December 10, 2025 • 26 mins
This is Part 1 of a two-part series on building capacity without increasing headcount. In this episode, Tonya Harrison breaks down the leadership shifts that help small teams operate with more clarity and ease — before you think about hiring.
If you're feeling stretched thin, overwhelmed by decisions, or unsure why your team can’t keep up, this episode shows you where capacity is really lost and how to rebuild it through stronger leadership systems.
Ready to close the gap between goals and results?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Okay, so you're leading the small team and the
workload keeps growing.
The deadlines keep stacking up,the pressure rises, and your
first instinct is we need tohire.
That's what most of us say.
But here's the truth (00:17):
most leaders don't consider that you
probably don't need more people,you need better systems.
Hiring into chaos only createsexpensive chaos.
You really want to gain someclarity before you start hiring.
(00:38):
This episode is part one of atwo-part series, and today we're
focusing squarely on you, theleader, talking about your
habits, decision making, andoperational rhythms that are
probably overloaded.
And if they are overloaded, yourteam will always be overloaded.
(01:01):
Team capacity starts withleadership capacity.
And leadership capacity is builtthrough systems thinking.
We want to start changing theway we think.
So before you go out and hireanother person, check out this
episode.
(01:22):
Let's get into it.
Welcome to Leveraging Operationsand Leadership, the podcast for
business leaders who want tobuild strong teams, strengthen
their systems, and lead withmore clarity and confidence.
I'm your host, Tanya D.
Harrison, Leadership andOperations Consultant and the
founder of Signal Partners.
(01:43):
Around here on this side of thepodcast Internet, we believe
leadership and operations gohand in hand, and small teams
win when both are aligned.
All right.
So let's talk about this.
And I'm right there with you.
I have had this experience, so Iunderstand it all too well.
(02:08):
When leaders feel stretched thinis rarely because the team can't
perform.
It usually has less to do withthe team and more about the
system around the team or lackof systems.
Either the systems arenon-existent, unclear, or
(02:31):
inconsistent.
And you might be experiencingone or all of the following: too
many decisions coming back toyou, constant re-explaining of
expectations, prioritiesshifting without structure,
communication that feelsscattered and all over the
(02:53):
place, daily interruptions, andreactive work.
You rarely spend time planningand being proactive.
These are not people issues,they're leadership system
issues.
When the leader's operationalrhythm is unstable, the entire
(03:15):
team mirrors it.
So if you're running around withyour head on fire, nine times
out of ten, your team is aswell.
And they're feeling the samelevel of stress that you're
feeling.
Start to ask yourself.
When we're thinking aboutsystems thinking, you want to
(03:36):
ask yourself better questions.
What keeps landing on my desk?
Why do we keep repeating thesame issue?
Where is the real bottleneck?
Q to music.
It's probably you.
(03:57):
Is this a task problem or aclarity problem?
Or does this require me, or doesit require a better process?
In order to move into systemthinking, you have to be able to
ask yourself a bunch ofquestions.
(04:18):
So instead of pushing harder,you want to redesign how work
moves.
That's the heart of leadershipcapacity.
This is why I always sayleadership and operations
intersect.
So today I said it's a two-partseries, and this is part one.
(04:42):
I want to focus mainly on you asthe leader and talk about things
that you could do.
And then in the next part, we'lltalk more about from the team
perspective, things that youcould do on that end.
From a leadership perspective,there's three levers leaders
must pull to create capacity.
(05:05):
And is it more than three?
Yes.
But I have found in working withsolopreneurs that are preparing
their businesses to onboardteams and leaders that already
have a small team.
These are the most common leversand they make the greatest
(05:26):
impact.
The first thing is leaderdecision reduction.
Now, I've talked about thisabout how we have so many
decisions that we have to makeon a regular basis.
And most leaders carry too manydecisions, big and small.
(05:47):
Every time a team member says,What do you want me to do?
That's a signal of decisionoverload.
Even if a client is asking, Whatdo I do next?
That is the signal of a decisionoverload.
Your goal is to intentionallyremove decisions from your
(06:10):
plate.
Intentionally remove decisionsfrom your plate.
Here's a couple of ways that youcould do this.
Define which decisions the teamowns.
(06:30):
You may find that you're makingdecisions that are not yours to
make, that they should be madeby the team.
Giving guardrails instead ofinstructions.
So give your team parametersthat they can work within to
make a decision.
