Capacity Underwriting: What Is Your Best Work Borrowing From?

"We couldn't do it without her."

We say it as a compliment. Any CFO would recognize it as key-person risk.

If you're the one who always finds a way, I want to offer some validation: the exhaustion you feel isn't a character flaw, and it isn't proof you've failed at boundaries. It may be accurate information about a system that has been running on your surplus.

After more than three decades in corporate America, I've come to believe overextension of capable people is a governance problem, not a personal one. And governance problems can be fixed.

In my new Influential Women article, I share a simple framework I call Capacity Underwriting. Three of the four tests:

1. The Capacity Test. Don't stop at "Can she do it?" Ask "What will it take, given everything she's already carrying?"

2. The Source-of-Funds Test. Every new commitment gets paid for by something. If no one can name what moves down, the answer is usually evenings, weekends, or the strategic work that never has a deadline.

3. The Season Test. Capacity changes. Expectations set at someone's peak deserve a second look when life shifts.

The good news: you can run these tests on your own commitments, starting today. You're allowed to underwrite yourself.

What is your best work currently borrowing from?

Links to the article in the first comment.

#leadership #burnout #womeninleadership