Home Pastors Articles for Pastors What's Your Leadership Capacity?

What's Your Leadership Capacity?

What is your leadership capacity?  Do you know when you are in over your head?

I am using the term leadership capacity to describe a leader’s ability to effectively lead his or her organization to accomplish the vision of the organization.  Consequently a leader exceeds his or her leadership capacity when he or she no longer has the ability to effectively manage or lead the organization to reach its potential.  If the organization is growing there will most likely be a time in the leader’s tenure where he or she feels they have reached or exceeded this capacity.

I met with a great leader recently in a new venture that admitted he is overwhelmed with what is happening around him.  He is feeling the weight of leading out of his normal capacity and concerned the organization could get away from him unless he does something now.  I know the feeling and I appreciate this leader recognizing this about his leadership.  That realization is like an insurance policy against his leadership failing.

If you are leading an organization and you feel you are reaching your leadership capacity, consider these steps:

Recognize and admit – Do not be afraid to admit you are over your head. Humility is actually an attractive leadership quality.

Re-evaluate – Are you trying to do too much? Are you standards for yourself too high?  Do you need to reorganize your role or the organization?

Ask for help – Seek wisdom from those who have led longer than you. Find a mentor. Take a class.  Join a network.  One of the values of social media for me has been the insight I have learned from other leaders.

Delegate – Ask yourself what responsibility you could give away or what areas others on your team would be better able to handle. If you are the only team member, seek volunteers to help you bridge the gaps between your leadership ability and the demands of the organization.

Quit if needed
– If you value the organization’s vision enough then be willing to step aside if you are no longer a good fit to lead it. This is not a sign of failure or an indication that you are a bad leader.  Sometimes the organization simply grows in another direction from our passion, skills or strengths as a leader.  (I wrote a similar post about this subject HERE.)

Leaders, is your leadership capacity being stretched?  What are you going to do about it?