Elevate Your Team

Elevate Your Team Plot Summary

Introduction

Every leader faces the same fundamental challenge: how to help their team grow at the pace required by today's rapidly changing business landscape. When organizations expand quickly, they often experience a talent crisis - employees who were once high performers struggle to keep up with increasing demands, while others hit plateaus despite their best efforts. This painful reality creates a difficult question: Do you replace valuable team members when they can't scale, or risk hampering organizational growth? The solution lies in capacity building - a holistic approach to developing your team members in four crucial dimensions: spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional. Rather than simply training employees to perform their current jobs better, capacity building helps people grow as complete individuals, unlocking their full potential across all areas of life. When leaders commit to this deeper form of development, they create a self-reinforcing cycle where personal growth fuels professional excellence, ultimately building an organization where leadership emerges naturally at every level.

Chapter 1: Understand the Power of Capacity Building

Capacity building is the method through which individuals seek, acquire, and develop the skills and abilities to consistently perform at a higher level in pursuit of their innate potential. In an organizational context, it's about creating a framework that helps your team grow at the same rate as your business rather than being overwhelmed by that growth. One CEO discovered this concept after struggling with a challenging pattern in his fast-growing company. Despite investing in training and company culture, many employees were falling behind as the organization expanded at 30% annually. What frustrated him most was his inability to predict which employees would thrive and which would struggle. Some early stars would eventually fizzle, while initially unimpressive team members sometimes developed into exceptional leaders. After much reflection, he realized the critical factor wasn't current performance, but an employee's capacity to improve rapidly. During a moment of clarity while showering, he sketched a diagram showing different employee growth trajectories relative to the company's growth curve. This visualization revealed four types of employees: Underperformers, who start at baseline but don't improve; the Capacity Building Zone, where most employees fall, improving steadily but not always fast enough to keep pace with organizational growth; A-Players, who grow at precisely the company's growth rate; and rare Unicorns who grow even faster than the company requires. This framework helped explain why traditional management approaches often fail in high-growth environments. When a company grows rapidly, even good employees who are improving can fall behind if their personal growth rate doesn't match organizational needs. The solution isn't to work employees harder in their current capabilities, but to help them build new capacities across four key dimensions: spiritual (understanding core values and purpose), intellectual (learning and execution skills), physical (energy management and well-being), and emotional (relationships and resilience). Implementing capacity building starts with the leader. You must first build your own capacity before effectively developing others. This means clarifying your personal values, improving your learning processes, managing your energy well, and developing emotional intelligence. When leaders embody these capacities, they naturally model the behaviors they wish to see in their teams. Most importantly, capacity building requires dedicated organizational resources. It's not just about encouraging individual growth; it requires systematic investment in people development that goes beyond job-specific skills. Organizations that make this commitment find themselves with teams that consistently rise to meet new challenges, innovate more freely, and build leadership capability at all levels.

