BUILDING COURAGE THROUGH CONNECTION

Capacity-Building Relationships
Create Stronger Leaders

THE CHALLENGE
Leaders are taught to rely on willpower. Push through. Stay strong. Figure it out alone.

But certain capacities won't emerge in isolation: the courage to make difficult decisions, the resilience to persist through setbacks, the strength to hold boundaries, the capability to act according to your values under pressure. These don't come from trying harder. They come from relationships.

The leaders who burn out aren't the ones who face the hardest challenges. They're the ones who face them alone.

THE INSIGHT
“Grit is forged through relationships.” —Angela Duckworth

Most workplace relationships are transactional (exchanging resources to achieve goals) or supportive (providing comfort during difficulty). But capacity-building relationships do something different: they develop your inner capabilities by investing in who you're becoming, not just what you're doing.

These relationships serve as both a moral compass and a source of resilience, especially during challenging times. They help you make choices aligned with your core values despite pressures to conform.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
This program helps leaders identify and intentionally build capacity-building relationships that develop their inner resources for leadership. You'll learn to distinguish between relationships that merely support you and relationships that actually expand your capabilities—and you'll develop the skills to cultivate both.

This isn't about networking or building your professional circle. It's about identifying the specific people who make you braver, stronger, and more aligned with your values—and learning how to be that person for others.

THE THREE-PART FRAMEWORK

Part 1: Assess Your Relationship Landscape
Map your current relationships across three dimensions:

• Growth: Does this person invest in my development? Do I invest in theirs? Do we both become more capable through the relationship?

• Confidence: Does this relationship strengthen my belief in my own capabilities? Do I leave interactions feeling more competent and capable?

• Values: Does this person help me stay aligned with my principles? Do we strengthen each other's ethical commitments?

Most leaders discover they have plenty of transactional and supportive relationships—but few that build capacity across all three dimensions. This assessment reveals where to invest.

Part 2: Build Capacity-Strengthening Connections
Learn to intentionally develop relationships that expand your inner capabilities:

• Identify high-potential relationships: People who show signs of genuine investment in your growth, not just your success

• Deepen existing connections: Move relationships from transactional or supportive to capacity-building through intentional conversation

• Establish mutual commitment: Create explicit agreements to support each other's growth, confidence, and values alignment

• Practice the three support roles: Learn when to catalyze growth, when to guard strengths, and when to offer trusted challenge

The goal isn't more relationships—it's deeper ones that build what willpower alone cannot.

Part 3: Activate Your Support System
Develop the skills to both give and receive capacity-building support:

• Recognize activation signals: Learn to notice when you (or others) need growth support vs. confidence support vs. values grounding

• Request what you need: Practice asking for specific support: "I need you to remind me what I'm capable of" or "I need you to challenge my thinking here"

• Offer what's needed: Develop fluency in providing the right type of support at the right moment

• Sustain the system: Build habits and rhythms that keep capacity-building relationships active, not dormant

This transforms occasional support into ongoing infrastructure for leadership courage.