Hey Reader,
A new role, opportunity, or promotion is exciting. It's a reward for your hard work and the payoff for everything you've worked toward. But it's a step in the journey, not the goal.
Last week I had the opportunity to spend time with 200 amazing CEOs who've built remarkable businesses and lead great organizations. Our conversations reminded me that we're always in growth mode as people and as leaders: striving, driving, and leaning in. Today we launch our newest Vision to Victory cohort, and it's exciting to watch another group of leaders lean into growth on purpose.
The challenge comes the moment you reach the milestone, because you're almost immediately unqualified to be the person your seat needs a year from now. Everything you've done earned you the right to be there. Now you have to do the work to earn the right to serve at that level.
My mentor told me I'd be a lousy president.
About twenty years ago, I was getting ready to step into my first president role, running a business of about $200 million. I was an operator who knew the numbers and the metrics and held people accountable, and it had worked to that point.
My mentor, Terry, sat me down. "You're a hell of an operator," he said. "Are you comfortable being the least informed person in the business about the details?"
I told him no, because details were what I was good at.
"Then you're going to be a lousy president," he said. "Your job isn't to be the operator anymore. Your job is to make sure the operators in the room know where we're going, why it matters, and what they need to do to get it done."
I didn't like Terry very much back then. But he was right, and it took me a few years and a few lumps to learn just how right.
The record earns the seat. It doesn't prepare you for it.
As your company grows, you no longer lead the work. You lead the leaders who lead the work.
That doesn't mean you stop seeing the details, because you still need both the fifty-thousand-foot lens and the five-foot lens. The difference is that you don't fix what you see yourself. You make sure it gets fixed.
Three economists, Alan Benson, Danielle Li, and Kelly Shue, studied sales teams across 214 US companies. The best sellers were the most likely to be promoted, and they turned out to be weaker managers than colleagues who'd sold less. That's one study in one kind of work, but if you've ever promoted your best performer and watched them struggle, you've seen the same thing up close. The skills that win you the promotion don't carry the new job on their own.
Unqualified isn't a verdict. It's a direction.
Feeling unqualified can slide into imposter syndrome fast. I feel it too. It's why I work hard at growth, development, and surrounding myself with amazing mentors, thought partners, and opportunities to learn.
Imposter syndrome looks backward and asks whether you deserved the seat. That question won't help you, because you're already sitting in it. The better question looks forward: who does your seat need you to be a year from now?
So go to the future. Define what great looks like in your role, then do everything in your power to learn how to do it. Find someone already doing it well, try what they do before you feel ready, and ask for feedback early.
Last week I asked you to define great for a seat on your team. This week, define it for yours.
Try this before Friday: write the job description for the leader your seat needs twelve months from now, not the job you're doing today. Then circle the one line you can't do yet, because that line is your next assignment.
Hit reply and tell me the line you circled.
The most critical person you lead is yourself. Your success as a leader depends on how well you lead that person first.
dusty
P.S. Terry Dunn, the mentor in this story, coached me for almost 15 years. He sat down with me on Episode 28 of Leadership Unlocked to share the four skills it took him 35 years to learn. If his hard truth landed for you, start there.