How to Build a Leadership Growth Mindset: The Fuel Tank Theory
How to Build a Leadership Growth Mindset: The Fuel Tank Theory
How do you build a leadership growth mindset? You build it by controlling your inputs instead of chasing your outputs, because what you put in is what determines what you get out. A leadership growth mindset is the discipline of protecting the quality of what goes into your mind and your team, so you can perform at the level you were actually built for.
I'm Bryce Kenny, Guinness World Record holder and leadership keynote speaker, and I learned this the hard way, in a 12,000-pound Monster Jam truck, in front of a stadium full of people who watched me fail. This is the Growth gear of myG.E.A.R. Framework, and it's the one most leaders and teams get wrong.
In this post I'll walk you through what the right fuel actually is, the wrong fuel that's probably hiding in your tank right now, and the misconception that keeps high-performing teams stuck. If your team is running hard but running on empty, this is where it starts.
The Night I Ran Out of Fuel in Front of a Stadium
Houston, Texas. NRG Stadium. About 50,000 people in the stands, and I was in the middle of a skills competition. I went to do a move called a nose wheelie, where you get the truck up on all four tires and balance it.
Everything was going great. And then I landed on my roof, and everybody in the stadium just busted out laughing, because it was so anticlimactic. That's not what a monster truck is designed to do.
Here's why it happened. The reason I ended up on my roof, instead of pulling off the move, was that we ran out of gas. I had no fuel in the fuel tank. I can be a 12,000-pound monster truck with 1,500 horsepower, built to do incredible stunts and maneuvers and nose wheelies just like the one I was attempting, but if there's no fuel in the tank, it cannot perform the way it was designed to perform.
You can be built for extraordinary things. But whether you actually deliver them comes down to one question: are you making sure your fuel tank is full?
What "the Right Fuel" Actually Means for a Leadership Team
The Growth gear is all about inputs versus outputs. That's the whole premise, and I mean the fuel part literally. The right fuel is any input that genuinely replenishes you: growth-oriented reading, rest, and time spent the way you're naturally wired. The wrong fuel is anything that drains you while feeling like work.
My monster truck requires a specific fuel, methanol, to create the 1,500 horsepower it needs to do backflips and the rest of the stunts we put it through. I can't just take my monster truck up to the local gas station, put 87 pump gas in it, and then go ask it to do extraordinary things. We are the exact same way.
So what does the right fuel look like for you and your team? It's the inputs you actually get to control:
Podcasts, books, and music that encourage a positive mental attitude
Time spent the way you're naturally wired: alone time if you're an introvert, being around people if you're an extrovert
Work that actually moves the business forward, instead of busywork that just fills the day
When someone gets disciplined about controlling those inputs, two things show up every time. The first is confidence, not because growth shows them they're awesome, but because it shows them where their gaps are and where their real strengths are. The second is competence: they get better at their jobs, better with people, and better at execution. Committed people become more confident and more competent, every time.
Watch the full story below:
The Wrong Fuel Hiding in Plain Sight
The wrong fuel is rarely dramatic. It's the 87 pump gas people pour in without even noticing. It's things like social media, and becoming addicted to news outlets that are always telling us how bad the world is. And here's a corporate-sounding one that's just as damaging: busyness over productivity. It's answering email after email, doing things that don't actually move the business forward.
The wrong fuel is also doing the things you're not naturally wired to do. If I'm an introvert and I only ever do extrovert things, I'm not replenishing my tank. If I'm an extrovert stuck in isolation, same problem. The wrong fuel drains you even when you're technically working hard.
I saw this at the top of an organization once. I was working with a franchise team, and the leader had started putting the wrong fuel in his own tank, which turned into the wrong fuel in his whole team's tank. They had a great established system to plug into, which is exactly why people buy into a franchise, but he'd stopped growing himself and was leaning entirely on the system. It left his whole team feeling like cogs in a wheel. So I asked him a gut-check question: if everyone on your team were as committed to becoming their best self as you are, and you're honestly a three out of five right now, how excited are you about where this team lands in five years? He realized he wasn't putting the good stuff into himself. The fix wasn't a new system. It was refueling, and what it gave his team was freedom.
