Circle of Power vs Circle of Influence

In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey shares a very simple model called the circle of influence. He distinguishes between proactive people – who focus on what they can do and can influence – and reactive people who focus their energy on things beyond their control. Reactive people maintain an attitude of victimisation and blame.

Put simply, the circle of concern, the big circle on the outside are all the things that you are worried about, all of the things that you spend your time thinking about that occupy your thoughts. It includes a whole range of things – global warming, the state of the economy, a global pandemic, the music your children listen to, how your boss behaves, etc. Each person is different and the thoughts that occupy their minds differ and yet there is very little you can do to influence them. Wasting time and energy is like filling a leaking bucket, useless. You could spend your energy on things that you can control.

The items in the circle of concern stop you from being successful and effective. To be effective you need to shrink it and that is totally possible. It's a mindset and a behaviour, within that circle. 

Your circle of influence is where you do have influence. These are all the things that you actually do have control over, or you can influence. You may feel pretty powerless about the state of the economy, but there are things you can influence, like saving money, stop spending, make plans. The key is to focus your energy on those things that you can influence – this will enable you to make effective changes. And as you do, notice how your circle of influence starts to increase. You will become empowered and feel a sense of control or purpose.

Within that you have the circle of control which are things you can take action on and actually do right now. These are your goals, to do lists and priorities. These are the small steps that help you make changes, and sometimes huge leaps.

But why is this really important for leaders? 

Often, we are so concerned with all the things that are out of our control, that we forget to look at what we can be responsible and accountable for.  If you focus on everything that is going wrong, you can't see opportunity and solutions.

Let's look at your time. 

You might put on the circle of concern, all the time stealers that you have - your interruptions, your management expectations, the culture within your organisation, how your peers will perceive you and all of the emails/phone calls that you get. People filling up your diary with meetings that you don't need to attend people pushing decisions up to you, conflict, the commute that you have to do. These are all time stealers.  

The things that you worry about or are concerned about which stop you from really developing and delegating people are the things that are holding you back. When you look at your circle of influence, you can see there are plenty of things that you do have control over. 

You can influence who puts meetings in your diary, you can implement whether you accept or delegate that you can choose when you look at your emails and which ones you choose to respond to. 

You can book in time to say that you only deal with emails at the beginning of the day and the end of the day and you will only spend an hour on each. You can make sure that there is a buffer time between meetings, so that you aren't bouncing from one to another.  

You can make sure that any interruptions you have are managed effectively by asking questions such as:
Is this urgent? How can I help? Can we postpone this? What do you need specifically? 

By challenging people and setting boundaries you are holding other people accountable. You are saying what is okay and not okay. 

There are lots of things you have control over and lots of things that you don't. Don't be concerned over the things outside of your control and only focus on those things that you can have a positive impact on. 

Be proactive. Define yourself. Set your priorities. Be positive. Understand the needs of others. 
Create the environment that is conducive to you being at your best. 
Create the culture, by the way in which you role model.