Have you been thinking about asking for a promotion?

Don’t underestimate your readiness.

Imagine you were given your promotion tomorrow. How ready are you, right now, to step into that role and perform it well, meeting all of the requirements of the job? Give yourself a score on scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is “not ready at all” and ten is “completely ready”.

In their article “The Confidence Gap” for The Atlantic, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman wrote “A review of personnel records found that women working at HP applied for a promotion only when they believed they met 100 percent of the qualifications listed for the job. Men were happy to apply when they thought they could meet 60 percent of the job requirements.”

(By the way, studies like Accenture’s 2011 survey of 3,400 professionals at medium and large-sized companies have revealed that people who ask for raises and promotions are more likely than not to get them.)

Earlier this year when I was moderating a panel for a professional association event, one panelist, a Director in the consumer packaged goods industry related her story. One year after being promoted into her current role, she summoned up the courage to tell her boss that she aspired to have his job one day. He praised her for mentioning it but said she’d waited too long: All of her male colleagues had already expressed interest in the role.

Think about the longer term consequences of this. If you underestimate your readiness for promotions, you’ll miss out on opportunities and advance more slowly. If we collectively underestimate our readiness, there will be less women in senior-level leadership roles.

So don’t underestimate your readiness for your next role! If you scored yourself more than a six out of ten and you haven’t knocked on your boss’ door to ask for that promotion, what are you waiting for?