Chapter 2: Strengthen Your Team's Core Values and Purpose

Spiritual capacity is about understanding who you are, what you want most, and the standards you live by. In an organizational context, it manifests as a team with clear values, self-awareness about strengths and weaknesses, and alignment between individual purpose and organizational mission. Andrew, a talented manager participating in a leadership workshop, had a breakthrough moment while identifying his personal core values. As he worked through reflection exercises about his happiest environments and most challenging relationships, he realized that self-awareness was one of his paramount values. This value originated from childhood experiences with a parent who lacked self-awareness - someone who couldn't read social cues and occasionally behaved inappropriately in group settings. This personal history explained why Andrew reacted so strongly when team members talked excessively in client meetings, failed to listen to others, or gave unrealistic assessments of their abilities. Before this moment, Andrew knew these behaviors frustrated him, but couldn't articulate why. The core values exercise provided clarity and a vocabulary to communicate his expectations. With this self-knowledge, Andrew delivered a detailed presentation to his team, sharing his core values and what they meant in a leadership context. He made commitments about what his team could expect from him and clearly outlined what he needed from them to make their relationship successful. The presentation was so effective that it became a template for other managers. Helping employees discover their core values creates powerful outcomes, but it sometimes reveals misalignments. For example, one employee might value building consensus and including all perspectives, which could clash with a company culture that prioritizes independent decision-making. These misalignments aren't always unfixable - an employee with a creative expression value might find fulfillment in a technical role if the organization provides flexibility for artistic pursuits outside work. However, some value conflicts may signal that an employee would be happier elsewhere, which is ultimately better for everyone. Beyond core values, organizations can build spiritual capacity through assessments that help employees understand their strengths and communication styles. Tools like CliftonStrengths, DiSC, or the Why Archetype assessment provide insights that teams can use to improve collaboration. For instance, at one company, employees take the CliftonStrengths assessment during annual summits, then gather in functional teams to compare results and discuss how they can leverage their collective strengths more effectively. The Why Archetype assessment, which identifies each person's core motivation, has proven particularly valuable for resolving workplace conflicts. When team members understand their colleagues' fundamental drives - whether to find better ways, build trust, or create clarity - they develop language to navigate natural differences. A leader whose Why is "To Find a Better Way" might constantly suggest improvements, which could frustrate a team member whose Why is "To Do Things the Right Way." With mutual understanding, they can adjust their approaches for better outcomes. Building spiritual capacity isn't just an exercise in self-awareness - it creates the foundation for authentic leadership and team alignment. When people understand what matters most to them and communicate those values to their colleagues, they develop deeper connections and work more effectively together.

Chapter 3: Foster a Culture of Continuous Learning

Intellectual capacity is about how you improve your ability to think, learn, plan, and execute with discipline. Organizations with high intellectual capacity consistently help employees develop new skills, build productive habits, achieve meaningful goals, learn from feedback, and coach each other toward improvement. Mick, a staff member at a professional organization, exemplifies the importance of continuous learning opportunities. Despite his success and strong relationships at the organization, he felt increasingly drawn to seek new challenges. When he finally decided to leave, he reached out to a business connection for career advice. That connection, recognizing Mick's potential and appetite for growth, immediately responded: "Come work for me." Today, Mick serves as that leader's Chief of Staff and has co-authored a book - a trajectory made possible by his innate desire to keep learning and growing. This story illustrates why learning opportunities are crucial for retention. A LinkedIn survey found that 94% of employees would stay longer at companies that invest in their development, with this desire particularly strong among younger workers. Organizations face a paradox: their most promising employees are often the hungriest learners and toughest to satisfy. Without consistent learning opportunities, these stars will seek growth elsewhere. One framework that explains this dynamic is the S-curve of learning. When mastering a new skill or role, progress is slow at first (the inexperience stage), then accelerates dramatically (the engagement phase), before eventually flattening (the mastery stage). Research shows the middle of the S-curve is where employees feel most engaged, as they're challenged but making visible progress. When people reach the top of their current curve, they need to jump to a new one to avoid stagnation. High performers instinctively seek these new learning curves. Organizations can foster intellectual capacity through various approaches. Some companies offer training beyond immediate job requirements - like basic finance classes that help all employees understand company performance metrics, regardless of their role. Others provide management training to employees at all levels, even before they lead teams, so future managers don't learn crucial skills after already being responsible for others' success and well-being. Personal learning should also be encouraged through book clubs, podcast discussions, and educational reimbursements. Research shows that building knowledge in one area often enhances performance in others, so supporting employees' personal interests frequently yields professional benefits. Intellectual capacity also encompasses practical skills like time management, goal setting, and feedback exchange. Organizations might teach email management techniques, time blocking strategies, or morning routines that improve focus and productivity. They can also coach employees to set outcome-focused goals and break them down into actionable steps - skills that transfer between professional and personal domains. Perhaps most importantly, intellectual capacity depends on creating a culture of direct, respectful feedback. Through structured frameworks like Situation-Behavior-Outcome, managers can deliver constructive criticism that focuses on specific actions rather than personal attributes. Equally vital is teaching employees to receive feedback well - listening without defensiveness, responding with gratitude, and reflecting before reacting.

