Leadership and the Reality of Finite Capacity

We know better, but most leaders tend to overestimate their limits. With regularity, I’ve met with team members and leaders who articulate different versions of the same story.

“Right now I feel stretched far too thin.”

“The current demands of life and work are not sustainable.”

“This all works when things are going well, but when a crisis erupts it is too much.”

“I’m going to have to make some hard decisions and re-calibrate something in my life.”

There can be any number of dynamics at play in these situations. And the internal forces that propel someone headlong into a wall of burnout and spiritual implosion don’t develop overnight. But it does seem to me that one significant factor in these moments is a difficulty in wrestling honestly with the reality of our own capacity as leaders.

Both Individuals and Organizations Have Capacity Limits

Every effective leader I know is a high-capacity leader. These are the kind of men and women who seem to have the ability to take the time they have and handle more within that time than most people. They can cut through the chaos and bring clarity, both for themselves and their organizations. They seem to be able to hold up under pressure and strain in extraordinary ways, helping their organizations navigate complex challenges with a sustained focus on their mission. 

But the reality is that those high-capacity leaders have the same number of minutes in each day as anyone else, 86,400 of them to be precise. Even the most exceptional leader you know has limits. The CEO who graces the cover of magazines and seems to be as close to a superhero as you can imagine, they too have limits. As Christians, we understand that to be fundamentally tied to the reality of our identity as creatures. 

I suspect this is not news to you. But it’s far too easy for us to forget the inescapability of limits, to forget that organizations too have a maximum capacity. There are the tangibles, of course. Every organization is limited by its financial resources, for example. Budgets are by definition quantifiable testaments to that truth. And accounting ledgers are brutally honest about the hard edges of fiscal capacity. But the same is true of personnel. Your organization can have particularly high expectations for employee productivity--and you very well may find ways to help team members achieve those goals--but there is a limit. Even on some of the intangibles of organizational culture, we recognize there are finite supplies. For example, there is a finite reservoir of trust that the employees will have in leaders and managers. It has to be cultivated and stewarded, even expanded. But it is not without limit. And in times of crisis, when hard decisions have to be made, it is an essential organizational asset. But it can be depleted over time and needs to be replenished regularly.

Everyone’s Capacity is Different

We’d like to think that we’re all endowed with the same abilities. But that’s simply not true. In fact, it becomes apparent to most of us pretty early in life. Sometime in early adolescence, it became obvious to me that my vertical leap was simply not going to be anything about which to brag. Try as I might--and I did!--there was no way a repertoire of dunks was going to be part of my basketball game. And so, by high school, it became clear that I did not have a future in basketball glory.

So why is it that most of us, especially those who are called to lead in some way, have a difficult time coming to grips with the reality that some are just capable of bearing more than others?

Fear often prevents us from acknowledging weaknesses and limitations.

I suspect the answer is one we’d often rather not acknowledge, that our own sense of identity and value can get wrapped up in how we think others perceive us in these ways. Fear often prevents us from acknowledging weaknesses and limitations. And in the workplace, this can be an especially powerful force. What if we lose a competitive edge and get left behind in the merry-go-round of promotions and advancement? What if our supervisors think less of us (“Oh, I see. I thought you could handle all of this, but I guess I was wrong.”)?

The fact is, the number of people on the planet who are wired for some of the most notoriously demanding leadership posts is pretty small. Most of us are not equipped with the abilities to do all that is required of a five-star general. I don’t think I know anyone who could thrive as White House Chief of Staff. And the reality is that, even among those that do fill those roles, the cost to their own health, family, and wellbeing is often severe.

We are all finite creatures, made of dust. And in case we had any doubt about that, God designed each of us to require sleep. Some need more than others, but each one of us has to shut down for an extended period of time every 24 hours. We can only run so fast for so long. 

Capacity Can Be Expanded

Here’s some good news. As leaders develop, their capacity for responsibilities can expand as well. Perhaps one of the most powerful forces in this dynamic is experience. As leaders learn and grow, they develop a form of leadership muscle memory. To put it differently, experience helps move some decisions and responsibilities into the realm of instinct in such a way that they become decreasingly taxing. 

The leaders I know who have the greatest capacity are not necessarily the busiest.

But leaders can also expand their capacity through some measure of discipline. The leaders I know who have the greatest capacity are not necessarily the busiest. They are the ones who know that they have to jealously guard time for those things that matter most, as well as those things that enable them to have the bandwidth to do it all. Spiritual formation is one of the most crucial of these for any Christian leader. If you’re running on fumes, it might be worth pausing and taking inventory of the spiritual disciplines and practices you’ve intentionally built into your life. Similarly, physical exercise is essential to any high-capacity leader. I realize there is a whole group of men who are obsessed with Winston Churchill and would like to think they are his progeny. But here’s the thing: you are not Winston Churchill. So no, you cannot make it through life carrying that load of duties (i.e. saving the world from fascism), all while drinking, smoking, and eating your way into a casket. 

