Page 108 - Free Yourself From

Making the Break 91

each time a risky opportunity comes along it’s a little easier to put
aside your irrational fears and go ahead with it.

The Leadership Factor

Actively seeking out new opportunities and learning to tolerate risk
is a form of leadership, in that being a good leader is about putting
yourself in different and challenging experiences that teach you new
things about yourself and the world in which you work. An early
mentor shared that I would never be a complete leader who knows
all I need to know. Developing leadership is a continuous journey
and you should always be learning, changing, and growing. That
view has helped me to supplant my fear with curiosity. This gives me
inner confidence in situations where I might not otherwise have it,
and that in turn allows other people to trust and have confidence in
me, too.

Steps for Dealing with Fear

You’ve read about some of the things that encourage women to stay in
one place too long and keep them from proactively moving on. If you
believe you have been limiting yourself unnecessarily, it might be valu-
able to walk through a process that helps women to get unstuck.
Consider the following scenario.
Suppose someone tells you about a job opening that sparks your
interest and he or she even suggests that you interview for it. It is a
more senior position than the job you have now and would require
new skills. It’s also at a company for which you’ve never worked. There
are new players and you have no way of knowing if you’ll work well
with them. You might be concerned that you won’t learn the new skills
quickly enough, that you won’t like the new company, won’t get along
with the new boss, or you’ll lose your friends from your current job.
What will you do?