Building Capacity with Steffan Surdek #leadershipskills #leadershipcoaching #leadershipdevelopment

12 Jan 2025 · 1 min

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In this segment, Steffan Surdek uses a gym weight‑lifting analogy to illustrate how leaders can build capacity within their teams. He describes starting with a light weight (15 lb) that feels heavy, then progressively increasing the load over weeks (20 lb, 25 lb, up to 40 lb). Once the heavier weight feels manageable, returning to the original lighter weight feels easy, demonstrating that the team has developed strength and skill. The core message is that leaders should teach and gradually challenge their people so they acquire the necessary abilities, take ownership of tasks, and eventually operate independently without the leader’s constant oversight.

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So imagine yourself at the gym. You know that infamous gym subscription at the start of the year where, you know, maybe you get to march or not? So you have 15 pounds on the bar and you're doing curls and it feels really, really, really heavy. But after a few weeks, you're at 20, you're at 25, eventually you reach 40. And building capacity, the easiest way to see this is once you reach that 40 pounds, You may say to yourself, how about if I go back to 15 just to see how it feels now? And it feels super light and heavy— super light and easy, not heavy. I messed up there. So the idea is how can you teach your people slowly so that they're able to acquire the skills to do what you're looking for them to do, and they're able to take ownership of it and take ownership in a way that you don't need to worry about doing this anymore. They've got it.