Skilled, committed, working hard, and quietly going nowhere. That’s park. This is how you get moving: real confidence, built by doing the job, not by faking it. It’s the philosophy behind everything I teach, and behind my book, Put It in Drive.
It’s the thing I most wish someone had told me twenty years ago, so I’ll tell you now, straight.
Most people are waiting. Waiting to feel ready. Waiting for permission, for the right title, for someone to finally notice and hand them the keys. So they sit in park, capable, committed, and completely still, telling themselves they’ll move once the confidence shows up.
Here’s the part nobody says out loud: the confidence isn’t coming first. Not that way. You don’t think your way into being a leader while you sit still. You move, you do the actual job, you get a few reps under your belt, and the confidence shows up behind you, in the rear-view mirror, once you’re already rolling.
That’s why I don’t tell anyone to fake it till they make it. Faking it is just park with better acting. And I won’t tell you to perform your doubts either, like turning your nerves into a personality is somehow leadership. Both are theater. The real thing is quieter and harder: build actual competence by doing the work, be honest about what it costs, and let the results speak before you do.
You take your foot off the brake first. The confidence catches up.
I learned this the hard way. I started as a teenager in a summer youth job and spent two decades working my way up to running multi-site operations and multimillion-dollar budgets across New York City. Nobody handed me a manual the day I got promoted over people who used to be my peers. I had to figure out how to lead while I was already leading, and every ounce of confidence I have now was paid for in reps, not pep talks.
Almost everyone I meet is in one of three gears. The trick isn’t judging where you are. It’s being honest about it, then shifting up.
Committed and capable, but waiting: for confidence, for permission, for the right time. The engine’s off. You underplay what you can already do, and you call it “not ready yet.”
The engine’s running and you’re exhausted, but the car isn’t going anywhere you chose. Emails, meetings, tasks, fires: motion everywhere, direction nowhere. Busy is not the same as forward.
You act before you feel ready and let the confidence catch up. You own your role, you steer, and you stop waiting to be picked. This is the gear the whole thing is built to get you into.
Twelve honest questions, about two minutes, nothing saved. You’ll get your gear, and the one next move that shifts you up.
I stay in my lane on purpose. These are the areas I ran for two decades and can teach without notes, the places where I can move the needle for you or your team.
The jump from doing the work to leading the people who do it. Supervision that’s a rhythm and not a scramble, delegation that actually lets go, meetings that respect the room, and leading the people who used to be your peers without pretending it isn’t awkward.
Get the operation out of your head and into systems your whole team can run. Knowledge hubs, SOPs, onboarding, trackers, protocols: the boring backbone that turns heroic effort into a machine that keeps working on the days you’re out.
The moves that get you moving: making your work visible, asking for the role instead of hoping it finds you, building the proof that you can figure things out, and shifting up a gear before you feel ready. This is the heart of Put It in Drive.
10 Proven Ways to Lead with Confidence, Stand Out as a Manager, and Build a Career on Your Own Terms.
Most people spend years in park, skilled, committed, but feeling like they’re going nowhere. Put It in Drive is the book that finally gets them moving: an honest guide from someone who started at the bottom and worked up to Vice President, for anyone ready to step into leadership with confidence, own their role, and build a career that matches their ambition.
It’s on the way. Get on the list and you’ll be among the first to read it, and to get the early chapters, tools, and notes I share along the way.
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Field Notes · a few times a month