Personal leadership · Proving to Scaling
Influence and concern
You put your energy into what you can change at work yourself. With what's out of your reach, you make a deliberate choice: take it to the owner, or let it go.
Worth reading first: Who decides what
Does this sound familiar?
- Over coffee it's that decision from senior leadership again. After fifteen minutes everyone's in a bad mood, and nothing has changed.
- You're lying awake over a reorganisation you have no say in.
- A colleague keeps delivering their part late, and you complain about it to everyone except them.
- You often think 'if only I had a better manager', and your work sits there until that happens.
Who it's for, and when
For anyone who notices they spend a lot of energy on things they can't change: a decision from senior leadership, a colleague, the market, a system. Early on, almost everything is within reach and you can change a lot yourself. The more decisions get made elsewhere in the company, the more often you'll need to ask yourself this.
The model
“Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about.”
Covey draws two circles. The big one is the circle of concern: everything you worry about. The economy, what senior leadership decides, the colleague who's late, the client who's leaving. Inside it sits the circle of influence: the part you can do something about yourself.
If you put your energy into the circle of influence, you'll see that circle grow. You do something, and because of that people start listening to you. If you put your energy into the rest, you complain, point at others and wait. Your influence shrinks, because nobody asks for your opinion when all you offer is complaints.
You can hear it in the words. 'I have to', 'they make it impossible', 'if only' come from the big circle. 'I choose', 'I can', 'I will' come from the small one. With everything that bothers you, ask what you can do about it this week.
Concern isn't wrong. Worrying about a client or a decision shows you care. You just choose what you do with it. If it sits with someone else, take it to whoever owns it, with what you'd suggest (the lesson Owning your work). Which decisions belong to your role is in the lesson Who decides what.
Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989), under the first habit: be proactive. Published in Dutch as De zeven eigenschappen van effectief leiderschap.
Direct: your own behaviour
How you do your work, what you say, what you commit to and how you react. You can act on this straight away. Start here.
Indirect: other people's behaviour
A colleague, your manager, senior leadership. You can't change them, but you can influence them: with a conversation, a proposal, an example. Go to whoever owns it, not to whoever else is bothered by it.
No influence: what's fixed
What's already happened, the market, a decision that's been made. Here you choose how you deal with it. Accepting it is a choice too, and it costs less energy than pushing against it every day.
Pitfalls
Complaining to people who don't own it
Talking about what senior leadership is doing over coffee feels like influence, but it reaches nobody who can change it. Take it to the owner, or let it go.
Pulling everything into your own circle
Wanting more influence sometimes leads people to decide things that belong to someone else. Then you're taking over their work rather than influencing it. If something belongs to someone else, you influence it through that person.
Watch and read
The two circles explained, with how you shift your attention to what you can do, at work and outside it.
Watch on YouTubeIn Dutch, with drawings: how proactive behaviour makes your circle of influence bigger, and reactive behaviour makes it smaller.
Watch on YouTubeThe model in three minutes, short enough to watch with your team.
Watch on YouTubeTo go further
A Dutch podcast episode about the model and how to use it in a team. For anyone who wants more.
Watch on YouTubeRead
De zeven eigenschappen van effectief leiderschap
Stephen R. Covey · 2010 · ISBN 9789047054641
The Dutch translation of the 1989 book. The circles are under the first habit, be proactive.
View the bookThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen R. Covey · 1989 · ISBN 9780743269513
The English original, in the 2004 Free Press edition. 384 pages.
View the bookApply it
- 1
Write down what you're worried about this week
Everything at work that's pulling at you: a decision, a colleague, a client, a system, your workload. Ten minutes, without filtering.
- 2
Put each point in one of two columns
On the left what's outside your influence, on the right what you can do yourself. A lot of points belong in both: the decision goes on the left, how you respond to it on the right.
- 3
Give each point on the right a next step and a day
Small enough to do this week. 'Communicate better' isn't a step; 'ask Pieter on Monday when I'll get his figures' is.
- 4
For each point on the left, choose: take it up or let it go
If someone you can reach owns it, take it to them, with a recommendation. If you can't reach anyone or it's fixed, decide to let it go, and tell yourself so.
Examples
Ready to use: a list in two columns
Outside my influence | What I'll do Senior leadership is raising prices | On Monday I'll ask my manager how to explain it to my clients A colleague keeps delivering their part late | I'll agree with them when I need it by, and tell them myself if it's late again Orders are falling | This week I'll ring my ten biggest clients The new system is slow | I'll write down three examples and send them to the system administrator on Friday The reorganisation | In my one-to-one I'll ask what it means for my role; the rest I'll let go After a week, look back: what happened on the right? And what on the left is still costing you energy?
The same complaint, in two kinds of words
From the big circle: 'The schedule's never right, they make it impossible to deliver on time.' From the small one: 'The schedule's often wrong. I'm going to ask the planner if I can give my hours for next week on Friday, so at least my part is right.' The problem's the same. The second one has a step in it that you can take.
An office coordinator at an installation company
For months she's been annoyed by engineers handing in their job sheets late, and she complains about it to her colleagues. She puts it on her list: the engineers on the left, her own approach on the right. She asks the planner whether the job sheets can have a fixed deadline, and suggests Friday at twelve. He puts it on the agenda for the weekly meeting with the engineers.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- You look back on a situation from your own work. Only you can read what you write.
- You set a date with yourself, and on that day the app asks how it went.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.Senior leadership has decided working from home is now allowed one day a week only. It comes up over coffee every day. What fits this model best?
2.A colleague keeps delivering their figures a day late, so you can't finish your report on time. What's in your circle of influence?
3.In your one-to-one you hear yourself say it again: 'I can't make progress while the scheduling is this chaotic.' How do you say the same thing from your circle of influence?
4.Orders have been falling for three months, because the whole market is slumping. You're an account manager. What do you do?
5.You want more influence, so you start adjusting another team's schedule yourself, because you think it's wrong. What does the model say?
6.A reorganisation is coming. You don't know yet what it means for your role and you're lying awake over it. What's the first step?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
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