#54 | Capability Versus Capacity and the Science That Explains Why Brilliant Women Get Overlooked for Leadership and Promotion: Leadership, Influence & Promotion

On Monday, Jocelyn (VP of Global Brand & Comms, working mum, quietly extraordinary human), said two things that resonated powerfully.

The first: that early in her career, she believed doing brilliant work would be enough. And then she quickly realised it wasn't. The second: that returning from maternity leave felt like operating at a lower level, and that she had to remind herself, repeatedly, that she was still capable.

In this episode, I'm bringing the science to both of those moments.

First, the visibility problem. Why the most competent women are systematically underrecognised, what organisational research tells us about how careers actually advance, and the single question that changes how you think about your professional reputation forever.

Second, capability versus capacity. The four words that I believe are the most important distinction in this show. Why women consistently confuse the two, what cognitive load theory tells us about performance under pressure, and how to stop the little voice from lying to you about what is actually happening.

Eight minutes. Two ideas. Both from Jocelyn's conversation. Both with the science to back them up.

This is the episode you'll want to send to every woman you know who has ever said: I'm just not performing the way I used to.

Key Takeaways
1. Capability vs capacity. 

2. The visibility problem is structural, not personal. 

3. Weak ties drive careers forward. 

4. The capacity check.

5. One proactive share. 

Research References

Herminia Ibarra — Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader (2015). 

Mark Granovetter — The Strength of Weak Ties (1973). Landmark research on how career opportunities actually move through networks.

John Sweller — Cognitive Load Theory (1988). Research on working memory capacity and performance under pressure.

You can connect with Caroline here

and email her caroline@inspireyourgenius.com

Action

If you know a woman who has ever said I'm just not performing the way I used to - send her this episode. She's probably not performing differently. She's probably just carrying more. There's a difference. And now she'll know it.

New episodes are released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.

Stuck, simmering, or onto something juicy? I want to hear it. Drop me a line at caroline@inspireyourgenius.com - I read them all.

And here is the Spotify Playlist to accompany UnShakeable Her.

Unshakeable Her is the podcast for women in leadership who are ready to build real influence, earn the promotion they deserve, and lead with confidence in systems that weren't built for them. Each episode tackles the challenges that shape leadership from the inside out, including imposter syndrome, resilience, credibility, boundaries, conflict, and feedback, while unpacking how pressure, workplace politics, strategic thinking, decision-making, and visibility affect the way ambitious women grow, lead, and get promoted without losing themselves in the process.

Transcript

Caroline Esterson (00:00)
Welcome back. It's Wednesday. And if you're with us on Monday, you spent an hour with Jocelyn. You heard her talk about creativity, zigzag careers, brag folders, and coming back from maternity leave to two new jobs simultaneously.

Caroline Esterson, and this is Little Moves Big Careers.

Today I want to take just two things from that conversation and give them the science that they deserve because Jocelyn said something on Monday that I think every woman listening needed to hear. And I said something that I want to come back to too because between the two of us, we accidentally landed onto the most important ideas in this show. Eight minutes, two ideas, let's go.

In our conversation on Monday, I said something to Justin that I want to say again, clearly and slowly to every woman listening. There is a difference between capability and capacity. Capability is what you can do, your skill, your intelligence, your judgments, your creativity and your leadership, the thing that got you promoted, the thing that makes people seek you out, the thing that was there.

before the baby, before the bigger role, before the fuller life, and it is still there now. Capacity. Well, that's a different story. Capacity is how much you can hold at any given time. It's finite and it fluctuates. It's affected by things like sleep deprivation, a sick child, by a restructure, grief, or even a global pandemic, by the invisible weight of everything that we explored on Monday.

And here's the problem. When capacity shrinks, we call it capability. When we can't do as much as we used to, we don't think my tank is temporary lower. We think I'm not as good as I was. And that thought, that quiet, devastating confusion of the two is one of the most common and most damaging things I see in the women that I work with.

