💡 The C.O.R.E. Capacity Framework™: The 4 Pillars for Eliminating Your Costly Tax

Nov 3

In the modern workplace, I often see companies focus on optimizing external factors—new software, new processes, new metrics. But what if your biggest business cost isn't found in your budget sheet, but in the internal state of your leadership?

I call this hidden expense The Costly Tax™: the cumulative loss of productivity, retention, and innovation driven by a leader's unresolved internal struggles and subsequent dysregulation.

You might be paying this tax right now if your teams are suffering from being Bored & Unseen, Confused & Overloaded, Whiplashed, or Burned-Out by Proxy.

The solution isn't another external fix; it's an internal framework I designed to build true Capacity and create the Human-Centric Manager (HCM).

Redefining HCM: The Human-Centric Manager

You may know HCM as Human Capital Management, but at The Balanced Vision, I believe the next era of business success demands a pivot. I define HCM as the Human-Centric Manager: a leader whose primary focus is on regulating their own internal state to create capacity, psychological safety, and sustained performance to maximize potential in their team.

The goal of every leader using my framework is to evolve toward this ideal—to become the Resilient Manager and foster the Empowered Employee.

The Unifying Problem: Discomfort, Beliefs, & Dysregulation

Every problematic manager type in my series—the Disconnected, People-Pleasing, Unpredictable Catalyst, and Perpetual High-Performer—ultimately shares one core issue: dysregulation fueled by a struggle with discomfort and limiting subconscious beliefs.

When the nervous system is dysregulated, it causes the manager to automatically lean back into their default patterns and self-protective subconscious beliefs. This can manifest in major ways, such as withholding work to protect their interests from perceived competition, or in an inability to hold firm boundaries with a difficult employee. It can also cause a manager to assume an employee knows more than them due to internal issues like Imposter Syndrome and not feeling good enough. In smaller ways, this dysregulation leads to giving unclear feedback to employees or avoiding uncomfortable conversations, directly impacting employee performance and trust.For example, the People-Pleasing Manager's dysregulation stems from a fear of rejection or not being liked, causing them to struggle with boundaries. The Disconnected Manager's discomfort may stem from an underlying fear of vulnerability or a strong need for validation, leading them to be dismissive to avoid personal stress. The common denominator is the leader’s inability to process an internal trigger without imposing a costly, stressful reaction onto the team.

The C.O.R.E. Capacity Framework™ is my proprietary four-part model for achieving deep, sustainable capacity. It moves a leader from reactive, belief-driven management to intentional regulation, systematically reducing the Costly Tax on their teams.

C.O.R.E. stands for:

Clarity
Observation
Regulation
Empathy

The 4 Steps to Building C.O.R.E. Capacity

1. Clarity

What it is: The practice of defining and articulating your internal state, intentions, and organizational boundaries. Clarity is the essential practice for managers who struggle with the discomfort of personal ambiguity and helps to uncover subconscious needs.
Why it matters: Fuzzy boundaries and undefined expectations create confusion and waste time. All four manager types need Clarity to stabilize the environment; however, it is the fundamental step for overcoming the Disconnected Manager's avoidance and eliminating the employee feeling of being Bored & Unseen.

2. Observation

What it is: The skill of external non-judgmental awareness—noticing the physiological and emotional states of self and others without judging or immediately trying to fix them. Observation requires overcoming the discomfort of sitting in uncertainty.
Why it matters: Effective management requires accurate data on self and others. All four manager types must develop this stillness to avoid reacting to internal triggers. It is the key to identifying the underlying fear of rejection that drives the People-Pleasing Manager and the resulting Confused & Overloaded employee.

3. Regulation

What it is: The ability to intentionally manage one's own emotional and energy state through nervous system awareness, providing a predictable and safe environment for others. Regulation is the crucial skill for overcoming the inherent discomfort of nervous system dysregulation.
Why it matters: A manager's stability is the foundation of team capacity. When the nervous system is dysregulated, it directly impairs intentional decision-making and forces the manager into default patterns (e.g., struggling to hold boundaries or show vulnerability). Mastery here is essential to transforming the Unpredictable Catalyst Manager, thus ending the constant state of being Whiplashed for the team.

4. Empathy

What it is: The culmination of the first three steps—the ability to connect with another person's experience while remaining anchored in one's own resilient state. Empathy requires moving through the discomfort of bearing witness to another person’s emotional experience.
Why it matters: Capacity isn't just about what you do; it's about how you feel doing it. Empathy ensures that business decisions are made through a human-centered lens, maximizing both output and well-being. Employees (Humans work best) when they feel they are seen, heard, and understood. All four manager types benefit from building Empathy, which is the ultimate goal for transforming the demanding Perpetual High-Performer into a supportive leader who prevents employees from becoming Burned-Out by Proxy.

C.O.R.E. in Action: Your Roadmap to Revenue

The C.O.R.E. Capacity Framework™ is the lens through which I analyze and eliminate the Costly Tax and the core of my organizational strategy:

The Behavioral Tax Manager Series: This series uses C.O.R.E. to uncover the specific management dysregulation and the underlying belief, and shows the exact business cost.
The Employee Capacity Experience Series: This series uses C.O.R.E. to provide the solution and the language of change for the employee experience.

The path to optimized business performance starts with an internally regulated leader—the Human-Centric Manager (HCM). The C.O.R.E. Capacity Framework™ is your roadmap.

Ready to Learn More?

Follow my ongoing Behavioral Tax Manager Series and Employee Capacity Experience Series right here on The Balanced Vision to see how the C.O.R.E. Capacity Framework™ analyzes the problem and provides the path to the HCM Ideal.

Read the First Post in the Behavioral Tax Manager Series