And then creating clarity sopeople don't need to double
(06:52):
check everything.
And this may look like aprocess, a workflow, a guide,
but give them what they need sothat they can make the
decisions.
So you're gonna identify whatdecisions the team owns versus
which ones you own.
(07:13):
Make sure that they have theguardrails and everything that
they need to make the decisionand then create clarity so that
they don't have to be doublechecking.
So they know what success lookslike.
I have made the right decision.
And here are some ways that youcan tell that you've made the
(07:35):
right decision.
Every decision that youeliminate or push down increases
your capacity immediately.
And it increases your energy.
And sidebar, if you right now,because I know I have some
(07:58):
people that are solopreneurs,that they don't have a team,
when you are going through thisprocess, you want to think about
are there things, and we'll talka little bit more about this
later, are there things that youcould automate?
So you're still deciding, do Ineed to make the decision?
(08:21):
Do is this something that I needto do?
Um, but we'll talk a little bitabout that later.
The second thing that you wantto do, right?
So that's the first thing.
The first lever is decisionreduction.
Your task for the week is tominimize the number of decisions
that you have to make.
(08:41):
So you want to push as many ofthose down to your team as
possible.
And of course, it has to makesense because we don't believe
in dumping around here.
We want to make sure that theteam has the capacity to do it,
they have the skill set to doit, whatever this decision is
that you're giving them thatthey make, that they have the
tools to successfully make thedecisions that you want them to
(09:03):
make.
The second lever is the prioritydiscipline.
Overwhelm often comes fromtrying to move too many
priorities at once.
You've heard the saying, you'redoing the most.
And that's not always a goodthing.
And this is why I am really bigon planning.
(09:28):
Planning helps you to stayfocused.
You've outlined what thosepriorities are, what are the
things that are important andwhat it is that you want to work
on.
So, you know, really with thislever, the goal is to identify
the real priorities that driveresults and make sure that
you're seeing focus on thatbecause it is really easy to
(09:54):
find ourselves shifting orcreeping into something else.
Like we you probably heard ofScope Creep.
Well, it's the same thing whenit comes to our priorities.
Sometimes we get sidetrackedwith something that should not
be a priority.
It probably should go in theparking lot section because it's
(10:16):
not something that we want toentertain at this time.
Making sure that you identifythe real priorities that drive
results and stop jumping intowork that should belong to
someone else.
If you have a team, then youhired them for a reason.
Think about it.
(10:36):
Is this something that I shouldbe doing, or is this something
that someone else on my teamshould be doing?
Make sure you are assessingthat.
Another thing you want to do isremove or pause initiatives that
don't support the currentseason.
Sometimes we may be working onsomething and it becomes a habit
(10:56):
to work on it, but we're noteven headed in that direction,
or that's no longer the priorityat the moment, but we're still
working on those things.
Make sure that you are pausingthose initiatives.
Okay, this is not something,maybe I don't want to completely
abandon it, but it's not apriority right now and put it to
(11:17):
the side and pick it up when itis the right time to pick it up.
The last thing you want to dowhen we are talking specifically
about priority discipline, limityour personal focus to what only
you can do.
As a leader, there's going to besome things that only you can
(11:41):
do.
Identify what those things areand make sure that you're
staying focused on those things.
And then the team can handle theother things.
I have leaders that say thatthey do things because it's just
easier for them to do or it'squicker for them to do.
But what happens is that now youhave put yourself in a box.
(12:04):
You're always going to be doingthat task because you haven't
trained anybody else to do it.
Now it is solely yourresponsibility.
Whereas if you take the time totrain somebody or write out the
process or write out theworkflow, whatever it is that
you need to do, now that personcan take it on.
(12:26):
And if it's documented, morethan one person could take it
on, depending on the skill setthat's needed for it.
But now it doesn't require you.
There's going to be enoughthings that require your focus
and your time.
And you want to make sure thatyou are focusing on those things
first in order to keep movingyour team, your business in the
(12:48):
direction of your goals.
So, yeah, leadership is aboutdiscipline, right?
So, but when your priorities areclear, you're going to be able
to make decisions faster,easier, and your team stops
chasing shifting targets.
They're not all over the place.
They know what it is that theyneed to do, which is going to
(13:12):
make them more productive.
All right.
So that was lever number two.
Lever number three is routinesthat reduce overwhelm.
And I think that sometimes wedon't take for granted how
beneficial routines are.
