You have a version of this sentence ready. Someone asks what you’re after next, and it comes out smoothly because you’ve said it a dozen times: I’ve never held that title, and most of my background is in a different function, but I think I’m ready.
Listen to how it’s built. The gap comes first, and the hope comes last.
There’s a reason people build it that way. Being precise about the gap feels like honesty, and honesty feels like credibility. Name the weak spot before anyone else can, and nobody can say you overreached.
It’s also the belief worth putting down: that naming the gap first earns trust. It rarely does. In the rooms I’ve sat in, people hold on to what they hear first, and if the first thing they hear is what you don’t have, many have stopped listening before they reach what you do. You’ve selected yourself out before the conversation started.
The other instinct fails too. Say nothing and hope the listener connects your background to the role, and you’ve left the translation to chance. A panel weighing you against people who hold the title won’t do that work for you.
What does work is leading with the work that answers the gap, in the language of the role. The translation is yours to do.
Here’s one thing to do this week. Someone asks what you want next, and you answer. Notice the first five words out of your mouth. If they’re about the title you never held, the listener may stop there. If they’re about the work you’ve done, you’re already ahead of the question.
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