Journal Article
Leaders grow competence by adding skills, frameworks, and experiences. But they grow “capacity” by unlearning, which involves changing prior scripts, such as the assumptions that speed, reassurance, and control are necessary when making complex leadership decisions. It requires relearning ways of being that widen the room for reality and uncertainty. Competence equips a leader to manage and organize people so the business runs smoothly. Capacity equips a leader to remain present in the (many) moments when the business and the people in it are unsettled. It is what turns a leader from a reliable operator into a leader others can rely on in complexity.
