It might be true in that you haven’t had the focus to work on and get to know your true self. If follows then that you simply don’t have the wherewithal to work in a leadership position, because you don’t know who you are, what you stand for or what your limits are. You can uncover some of this by asking yourself questions like:
- What is my purpose?
- What do I stand for?
- Have I got the skills I need?
- How confident am I, really?
- What are my true values and what am I prepared to flex?
If you ask these seriously then I think you’ll find that these are not easy questions to answer.
The manifestation of ‘out of your depth‘ is likely to show in a lack of attention to questions like these and you fear that you might lack skills, maybe you can’t find your place or that you can’t cope with the people and politics, because it makes you feel vulnerable. A lot of this might be because you haven’t understood what you are about and what you really need to do to sustain a successful life and career and maintain the balance – should you choose to.
It’s OK not to by the way – some people have amazing careers but their work life balance when looked at by others might be judged as skewed – so what? If they are happy with that don’t impose those values on you to make you do the same.