Nobody Is Ready

The Leadership Shift from Expert to Executive

The new book from Dr. Bill Sodeman
Coming to Amazon.com on November 20, 2026

Read a sample chapter now (PDF)


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Front cover for the book Nobody Is Ready by Dr. Bill Sodeman

You earned the promotion by being exceptional at your job. Now the habits that got you here are the ones most likely to hold you back.

Most new executives are never taught how to lead at the top. They are promoted for what they could do, then judged on what they can get others to do. The work shifts from solving problems to choosing which problems matter, from running a function to shaping an enterprise, and from proving yourself to developing the people who will carry the organization forward. Few organizations prepare anyone for that change, and capable leaders stall, burn out, or quietly derail as a result.

Nobody Is Ready is a practical guide for first-time and aspiring executives who want to make that transition deliberately rather than by accident. Dr. Bill Sodeman draws on more than 35 years in leadership development, eleven years in C-level roles, and his work coaching rising leaders to show what changes in the executive seat and what to do about it.

Through the stories of Austin, promoted from within, and Mary, hired from outside, you will see the transition as it happens.

You’ll learn how to:

  • Recognize the imposter experience for what it is and keep it from steering your decisions;
  • Diagnose the situation you inherited before you act
  • Move from doing the work to leading through others
  • Build the emotional intelligence that matters most at senior levels
  • Make sound decisions with incomplete information
  • Coach and develop your team instead of rescuing it
  • Manage up, across, and with the board
  • Protect your time, energy, and attention
  • Avoid the fatal flaws that derail executives
  • Recover when things go wrong.

Each chapter pairs research with candid first-person stories from Bill’s career as a CIO, Chief Learning Officer, and university department chair, including the mistakes he made along the way. Every chapter closes with concrete steps you can use the next morning.

If you are newly promoted, preparing for your first executive role, or responsible for developing the leaders who will be, Nobody Is Ready gives you a clear map from strong operator to strategic leader.


This book is perfect for any leader who is struggling to get out of the weeds, climb to a strategic altitude, and lead a team toward successful execution. Let’s face it, when you have strong technical skills, there is comfort in continuing to use them to swiftly move an initiative along. Failing to recognize the need to step up to leadership cripples a team, demonstrates a lack of trust and threatens your own future. Nobody Is Ready offers practical advice on how to bravely venture into an executive role, where to seek additional support and, because of your extensive research and real-world examples, to find kinship in facing the universal challenges of the transition.

Heather O’Connor, Assistant Vice President, Digital Content Operations, LPL Financial


Most leadership books assume you’re ready. Nobody Is Ready admits nobody is, and that the skills that earned your promotion can quietly undermine you once you arrive. Bill Sodeman writes with a coach’s candor and a researcher’s discipline: he traces the famous “60 percent of new managers fail” statistic back to its source and shows what it actually says. The stories ring true, the exercises are built for this week rather than someday, and the graphics make the ideas stick. Essential for every specialist about to become an executive, and for anyone promoting one.

Dr. Sergio E. Sanchez, CIO and CISO