How To Lead Early

By the age of 30, I was promoted to General Counsel of a national architecture, engineering, and construction firm. By the age of 31, I was appointed to a leadership role in the ABA’s Business Law Section. Neither of these roles were my plan. In fact, I get to the General Counsel role by way of failure if you can believe it (that’s a story for another day). So, believe me, I know what it feels like to be thrust into a high impact, high responsibility role earlier than expected. And while your friends and family will want to celebrate you, I know the emotion you will truly feel after you post the job or position update is FEAR. You will also feel a hint of the belief that you don’t deserve it. Neither emotion is fun, or useful. So, I’m sharing these 5 tips that helped me power through the initial panic and push through to rolling up my sleeves to take advantage of the opportunity.