Leadership Briefs

What's Your Leadership Capacity?

Leadership capacity determines your ability to lead in more complex areas of organizational responsibility.  Capacity is influenced by individual initiative that accompanies an organizational investment.

The Six Factors of Leadership Capacity

Unique Wiring - Review your profile on a variety of personal assessments:  StrengthsFinder, DISC, MBTI, and EI.  The unique combination of your results tells a personal story.  Your profile represents a package of skills and tendencies that may be applied to greater leadership responsibilities.  Does that limit leadership to those with a certain profile?  Maybe not.  People of varying skills, training, and experience find themselves in positions of leadership.  Every leader must review the points at which their personal profile will enhance or inhibit what is required in existing or new opportunities.  The leadership development challenge is to leverage the enhancements and manage the inhibitors. 

Q#1 - Do you know your profile?

Season of Life – Work-life balance provides a healthy goal for anyone.  Certain seasons allow the choice of committing to greater leadership responsibility.  It is a question of time and energy.  Every choice includes a tradeoff?  What are you giving up or choosing not to do in the place of greater professional responsibilities?  Does the personal return on investment justify the tradeoff?  In some seasons it will, and in other seasons of life it may not.   

Q#2 - What season are you in?

Personal Drive - Some personality types are more driven, more competitive, and more committed to new and growing professional aspirations.  Greater capacity is the result of a drive to grow in ways that allow you to stretch the application of your leadership skill set. 

Q#3 - How driven are you?

Professional Opportunity - The 70-20-10 Rule suggests that 70% of your professional development is the result of a challenging work assignment.  The work assignment challenge can accelerate your commitment to grow professionally and extend your leadership capacity. 

Q#4 - How challenged are you in your current role?

Intentional Learning - Only10% of this same rule is the result of continued learning.  Invest in 360 degree feedback through research-based leadership development assessments to gain insight into specific areas of leadership competency gaps that continue to inhibit your capacity.  Peer feedback is a source of information useful in designing a professional development growth plan.  That plan addresses leadership competency gaps identified as non-negotiable in your professional development.   

Q#5 - Will you objectively assess your current level of competency?

Accountable Coaching - A leadership development coach provides a voice of accountability to monitor, measure, and manage your professional development growth plan.  Coaching focuses your efforts and also accelerates the development of your leadership capacity!

EmotionWhom do you know with the coaching skills to invest in your development? 

Leadership Debrief

Capacity is always defined by one’s context.  Leaders may have greater capacity for one leadership role than another. Answer six questions to shape an understanding of your capacity for a specific leadership opportunity.