Last week, we talked about what happens when the job quietly becomes bigger than the job description. This week, I want to stay with the top layer of the DAWN Leadership Cake Framework and ask a different question:

Why does so much of the added work keep landing on the same capable person?

You know the phrases:She can handle it. She’s good with people. She always figures it out. She knows the history. Give it to her. She’ll make sure it gets done.

Those are compliments. Until they become expectations.

Capability can create its own pressure

I see women leaders navigate this all the time. One executive client found herself teaching an extra class because safety standards required gender balance in staffing when working with minors. At the same time, she took responsibility for a major restructuring of the program because program development is one of her strengths.

Both needs were real. Both made sense. Neither replaced anything already on her very full plate.

Her history of succeeding became the reason more kept being added.

Sometimes our strongest leaders are not overloaded in spite of being capable. They are overloaded because they are capable.

When praise turns into dependency

There is nothing wrong with recognizing someone’s strengths. Good leaders should know who can do what well. The problem begins when capability becomes the answer to every organizational gap.

One woman is excellent at difficult conversations, so they all find their way to her. She is a gifted mentor, so she becomes everyone’s mentor. She is calm in a crisis, so she gets the next crisis. She has institutional memory, so no decision happens without her.

Eventually, what began as appreciation can become dependency.

If an organization continually spends its strongest leader’s capacity solving today’s problems, what capacity is left for her to imagine tomorrow?

This is still the top of the Cake

In the DAWN Leadership Cake Framework, the top layer of expectations is what we are asking leaders to carry: results, people, culture, change, relationships, performance, visibility.

High expectations are not inherently bad. Capable people often enjoy challenge and meaningful responsibility.

But a subtle shift happens when the question changes from“Is she the right person for this?” to “Can she handle one more thing?”

Those are not the same question. The first considers the work, the leader, and the organization. The second considers only whether she can absorb the addition.

And there is another distinction leaders need to make:

Is this assignment expanding her leadership — or simply expanding her load?

Some stretch assignments build skill, visibility, strategic experience, and readiness for what is next. Others simply consume capacity.

That difference matters.

Research gives us another reason to pay attention

Linda Babcock and her colleagues have studied what they callnon-promotable work:necessary work that helps an organization but contributes relatively little to the person’s career progression.

Their research found that women are disproportionately assigned this work and are 48% more likely to volunteer for it.

That does not mean every extra assignment is a problem. It does mean leaders should pay attention towhat kind of work keeps accumulating around whom.

If she repeatedly receives work that needs to be done but does little to increase her visibility, influence, strategic experience, or advancement, the organization may be benefiting from her capability without investing equally in her growth.

That is not the same thing as development.

A countermeasure leaders can use now

I don’t want to wait until we reach the Supports layer of the Cake to offer something practical.

Before giving something to the person who can handle it, ask what you want her capacity reserved for.

If she is one of your strongest leaders, what work most needs her judgment, creativity, relationships, or strategic thinking?

Then ask: What could someone else learn to handle? What could be rotated? What could stop? What requires additional staffing rather than another favor from the reliable person?

And sometimes the answer is more direct:

Stop, delay, reassign, or properly staff work that keeps falling to the same reliable person.

Support sometimes begins by protecting capacity before it is gone.

Questions to carry into the week

• When you have a difficult assignment, who gets it first — and why?

• Is the work you keep giving your most capable women expanding their leadership or simply expanding their load?

• What important work are they unable to do because their capacity is already spoken for?

• What do you need their leadership capacity available for six months from now?

That last question may change how we think about the next assignment.

Your Fall Cake Takeaway

This week’s one-page Fall Cake takeaway helps leaders distinguish betweenhealthy stretch and accumulated load.

Use it with your executive team, managers, or a woman leader to discuss what is being added, what it develops, what it costs, and what support should accompany it.

WHEN “SHE CAN HANDLE IT” BECOMES THE EXPECTATIONS

Before you finish your morning cup

One of the best things a leader can be known for is capability. But capability should open doors, not simply create a longer list of things she is expected to carry.

So before saying,“Give it to her. She can handle it,”perhaps we ask one more question:

Should she have to?

Warmly,
Dawn

Research Notes

Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, and Laurie Weingart have documented how women disproportionately carry non-promotable work: necessary organizational tasks that often contribute less to career advancement. Their research also found women were 48% more likely to volunteer for these tasks.

McKinsey andLeanIn.Org’sWomen in the Workplace 2025found that employees with sponsors were promoted at nearly twice the rate of those without sponsors, while women overall were less likely than men to have sponsors. That offers an important counterweight: leaders should look not only at what women are being asked to carry, but also at who is actively helping create their next opportunity.