The 80% ready rule: Why strategic discomfort is the catalyst for female leadership

Every year on International Women's Day, we revisit the same statistic. Women wait until they're 100% qualified before applying for a role. Men apply at 60%. We've named it the "readiness gap." We've written about it endlessly.

But here's what I've actually observed, working inside one of the fastest-growing AI companies in Europe: waiting to feel ready isn't playing it safe. It's the highest-risk move you can make.

Embrace the 80% Ready Rule

The careers I've watched accelerate fastest have one thing in common: the people behind them said 'yes' before they felt ready.

I call this the 80% Ready Rule. The conviction that the best moment to take an opportunity is when you have the core skills to succeed, but are still stretched enough to grow.

The logic is simple: if you wait until you're 100% qualified, you're already overqualified.

I'd been at Zendesk for a couple of years when I was asked to build something entirely new. Leading market entry into enterprise buyers. A team focused on growth strategy. I'd collaborated closely with sales and marketing, but I'd never owned that motion before. It felt big. I said yes anyway.

Then DeepL called. They wanted me to lead all commercial functions. Sales. Marketing. Support. Customer success. Revenue operations. I was walking in cold, with no history at the company. I'd worked closely with those functions at other companies, had good visibility into how they operated, but I'd never owned them all at once. The scope was enormous. I was maybe 80% ready. I took the role.

Now at VEED, I'm watching this unfold again in real time. I started by leading our sales-led motion. That's where my recent experience lived. But as the role evolved, I inherited our product-led growth function as well. I hadn't focused on PLG in a year or two. The playbooks had shifted. The market had shifted. Then we layered API sales on top of that. So now I'm running three distinct revenue engines at once, in markets I know unevenly. I'm probably 80% ready for all of it. And that's exactly the point.

That's the threshold I'm talking about. Not 60%. Not waiting for 100%. Eighty.

The Cost of Playing It Safe

When a stretch opportunity appears, you face two paths.

• The Growth Path: You take it. Experience compounds. Your problem-solving gets sharper. Your confidence follows.
• The Static Path: You wait. Skills plateau. The window opens for someone else.

Over a decade, those paths look completely different. The people who took the growth path didn't have more talent. They were just willing to learn in public.

The final 20% of any role is learned by doing it, not by preparing for it. Operating at 80% isn't reckless. It's efficient.

Leading in the Age of AI

The AI era has made this even more urgent.

The CRO role I stepped into at VEED barely resembles the one that existed two years ago. AI has reshaped how marketing teams buy, how they measure, and how loyal they stay. The skills that made someone a strong revenue leader in 2022 are table stakes today.

Waiting to feel ready in this environment isn't strategic. It's a guarantee you'll fall behind.

My path wasn't linear. Operations, marketing, sales, customer success. I moved through all of it before landing in a CRO seat. None of those moves felt comfortable at the time. All of them became the foundation for what I do now.

The messy, hard problems? I volunteered for those. That's where I learned the most, built the most trust, and made my impact undeniable. Put yourself at the centre of the difficult work. That's where visibility is built.

From Observer to Architect

One more shift that changed my trajectory: how I sought mentorship. I stopped asking for advice. I started asking for challenges.

True advocacy happens when someone sees you thinking in real-time, not when you present them a polished summary of what you've already done. Get into rooms where you have to figure things out live. That's where sponsors are made.

Your career is a series of chapters. Some will be hard. Some will be better than anything you can currently imagine.

Embracing the 80% rule isn't about chasing the title or the pay rise. It's about making sure your career is defined by the strategic pursuit of your future potential, not the safety of your past credentials.