What's within your circle of control and influence?
As a leader, you need to understand what you can control and influence as well as what you can’t. That way, you can use your time, energy and resources in areas where you can have an impact, rather than wasting it on lost causes.
To help you with this, I’d like to introduce you to another of my favourite tools: the circle of control and influence.
It’s great because it helps you to identify what is and is not under your control quickly. You can also introduce the tool to your team, as it will help them see what they can control and beyond their sphere of influence. This can alleviate a lot of frustration and stop your team from wasting time and energy on issues, problems, and decisions out of their control.
By focusing on what they can control, your team’s energy will shift, so they become more effective and achieve more and better results.
How to create your circle of control
To create your own circle of control and influence, begin by drawing a large circle on a blank piece of paper. Next, draw a smaller circle within the larger circle.
The circle of control
The small circle is your circle of control.
Think of yourself within this circle and answer these questions:
Am I able to change what is happening?
If I am, do I want to change it?
When will I make the change?
How will I make the change?
The circle of influence
The large circle is your circle of influence. Step into this zone and ask yourself the following questions:
Am I able to influence those who are causing the events I am seeing, feeling and hearing?
If I am in a position to influence them, who do I need to influence, and how will I influence them?
What do I hope to achieve by influencing the decision-makers?
When any change is happening, whether you are being told by the business that you must change or you are choosing to change, I want you to ask yourself these two simple questions:
Is this decision within my control?
Can I influence those who are making the decisions?
Control is not all about being able to change the source of the change; it’s also about whether you are able to control your response to the decision. If you can control your thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, you can effectively control and influence the decision-maker. In that case, the world is your oyster.
Once you have identified whether something is within your control or not, you can leave it behind. If something is outside your control – in other words, you won’t be able to change the decision regardless of what you think, feel and see – you will be able to recognise this and move on very quickly. If you don’t move on, you could spend far too much time reacting to a decision that is beyond your control.
If you think you’re getting stuck on something you can’t change, you need to ask yourself how much energy you are willing to expend to change something you cannot influence or control?
What are the benefits of using this energy on something else?
How much better will you feel if you recognise this sooner rather than later so that you can shift your thinking?
How much time are you going to spend being angry or upset about something as opposed to implementing a change or raising concerns about the decision?
When I coach people, I ask them who is in control of their thoughts, feelings and actions.
Is it them or someone else?
Of course, it is they who are in control. Only they have the power to change what they think, how they feel and what they do – nobody else.
It’s understandable that we get upset about decisions, changes and events, but we need to know how to let go of these emotions so we can perform.
Understanding what is in our power to control and influence can help us do that.