Chapter 4: Balance High Performance with Well-being

Physical capacity relates to health, well-being, and physical performance. People with high physical capacity show up energized and focused each day, maintain effectiveness during stressful periods, and establish sustainable work patterns that prevent burnout. Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo, represented a leadership approach that prioritized extreme work hours over sustainable performance. Known for 130-hour workweeks and returning to work just weeks after giving birth, Mayer modeled a workaholic style that set an unsustainable standard for her organization. Despite her dedication, Yahoo struggled under her leadership, facing declining employee morale and significant turnover before her eventual departure in 2017. This cautionary tale illustrates why physical capacity matters. Research shows that sleep deprivation severely impairs cognitive function - a person who sleeps less than five hours per night is as impaired as someone who is legally drunk. Additionally, the World Health Organization found that working more than 55 hours weekly significantly increases risk of stroke and heart disease. When leaders celebrate extreme schedules, they inadvertently encourage behaviors that diminish performance and endanger health. Building physical capacity starts with creating buffers between work and home life, especially in remote work environments where boundaries easily blur. Leaders should model healthy practices by avoiding off-hours communication, setting clear deadlines for assignments, and taking genuine vacations. Some organizations even offer vacation bonuses for employees who completely disconnect during time off, reinforcing that recovery is valued and necessary. Another key strategy is shifting from managing hours to managing outcomes. Rather than valuing face time or lengthy workdays, organizations should define clear deliverables and hold employees accountable for results, not activity. This approach recognizes that working longer rarely equates to better performance - in fact, the Pareto principle suggests that 80% of results typically come from 20% of efforts. Leaders can help employees identify their highest-value activities and eliminate unnecessary work, allowing them to accomplish more in less time. Organizations can also directly support employee wellness through initiatives like company-wide wellness challenges, where team members earn points for daily self-care activities. These programs demonstrate that leadership values personal health and encourage employees to prioritize well-being during workdays. Some companies provide wellness stipends for gym memberships, meditation apps, or personal training, while others fulfill employees' physical goals through programs like funding marathon training or athletic coaching. The most effective approach to physical capacity recognizes that self-care isn't selfish - it's essential. Just as airline safety videos instruct passengers to secure their own oxygen masks before helping others, employees must maintain their well-being to perform consistently at high levels. Organizations that help their people work smarter rather than longer create sustainable high performance without the burnout that plagues many high-growth environments.

Chapter 5: Build Emotional Intelligence Through Vulnerability

Emotional capacity is how you react to challenging situations, develop a healthy mindset, and build quality relationships. In organizations, high emotional capacity appears as deep trust, open communication channels, and resilience during difficult periods. At one company's annual summit, four brave employees volunteered to deliver deeply personal speeches following the premise of Philip McKernan's One Last Talk (OLT): If today was your last day on earth, what would you say? Standing before 150 colleagues, these speakers shared intimate stories they had never revealed before, displaying remarkable vulnerability. Their courage was met with standing ovations and visible emotion from the audience. The impact extended well beyond the presentations. In the following days, employees began sharing more openly with each other, unprompted. Colleagues who had worked together for years discovered new dimensions of each other's lives and personalities. One participant noted a sense of peacefulness after their speech - while presenting had been nerve-wracking, the acceptance they received created a profound sense of belonging. Building emotional capacity starts with creating psychological safety - the shared understanding that team members won't be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. This safety develops when leaders demonstrate vulnerability first, sharing their own values, challenges, and weaknesses. For example, when managers discover their core values through leadership training, they should communicate those insights to their teams, explaining what matters most to them and how it influences their leadership style. A helpful framework for understanding vulnerability's role is the Johari window, which maps awareness across two dimensions: what you know about yourself and what others know about you. The goal is to expand the "open" quadrant (known to both yourself and others) by seeking feedback about blind spots and sharing what might otherwise remain hidden. When leaders model this openness, they create permission for team members to do the same. Emotional capacity also requires effective communication across different personality types. Rather than expecting everyone to communicate identically, organizations should encourage team members to understand each other's preferences and meet in the middle. For instance, a direct, blunt manager might acknowledge their communication style to a more sensitive team member and commit to delivering feedback more thoughtfully, while the team member works to receive direct feedback without taking it personally. Another crucial aspect of emotional capacity is distinguishing between what can and cannot be controlled. Organizations with low emotional capacity blame failures on external factors, develop conspiracy theories about competitors, or refuse to adapt to changing circumstances. In contrast, high emotional capacity teams conduct honest assessments of what they control, learn from mistakes through practices like issue logs and debrief reports, and focus their energy on factors within their influence. This mindset was perfectly captured by entrepreneur Warren Rustand: "If you don't control it, why worry about it? Because you don't control it. And if you do control it, why worry about it? Because you control it." This perspective allows teams to maintain equanimity during challenges, neither panicking about circumstances beyond their control nor neglecting the actions within their power.