Let's look at the science.

Cognitive load theory developed by educational psychologist John Sweller tells us that the human brain has finite working memory. When working memory is overloaded, performance on complex tasks degrades, not because capability has changed, because the available cognitive resource has now been temporarily depleted. It's not a personality flaw, it's just a neurological fact.

The new mother returning to work, the leader managing a restructure, the woman carrying the mental load of two jobs in a household. Her working memory is operating under conditions of significant additional load. her capability is identical. Her available capacity is reduced. These are not the same thing.

Jocelyn described this perfectly without using the academic language.

Jocelyn (03:16)
so sometimes that's the toughest part because maybe at one point in your career you were operating at this level and it's not that you can't operate at this level. It's just that there's other things that you need to juggle now, right?

Caroline Esterson (03:27)
That is capacity, not capability. The level hasn't dropped, the load has increased.

So let's have a look at a little move that you can make.

The next time that little voice in your head says, I'm not as good as I used to be, stop. Ask one question, is my capability lower or is my capacity being asked to carry more than usual? If the honest answer is capacity, name it to yourself, to your manager if appropriate, to your team if you think that would help.

Naming the correct thing is the first step to addressing the correct thing. You cannot refill a tank that you think isn't empty.

The second thing I want to give science to is something Justin said about the unspoken rules of corporate life.

Jocelyn (04:15)
Yeah, early on I thought getting my tasks done and, going above and beyond on my work would be enough to get me, wherever I wanted to be in the future, And you quickly realize that's not the case at all. you're producing great work. You are, producing more work than a current colleague of yours. But why is that colleague the one that's getting recognized or getting that promotion over you? you start questioning.

What's causing me not to

Caroline Esterson (04:40)
She's right and the research is unequivocal about why.

So let's look at the science again. Organizational psychologist Herminia Ebrara.

at London Business School has spent decades studying how leaders build credibility and advance their careers. Her research consistently identifies a gap between competence, what they can actually do, and visibility,

people know you can do it. Ibarra calls this the outsider paradox.

The people who need to build their profile are often the ones least comfortable doing it because self-promotion feels inauthentic to people with strong values and high standards. And the result means that most capable people are systematically under-recognized.

Jocelyn put it in the sharpest possible language. Can people speak to your work when you're not in the room? That question is the entire visibility problem in just 11 words. Because here is what actually drives careers forward, not the work itself, but whether the work has advocates, people who know it, remember it, reference it, champion it when you're not there to champion it for yourself.

And here's some research for you.

Landmark study by sociologist Mark Granovetter on the strength of weak ties found that career opportunities, things like, you know, promotions, stretch opportunities, sponsorship, almost never come through your closest relationships.

They come through acquaintances, the person who knows you well enough to say your name in a room that you're not in.

Building those connections is not networking in the transactional sense. It's making sure that when an opportunity surfaces, someone thinks of you.

Jocelyn described this as who are the stakeholders that are also helping me be seen. That question is the little move.

So.

This week, identify one person who is not your direct manager who can speak to your work if asked. One person who has seen you deliver, solve, lead or create. If you can't think of one, that is your answer. Your next move is not to do more brilliant work. It's to make sure that one person outside your immediate circle knows exactly what you're capable of.

One conversation, one email, one piece of work shared proactively. That's your little move. And Jocelyn built her career on it.

So there we go. Two ideas, one from me and one from Jocelyn, but they're actually the same idea from two different angles.

Capability versus capacity is about how you see yourself. And the visibility problem is about how others see you. Both of them are about the gap between who you actually are and what the world, including you, is currently giving you credit for.

both of them are closeable, one little move at a time.

So on Friday, we're choosing a song for Jocelyn and it's going to be exactly right for a woman who shoots commercials in subway stations in Georgia and uses New York as her runway.

Plus three quickfire moves that bring together everything from this bonus trilogy. I'm Caroline Esterson. This is Little Moves, Big Careers. See you Friday.