What intentional measures and disciplines are you putting in place now to be the kind of leader who is not only resilient but also has some ability to expand your capacity? This is about far more than “productivity hacks.” It often requires much harder work, even drilling into some honest assessment of your own weaknesses, to build habits and practices that will allow you to grow in this regard. 

Capacity Can Be Overstretched for a Season

Of course, there are seasons where leaders will be called upon to give more of themselves than they otherwise would. It may be that the organization is experiencing a season of rapid growth and there is simply more to be done than anticipated. Ask any entrepreneur and they will likely tell you of those early years of their start-up, of little sleep, late nights, and working weekends. They did not maintain that pace forever, nor could they, but it was essential in that season.

There are seasons where leaders will be called upon to give more of themselves than they otherwise would.

Leaders may also be stretched beyond sustainability due to personal and family life. Unfortunately, this is where far too many leaders make the wrong choice, sacrificing their family for the sake of their career. Ultimately, that leads down a dark and lonely path. But there’s a flip side to this. I regularly talk to men and women raising families who seem to feel angst at not accomplishing what they think they should. Some of this is their own internal restlessness and ambition, to be sure. But I fear much of it is framed by their tendency to compare their output with others. Social media has only exacerbated this problem. In my world of academia, these seem to be especially pronounced when it comes to publication records. But here’s the thing. If you and your spouse are raising multiple children, are actively involved in your local church, have healthy friendships, and are excelling as a professor in the classroom, your remaining capacity is going to be rather limited by necessity. Why in the world would you compare your publishing output against a senior colleague who is an empty nester and had 35 years of established scholarship in their field? 

The same is true in the corporate world and in local church ministry. There may be seasons in which you will have to take on more than your usual capacity. And that may be necessary and good. In those seasons, relying on the Lord is absolutely necessary. Having open lines of communication with your supervisor and team about expectations is crucial. And if you are married, ensuring that your spouse is “all in” on what this extraordinary season will require is essential. You likely cannot maintain that pace forever, but by God’s grace you can do it for a time.

Honest Self-Assessment of Capacity Is Vital for Any Leader

Writing about the nature of spiritual gifts in the context of the local church, the apostle Paul exhorted the Roman Christians, “I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think” (Romans 12:3). While Paul’s focus was elsewhere, I do think there is a transferable principle at work here for leaders.

The temptation for each of us is to overestimate our capacity. We would all like to think we’re the exceptions, that we’re the ones who are singularly endowed with the ability to carry burdens no one else can, to bring order and clarity out of chaos when no one else can. 

Christian leaders develop the spiritual ability to interrogate their motivations, to test their instincts, to run toward accountability and truth.

But the reality is that most of us are far from that. In fact, the most capable and high-capacity leaders I know are the ones who are also the most self-aware of their own limits. Those leaders know their strengths and their weaknesses. They are not threatened by others more gifted than they are. They know what disciplines they need to adopt in their life to ensure both maximum productivity and sustainability. They love their work, but they love their families even more. For Christian leaders, this is especially important. We should be those who have the most accurate self-assessment, understanding that we are not only finite creatures but also sinners in need of daily mercy and grace. Christian leaders develop the spiritual ability to interrogate their motivations, to test their instincts, to run toward accountability and truth.

Clarity of Calling Is Vital to Leading Within Capacity

A clear sense of vocation is indispensable to high-capacity leaders. What has God called you to do? How has He gifted and equipped you for the work entrusted to you? Burnout among leaders can be due to many things, but in my experience, a crisis of calling is often embedded within most situations. Sometimes, often around their late thirties to early forties, leaders find that they are pulled in multiple directions. And they want to say yes to everything. Of course, the world, the flesh, and the devil also conspire to lure us all toward vanity and the worst forms of ambition. 

But even in seemingly innocent ways, leaders can overcommit beyond their capacity because they have lost sight of their calling. Some of those callings are non-negotiable and untethered to your work or career, especially the ones that are true of any Christian man or woman. If you’re a parent, you are called to be a loving and caring one. If you’re married, you are called to be a faithful and self-sacrificing spouse. Those realities are true no matter your work. 

So it becomes crucial that high-capacity leaders have the ability to develop clarity about their vocation. Of course, God often calls us to new things and new seasons. But right now, what has He called you to do in your work? Take an audit of your commitments and responsibilities. Are they aligned with that calling? Or have you taken on burdens that no one--not even God himself--expects you to carry? If so, it is likely past time for you to restructure some of those commitments.

Being Reminded of our Finite Capacity is a Grace from God

Our temptation is to resist reminders of our finitude, to try to stubbornly press against the borders of our capacity. But Christianity flips the values of the world upside down and tells us that there is strength in weakness.

Consider how Paul put it when describing his own frustrations with a persisting “thorn in the flesh,” which he repeatedly had asked the Lord to remove:

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in my weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecution, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Your limitations, even your weaknesses, are an opportunity to boast in Jesus and in His infinite power. He never grows tired and there is no limit to his capacity to bear up His own. That’s good news for all.