Teamership: Making the space for leadership

Leadership performance is not just about capability. Performing as a leader needs capacity. Photo by Vasilis Caravitis on Unsplash

Simon asked a question in a leadership development program that I was running a couple of weeks back…

“How do I make the space for this leadership?”

If leaders are asking themselves - or others - this question, take it as a very good sign.

Simon’s question is different to someone who is asking:

• Is there value in me developing my leadership capability?

• What is the best way to lead? Side note: this is a sneaky question that derails a lot of leaders and programs.

• What’s the point of putting effort into leadership?

He had realised that he wanted to spend more time leading, but wasn’t sure how to do that.

It’s the question of someone who has decided that they want to lead, that they have ways to lead and is wrestling with the reality of heading back to work and integrating leadership into their responsibilities and ways of working.

This points to a challenge for leaders that we don’t consider enough.

Leadership performance is not just about capability. Performing as a leader needs capacity.

No doubt both are required, but the limiting factor for leaders is very often their capacity. Leaders with their capacity overcommitted experience the double whammy effect of their diminished also making it harder to use the capability that they have.

Here are some questions to consider this week…

• How much do your leaders need capability versus capacity?

• Is there something that you can do to create some space for leadership this week?

• Does the idea of space for leadership make the task seem heavier or lighter?