When I work with high-pressure, always-on clients, I hear things like:
- “I’m always playing defense.”
- “Everything I do is just reactive – I’m not able to do that really matter.”
- “I spend all my time fixing issues, instead of solving problems that would make a difference for my people.”
These stressors make up the capability commitment gap – the space between the demands of leadership and the time and energy needed to develop the skills required to take on those challenges.
Why Does This Gap Matter?
To navigate work and life sustainably, you need the energy to take on challenges with a clear, focused, strategic mind. However, if you are constantly bombarded by stressors, it can be hard to see where you can actually make a difference.
One clear symptom of this gap is when you find yourself just throwing your efforts at the first task that pops up because that reactive approach is all your current energy allows for.
It’s unproductive and it doesn’t support your team. Instead, it creates scarcity. Even worse, it can begin to feel like you’re lacking, rather than understanding you are actually only lacking the time and capacity.
How to Spot the Gap in Your Own Life
If you’re a committed leader, you’re actually more likely to have this gap unless you focus on closing it. Those affected by it can include:
- People who have a very high capacity for achievement
- Leaders who have been taught to lead by authority rather than influence
- Leaders who work in organizations where energy is not valued and people are not aligned.
You can spot the gap by noticing how you feel when you are offered a new project – is your first reaction defensiveness or frustration? It’s not because your work ethic is off. It’s because there’s a capability commitment gap between what you want to achieve, the skills you need, and the time/energy you have available to acquire and practice those skills.
How to Bridge the Gap
To bridge the gap, you need to be able to look inward and to be receptive to the right outward influences. You can do this by:
Formal Coaching
If your organization (or you personally) are willing to invest in coaching, you can receive some of the training you’re seeking. Coaching can help you find the root of the issues you’re facing, as opposed to only dealing with the symptoms. For example, leaders may go into coaching thinking they have trouble delegating. However, a coach can help them to discern that the actual gap isn’t a lack of understanding about delegation. It’s about a lack of understanding how to communicate and demonstrate the self-confidence required to delegate.
Informal Coaching
Coaching can be costly and not everyone within an organization receives a coaching investment. If you are not able to take part in individual coaching, your organization may consider team coaching as a way to align people and efficiently use resources.
You can also self-coach, by researching and seeking people who will mentor and sponsor you as you seek new ways of leading and working. For a small to medium size business, you can stand up your own mentorship program.
Feedback
In my experience, people often have things to say but don’t feel they can be heard without inviting defensiveness or being misunderstood. If you are unable to manage this productively, you will always operate sub optimally.
Set the expectation that feedback is a key currency for success. Both soliciting and delivering feedback is critical to having a shared understanding of what matters for your team and organization.
Greater Consciousness and Capacity
You can begin to close the capability commitment cap just by being more mindful during your interactions.
Doing this is not easy when you are drained and exhausted, so a commitment to greater consciousness also requires greater overall capacity. You must be fueled and function in a performance state before you can take on or notice things outside yourself.
However, when you can tap into that greater consciousness, you’ll also find that you’re more often your best self – a leader who can demonstrate empathy, earn trust and think beyond themselves and their immediate needs.
Making the Transformation Reality
In today’s demanding environment, there’s not enough intentional effort invested in development. People development is last in line and it can be a challenge to ensure that you have the time and the ability to close the gap, instead of just crossing action items off a never-ending list.
To start closing the gap, turn your focus from managing outputs and reporting to managing the inputs. Your initial reaction might be that you can’t take time for that because you have too many metrics to monitor and a high level of expectations to meet.
However, you’re not managing the things that affect performance – you ARE managing performance when you focus on ensuring your people are growing and engaged.
You will know you’re showing up more consistently at your best when you prioritize and focus on these elements. Those consistent inputs help ensure the outputs you want.
Start Closing the Gap
My biggest advice to those dealing with a capability commitment gap is to stop waiting. Stop waiting for work to get less hectic or for that next big project to wrap up.
When you reach a pain point, take a look at it and determine which capability you need to handle it. Do you need to listen? To take it on with greater courage? To advocate with greater self-disclosure and personal risk for your employee or team? Or do you need to exercise patience, think toward a bigger picture and let it go? Once you move yourself out of a reactive state, you can determine what you really need to either allocate energy to the effort or to release your focus on it and reallocate that energy to other things.
It’s a snowball method of energy redemption – do one thing. Build momentum, confidence and composure. Then, consolidate your energy and more forward to the next challenge.