Chapter 6: Align Talent Management with Capacity Development

Capacity building directly influences how organizations should approach talent acquisition, evaluation, and development. The most successful companies integrate capacity principles into their hiring, promotion, and succession planning strategies. When interviewing candidates, many organizations overvalue experience and undervalue growth potential. Consider two sales candidates who both generated $1 million in revenue last year - one took seven years to reach that level, while the other achieved it in just two years. All else equal, the second candidate demonstrates superior capacity building, suggesting they'll reach higher performance levels more quickly in your organization. High-capacity candidates often share certain characteristics: they've been promoted multiple times within a single organization, excel across diverse roles and skills, demonstrate a voracious appetite for learning, consistently exceed performance goals, and receive job offers through their networks rather than cold applications. They may also show personal grit through athletic accomplishments, artistic pursuits, or other sustained passions outside work. Hiring for capacity doesn't eliminate difficult talent decisions, however. Even the most dedicated capacity-building organization sometimes needs to bring in more experienced leadership for critical roles. When a company grows rapidly, it may require director or VP-level expertise before internal candidates have developed sufficient capacity. In these situations, leaders face a delicate balance between supporting internal growth and meeting immediate organizational needs. One executive learned this lesson painfully when he promoted an underqualified controller to CFO because he feared losing her if he hired externally. Shortly afterward, she made a million-dollar error stemming directly from insufficient experience. The real failure wasn't hers but the leader's - he knew she wasn't ready but avoided the uncomfortable conversation. True capacity building requires both encouraging growth and honestly assessing readiness. Organizations should also create multiple advancement paths rather than assuming everyone wants to manage others. Many exceptional individual contributors prefer to deepen their expertise rather than lead teams. Companies can support these employees by establishing senior individual contributor roles with appropriate compensation, focusing on outcomes rather than activities, and creating advancement opportunities that don't require managerial responsibilities. For those who do pursue leadership, capacity building provides a framework for succession planning. When organizations systematically develop employees across all four capacities, they create a pipeline of future leaders who can step into more senior roles as the company grows. This approach yields better results than both "Star Stifling" (blocking talented employees from advancement to protect incumbent leaders) and "Catch and Release" (developing talent but expecting they'll eventually leave for opportunities elsewhere). The ultimate expression of capacity building is a "Pure Meritocracy" where the most qualified person gets each role, regardless of tenure. While this approach can create uncomfortable moments when rising stars outpace more senior employees, it ensures the organization has the right leadership for each stage of growth. As one CEO discovered when promoting his long-time second-in-command to succeed him, sometimes the best decision for everyone is recognizing when someone else's capacity has grown to exceed your own.