This is where capacity becomessustainable.
(13:34):
Consistent leadership routines,they protect your energy and
they keep your team aligned.
Everyone knows, especially you,because we're specifically
talking about you, but everyoneknows what's going on, what's
going to happen.
It's not something that shiftsall over the place.
So, as an example, for me, Ihave a weekly planning session
(13:59):
every Monday.
And during this session, I'mthinking about what my
priorities are for the week,what it is that I have to work
on.
I also block out CEO time.
And this is where I'm strictlylooking at my goals and I'm
looking at my metrics, and I'mdetermining: am I on track for
(14:21):
the goals and the initiativesthat I've put in place, whether
it be for the month, thequarter, or the year.
Make sure you have these timesblocked off on your calendar and
they happen the same time everyweek.
Same thing with structuredone-on-ones, right?
You want to have a structure.
I have a framework for howone-on-ones are done, but making
(14:44):
sure that the one-on-ones arethe same every week or every
other week, however often thatyou meet with your team.
If it's every other week, it'sthe same time every other week.
If it's once a month, it's thesame time once a month, once a
week, whatever that looks like.
That way you're clear, they'reclear.
It's not something that's movingall over the place.
(15:05):
It is a rhythm.
I also recommend for people withteams to have weekly team syncs.
And even if it's only, you know,two people, three people, having
that sync up where you'resharing expectations and your
expectations are clear, but alsowhere the team is sharing what
(15:27):
it is that they're working on.
They have an opportunity to askany questions.
The other people have anopportunity to hear what's going
on because this is wherecollaboration happens.
This is where the magic happens.
They hear what's going on.
You would be surprised at howmany people have ideas for how
(15:48):
to make things better.
Now you are collaborating as ateam.
Now you're making things better,faster, and they are more
cohesive.
I also recommend, and this wasin a previous uh episode where I
talk about reflection time.
And you can do this daily orweekly, and it's not a lot of
(16:11):
time.
I'm talking about 15 minutes, ifyou do it weekly, maybe 30
minutes, where you go back andyou reflect on your week and
you're asking yourselfquestions.
What went well?
What didn't go well?
What could I have donedifferently?
Just really reflecting becausethe goal is for us to improve
over time a little bit at atime, but it's also to bring
(16:34):
awareness to what it is that wehave going on, where we are in
our journey, you know, and thisreflection period really helps
us to stay in tune with, like Isaid, where we're going, what we
have going on, and how we canmake that better.
(16:55):
And then also celebrating wins,making sure that you are keeping
track of those as well.
So those daily or weeklyreflection time periods are
extremely beneficial.
Think about things that you canput on a rhythm that you can do
every single week, the same timeevery week, every other week,
(17:16):
every month, whatever that lookslike.
That is going to help make yourcapacity more sustainable.
I'm not looking for a room like,oh my goodness, I didn't do my
weekly planning.
No, it's the same time everyweek, it's already blocked out
on my calendar.
Same thing with the one-on-ones.
Oh my goodness, I didn't meetwith, you know, one of the
people on the team.
No, it's the same time everyweek, every other week.
(17:39):
So it's already scheduled, it'salready blocked, and it's on the
calendar.
When your leadership rhythm ispredictable, your workflow
becomes lighter, it becomeseasier.
And again, consistency createscapacity every single time.
So those are the three levers,just to really quickly recap
(18:03):
when we're talking aboutcreating capacity for you
specifically as a leader.
The three levers that youspecifically as a leader you
want to pull in order to createcapacity.
The first one is decisionreduction, reducing the number
of decisions that you have tomake.
And we are working on that oneright out the gate, right?
(18:23):
That's a priority.
The second one is prioritydiscipline.
We are really going to take thetime to identify what the real
priorities are that drive theresults that we're looking for.
The third one is routines thatreduce overwhelm.
To round this out, I want totalk a little bit about how you
(18:46):
can get support from AI andautomation.
Because that's another thingthat helps with the leadership
capacity.
And first of all, AI isn't aboutreplacing your teams.
It's not about replacing yourteam.
It's about removing mental load.
(19:06):
Oh my God, just reducing some ofthe manual tasks and giving
yourself time back so that youcould really do deep work.
You can pour into the thingsthat you need to pour into where
you're not feeling so stretched.
Some of the things that I wouldjust say, and this is even if
you are in the beginning stagesof AI, there's some really quick
(19:32):
tasks that you could lean on itfor to kind of help.
