Personal Leadership: Beyond Stephen Covey’s Circle of Influence
February 20, 2008
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I define leadership as the acknowledgment that part of this world’s life is yours.
Many will at this point think about Stephen Covey’s idea of the circle of concern and the circle of influence. It is a powerful idea. In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey distinguishes two circles. The inner circle is the circle of influence. That is the circle of your life where your activities make a difference.
The outer circle is the circle of concern. You worry about it, but there is nothing that you can do that will change that circle. However, and the is the crucial part, the more you focus on your circle of influence, the larger it tends to get. Leadership starts with focusing on your circle of influence. Relentlessly. If you keep blaming the circumstances, you are not a leader. And don’t be confined by this idea. You will enlarge your circle of influence tremendously beyond what you thought possible.
But there is one problem with this picture. The circle of concern is never fully closed around you. There are always gaps in that circle. It is in those gaps that you can jump ahead and make something really awesome happen. Innovation happens here.
This is why I admire Al Gore. He jumped in the gaping hole that existed when nobody was talking about climate change. He did that many years ago, and he is doing it today. As a matter of fact, during his years as vice-president, he focused on the closed circle of influence within a closed circle of concern. That circle of concern was dictated by the state of American politics. Once he lost the election to George Bush—a tragic moment in American history for sure—he went back and saw that the opening was still there. He moved on and has now received the Nobel Peace Price for his work.
Don’t be confined by the circle of concern and the circle of influence. Seek instead to find where the openings are and you will change the world.
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Wow, I feel right at home in Al Gore’s office–looks like my own.