Being Prepared and Being Considered Are Different Things

What I was waiting for

Early in my career, I thought progress depended heavily on getting the next thing: the right assignment, a new title, an opportunity, someone deciding I was ready. Those things mattered. They still do. But I gave them so much weight that I underestimated what I could start building before anyone offered them.

I can understand why my attention went there. A title gives you a clear before and after. An assignment gives you something specific to do. Becoming someone whose judgment others trust is harder to mark on a calendar. I think I sometimes confused progress I could point to with all the progress available to me.

What changed was realizing that I could begin developing knowledge, clearer thinking and more reliable habits without waiting for a new role. I could make an effort to understand other people's work. I could become better at the work already in front of me.

That still leaves an important limit. Being prepared and being considered are different things.

I still believe those quieter things matter. I'm less sure they're enough on their own. Who notices, who helps and when an opening appears matter too.

What can grow before the title

The possibility I underestimated is that what you build now can change how prepared you are later. Learning more about the work you hope to do can leave you better equipped when an opportunity arrives. Relationships can also expose you to information, context and people you would not reach on your own.

A survey of 448 US employees by Seibert, Kraimer and Liden connected people's professional networks with access to information, resources and career sponsorship. Those forms of support were also related to salary, promotions and career satisfaction.

That is part of why I now think differently about relationships. I can take an interest in someone's work and contribute something useful. I can make time for people before I need something from them. But I cannot make someone share information with me, advocate for me or put their reputation behind me. Those choices belong to someone else.

There is still a meaningful difference between waiting for an opening and preparing while I wait. I can work on the preparation. Whether I get the chance remains a separate question.

Building takes help

I also used to assume that time spent doing something would naturally make me better at it. I am less convinced of that now.

Atul Gawande wrote about reaching a plateau in his surgical performance after years of practice and then seeking an outside coach. I like the simplicity of that example. Experience and learning are related, but they are not the same thing.

Research by DeRue and Wellman looked at 225 on-the-job experiences across 60 managers. Developmental challenge was linked with leadership skill growth, although the gains varied and became smaller as challenge increased. Access to feedback helped.

That feels closer to my own experience than the idea that development is entirely self-directed. I can ask better questions. I can seek feedback. I can decide what to do with it.

I still need someone willing and able to give it.

That does not reduce my responsibility for learning. It makes the boundary clearer.

What gets rewarded

There is another complication. I can become better at something my organization does not particularly value.

Research using sales-worker data from 131 US firms found that companies tended to promote their strongest current performers even when other traits were better predictors of success as managers.

That gives me pause because the things that help someone succeed in the current job and the things that prepare them for the next one may overlap without being identical.

Someone early in a career has good reason to pay attention to what their organization actually rewards. Quietly developing capabilities that nobody sees or values may still be worthwhile, but it would be hard for me to tell someone that effort alone will eventually take care of the rest.

The environment matters too.

In one large North American retailer, women in a study of nearly 30,000 management-track employees received lower potential ratings despite higher performance ratings. Differences in those potential ratings accounted for roughly half of the observed gender gap in promotions.

I think the useful point is narrower than trying to explain why that happened. Gaps in how potential gets rated can shape who is considered for advancement. Better preparation does not erase that.

What I would begin now

The older I get, the less comfortable I am treating career progress as a clean verdict on preparation.

Timing matters. Among Canadian graduates entering the workforce during recessions, earnings losses lasted for about a decade. More advantaged graduates recovered faster by moving to better firms.

An early opening can give one person experience, confidence and relationships that another person has to wait years to build. That does not make effort irrelevant. It means effort is only part of the story.

That distinction is probably what I wish I had understood earlier.

There are things I can build. There are things I can influence. And there are things I will never fully control.

For Miss Mango, I want to hold onto both sides of that at once: keep building what you can, and be honest about what you can't control.

I still think the quieter things matter. Knowledge matters. Judgment matters. Relationships matter. Being someone others can depend on matters.

I am just less willing to pretend they decide everything.

Separate the things you are waiting to receive from the things you can begin building now.