It is easy to believe we can always give a little more: a faster pace, longer days, extra meetings and a few more emails. Leaders face pressure to deliver, create progress, manage change and remain available. Over time, we can begin treating ourselves and others as if capacity were unlimited.
It is not. Attention, energy and the ability to handle sustained demands have limits. People can stretch when necessary, but permanently operating at maximum effort has consequences.
These consequences may emerge gradually rather than as an immediate crisis: less energy, poorer sleep, shorter patience and reduced capacity for collaboration, creativity and development.
Look beyond the output
Leaders naturally monitor goals, budgets and results because they are visible. The human capacity used to achieve them is harder to see. Two teams can deliver identical results at very different personal costs.
Constant time pressure, uncertainty and changing priorities consume more mental capacity than clear boundaries and realistic expectations. The accumulating burden may not appear in performance reports until its effects become obvious.
Capacity makes productivity possible. Leaders should pay attention to both.
Changes can be visible before output falls. A normally organised colleague forgets details. Tasks take longer. Misunderstandings increase. You may switch between tasks without finishing, reread an email repeatedly or feel unusually depleted after an ordinary day.
Constant availability has a cost
Our ability to notice threats and opportunities helped us survive. Modern demands are different: unread messages, full inboxes, deadlines, change and expectations of continuous availability. They can still keep us activated and alert.
Without sufficient recovery, always being slightly at work can gradually reduce capacity, even when we believe we are coping. Others may notice changes before we do.
Difficulty often develops over time. Possible warning signs include poorer sleep, reduced concentration, irritability, lower motivation, harder collaboration, less creativity and familiar tasks requiring more effort. These signs are not a diagnosis, but they deserve attention.
Busy workplaces can normalise them: it is only a difficult week, things will improve next month. Early adjustment is easier than waiting until the situation becomes serious.
Frequent interruptions also matter. Calls, notifications, email and meetings can leave people mentally tired despite little physical activity. When attention never rests, small challenges become more demanding.
Leadership affects energy use
Leaders influence energy through priorities, communication, structure, expectations and the way change is handled. Ambiguity and repeated reprioritisation can drain capacity. Clear direction helps people focus on work that creates value.
This does not mean removing every demand. It means considering how demands are presented, prioritised and supported.
Resilience is not tolerating unlimited pressure. It includes having sufficient capacity when an exceptional demand arises.
Protect your own capacity
The aircraft oxygen-mask instruction offers a useful analogy: supporting others requires some capacity of your own. A constantly depleted leader has less available for colleagues.
Looking after yourself is part of sustained leadership. It may involve familiar, small habits rather than major lifestyle changes: sleep, movement, breaks, relationships, time away from screens and activities that restore energy.
The greater your responsibility for others, the more important it is to consider your own capacity. If every bit of energy goes into work and none remains for family, friends or interests, ask whether you are using more than you replenish.
What are you doing this week that gives you energy?
Build resilience before a crisis
Resilience develops in daily working life, including periods of recovery. Clear priorities, realistic expectations, leaders who notice people and a culture where excessive demands can be raised all contribute.
People can perform at a high level over time when demand and recovery remain in balance. Resilient leadership creates conditions for that balance, adapted to individual circumstances.
In a resilient organisation, discussing workload is normal. Leaders attend to capacity alongside results, and teams help when someone is under extra pressure.
Constant busyness should not become a badge of quality. If nobody has time to think, learn or develop, innovation suffers.
People need energy, direction, meaning and opportunities to recover. A workplace that protects those conditions is better prepared when extra effort is genuinely needed.
Questions for reflection
- How do you recognise that you or a colleague are approaching your limits?
- How much uninterrupted working time do you have in a typical day?
- Which early signs do you recognise in yourself?
- Which leadership behaviours give your team energy, and which may drain it?
- What restored your energy last week?
- Is it safe to say when the workload becomes too high?
English editorial adaptation of the Norwegian original.
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