When was the last time you heard anyone say “I have an appropriate workload” or “I have enough time in the day to get done the most important things?"

Probably never.

Can I tell you a secret?

Nine out of ten weeks I can say that.

And it’s because I have become really good at managing my capacity.

Years ago (back in my mid-20s) I made two spectacularly bad decisions in my career:

1.     To get on a plane to Louisville even though multiple discs in my back were actively herniating.

2.     To get on a plane to Chicago (two weeks in a row) while I pushed off gallbladder surgery.

The first decision left me on mostly bed rest for 6 months while I went to PT three times a week, suffered permanent muscle atrophy, permanent nerve damage, and couldn’t sit, stand, or walk for more than 10 minutes.

The second…when I woke up from anesthesia they told me I was days away from the gallstone escaping and my body going into sepsis.

I never said I learned lessons the easy way.

But this taught me that my capacity is finite.

I was more worried about showing up than I was about what I was showing up with.

Agonizing pain doesn’t exactly make for a productive consultant.

So over the next 20 years I got really intentional about managing my own capacity. This led me to say “no” when historically I would have said “yes.” I started to evaluate what exactly was I saying yes to.

• Did this work actually require my expertise?
• Did it require my authority?
• Did my attention add meaningful value?
• What would actually happen if I said no?

The key was learning that whenever I say YES to something, it means I am inherently saying NO to something else. And that’s ok, because not everything a client asks you to do is something you should do. And I don’t mean “don’t do it because it’s illegal.” I mean don’t do it just because you are an available body.

That lesson is more true than ever as organizations continue to downsize, re-org, and implement hiring freezes. We have gotten to the place where there is simply no more capacity for people after years of being told do more with less.

There is simply no more to give. Which means the time has come to start thinking really strategically about your own capacity as a leader.

1.     Are you empowering people to make decisions at the lowest level possible?

2.     Are you teaching people the skills they need to step into bigger roles with more responsibility?

3.     Are you delegating responsibilities and ownership for tasks that don’t require your finite capacity?

Or are you “working down a level” because when you were promoted from an individual contributor to a leader you never learned what being a leader means? Because once you’re a leader, it’s no longer about your individual ability to complete a task to a high level of quality. It’s now about whether or not your team is successful because you enabled them to be.

Your capacity is finite. Treat it like the organizational resource it is. Make sure you’re choosing the right things to spend your expertise, authority, and attention on.

Ready to take a hard look at where your leadership capacity is actually going?

Leadership Mechanisms: Capacity walks you through the process of identifying where your time goes, why you're spending it there, and what to keep, delegate, teach, defer, do, or stop.