Waiting Until You Feel Ready

One comment in a recent leadership meeting caught my attention.

“We need to get better before we get bigger.”

I believe that quote comes from a highly respected agricultural economist, and I think it’s excellent advice. In many ways, I completely agree with it.

But I’d challenge you to think about how you’re interpreting it. The advice is sound. The question is whether we’re using it to drive improvement or whether we’re quietly giving ourselves permission to stand still because the next step feels uncomfortable.

Sometimes it’s simply more comfortable to stay where we are than to step into the uncertainty that growth brings. Growth stretches people. It exposes weaknesses, challenges long-standing habits, and pushes us to think differently.

There will always be another process to refine, another system to improve, or another challenge to solve. If we wait until everything feels “ready,” we may never move forward.

In fact, growth often becomes the very thing that reveals what still needs to improve, but was simply easier to overlook when the organization was smaller.

As many of you know, one of my favorite roles outside of consulting is coaching high school student-athletes in the pole vault.

Every season, I coach student-athletes who have never picked up a pole before. I don’t expect first-year athletes to vault like experienced competitors. If I waited until they felt completely ready before introducing the next challenge, they’d never move beyond where they are today. Throughout the season, there are countless moments when they’re stretched beyond what feels comfortable. That’s where the growth happens. Every new challenge reveals the next opportunity to learn, adjust, and improve. And we make those adjustments, keep building, and move forward together.

Organizations are no different.

Growth has a way of exposing what needs attention: communication, expectations, processes, roles, and leadership itself. Those aren’t reasons to avoid growth. They’re opportunities to become an even stronger organization, if we choose to see them that way.

Leadership Lessons from the Field is an ongoing series from South Creek HR, sharing observations inspired by real conversations.