Are you the person everyone counts on—the one who can always figure it out, squeeze it in, or take on one more thing?
Being capable is a gift, but it can also become a trap.
In today’s episode, I’m joined by business strategist and executive coach Dawn Andrews, Founder and CEO of Free Range Thinking, to talk about what happens when capable women become responsible for too much—at work, at home, and everywhere in between.
Dawn shares why highly capable women are especially vulnerable to burnout, how caring leaders can accidentally take on responsibilities that belong to other people, and why doing more isn’t always the best use of your capacity.
We also dive into boundaries—and a completely different way to think about them. Instead of waiting until you’re exhausted and finally declaring, “I can’t do this anymore,” Dawn encourages us to build boundaries around what we value and want to protect.
In this episode, we talk about:
- The “curse of the capable” and why capable women often end up carrying more
- Why doing less can actually make you a better leader
- The difference between supporting someone and taking responsibility for them
- Why holding space for someone is different from holding their weight
- How over-functioning prevents the people around us from growing
- Why boundaries can feel so difficult for dependable, high-achieving women
- How to set boundaries based on your values instead of your exhaustion
- Why your capacity should be spent on what you choose
- The power of pausing before automatically saying yes
- Dawn’s simple three-question boundary check using energy, resentment, and enthusiasm
If you’re tired of automatically asking, “How can I make this work?” every time something lands on your plate, this conversation will help you start asking a much more important question: “Do I actually want to?”
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