Chapter 7: Create Clear Paths for Leadership Growth

Organizations committed to capacity building must ultimately address a crucial question: What happens when talented employees outgrow their current roles? The answer determines whether a company can retain its best people and create sustainable leadership for the future. Companies generally follow one of three approaches to managing high-potential talent. "Star Stiflers" view rising talent as threats and actively suppress their growth. These organizations experience constant talent drain as their best people inevitably leave for places where they're valued. In contrast, "Catch and Release" organizations invest in developing people but expect many will eventually outgrow available opportunities. While they help departing employees find roles elsewhere and take pride in their alumni network, they still lose valuable talent they've spent years developing. The most effective approach is "Pure Meritocracy," where organizations promote the most qualified person regardless of tenure or political considerations. This principle is exemplified by legendary coach Bill Belichick's decision to keep Tom Brady as starting quarterback even when veteran Drew Bledsoe recovered from injury. Though Bledsoe had just signed a $103 million contract and was the face of the franchise, Belichick recognized Brady's superior performance and made the difficult but correct choice - one that led to six championships. Robert Glazer, the founder of Acceleration Partners (AP), faced a similar decision regarding his own role as CEO. After years of building AP's capacity-focused culture, he realized his long-time second-in-command, Matt Wool, had developed into the ideal leader for the company's next phase. Though Glazer loved building and creating, he recognized that a 300-person global company needed a CEO focused on strategy execution and team management - areas where Matt excelled. Matt's journey exemplified capacity building in action. Starting as AP's fourth employee, he had risen through increasing leadership roles while developing across all four capacities. He built spiritual capacity by understanding his authentic leadership style, intellectual capacity by mastering every aspect of the business, physical capacity by demonstrating resilience during challenging periods, and emotional capacity by earning trust from clients, employees, and investors alike. Rather than holding onto his position out of ego or fear, Glazer executed a carefully planned succession, moving into a different role while promoting Matt to CEO. This decision represented the ultimate application of capacity building principles - recognizing when someone's growth trajectory makes them the right person for a leadership role, even if it means stepping aside yourself. Similar decisions arise throughout organizations regularly. Leaders must constantly evaluate whether individual contributors are ready for team leadership, whether team leaders can head departments, and whether department heads should join executive ranks. Without intentional succession planning, organizations risk either promoting people prematurely or losing their most promising talent. Every leader faces two fundamental choices in capacity building. First, whether to help people improve at their current jobs or help them grow holistically. Second, whether to feel threatened by rising stars or create opportunities for them to advance. Organizations that choose holistic development and clear advancement paths build sustainable leadership pipelines that support long-term growth and success. The path isn't always comfortable - sometimes it means making difficult talent decisions or even relinquishing your own position. But true leadership isn't about maintaining your status; it's about building something greater than yourself and ensuring it thrives long after you've moved on. By committing to capacity building across your organization, you create a legacy of leadership that continues to develop with each generation of talent.

Summary

Building capacity in your team represents the ultimate leadership investment - one that transforms individuals, teams, and entire organizations. By developing your people holistically across spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional dimensions, you create a workforce that grows alongside your business rather than being overwhelmed by its expansion. As the book reminds us, "There is no way to spend too much time on obtaining and developing the best people." The journey begins with a single commitment: to view your team members as complete human beings with potential extending far beyond their current roles. Start by understanding your own capacities and modeling continuous improvement. Then create an environment where core values are discovered, learning is constant, well-being is prioritized, and vulnerability is welcomed. When you build this foundation, you'll not only elevate your current team's performance - you'll develop the next generation of leaders who will carry your organization to heights you never imagined possible.

About Author

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Robert Glazer

Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of global performance marketing agency, Acceleration Partners. A serial entrepreneur, Bob has a passion for helping individuals and organizations build their capacity to elevate.Under his leadership, Acceleration Partners has received numerous industry and company culture awards, including Glassdoor's Employees' Choice Awards (2 years in a row), Ad Age's Best Place to Work, Entrepreneur's Top Company Culture (2 years in a row), Great Place to Work & Fortune's Best Small & Medium Workplaces (3 years in a row) and Boston Globe's Top Workplaces (2 years in a row). Bob was also named to Glassdoor's list of Top CEO of Small and Medium Companies in the US, ranking #2.A regular columnist for Forbes, Inc. and Entrepreneur, Bob's writing reaches over five million people around the globe each year who resonate with his topics, which range from performance marketing and entrepreneurship to company culture, capacity building, hiring and leadership. Worldwide, he is also a sought-after speaker by companies and organizations on subjects related to business growth, culture, building capacity and performance.Bob shares his ideas and insights via Friday Forward (https://www.fridayfwd.com), a popular weekly inspirational newsletter that reaches over 100,000 individuals and business leaders across 50+ countries. He is the host of the new podcast Elevate with Robert Glazer, where Bob sits down with leaders, thinkers and authors to discuss personal growth and helping others live their best lives. Bob is also the author of the international bestselling book, Performance Partnerships. Outside of work, Bob can likely be found skiing, cycling, reading, traveling, spending quality time with his family or overseeing some sort of home renovation project. Learn more about Bob at https://www.robertglazer.com.

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