One of them is summarizingmeeting notes or reports,
drafting agendas.
I recommend that you haveagendas for all of your
meetings.
So drafting agendas is helpfulfor that.
(19:52):
Turning some of your rough notesthat you have into clean
standard operating proceduredrafts.
I don't recommend.
That you you use it to createyour SOP, but it definitely can
create those clean drafts whereyou can put it in there and then
you fix it up.
Or if you have an assistant,they could do it as well.
(20:14):
Extracting action items fromemails or or Slack or different
tools that you use, that hasbeen extremely helpful for me.
And then drafting emails.
I don't recommend using it tosend emails.
That's just not my preference,but it can help with drafting
emails.
So I'm not starting with a blankpage.
(20:35):
All I have to do is go in and ummake the updates that I want.
From an automation support,automation handles some of the
repetitive, predictable workthat may be cluttering your
capacity.
So think about things that arerecurring.
This could be automatedonboarding sequences for when
(20:56):
you onboard a new team member ora client or a vendor.
Also, you could automate liketask routing.
So work moves without youmanually assigning it to them.
So every time you go into yourproject management software, if
you put something in a specificcategory, it automatically gets
(21:17):
assigned.
That way it's automaticallymoving through the workflow
without you having to do a lot.
Or uh one of the things that Iuse it for is status updates.
So based when a status isupdated, it triggers a workflow
or a change.
And then automated storage ofdocuments or notes or templates
(21:41):
where you can have it go outthere and automatically put
things into folders.
So kind of think about what aresome of the things that you do
that you may be able to lean onAI and automation for to again
help with capacity.
I use AI and automation in mybusiness, and I still have a
(22:04):
virtual assistant.
What it means is that some ofthese tasks that I could get
done with AI and automation, shedoesn't have to do.
There's things that she'sskilled at doing that I want her
to focus on.
Whereas the AI and automation, Ican have it do some of the
things to kind of help me out.
(22:25):
Really think about all of thethings.
Think about the three levers,think about AI and automation.
What types of things that youcould do to support you?
Because altogether, when youbring all of those things
together, it's going to beextremely helpful in building
capacity.
And this is one of the mainthings that I see that burns
(22:49):
leaders out is they'reoverwhelmed.
It's too much going on.
Think about how you can buildcapacity before you hire another
person.
So once you put some of thesethings in place, then you may
very well still need to hiresomebody, but you may need to
hire somebody with a differentskill set because you've
(23:10):
organized a lot of the things.
You've automated some thingsthat you were doing that you
didn't need to do or your teamdidn't need to do, which we'll
talk more about in part two.
So just do a quick leadershipcapacity audit.
Before you assume that you needanother hire, ask yourself, what
(23:32):
decisions am I holding on tothat the team could be making?
Which priorities can besimplified or eliminated?
If it's an initiative thatyou're no longer interested in,
it could actually be eliminated.
Where can I automate recurringtasks?
What routines do I need tostabilize my leadership rhythm?
(23:55):
And where am I reacting insteadof designing how work should
move?
Okay.
So once you go through thisleadership audit, you're going
to find that there's things thatyou can do to increase your
capacity and go ahead, implementthose things.
And then we'll move on tolooking at the team and seeing
(24:17):
what some of the things are thatyou may be able to do from a
team perspective.
Just remember capacity is not astaffing strategy, it's a
leadership strategy.
You still will need to hire atsome point.
As your business continues togrow, if you are a part of a
bigger business, as businessoverall continues to grow, then
(24:40):
you may need to still hire.
But what you're looking for interms of skill set may differ.
So part two is coming, andthat's where, like I said, we'll
dig into operational systemsyour team needs in order to
create capacity because they maybe overwhelmed as well.
(25:01):
And if you are ready to bridgethe gap between planning and
execution, I want you todownload the gap guide.
I have a complementary resource.
It's a simple, powerful toolthat helps you set priorities,
track progress, and executeconsistently so you stop
reacting and start leading withintention.
(25:22):
Go ahead, download the gap guideand start creating capacity the
smart way.
All right, that is it.
So thanks for spending time withme today.
If this episode gave you a newperspective or help you think
differently about how you lead,I'd love for you to take a
moment to leave a review.
Also, your feedback helps thisshow reach more leaders who are
(25:47):
trying to build strong teams andrun their businesses with more
clarity and confidence.
