In Day 24 of the 30/30 Career Transformation Challenge, Margaret Spence – founder of the Employee to CEO Project and the 10X Leadership Academy for Women – asks participants to confront their deepest fear about becoming a leader. She explains that fear, especially the fear of success, often outweighs the fear of failure and can prevent women from stepping into leadership roles. Citing a recent study, she notes that many women do not see themselves as leaders until someone tells them they are ready, highlighting how internal fear blocks leadership vision. Spence guides viewers through a concrete journaling exercise: write down every fear on a sheet of paper, read the list aloud, declare release, and then shred the paper. She emphasizes that there is no such thing as a “ready” leader—leaders grow into their roles. The video concludes with a reminder to use the accompanying workbook and the full video series for continued reflection and action.
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Day 24 of the 30/30 Career Transformation Challenge. Hi, my name is Margaret Spence, and I'm the founder of the Employee to CEO Project and the 10X Leadership Academy for Women. I can't believe that we are on day 24. Thank you for joining me on this journey to rethink, retool, reconnect with the career that you want. Today's bold question: What is your deepest fear about becoming a leader? Another one of those almost simplistic questions, but it's one that you have to address. Fear is the elephant in everyone's room. The fear of success is worse than the fear of failure. And it's worse than actual failure. So the bold question was, what is your fear of becoming a leader? There's a recent study that was done about women in leadership, and one of the, the key points of the study is that women never accepted themselves as leaders. Until someone told them that they were ready to lead. They don't raise their hands for leadership because internal fear stops us, us women, in the tracks from having the leadership vision and the leadership career that we want. So while this question seems really simplistic, it's one that I'm asking you to lean into. Where is your fear showing up? What type of fear do you have? Is it the fear of missing out? Is it the fear of being found out? Is it the fear of being an imposter? Is it the fear if I'm not good enough? Is it the fear that I'm not clear on what I want? So how can I want something more than what I have right now? Is it the fear of disappointing others that's stopping you from becoming the leader that you are? I would ask you an even more simplistic question. What is the one thing that you want out of your career today? That scares you the most? What is that thing? What is that vision that you have that takes your breath away every time you say it or think it or it shows up in your mind? What is that? And what's the fear that follows right behind that big goal, that big vision that you have? I would ask you to pull a sheet of paper out and ask yourself the following question: What am I afraid of? And then start writing the question or writing the answer pretty simplistically. I'm afraid of— write what follows that. I'm afraid of success. I'm afraid of disappointing others. I'm afraid of being me. I'm afraid of showing up in the room with my power. I'm afraid of living the dream that I want because I might disappoint someone who doesn't want me to do that. I'm afraid of telling everyone around me what I want. I'm afraid that something bad is gonna happen out of this good. I'm afraid of X or Y or Z. I want you to pull a sheet of paper out and write it all down. Dump it out. Get a glass of wine, sit down, write all your fears out. Then I'd like you to read it over out loud, Say it to yourself. Say it to the universe. Then say to yourself, "I'm letting it all go." Then shred that piece of paper and leave the fear behind. There's no reason for you to fear being a leader. You will never be ready because there's no such thing as ready leaders. There are leaders who grow into their leadership role. So I would ask you, especially for the women watching this video, to understand your fear, understand your fear of success, understand the fear of pursuing your dreams. Write it down, stomp it out, move on, and embrace what you want instead of letting the fear control where you want to go. So today's bold question: What fear do you have that's blocking your leadership vision? Thank you for joining me on the 30/30 Challenge. I hope that you're enjoying the videos. We're almost done. There's a link in this, um, on this page to the complete video series on YouTube, and there's a workbook that you can gladly download that has all the questions in one place. It's fillable and you can fill it out and go back and ask yourself these bold questions. Thank you for joining me. See you tomorrow.
