Why Brilliant Women Don’t Apply for Leadership Roles

Why is it that so many brilliant, capable women hesitate at the very moment they are most needed?

It’s a question that continues to surface in leadership conversations around the world, and one that deserves more than a passing glance. A widely discussed internal study from Hewlett-Packard revealed something both simple and deeply revealing: men tend to apply for roles when they meet around sixty percent of the requirements, while women often wait until they feel they meet nearly one hundred percent.

Pause on that for a moment, because the implications run deep.

Two professionals. Similar experience. Comparable potential. One steps forward, willing to grow into the role. The other holds back, waiting for a sense of certainty that rarely arrives. The difference is not capability. It is perception of readiness.

In my work with leaders globally, this pattern shows up again and again across industries, cultures, and levels of seniority. The women I coach are not lacking ambition or intelligence. Quite the opposite. They are thoughtful, diligent, and exceptionally well-prepared. They care deeply about doing things well, about leading responsibly, about earning their place.

And yet, there is often a quiet hesitation.

It sounds like, “I just need a bit more experience.” Or, “I’m not sure I’m fully ready yet.” Sometimes it’s framed as a strategic delay, “Maybe in a year or two, once I’ve strengthened this area.” On the surface, it appears rational. Sensible, even. But underneath, there is often an unspoken belief that readiness must be complete before action is taken.

Meanwhile, someone else applies.

Not necessarily someone more capable. Not someone more aligned with the role. Simply someone more comfortable with imperfection, more willing to learn in real time, more open to stepping into the unknown.

This is where the conversation needs to shift.

Because leadership has never been about arriving fully formed. It is not a final destination you reach once you have accumulated enough credentials, experience, or validation. Leadership is, and always has been, a dynamic process. A continuous unfolding. A journey that shapes you precisely because you step into roles that stretch you.

No one, regardless of gender, is ever fully ready for a leadership role.

Not the first time. Not the second. Not even after decades of experience.

The difference lies in who is willing to embrace that truth.

When you begin to see leadership as a space for growth rather than proof of perfection, everything changes. The question is no longer, “Do I meet every requirement?” but rather, “Am I willing and able to grow into what this role will ask of me?”

That shift may seem subtle, but it is profoundly liberating.

Because it acknowledges something essential: potential is not static. It expands through challenge, through discomfort, through the very experiences many are waiting to feel “ready” for. By holding back until certainty appears, you may inadvertently delay not only your own development but also the impact you are capable of creating.

And the world, quite frankly, cannot afford that delay.

We are navigating increasingly complex challenges that demand thoughtful, conscious, and emotionally intelligent leadership. The very qualities that so many women bring naturally into their work are precisely what organisations and societies need more of. Yet those qualities can sometimes be paired with an internal standard that is unnecessarily high, even limiting.

Imagine, for a moment, what would happen if that standard shifted.

If readiness was defined not by completeness, but by courage. Not by having all the answers, but by trusting your ability to find them. Not by certainty, but by commitment to growth.

It opens a different kind of possibility.

It invites you to look at opportunities not as tests you must pass, but as platforms where you can evolve. It encourages you to recognise that learning on the job is not a weakness; it is the very essence of leadership. It allows you to step forward with confidence that is rooted not in perfection, but in resilience and adaptability.

So perhaps the more powerful reflection is not whether you are fully qualified.

It is whether you are underestimating your readiness.

Whether there is an opportunity you have quietly dismissed because you believed you needed just a little more time, a little more experience, a little more proof. Whether there is a role that has crossed your path that you felt drawn to, yet stepped back from because you could not say, with absolute certainty, “I am one hundred percent ready.”

And what if that certainty is not the prerequisite you thought it was?

What if the very act of stepping forward is what creates the readiness you are waiting for?

These are not easy questions, but they are important ones. Because behind each hesitation is a potential impact deferred, a voice not yet heard, a leadership presence not yet fully expressed.

The world does not need leaders who have it all figured out.

It needs leaders who are willing to step in, to learn, to adapt, and to grow in real time. Leaders who understand that courage is not the absence of doubt, but the decision to move forward despite it.

And perhaps, most importantly, it needs more women who are ready to trust that they are far more prepared than they believe.

So the next time an opportunity arises, instead of asking yourself if you are perfectly qualified, consider a different question.

Are you capable of learning the rest?

Because if the answer is yes, then you may already be more ready than you think.

To your success,

Isabel

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Which inisght has impacted you the most? Drop it in the comments!