CIRCLES OF INFLUENCE

CIRCLES OF INFLUENCE
A Circle of Influence encompasses those concerns that we can do something about. They are concerns that we have some control over. Stephen Covey defines proactive as “being responsible for our own lives…..our behaviour is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. Proactive people focus on issues within.

Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control. The problems, challenges, and opportunities we face fall into two areas--Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence.

Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, problems at work. Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern--things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather. Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energies in is a giant step in becoming proactive.

WHY IS THIS RELEVANT?
Sometimes it’s not what you know, but who you know, and who knows them that really counts. Most change succeeds through peer pressure rather than leadership!

KEY POINTS
It can be informative to “map” where people stand in relation to a problem, project or change and where they stand relative to each-other. Rather than being fixed circles influence is is rather like a web, and movement in one area can have an impact in another.

MORE INFORMATION
http://ndoherty.com/circle-of-influence-circle-of-concern/
http://uthscsa.edu/gme/documents/Circles.pdf
https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit1.php