So we really appreciate it ifyou do it.
Also, if you know a leader whoneeds this conversation, share
this episode with them.
We grow faster when we growtogether.
Until next time, lead withpurpose and operate with
(26:08):
excellence.
Okay, so you're leading the small team and the
workload keeps growing.
The deadlines keep stacking up,the pressure rises, and your
first instinct is we need tohire.
That's what most of us say.
But here's the truth (00:17):
most leaders don't consider that you
probably don't need more people,you need better systems.
Hiring into chaos only createsexpensive chaos.
You really want to gain someclarity before you start hiring.
(00:38):
This episode is part one of atwo-part series, and today we're
focusing squarely on you, theleader, talking about your
habits, decision making, andoperational rhythms that are
probably overloaded.
And if they are overloaded, yourteam will always be overloaded.
(01:01):
Team capacity starts withleadership capacity.
And leadership capacity is builtthrough systems thinking.
We want to start changing theway we think.
So before you go out and hireanother person, check out this
episode.
(01:22):
Let's get into it.
Welcome to Leveraging Operationsand Leadership, the podcast for
business leaders who want tobuild strong teams, strengthen
their systems, and lead withmore clarity and confidence.
I'm your host, Tanya D.
Harrison, Leadership andOperations Consultant and the
founder of Signal Partners.
(01:43):
Around here on this side of thepodcast Internet, we believe
leadership and operations gohand in hand, and small teams
win when both are aligned.
All right.
So let's talk about this.
And I'm right there with you.
I have had this experience, so Iunderstand it all too well.
(02:08):
When leaders feel stretched thinis rarely because the team can't
perform.
It usually has less to do withthe team and more about the
system around the team or lackof systems.
Either the systems arenon-existent, unclear, or
(02:31):
inconsistent.
And you might be experiencingone or all of the following: too
many decisions coming back toyou, constant re-explaining of
expectations, prioritiesshifting without structure,
communication that feelsscattered and all over the
(02:53):
place, daily interruptions, andreactive work.
You rarely spend time planningand being proactive.
These are not people issues,they're leadership system
issues.
When the leader's operationalrhythm is unstable, the entire
(03:15):
team mirrors it.
So if you're running around withyour head on fire, nine times
out of ten, your team is aswell.
And they're feeling the samelevel of stress that you're
feeling.
Start to ask yourself.
When we're thinking aboutsystems thinking, you want to
(03:36):
ask yourself better questions.
What keeps landing on my desk?
Why do we keep repeating thesame issue?
Where is the real bottleneck?
Q to music.
It's probably you.
(03:57):
Is this a task problem or aclarity problem?
Or does this require me, or doesit require a better process?
In order to move into systemthinking, you have to be able to
ask yourself a bunch ofquestions.
(04:18):
So instead of pushing harder,you want to redesign how work
moves.
That's the heart of leadershipcapacity.
This is why I always sayleadership and operations
intersect.
So today I said it's a two-partseries, and this is part one.
(04:42):
I want to focus mainly on you asthe leader and talk about things
that you could do.
And then in the next part, we'lltalk more about from the team
perspective, things that youcould do on that end.
From a leadership perspective,there's three levers leaders
must pull to create capacity.
(05:05):
And is it more than three?
Yes.
But I have found in working withsolopreneurs that are preparing
their businesses to onboardteams and leaders that already
have a small team.
These are the most common leversand they make the greatest
(05:26):
impact.
The first thing is leaderdecision reduction.
Now, I've talked about thisabout how we have so many
decisions that we have to makeon a regular basis.
And most leaders carry too manydecisions, big and small.
(05:47):
Every time a team member says,What do you want me to do?
That's a signal of decisionoverload.
Even if a client is asking, Whatdo I do next?
That is the signal of a decisionoverload.
Your goal is to intentionallyremove decisions from your
(06:10):
plate.
Intentionally remove decisionsfrom your plate.
Here's a couple of ways that youcould do this.
Define which decisions the teamowns.
(06:30):
You may find that you're makingdecisions that are not yours to
make, that they should be madeby the team.
Giving guardrails instead ofinstructions.
So give your team parametersthat they can work within to
make a decision.
And then creating clarity sopeople don't need to double
(06:52):
check everything.
And this may look like aprocess, a workflow, a guide,
but give them what they need sothat they can make the
decisions.
So you're gonna identify whatdecisions the team owns versus
which ones you own.
