When Desire and Capacity Shape the Leader You Become

Every leader moves through seasons - times of expansion, times of contraction, and times where the gap between who you are and who you want to be becomes impossible to ignore. No matter your title or tenure, leadership potential is shaped by the same two forces: desire and capacity.

Desire is the energy in the system.

Capacity is the structure that sustains it.

When the two rise together, leaders become generative. When they drift apart, predictable patterns emerge - patterns that limit potential not because the leader is flawed, but because the relationship between desire and capacity is misaligned.

Most leaders recognise these patterns instinctively, even if they don’t name them. They see the eager but overwhelmed team member (the Struggler), the exhausted high-performer hanging on by a thread (the Survivor), the quietly capable leader who has drifted into stagnation (the Sleepwalker), and the rare individual whose presence lifts the entire organisation (the Shaper). What they may not realise is that each pattern grows from the interplay between desire and capacity - and each has ripple effects that shape the whole system.

Shapers sit in the place where desire and capacity are both expansive.

Strugglers brim with desire but lack the bandwidth to hold it.

Sleepwalkers possess immense capability but have lost their spark.

Survivors operate from depletion in both ambition and energy.

Each pattern grows from the interplay between desire and capacity - and each has ripple effects that shape the whole system.

These aren’t labels - they are seasons. And seasons move.

I saw the truth of this during my time at Teach Starter, when I hired a young analyst who was unmistakably a Shaper. She had deep technical mastery, sharp analytical intelligence, and - most importantly - a leadership ambition rooted in impact rather than ego. She wanted her work to matter. She wanted to uplift the organisation. And she did.

She challenged assumptions.

She raised standards.

She sparked curiosity.

She led without a title.

But here’s what I didn’t see clearly at the time: one Shaper cannot compensate for an entire ecosystem.

While she was lifting the room, my attention - like many leaders’ - was being pulled toward the Strugglers and Survivors. The ones in chaos. The ones depleted. The ones whose misalignment felt urgent. Meanwhile, the Shaper - the most aligned, expansive leader we had - received the least of my attention. Her capacity remained high, but her desire eroded. The spark dimmed. And eventually, she drifted into the quiet disengagement of a Sleepwalker.

Not because she lacked ambition - but because the system could not sustain her alignment.

She later left. In her next role, she re-emerged instantly as a Shaper.

Because Shapers don’t disappear - they simply relocate to ecosystems that can hold them.

That experience taught me a truth I’ve carried ever since:

What you pay attention to becomes what the organisation becomes.

If all your energy goes toward stabilising Strugglers and Survivors, you risk losing the very people capable of transforming the whole system.

Alignment is the lens that reveals what’s happening beneath the surface.

Misalignment isn’t just an individual state - it’s systemic.

And shaping a truly high-performing organisation requires a shift in how leaders hold responsibility.

Here are three alignment shifts that changed the way I lead, and the way my clients lead:

1. Reassign responsibility.

You are responsible for alignment.

They are responsible for capacity.

This single distinction releases the emotional labour of carrying everyone else’s growth.

2. Prioritise your Shapers.

Protect their energy.

Amplify their voice.

Make space for their ambition to stay alive.

A single Shaper can shift culture, momentum, and standards - but not if they are starved of attention.

3. Stop rescuing Strugglers and Survivors - start restructuring around them.

Rescue creates dependency.

Structure creates capacity.

Your role isn’t to lift them; it’s to build a system that allows them to rise.

These shifts move leaders out of over-responsibility and into true stewardship - the kind that creates ecosystems where desire and capacity can expand together.

Leadership potential moves like the seasons.

Winter reveals depletion.

Spring awakens desire.

Autumn softens ambition.

Summer brings the alignment that grows everything else.

The work isn’t to avoid the seasons.

The work is to grow through them - until your desire and capacity rise together into your fullest expression of leadership.

Which season are you in - and what would shift if you led yourself with the same intentionality you reserve for others?