Dr. Cara argues that waiting to feel ready trains your brain to defer decisions. Marcus studied hard but froze in a leadership role, while Jennifer practiced leading in small moments and stepped up naturally. Build leadership through real-world practice, not permission.
While you're waiting to feel ready, you're actually training your brain for followership. Every day you defer a tough decision to someone else. You strengthen neural pathways for seeking permission, not taking ownership. Consider, let's call him Marcus. A brilliant software architect who spent three years preparing for leadership. He read all the books. He got an mba. He had all the theory. However, when he finally got the role, he. He was paralyzed by the weight of it all. Why? Because he never developed the resilience that only comes from real world practice. Now consider his colleague. Let's call her Jennifer. Instead of waiting, she started practicing leadership in small, everyday moments. She built her leadership muscle in low stakes situations, developing her internal foundation long before she had the title. When Marcus stepped into leadership, every challenge felt like a crisis. When Jennifer stepped into her role, it felt like a natural next step. The hidden cost of waiting is this. You're not just delaying your career. You're actively making the future transition more overwhelming. The transformation that eliminates this overwhelm is an internal one. It's a shift to your core identity as a leader.
