There is a particular frustration I hear often from leaders. Not the frustration of failing as such. The frustration of performing well and contributing consistently, but still feeling that you are not ready or not good enough yet.
The slow cost of staying where it’s comfortable
Staying at a level you have genuinely outgrown usually feels like a secure spot. But it often ends in stagnation. Over time, it produces unhelpful things like lack of confidence, exhaustion from over-delivering in a role that no longer stretches you, and a growing sense of watching opportunities pass by while you wait to feel ready enough to act.
The cost is rarely dramatic. It is quiet and cumulative. And it compounds with every year.
Leaders who do make the move, with support and intention and the inner work to back it up, don’t just change their own careers. They change the organisations they lead. They make decisions that have more impact, build high-performance teams, and show a quality of leadership most organisations desperately need. And personally: there is a particular kind of aliveness that comes from operating at full capacity. From knowing you are not holding back.
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.”
– Amelia Earhart
You already know how to swim
It is a little like standing at the edge of a pool you have been told is cold. You can see others in the water. You know you can swim. You have everything you need. But you keep finding reasons to wait. One more preparation. One more look at the water before you commit.
The pool doesn’t get warmer.
At some point, the only move is to jump. Yes, it’s cold, but it’s temporary. And the swimming, once you are in, is everything.
I wasn’t waiting to be ready. I was waiting for permission.
Not long ago, I coached a Director in the technology sector who had been in the same role for four years. By every measure, he was exceptional at it. High-performing team, trusted stakeholders, great feedback for driving change. But he was also deeply bored, and it was showing in his attitude, and his frustration grew.
When we started working together, he said he wasn’t sure what he wanted. Only that what he had wasn’t it anymore.
What came out over the following months wasn’t a lack of direction. It was a fear so ingrained, it had become invisible to him. He was terrified of leaving a role he was brilliant at as his whole self as a professional was built around being competent. The next chapter was asking him to step without that safety net.
So we worked on that. On what he genuinely wanted his leadership to look like. Not just his next performance review. On what the next chapter actually required him to build, which resulted in being promoted into a GM role.
In our final session, he said something I have never forgotten: “I wasn’t waiting to be ready. I was waiting for permission. And I finally realised the only person who could give it to me was me.”
That is the next chapter. Not a title. A decision.
The research: act first, grow into it
Herminia Ibarra’s work on career transitions makes a point that challenges most of what we are taught about preparation. The leaders who successfully navigate significant step-changes are not the ones who feel most ready. They are the ones who act first and develop their identity in the new role through experience. New perspectives come from new actions, not from thinking more carefully about your current situation. You cannot think your way into the next chapter. You have to move into it.
Where is your gap in the Next Chapter Readiness Framework?
Most leaders honest with themselves score well on Capability. The gaps that actually stall the ‘next chapter’ are almost always Identity and Visibility.
Identity is the internal work: updating your sense of yourself to match the leader you are becoming, not just the one you have been. It’s like your purpose but with a future focus.
Visibility is the external work: making sure the people who influence decisions about your next role know who you are, what you bring to the table, and that you actually want it.
Four things you can do now
1. Name what you actually want.
Not the edited version. Not what feels safe to say out loud. What do you genuinely want your leadership to look like in three to five years? Write it down without softening it. You cannot move toward something you have not let yourself fully name.
2. Work out what is actually keeping you.
Is it a capability gap, something real you need to develop? Or is it an internal story you are telling yourself, a belief that you need to be more prepared, more certain, more something before you can move? These require completely different responses. One needs a development plan. The other needs a decision.
3. Take one stretch move this quarter.
Not the whole next chapter at once. One deliberate move that puts you outside your comfortable competence. Volunteer for the cross-functional project. Request the conversation with the senior leader. Put your hand up for the thing you would normally pass on. Each stretch move builds the evidence and the identity the next chapter requires.
4. Stop waiting for the invitation.
The next chapter rarely arrives as a formal offer. It is built through visibility, through relationships, through the smaller moments that appear before the big opportunity does. The leaders who are ready when the moment comes have been preparing as if it were already on its way.
Your next chapter
This is exactly the work happening inside the Inner Edge Leadership Accelerator right now. Our current cohort has just kicked off, and the energy in that room is extraordinary. If you’d like to be among the first to hear when the next intake opens, respond to this email for the waitlist
businesswomenaustralia.com.au/inner-edge-leadership-accelerator