The Circle of Influence — A story about taking ownership
A short inspirational talk I always like to use when coaching leaders and which I also like to include in, for example Team Kick Offs or Team building events, is the Circle of Influence. I would like to share it here with you.
The Circle of Influence visualizes how people or teams deal with situations or challenges. It can roughly be divided in to three behaviors:
· Influencing: You are taking ownership of the situation or challenge. You (and your team) get behind the steering wheel and are committed to lead the situation or challenge to a good ending.
· Involved: You are involved in, and aware the situation or challenge. You would like things to improve, but you are waiting for something or somebody to make the first move.
· Detached: You are involved in, and aware of the situation or challenge. You don’t care what happens next. If somebody solves it, fine. If not, also fine.
On the other hand: what if somebody else takes up the space of influencing, for example a manager who manages by command & control: who tells what to do, how to do it and preferably how much time it takes. The team is now forced into the involved (or maybe the detached circle, if they find their own good ideas not heard all the time). It is hard in this situation to really commit to something and take full accountability.
But somehow only being Involved instead of Influencing is usually the place that is most comfortable and a lot of times we don’t even notice choosing to be there.
It starts even at primary school: Some kids are playing with their marbles. One kid comes in later. She thinks by herself: “They’ve already started. They’ll probably won’t allow me to join in now.”
The other kids think: “She’s is really good at this, and she has the most beautiful marbles. She probably doesn’t want to play with us now, else she would have asked if she could join us.”
It continues as you grow up: You are shopping in a big city where you meet a few old friends that you haven’t spoken to in ages. You start a conversation and at some point, you say: “We should call more often.”. Where the others respond with: “True. You also know our number!”
The successful teams and leaders I have met, really stay in the driver’s seat and know when to consciously allow and even help others to influence and take ownership to get the best results (on a higher level that is also Influencing, of course).
Takeaway
If you are aware of the Circle of Influence, this helps you to identify your behavior or the behavior of a group. Are you influencing, or are you involved waiting for (or maybe even blaming) others? You’ll be surprised in how many cases you will recognize ‘Involved’ behavior. That is not strange or bad, that is just where we humans feel most comfortable. Even in uncomfortable situations.
The trick is to consciously challenge yourself in your work or when you experience a tension: Am I only involved, or how can I influence the situation? Then choose to get behind the steering wheel.
Or, as a leader, to consciously allow the team to take ownership, by not filling up all the room to influence. Help the team to maximize their influence instead, so they can commit and take accountability.