(07:13):
Make sure that they have theguardrails and everything that
they need to make the decisionand then create clarity so that
they don't have to be doublechecking.
So they know what success lookslike.
I have made the right decision.
And here are some ways that youcan tell that you've made the
(07:35):
right decision.
Every decision that youeliminate or push down increases
your capacity immediately.
And it increases your energy.
And sidebar, if you right now,because I know I have some
(07:58):
people that are solopreneurs,that they don't have a team,
when you are going through thisprocess, you want to think about
are there things, and we'll talka little bit more about this
later, are there things that youcould automate?
So you're still deciding, do Ineed to make the decision?
(08:21):
Do is this something that I needto do?
Um, but we'll talk a little bitabout that later.
The second thing that you wantto do, right?
So that's the first thing.
The first lever is decisionreduction.
Your task for the week is tominimize the number of decisions
that you have to make.
(08:41):
So you want to push as many ofthose down to your team as
possible.
And of course, it has to makesense because we don't believe
in dumping around here.
We want to make sure that theteam has the capacity to do it,
they have the skill set to doit, whatever this decision is
that you're giving them thatthey make, that they have the
tools to successfully make thedecisions that you want them to
(09:03):
make.
The second lever is the prioritydiscipline.
Overwhelm often comes fromtrying to move too many
priorities at once.
You've heard the saying, you'redoing the most.
And that's not always a goodthing.
And this is why I am really bigon planning.
(09:28):
Planning helps you to stayfocused.
You've outlined what thosepriorities are, what are the
things that are important andwhat it is that you want to work
on.
So, you know, really with thislever, the goal is to identify
the real priorities that driveresults and make sure that
you're seeing focus on thatbecause it is really easy to
(09:54):
find ourselves shifting orcreeping into something else.
Like we you probably heard ofScope Creep.
Well, it's the same thing whenit comes to our priorities.
Sometimes we get sidetrackedwith something that should not
be a priority.
It probably should go in theparking lot section because it's
(10:16):
not something that we want toentertain at this time.
Making sure that you identifythe real priorities that drive
results and stop jumping intowork that should belong to
someone else.
If you have a team, then youhired them for a reason.
Think about it.
(10:36):
Is this something that I shouldbe doing, or is this something
that someone else on my teamshould be doing?
Make sure you are assessingthat.
Another thing you want to do isremove or pause initiatives that
don't support the currentseason.
Sometimes we may be working onsomething and it becomes a habit
(10:56):
to work on it, but we're noteven headed in that direction,
or that's no longer the priorityat the moment, but we're still
working on those things.
Make sure that you are pausingthose initiatives.
Okay, this is not something,maybe I don't want to completely
abandon it, but it's not apriority right now and put it to
(11:17):
the side and pick it up when itis the right time to pick it up.
The last thing you want to dowhen we are talking specifically
about priority discipline, limityour personal focus to what only
you can do.
As a leader, there's going to besome things that only you can
(11:41):
do.
Identify what those things areand make sure that you're
staying focused on those things.
And then the team can handle theother things.
I have leaders that say thatthey do things because it's just
easier for them to do or it'squicker for them to do.
But what happens is that now youhave put yourself in a box.
(12:04):
You're always going to be doingthat task because you haven't
trained anybody else to do it.
Now it is solely yourresponsibility.
Whereas if you take the time totrain somebody or write out the
process or write out theworkflow, whatever it is that
you need to do, now that personcan take it on.
(12:26):
And if it's documented, morethan one person could take it
on, depending on the skill setthat's needed for it.
But now it doesn't require you.
There's going to be enoughthings that require your focus
and your time.
And you want to make sure thatyou are focusing on those things
first in order to keep movingyour team, your business in the
(12:48):
direction of your goals.
So, yeah, leadership is aboutdiscipline, right?
So, but when your priorities areclear, you're going to be able
to make decisions faster,easier, and your team stops
chasing shifting targets.
They're not all over the place.
They know what it is that theyneed to do, which is going to
(13:12):
make them more productive.
All right.
So that was lever number two.
Lever number three is routinesthat reduce overwhelm.
And I think that sometimes wedon't take for granted how
beneficial routines are.
This is where capacity becomessustainable.
(13:34):
Consistent leadership routines,they protect your energy and
they keep your team aligned.
Everyone knows, especially you,because we're specifically
talking about you, but everyoneknows what's going on, what's
going to happen.
