You’ve probably heard of the term, “high-capacity leader.” Leadership capacity is an abstract concept. You may wonder if you are a high-capacity leader or a low-capacity leader. How can I determine how much capacity I have? If I am low-capacity, is there anything I can do about it? I’ll use this article to explore those questions, share my experiences, and draw some conclusions.

Let’s start with a cup of coffee

Coffee cups come in all shapes and sizes. The fancy coffee cups in my china hutch that I never use hold approximately 5 oz. Most ceramic coffee mugs hold 8-12 oz. My travel mug holds 20 oz. I also have a 26 oz bottle that’ll keep coffee warm for a full day of deer hunting in the fall.

I have a Keurig coffee maker at home that has several buttons on it. Occasionally, I push the wrong button and dispense too much coffee into too small of a cup. This is a pretty defensible mistake. After all, I haven’t had my coffee yet, so can’t be expected to accurately perform such a complicated operation. Regardless, I wind up with a substantial mess in my kitchen and have to deal with the consequences of my mistake.

Leadership capacity works the same way

Leadership is a lot of things, but functionally speaking, it’s a means of getting work done. I have coffee mugs, for example, that serve me in many ways, such as self-expression, branding, and conversation starters, which are all nice to have, but fundamentally, they all need to hold coffee.

Leaders get work done, usually indirectly through others. Leaders are accountable for getting work done and enlist their team members in getting the actual work accomplished.

Some leaders can handle large groups, covering a variety of functions and disciplines, while others can barely lead themselves much less a team.

Here’s how I measure capacity

It’s pretty easy to determine the capacity of a coffee cup. You can tell by looking at it, or if you still aren’t sure, you can start adding coffee and stop when it starts to look full. If coffee starts spilling everywhere, you know for certain that you have already surpassed maximum capacity.

Leadership capacity is similar. I love giving out work. I’m like the coffee maker that won’t quit. I wrote a previous article about my team members that used to think they could work themselves out of a job. That’s hilarious. Don’t underestimate me.

Similar to coffee, I know that I’ve exceeded someone’s leadership capacity when work starts spilling out everywhere. At home in my kitchen, this isn’t a big deal. All it takes is a washcloth. At work, there are larger consequences that are much harder to clean up.

Here’s some clear evidence that I’ve exceeded someone’s leadership capacity:

1. Excessive escalations. I get a number of customer complaints, employee concerns, or complex problems that seemingly cannot be solved within the team.
2. Operational failures. Excessive outages and repeatedly missed project deliveries are fundamental indicators.
3. Lack of strategic progress. I look at management as running a team, and leadership as changing a team. Leaders need to evolve their teams to meet the changing needs of the business. If a group is mostly staying the same, then that’s a problem.
4. Over-dependence on me. Everyone needs support from their boss, but some need it more than others. My time is limited. Some leaders require more of it than they should. That reduces my capacity, which isn’t good for either of us.

This list might seem a little harsh. After all, these things can happen to every leader from time to time, regardless of their capacity and level in the organization.

Additionally, I like to develop leaders, coach them through their difficulties, and help them work through the challenges they face. None of the above indicators makes someone a bad leader, it just means they have (perhaps temporarily) reached their capacity.

That list was a bit negative, so let’s balance that out by studying the opposite phenomenon. What does it look like when a leader has additional capacity to offer the organization? Back to my coffee example, how can I tell when the mug (or glass) is half full? Here are some indicators:

1. Yes. This leader says “yes” to more work without letting anything major fall through the cracks.
2. A turnaround artist. This leader takes a dysfunctional team, makes them high performing, then goes looking for the next adjacent team that needs work. For more on this topic, read this article.
3. Elevated thinking. It’s easy to keep your nose to the grindstone. It’s hard to elevate your thinking to gain an enterprise perspective. Those that can are ready for more.
4. A multiplier. This leader constantly works herself out of a job through delegation, automation, process improvement, and leadership development. That’s why she can say yes to more.

Now that we know how to identify leadership capacity, what can you do to increase yours? Capacity isn’t a finite thing. There are things you can do to increase it. Here are some suggestions:

1. Get really good at time management. There’s a lot expected of you. You simply cannot afford to be inefficient with your time. Read this article for more.
2. Delegate and develop. Do what only you can do. Let everyone else do everything else. I have a lesson for that in detail here.
3. Take time off. What?!? If I’m low on capacity, how on earth will spending less time at work help me?!? If you are burned out, you can’t elevate your thinking or do anything strategic. Plus, it’ll help your team learn to operate without you. That’s a good thing.
4. Connect and listen. The highest capacity leaders are well-connected across the enterprise. They work effectively across boundaries and find new ways to create value. Go out and make some connections.

That’s my advice. Perhaps you are reading this article and thinking, “How embarrassing. Zach is writing about me.” You are right, I am. All of you are right. There’s a lot of you. I’ve developed leaders in several companies, and these observations span my career. There are a lot of us working on this very issue.

I’ve actively worked on expanding my leadership capacity over the years. It doesn’t just happen and it never gets easier.

That’s all for this week’s edition of Zach on Leadership. All of this writing is making me thirsty. I better go refill my coffee cup.