that you head on back and start with episode #259 that’s where the series started. And today we’re focusing on tip #4: woman, you are ready if you say you are.
So essentially we’re addressing the phenomena that I see so many women succumb to – telling themselves they’re not ready yet. So the problem is that we assume that we should be completely, 100 percent prepared before we take something on and so we’re afraid to take things on if we have not ticked all the boxes. And at the root of this fear is definitely a fear of failure. It could be a lack of confidence in your skills.
It could be an inability to see how the skills you already have are going to help you in the new challenge. But, quite frankly the other part of it is just not quite getting there is a nuance about how the world of work actually functions. And sometimes as women, we’re not picking up on some of those strategic and political nuances to our detriment. So we fail to pick them up to our detriment. Here’s an example: One of the ways that we allow our fear to get the best of us is by looking for external signs of approval, external pieces of permission that say ‘hey you’re totally ready for this.’ Well guess what? That permission. more often than not, will not come unless you’re working for an incredible manager or incredible leader, who who who has the heart and guts to say yes, fierce one, you’re ready, go forth and do it. The reality is that, while some of you may be in that situation, many of you are not. And so if you are waiting for permission to unlock your next level of success you’re going to be waiting a long time, because that permission has to start with you. It has to start between your ears. It has to start in your chest with your own head and your own heart.
Okay here’s an example. I’m thinking of a client. I’m going to call her Amanda. So Amanda spent years working inside a big engineering firm inside a big engineering industry engineering related industry for the same boss. Now she knew that she was smarter than he was and he knew it too. And she was doing an incredible job, so he had a vested interest in keeping her where she was because she was making him look really good. And he knew that if she did if he did allow her to take on stretch assignments it would basically put her in line for promotional opportunities that would see her surpass him in no time whatsoever. So he definitely had a vested interest in keeping her where she was. Now, she lacked personal confidence in herself, maybe you can relate to this, and so for that reason she was constantly looking to other people to give her those signs, subtle and otherwise, that she was ready for the next step. This was not permission. She felt at the time she could give herself, she had to find it from elsewhere. And of course she did not get the encouragement or permission that so many women are waiting for to make the next leap in their career. I mean, he was not going to give it to her and she could have stayed there. There was every indication from her boss that she belonged in that position. And the truth is she stayed there ten years too long. Yes, a decade of her life spent in a position that she could easily have outperformed. And she ultimately arrived at the day where she decided enough was enough and she cultivated both herself belief and herself conviction. She decided that she was ready because she said she was.
How did she do this? How did this miraculous internal change happen. Unfortunately it happened in the same way that so much of our deep personal change happens. Because Amanda ultimately got to a point where the suffering and discomfort of staying in the same place and with an unsupportive boss in a role that was no longer challenging to her, the suffering and discomfort of staying there was greater than the fear that told her she wasn’t ready for anything else. And so often we will not make change until our suffering is greater than our fear. So she decided you know once her suffer became greater than her fear she put her thinking strategic cap on and decided look you know my boss is not going to help me get a promotion here so I’m going to take a lateral move. And the careers of brilliant women leaders are littered with lateral moves, so she makes a lateral move. Once she is out from under her boss’s thumb, she was able to rise rapidly through the company. I mean it was a pretty miraculous achievement.
So, if you have ever been in this situation, where you know that you’re not happy where you are, my call to you, fierce one, is don’t wait. Don’t wait for your suffering to become greater than your fear. Do it anyway feel the fear and do it anyway.
So I wanted to cover off a couple of signs that you are ready to make the leap. The first sign is that you’re experiencing a level of frustration that just won’t quit. So my colleague Pamela Slim she has been on this show before. She is the author of Escape Cubicle Nation and body of work she talks about the loathing scale. Ok. So loathing scale goes one to ten, where one is you feel neutral, 10 you hate your job. OK. And so if you start to get around a three or four that’s a really good time. You don’t detest your job yet or your business yet but you’ve got, at that point, you’ve got to start to look for opportunities to make a change because that’s ultimately where you’re going to have the most powerful positioning. Not when you’re desperate to leave, but when you know it’s a good strategic choice for you. So if you are experiencing a level of frustration that won’t quit, guess what? Frustration is information and it’s a sign that you need to get serious about having the courage to do the things that you have been telling yourself you’d like to do quote unquote someday sign that you need to take the leap.
Number two is that you’re five or above on the loathing scale. You’ve been there too long. It’s time to go.
Sign number three that you need to take the leap is that you’re dreading work and you have low energy when you’re there. As a coach, both personally and on behalf of my clients, I pay a lot of attention to their energy levels. Okay. I remember I had a client she was a CFO inside a large organization and was not at all happy there. It was a terrible work environment. And she told me, ‘I can remember parking my car opening the door getting out of my car, walking toward the door, climbing the stairs, and it was like with every step that I took another ounce of energy was bleeding out of me. And by the time I sat down at my desk I truly felt exhausted.’ And that is ten on the loathing scale and that’s not where you want to be before you leave. And it also is a good sign that energy loss, there’s a misalignment there between what you between where you are and where you should be.
And then sign number four that you need to take the leap is that you feel smarter and more capable than the people you’re surrounded with. Ok? You feel smarter and more capable than the people that you are surrounded with. And if you feel that way and you just feel like you’re caged and a little bit, that you crave being around a different caliber of of workplace, a different caliber of human being, well it’s time, dear one, to make the leap. All right. There you go. Four signs that you need to take the leap. Because guess what? You are ready if you say you are. Stop outsourcing permission to make the leap. That permission has got to start with you.
All right. If you are ready to up level your community. If you are ready to make the leap and you just need that extra injection of energy, of strategic insight, of coaching, of a fun-spirited tough love. If you want to join with an international cohort of incredible women leaders who are going to hold you to a higher standard, who are going to call forth the best in you. Then I invite you to check out The Leadership Lab. Our live cohort starts April 30th. If it’s a good fit for you, then I invite you to join us. You can get the details at www.leadershiplabforwomen.com. Head on over. You can read more details about the program, you can hear from some of our graduates, you can see some of the results. We would love to have you there if it’s a good fit. Head on over to www.leadershiplabforwomen.com and check it out. All right fierce ones. Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, stay fierce.
Voice over: Fierce Feminine Leadership is executive produced and hosted by Eleanor Beaton. Technical producer is Kate Astrakhan. Content producers are Adrianne Alexander and Marie Hanifen. Special thanks to Kelly Fillman and Amy Bleser. Find Eleanor on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram @ Eleanor Beaton. Thank you for listening. Stay Fierce.