It's not something that shiftsall over the place.
So, as an example, for me, Ihave a weekly planning session
(13:59):
every Monday.
And during this session, I'mthinking about what my
priorities are for the week,what it is that I have to work
on.
I also block out CEO time.
And this is where I'm strictlylooking at my goals and I'm
looking at my metrics, and I'mdetermining: am I on track for
(14:21):
the goals and the initiativesthat I've put in place, whether
it be for the month, thequarter, or the year.
Make sure you have these timesblocked off on your calendar and
they happen the same time everyweek.
Same thing with structuredone-on-ones, right?
You want to have a structure.
I have a framework for howone-on-ones are done, but making
(14:44):
sure that the one-on-ones arethe same every week or every
other week, however often thatyou meet with your team.
If it's every other week, it'sthe same time every other week.
If it's once a month, it's thesame time once a month, once a
week, whatever that looks like.
That way you're clear, they'reclear.
It's not something that's movingall over the place.
(15:05):
It is a rhythm.
I also recommend for people withteams to have weekly team syncs.
And even if it's only, you know,two people, three people, having
that sync up where you'resharing expectations and your
expectations are clear, but alsowhere the team is sharing what
(15:27):
it is that they're working on.
They have an opportunity to askany questions.
The other people have anopportunity to hear what's going
on because this is wherecollaboration happens.
This is where the magic happens.
They hear what's going on.
You would be surprised at howmany people have ideas for how
(15:48):
to make things better.
Now you are collaborating as ateam.
Now you're making things better,faster, and they are more
cohesive.
I also recommend, and this wasin a previous uh episode where I
talk about reflection time.
And you can do this daily orweekly, and it's not a lot of
(16:11):
time.
I'm talking about 15 minutes, ifyou do it weekly, maybe 30
minutes, where you go back andyou reflect on your week and
you're asking yourselfquestions.
What went well?
What didn't go well?
What could I have donedifferently?
Just really reflecting becausethe goal is for us to improve
over time a little bit at atime, but it's also to bring
(16:34):
awareness to what it is that wehave going on, where we are in
our journey, you know, and thisreflection period really helps
us to stay in tune with, like Isaid, where we're going, what we
have going on, and how we canmake that better.
(16:55):
And then also celebrating wins,making sure that you are keeping
track of those as well.
So those daily or weeklyreflection time periods are
extremely beneficial.
Think about things that you canput on a rhythm that you can do
every single week, the same timeevery week, every other week,
(17:16):
every month, whatever that lookslike.
That is going to help make yourcapacity more sustainable.
I'm not looking for a room like,oh my goodness, I didn't do my
weekly planning.
No, it's the same time everyweek, it's already blocked out
on my calendar.
Same thing with the one-on-ones.
Oh my goodness, I didn't meetwith, you know, one of the
people on the team.
No, it's the same time everyweek, every other week.
(17:39):
So it's already scheduled, it'salready blocked, and it's on the
calendar.
When your leadership rhythm ispredictable, your workflow
becomes lighter, it becomeseasier.
And again, consistency createscapacity every single time.
So those are the three levers,just to really quickly recap
(18:03):
when we're talking aboutcreating capacity for you
specifically as a leader.
The three levers that youspecifically as a leader you
want to pull in order to createcapacity.
The first one is decisionreduction, reducing the number
of decisions that you have tomake.
And we are working on that oneright out the gate, right?
(18:23):
That's a priority.
The second one is prioritydiscipline.
We are really going to take thetime to identify what the real
priorities are that drive theresults that we're looking for.
The third one is routines thatreduce overwhelm.
To round this out, I want totalk a little bit about how you
(18:46):
can get support from AI andautomation.
Because that's another thingthat helps with the leadership
capacity.
And first of all, AI isn't aboutreplacing your teams.
It's not about replacing yourteam.
It's about removing mental load.
(19:06):
Oh my God, just reducing some ofthe manual tasks and giving
yourself time back so that youcould really do deep work.
You can pour into the thingsthat you need to pour into where
you're not feeling so stretched.
Some of the things that I wouldjust say, and this is even if
you are in the beginning stagesof AI, there's some really quick
(19:32):
tasks that you could lean on itfor to kind of help.
One of them is summarizingmeeting notes or reports,
drafting agendas.
I recommend that you haveagendas for all of your
meetings.
So drafting agendas is helpfulfor that.
