What do my personal trainer and my CTO have in common?

On the essential differentiator between someone who executes work well and someone who successfully directs others.

They both unmistakenly see the exact limit of the individual they are focusing on and the capacity of the group they are managing. They share a distinct ability to gauge the exact resource capacity necessary for a given task, often in direct contrast to the person performing it.

In the gym, this manifests as a discrepancy in calculation. My coach has bad maths it seems — to him 8 total reps targeted - 6 reps already done is actually 5 reps left.

This is because he sees my capacity far beyond where I assume it ends. Even after the additional reps, and even after I have mentally conceded, he pushes for one final repetition. I complete it every time, and every time, the result baffles me. But I can understand it, I guess - he looks out for the signs in my performance and grunts and his years of experience tell him - this guy has more in him.

My CTO, however, has the same level ethereal intuition, but its when it comes to multi-million dollar projects. When I outline a project roadmap, he invariably estimates the correct timeline and resources where I do not.

Four months ago, we began a proof of concept that we believed required a small team. The project slowly grew—not due to scope creep, but because stakeholders recognized the value in what was a cutting-edge initiative. As the deliverables morphed, my CTO introduced new members to the team, and shortly after, another person.

At the time, I questioned the necessity of this expansion. I knew the new additions were strong engineers, but I was convinced that the other VP and I were sufficient to handle the workload. It felt like too many people for what I perceived to be a simple component.

When he instructed me to hand over that specific part of the work to the new group so I could focus elsewhere, I internally disagreed. I believed I could retain ownership of that component while managing my new focus. However, I followed his directive without argument, as history has shown his instincts to be correct.

It has been two months since that transition, and I now have very little insight into the work I handed over because it has expanded so massively. I barely recognize it.

I realized recently that I could never have scaled it to its current state in parallel with my own deliverables; one of the two would have inevitably suffered.

My CTO saw this outcome in advance. He is rarely interested in routine status updates, preferring to focus only on significant problems, yet his understanding of the project's trajectory was far beyond what I could see.

That intuition regarding true versus perceived capacity is the essential differentiator between someone who executes work well and someone who successfully directs others.