The Capacity Wheel
Four lenses on your life.
These are the lenses we look through to assess what is affecting your ability to show up for your life, in whatever pursuits you choose.
What we mean by capacity
Capacity is what you have available to meet the demands of your life.
The energy to get through the day without crawling over the line. The ability to think clearly when the decision matters. The ability to stay steady when the room is not. The ability to recover well enough to do it again tomorrow.
How the wheel turns
We tend to treat those things as separate. We don’t.
Your biology affects how you think and lead. How you lead affects what you do. What you repeatedly do shapes the conditions around you. Those conditions feed back into your biology.
The question is whether it is currently working with you or against you.
The four lenses
What we look at, and what it sounds like when it is working.
Biology
Your stateHow your body and mind are responding to the load you are carrying. You can influence this, but you cannot simply tell yourself to feel better.
- My energy lasts through the day and I still have something left by the evening.
- I usually wake feeling restored and ready for the day.
- At night, I can switch off, settle and sleep.
- I can enjoy a win before moving on.
Leadership
How pressure shows upHow pressure affects the way you lead, respond and make decisions. This is shaped by the other parts of the wheel.
- Under pressure, I can still see what matters most and make a considered call.
- Under pressure, I can still delegate and trust other people.
- When pressure rises, I protect my attention for the decisions only I can make.
- Under pressure, I stay steady enough to lead the people around me well.
Behaviour
What you doThe habits and choices that either rebuild your capacity or use it up. This is one of the two parts of the wheel you can change directly.
- When pressure rises, I protect the habits that keep me steady.
- I build recharge into my day on purpose.
- When a gap opens up in my day, I can leave some of it open and let myself reset.
- I regularly do things that restore my energy rather than relying on caffeine or willpower.
Environment
What surrounds youThe people, pace and conditions around you. This is the other part of the wheel you can change directly.
- I have regular time or space that is mine, and I protect it.
- I choose when I am available and when I am not.
- I can stay steady even when the room around me is busy or tense.
- I tell trusted people when I am carrying too much.
Your state
What your state is telling you.
You have something in reserve.
You are holding, but there is not much to spare.
You are spending capacity faster than you are rebuilding it.
The current equation is asking for more than it gives back.
The useful comparison is you against you.
See your own
Take the Capacity Wheel.
Sixteen statements. About three minutes. Free.
Take the Capacity Wheel →Next step
Stop guessing what to change.
The Health Strategy Session is where we look with you. About 25 minutes of questions, a personal written report, then an online session with one of us.