You’re More Ready Than You Think

Issue #20

A few weeks ago at the end of my keynote talk to an all girls high school, one of the students asked me to expand on a statistic I had shared… that many women won’t apply for a job unless they feel that they meet 100% of the criteria. She wanted to know if I’d experienced it myself, and how I worked through it.

One of the other tips I shared centered around working through fear – “breathe and move,” so I tied the two together, and that led to this week’s lesson….

Go For It! You’re More Ready Than You Think

When I applied for my job with the Sixers, I had never worked for an NBA team before. I did, however, have three years of managing a college men’s basketball team under my belt, which was a stepping stone to the next level.

I knew the game, and I knew all of the logistics of managing the many components that go into planning for and executing a full season of home and away games. And looking back, I had more responsibilities at the college level than I ended up having at the professional level, but they prepared me for what was to come, and the rest I learned on the job.

When I was asked to step into the vice president role of our national painting association’s residential forum, with the role of president to follow the next year, I had never been a solo president of anything before. I had been working closely under my father in the family business for at least 7 years by then, however and was learning what it took to manage a team and run a company. I paid close attention to the current President that first year, asked lots and lots of questions, and then stepped into the role of President the following year and continued to learn and grow on the job.

And here’s the thing about work, and life in general.

It is very rare that we are EVER 100% prepared for anything that comes our way….

… but you’re also not starting at 0, and every new job or endeavor comes with a learning curve. Whoever you’ll be working with, or is doing the hiring knows this as well.

As the saying goes, if you wait until you feel ready, you’ll never get started. So have faith that you know enough to be of value and that you’ll learn the rest along the way – and then go for it!!

With you on the journey…