Images by Freepik

Circles of Concern, Influence and Control

Are you wasting your energy worrying about things you can’t control? Are you finding it hard to make progress on the important things? This tool can help you focus your energy on action that will help you make progress on the things that really matter.

This model comes from Stephen Covey’s work on proactivity. It’s designed to help you focus your energy on the activities that will provide the best benefit to you; whilst letting go of worries you can do nothing about. Follow the step-by-step process outlined below:

1. Start with what's on your mind

It could be a goal, like securing a promotion at work, or it might be a big topic like climate change.

Once you’re clear on this, capture everything that is worrying you about it.

This exercise works well if you use post it notes, or a digital equivalent, so you can move them around).

All of these worries are considered to be within your Circle of Concern.

2. What's within your control?

Now categorise the worries firstly into those worries you have control over. An example relating to promotion could be technical knowledge required.

You can take action to learn and demonstrate this knowledge so it is within your control. These are part of your Circle of Control. This is usually a smaller circle that can sit within your Circle of Concern. Move them there now.

It is worth writing any actions onto post its and placing them with the worry.

3. Influencing what's outside of your control

Your Circle of Concern now now has worries over which you have no control. For example, the assessment criteria used for promotion.

Brainstorm ways to influence these worries. For example, you can’t control the benchmark for the promotion assessment criteria, but you can find out what it is and develop yourself against it.

Write down any actions you can take to influence worries in your Circle of Concern and place them on top of the worry. You might have several actions for one worry.

Worries you can influence can move into your Circle of Influence, which sits within your Circle of Concern, and outside your Circle of Control.

Try brainstorming a partner for any worries you’re struggling to move into your Circle of Influence. Any worries remaining in your Circle of Concern after this are Likely worries you can’t do anything about and ideally, should be let go. You might do this mentally, or practically, by delegating to someone who can influence it.

Expanding your Circle of Influence

With practice, you will find your Circle of Influence expands and you will have fewer worries sitting only within your Circle of Concern.

Worries where you can’t make a difference are best let go, if you can. Spending time and energy on things you can’t influence is time and energy wasted.

Focusing your efforts where they can make a difference will help you move forward faster and make a bigger impact.

Got questions or struggling to put this into practice?

Changing the way we behave is hard and sometimes complex. It isn’t just about learning new skills. Sometimes there are things we need to unlearn first. Building new mental and behavioural muscles takes time, just like it does when building a physical muscle. This is always easier with expert support. If you have questions or would like to talk about expert support, do get in touch: hello@redkitepd.com.

Page updated

Google Sites