(19:52):
Turning some of your rough notesthat you have into clean
standard operating proceduredrafts.
I don't recommend.
That you you use it to createyour SOP, but it definitely can
create those clean drafts whereyou can put it in there and then
you fix it up.
Or if you have an assistant,they could do it as well.
(20:14):
Extracting action items fromemails or or Slack or different
tools that you use, that hasbeen extremely helpful for me.
And then drafting emails.
I don't recommend using it tosend emails.
That's just not my preference,but it can help with drafting
emails.
So I'm not starting with a blankpage.
(20:35):
All I have to do is go in and ummake the updates that I want.
From an automation support,automation handles some of the
repetitive, predictable workthat may be cluttering your
capacity.
So think about things that arerecurring.
This could be automatedonboarding sequences for when
(20:56):
you onboard a new team member ora client or a vendor.
Also, you could automate liketask routing.
So work moves without youmanually assigning it to them.
So every time you go into yourproject management software, if
you put something in a specificcategory, it automatically gets
(21:17):
assigned.
That way it's automaticallymoving through the workflow
without you having to do a lot.
Or uh one of the things that Iuse it for is status updates.
So based when a status isupdated, it triggers a workflow
or a change.
And then automated storage ofdocuments or notes or templates
(21:41):
where you can have it go outthere and automatically put
things into folders.
So kind of think about what aresome of the things that you do
that you may be able to lean onAI and automation for to again
help with capacity.
I use AI and automation in mybusiness, and I still have a
(22:04):
virtual assistant.
What it means is that some ofthese tasks that I could get
done with AI and automation, shedoesn't have to do.
There's things that she'sskilled at doing that I want her
to focus on.
Whereas the AI and automation, Ican have it do some of the
things to kind of help me out.
(22:25):
Really think about all of thethings.
Think about the three levers,think about AI and automation.
What types of things that youcould do to support you?
Because altogether, when youbring all of those things
together, it's going to beextremely helpful in building
capacity.
And this is one of the mainthings that I see that burns
(22:49):
leaders out is they'reoverwhelmed.
It's too much going on.
Think about how you can buildcapacity before you hire another
person.
So once you put some of thesethings in place, then you may
very well still need to hiresomebody, but you may need to
hire somebody with a differentskill set because you've
(23:10):
organized a lot of the things.
You've automated some thingsthat you were doing that you
didn't need to do or your teamdidn't need to do, which we'll
talk more about in part two.
So just do a quick leadershipcapacity audit.
Before you assume that you needanother hire, ask yourself, what
(23:32):
decisions am I holding on tothat the team could be making?
Which priorities can besimplified or eliminated?
If it's an initiative thatyou're no longer interested in,
it could actually be eliminated.
Where can I automate recurringtasks?
What routines do I need tostabilize my leadership rhythm?
(23:55):
And where am I reacting insteadof designing how work should
move?
Okay.
So once you go through thisleadership audit, you're going
to find that there's things thatyou can do to increase your
capacity and go ahead, implementthose things.
And then we'll move on tolooking at the team and seeing
(24:17):
what some of the things are thatyou may be able to do from a
team perspective.
Just remember capacity is not astaffing strategy, it's a
leadership strategy.
You still will need to hire atsome point.
As your business continues togrow, if you are a part of a
bigger business, as businessoverall continues to grow, then
(24:40):
you may need to still hire.
But what you're looking for interms of skill set may differ.
So part two is coming, andthat's where, like I said, we'll
dig into operational systemsyour team needs in order to
create capacity because they maybe overwhelmed as well.
(25:01):
And if you are ready to bridgethe gap between planning and
execution, I want you todownload the gap guide.
I have a complementary resource.
It's a simple, powerful toolthat helps you set priorities,
track progress, and executeconsistently so you stop
reacting and start leading withintention.
(25:22):
Go ahead, download the gap guideand start creating capacity the
smart way.
All right, that is it.
So thanks for spending time withme today.
If this episode gave you a newperspective or help you think
differently about how you lead,I'd love for you to take a
moment to leave a review.
Also, your feedback helps thisshow reach more leaders who are
(25:47):
trying to build strong teams andrun their businesses with more
clarity and confidence.
So we really appreciate it ifyou do it.
Also, if you know a leader whoneeds this conversation, share
this episode with them.
We grow faster when we growtogether.
Until next time, lead withpurpose and operate with
(26:08):
excellence.
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