Narrator: A loyal, hard-working controller at a hyper-growth company wants the new CFO job. The CEO, a friend of the author, has serious doubts. He knows she isn’t ready for the strategic demands of the role, but he’s terrified of losing her if he hires an outsider. So, against his better judgment, he gives her the promotion. Shortly after, her inexperience leads to a one-million-dollar mistake. This costly error is a symptom of a much larger problem that plagues fast-growing companies: what do you do when your business grows faster than your people? In his book, Building Capacity, author and entrepreneur Robert Glazer argues that this isn't an unsolvable problem but a failure of strategy. He provides a playbook for systematically developing people from the inside out, ensuring they can not only keep pace with growth but drive it.

Narrator: In fast-growing organizations, a common and painful paradox emerges: the very people who helped build the company often become unable to meet the demands of its success. A marketing manager hired as an individual contributor may not have the skills to become the director of a large team just two years later. Traditional solutions, like hiring over them or letting them go, can destroy morale and culture.

Robert Glazer faced this exact problem in his own company, Acceleration Partners. After a period of frustration, he had an epiphany. He realized the most important predictor of an employee's future performance wasn't their current skill level or past experience, but their rate of improvement. He visualized this as a graph: the company's growth rate is a rising line, and each employee has their own trajectory. Some rise faster than the company's line (Unicorns), some fall below it (Underperformers), and some keep pace (A-Players). But the most critical group is those just below the line who have the potential to accelerate their growth. This is what Glazer calls the Capacity Building Zone, or CBZ. The goal of leadership isn't just to find A-players but to invest in the people within the CBZ, helping them increase their capacity at a rate that matches or exceeds the company's growth. This shifts the focus from hiring and firing to deliberate, holistic development.

Narrator: Before an individual can grow intellectually or emotionally, they must first build what Glazer terms "spiritual capacity." This has nothing to do with religion; it is about the deep self-understanding of who you are, what you want, and the principles you live by. For a leader, this means having absolute clarity on their personal core values.

Glazer illustrates this with the story of a manager named Andrew. During a leadership workshop, Andrew identified "self-awareness" as a core value. This stemmed from a painful childhood experience with a parent who lacked it. This realization was a breakthrough. Andrew understood that his intense negative reactions to team members who lacked self-awareness weren't just a professional pet peeve but a deep-seated trigger. Armed with this knowledge, he could manage his reactions. More importantly, he could articulate his values to his team, explaining why self-awareness was so critical to him and how it translated into specific behaviors he needed from them. This act of vulnerability and clarity transformed his leadership, building trust and improving his team's performance. Building spiritual capacity is the foundational work of defining one's internal compass, which is essential for authentic leadership and guiding others effectively.

Narrator: Intellectual capacity is the ability to think, learn, plan, and execute with discipline. Glazer argues that this is not just about job-specific training but about creating a culture of holistic learning and disciplined habits. Personal routines, for instance, have an enormous impact on professional performance.

Consider the tale of two remote managers, Emily and Frank. Emily starts her day with meditation and a clear plan, showing up to work focused and proactive. Frank hits snooze, frantically checks emails from bed, and starts his day in a reactive, frazzled state. Though they have the same job, their intellectual capacity to execute is vastly different because of their personal discipline. Beyond habits, intellectual capacity is supercharged by a robust feedback culture. Glazer introduces the SBO framework—Situation, Behavior, Outcome—as a tool for delivering feedback that is specific and non-personal. When an employee named Simon misses a client deadline, his manager Catherine doesn't attack his character. Instead, she uses SBO: "In the situation with the client report (S), you waited until the last minute to tell me it was late (B), and the outcome is that the client is upset and I was caught off guard (O)." This focuses on the action, not the person, allowing Simon to understand the impact of his choice and improve, rather than becoming defensive.

Narrator: Glazer groups physical and emotional health as critical capacities, arguing that burnout is the enemy of sustained performance. Physical capacity is about managing energy, not just time. The story of Marissa Mayer's tenure as CEO of Yahoo serves as a cautionary tale. Her public image was built on working 130-hour weeks and discouraging time off. This "hustle culture" led to widespread employee burnout, failed acquisitions, and a collapse in morale, proving that working hard is not the same as working smart. In contrast, companies that build physical capacity encourage wellness, model healthy boundaries, and focus on outcomes, not hours worked.

Emotional capacity is the ability to handle challenges with resilience and build trusting relationships through vulnerability. At one of his company's annual summits, Glazer hosted an event called One Last Talk, where four employees shared deeply personal and vulnerable stories with the entire company. One person spoke of overcoming addiction; another of a difficult childhood. The audience met this vulnerability not with judgment, but with overwhelming acceptance and support. In the days that followed, colleagues who had worked together for years began connecting on a much deeper level. This single event fundamentally increased the organization's psychological safety, proving that vulnerability isn't a weakness but the very birthplace of trust and innovation.

Narrator: The logical endpoint of a capacity-building culture is a "Pure Meritocracy," where the most talented and qualified person gets the job, regardless of tenure or politics. This requires leaders to make hard, sometimes uncomfortable, choices for the good of the organization.

The ultimate example of this comes from the world of sports. In 2001, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick faced an impossible decision. His star quarterback, Drew Bledsoe—a fan favorite with a new $103 million contract—was injured. His replacement, a little-known backup named Tom Brady, started winning. When Bledsoe was healthy again, everyone expected him to get his job back. But Belichick, in a stunning move, chose to stick with Brady. He saw that Brady had a higher capacity to lead the team to victory. It was an unpopular and ruthless decision, but it was based purely on merit. That season, Tom Brady led the Patriots to the first of six Super Bowl championships. Belichick understood that his job wasn't to protect incumbents but to put the best possible team on the field. This is the essence of a capacity-driven organization: a relentless focus on developing and advancing the best people to achieve the best results.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from Building Capacity is that a leader's primary role is not just to manage work, but to be a developer of people. The conventional approach of hiring for experience and replacing people when they're outgrown is a short-sighted strategy that erodes culture and limits potential. Glazer's framework reframes talent management as a holistic, long-term investment in an individual's spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional growth.

This creates a powerful challenge for any leader: are you willing to invest in your people's whole selves, even if it means they might one day outgrow your organization? Glazer argues that this is the only sustainable path to building a business that can withstand the pressures of growth and a team that is resilient, engaged, and constantly improving.