The Circle of Control for Career Success….

It is a very difficult time for us all at the moment, I personally feel as if we are all being held to ransom by something that we cannot see, hear or feel with Covid-19 virus. It can be difficult not to feel overwhelmed or start to worry, about how this will impact our careers.

Steve Covey in his book, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, talks about the concept of Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence. The Circle of Concern includes everything that is of concern to you including family, health and job security and everything outside of the circle is of little concern to you.

The challenge of The Circle of Control is that you soon realise that some of the things you are concerned about are inside your control and some are outside of your control.

That is why it is important to identify your Circle of Influence within your Circle of Concern.

Your Circle of Influence are the things that Concern you that you can do something about.

There is a third circle that is sometimes added called the Circle of Control, however it is important to understand the difference between what we control and what we influence. To control means that we have complete authority over.

For example, we can control whether or not we eat a donut. But I can’t control whether or not my friend Susan eats a donut. I might be able to convince her not to eat it. Or she might be inspired when she sees me resisting the donut. We can influence Susan, but we can’t control her.

That’s the difference. There is no ambiguity in control. If we can control, we get exactly what we want, but influencing means we can impact it, but can’t guarantee the results we want.

There are so many things in life that we cannot control but the Circle of Control is the one to master. It is the place to start, the place to create inertia and the place that will reap the greatest energy to keep you going.

So, go take a look at your development plan, strategy plan or operational plan and see if you can find where your Circle of Control is. If it’s not clearly visible from the plan you have, I have created a simple paper exercise that you can use to get clear. Send me a message with your email address and I will send it to you.