Circles of Concern, Influence, Control
An adaptation built upon Steven Covey’s circle of concern and control.
The siren song of concern has only gotten stronger, more distracting, confusing and unproductive for small business and nonprofit leaders who, by definition, have fewer resources and more to do.
The Media and particularly social media focus on a wide variety of concerns from a wide variety of concerned parties, most of whom are not customers, not employees, not relevant nor important stakeholders.
Even comments and feedback, made by well-intentioned and relevant stakeholders, can be confusing, distracting and bear little to no importance to the task at hand.
Covey recognized this reality, understood the threat of distracting concerns and urged leaders to focus on what they could control.
He was well intentioned.
What I’ve found is that, while the circle of concern has clearly been growing, the circle of control has been shrinking to the point where leaders have less direct control of their business or nonprofit than ever.
Fortunately, freelancers, independent contractors, sole proprietors and leaders of small private businesses have a little more relative control… but even theirs is shrinking.
The single, most important variable any of us can control is ourselves.
Knowing oneself, and having the courage to be oneself, is an important characteristic of effective leaders and an enabler of control. Only you can use your IQ, EQ and practical street smarts to your best advantage. Only you can control your attitudes and behaviors.
Bottom line: leading and managing yourself is an important first step in making yourself an effective leader.
In addition, developing and improving your influencing skills will expand your circle of influence, and when practiced in a disciplined way, it will reduce the circle of concern.
The capability to influence is an incredibly important skill for effective and successful leaders, and luckily, it’s a skill that can be learned.
Influencing has a number of dimensions:
- Listening and seeking first to understand.
- Knowing and practicing influencing skills.
- Having conversations with a purpose.
- The arts of assertion, persuasion, attracting, bridging and others.
- The power of dialogue.
- The power of partnership, and more.
So, work on increasing your circle of influence, and decreasing your circle of concern for more leadership effectiveness and impact.
