What’s Your Bearing Capacity? The Leadership Lesson Every Technical Leader Needs

As an engineer, I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of bearing capacity. The more I thought about it, the more I realised it isn’t just a structural engineering principle—it’s a leadership principle. Whether you lead engineering projects, IT teams, construction programmes or technical operations, every leader has a bearing capacity.

Whether you’re designing a building, a bridge or any other piece of infrastructure, one of the first questions you ask is, What is the bearing capacity of the soil?

Without that answer, every design decision is built on guesswork.

If the soil can safely support 200 kPa and you design a foundation that imposes 350 kPa, the structure may stand for a while. But eventually, settlement begins. Cracks appear. Doors stop closing properly. In extreme cases, the structure fails altogether.

Engineers know this. That’s why we investigate the ground before we design what sits on top of it.

Then one day I found myself wondering…

As technical leaders, do we know our own bearing capacity?

Do we know how much responsibility we can carry before our own foundations begin to crack?

Or do we simply keep accepting more projects, more meetings, more direct reports and more deadlines because saying yes feels easier than setting boundaries?

Maybe that’s why so many talented engineers and project managers find themselves overpromising, missing deadlines, burning out and eventually wondering why they no longer enjoy work they once loved.

Your leadership is no different from a foundation. If you exceed its capacity for long enough, something eventually settles—and it usually isn’t your workload.

It is your energy.
Your focus.
Your relationships.
Sometimes even your health.

The goal isn’t to become a superhero who can carry everything. It’s to gradually increase your capacity without exceeding it.

Think of it like progressive loading in structural design. We don’t suddenly double the load on a bridge overnight. Capacity is built deliberately, over time.

Leadership works the same way.

You want to operate in that sweet spot where you’re challenged enough to keep growing, but not so overloaded that everything around you starts collapsing. There’s no prize for carrying a workload that quietly crushes you.

Study Yourself Before You Study Your Team

Many leaders spend a lot of time analysing project risks, stakeholder risks and technical risks.

Far fewer spend time analysing themselves.

Ask yourself some honest questions.

How many projects can I genuinely deliver well?

How many people can I effectively lead?

How many major decisions can I make each day before my judgement starts slipping?

You won’t find these answers in a textbook. You’ll find them by observing your own performance.

Look at your calendar.

Review your utilisation reports.

Notice when you consistently work late.

Pay attention to when your communication becomes rushed or reactive instead of thoughtful.

If you’re already managing three projects and your utilisation sits at 110%, why would taking on a fourth project magically improve your performance?

It won’t.

You’ll simply spread the same amount of attention across more responsibilities. And attention, unlike concrete, can’t be poured thicker after the fact.

Strong technical leaders don’t just manage projects well.

They manage themselves well.

Learn to Say a Strategic No

For many technical professionals, saying no feels uncomfortable.

You worry you’ll look uncommitted.

You don’t want to disappoint your manager.

You pride yourself on being dependable.

So you say yes.

And then another yes.

Before long, you’ve become the bottleneck on every project.

Here’s the good news: saying no doesn’t have to mean refusing to help.

Instead, aim for what I call a strategic no.

Rather than saying,

“No, I can’t.”

Try saying,

“Here’s what my current workload looks like. I’m happy to take this on, but not alongside my existing commitments.”

Then offer practical options.

Perhaps your workload eases in three weeks, and you can take it on then.

Perhaps this new assignment is genuinely the highest priority, in which case ask what should be deprioritised, delegated or reassigned.

Or perhaps the organisation simply needs another resource because the current demand exceeds available capacity.

Notice that none of these responses are uncooperative.

They are responsible.

Good leaders don’t protect their reputation by saying yes to everything.

They protect outcomes by ensuring the work can actually be delivered.

That’s the difference.

Increase Your Bearing Capacity—Don’t Just Protect It

Knowing your bearing capacity isn’t about playing small or avoiding responsibility. It’s about building a stronger foundation so that, over time, you can confidently carry greater responsibility without sacrificing performance or your wellbeing.

Just as engineers strengthen structures to support heavier loads, you can deliberately increase your leadership capacity.

One of the most effective ways is delegation. Many technical professionals become leaders because they’re exceptionally good at doing the work themselves. The challenge is that leadership isn’t measured by how much you personally accomplish. It’s measured by what your team accomplishes. Every task you appropriately delegate creates space for you to focus on the work that truly requires your expertise.

Another way to increase your capacity is by coaching your team. At first, coaching takes time. It can even feel slower than simply doing the work yourself. But each coaching conversation builds capability within your team. As your people grow in confidence and competence, they require less supervision, make better decisions and solve more problems independently. In the long run, coaching doesn’t cost you capacity—it creates it.

You can also expand your capacity by learning to prioritise ruthlessly. Not every request deserves immediate attention, and not every task has the same impact. Great technical leaders understand the difference between what is urgent and what is truly important. They focus their energy where it creates the greatest value instead of trying to give everything equal attention.

Finally, look for opportunities to standardise and simplify. Every recurring task that can be turned into a checklist, template, process or standard operating procedure reduces the number of decisions you have to make. It also creates consistency across your projects and your team. Less mental clutter means more capacity for strategic thinking and leadership.

Your bearing capacity isn’t fixed.

With intentional habits, better systems and stronger leadership skills, it can grow year after year.

That’s the goal—not to carry every load that comes your way, but to become the kind of leader who can carry greater responsibility because you’ve built the foundation to support it.

Final Thoughts

Every engineer knows that ignoring bearing capacity doesn’t make it disappear. The laws of physics don’t negotiate.

Leadership is much the same.

You can convince yourself that you’re fine carrying one more project, one more direct report or one more responsibility. For a while, you might even manage it. But if you’ve exceeded your capacity, your foundation will eventually let you know. Deadlines start slipping. Decision-making becomes reactive. Your enthusiasm fades. Burnout rarely arrives overnight—it creeps in after months of carrying more than your leadership foundation was designed to support.

The good news is that your bearing capacity isn’t fixed. Just like an engineer can strengthen a structure, you can increase your leadership capacity through experience, better delegation, stronger systems, clearer priorities and healthier boundaries. The key is to stretch your capacity deliberately, not accidentally.

So here’s your challenge for this week:

Ask yourself: “What is my optimal capacity?”

How many projects can you consistently deliver to a high standard?

How many people can you effectively lead and develop?

How many major priorities can you realistically own without sacrificing quality or your wellbeing?

Most importantly, back up your answer with evidence. Don’t rely on optimism or ambition. Look at your utilisation reports, your calendar, your missed deadlines, the quality of your work, the feedback you receive, and your energy levels at the end of each week.

Your optimal capacity isn’t what you hope you can carry. It’s what the evidence shows you can carry while still performing at your best.

That’s your foundation. Build from there.