The Misconception That Keeps Teams Stuck
The most common misconception about a growth mindset is that people assume it means business growth: top-line revenue, profit margins, and results. All of that is great, but it's not what the Growth gear is about. The Growth gear is about the quality of the inputs that produce those results in the first place.
I explain it with a race car. Say we sit down and design the fastest car at the track: biggest engine, lightest frame, and we're brilliant about every detail. Then we get to the track and realize we forgot the fuel back at home. Is it going to win the actual race? No.
Most leaders try to win by growing the horsepower. It works the other way around. Your outputs are determined by your inputs first. If your team is burnt out, running on low-grade fuel and low-grade ambition, they will never go out there and actually win the race.
The moment that misconception breaks, leaders stop asking "how do we grow our profit margin" and start asking, what if we grow our inputs? What if we put more quality into our own minds so everyone can bring their best self to the table? When that clicks, a massive weight comes off their shoulders.
How to Keep Your Team's Tank Full
Growth isn't a motivational poster. It's the discipline of protecting what goes in. I know this because I've run on the wrong fuel myself, and it cost me more than I was willing to lose. Here is how I keep my own tank full, and how I coach leaders to keep their team's tank full:
Protect your inputs on purpose. Choose books, podcasts, and rest over mindless scrolling. Decide what goes in before the day decides for you.
Refuel the way you're actually wired. Introverts need alone time; extroverts need people. Match the input to the person, not the trend.
Cut the busywork that's pretending to be productivity. Answering email all day feels like work but often moves nothing forward.
Model it at the top first. The leader's fuel becomes the team's fuel. You can't hand your team a full tank while running on empty yourself.
The principle under all of it is the one I drive home whether I'm on stage or across the table over a cup of coffee: you cannot perform with an empty tank, and you cannot pour from an empty tank either. So the real question is, what level of fuel are you putting in, and is it race-worthy?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fuel tank theory of leadership?
The fuel tank theory says your outputs are determined by your inputs first. Bryce Kenny built the concept from Monster Jam: just as his truck needs the right methanol fuel to reach 1,500 horsepower, a leader and a team need high-quality inputs to perform at their potential. Run on the wrong fuel and you can't deliver what you were built for.
How do you build a growth mindset in a team that thinks it's already growing?
Shift the question from outputs to inputs. Most teams equate growth with revenue and results, but Bryce Kenny's Growth gear reframes it around the quality of what each person puts into themselves. When leaders start protecting inputs instead of only chasing profit, people begin operating in their real strengths and confidence and competence follow.
What is the most common misconception about a growth mindset?
The most common misconception is that a growth mindset means business growth: more revenue, bigger margins, a bigger engine. In Bryce Kenny's G.E.A.R. Framework, the truth runs the other way: outputs follow inputs, so a burnt-out team running on low-quality fuel will never win the race no matter how powerful the system around them is.
What is the wrong fuel for a leadership team?
The wrong fuel is any input that drains you while feeling productive: endless social media, doom-scrolling the news, and busyness over real productivity like answering email that moves nothing forward. It also includes forcing yourself into work that runs against how you're naturally wired, which empties the tank instead of filling it.
From Empty Tank to Next Gear
Building a leadership growth mindset isn't about doing more. It's about controlling the quality of what you put in, because your inputs determine your outputs every single time. That's the Growth gear, the first gear of Bryce Kenny's G.E.A.R. Framework (Growth, Engagement, Acceleration, Risk), the system he uses to help teams find their next gear. Once your team stops running on empty and starts refueling on purpose, the confidence and competence take care of themselves.
Bring the G.E.A.R. Framework to Your Next Conference
Bryce Kenny is a leadership keynote speaker who delivers the G.E.A.R. Framework to franchise conventions, corporate conferences, and association events. If your team is running hard but running on empty, this keynote shows them how to refuel and find their next gear.