Some things we can change. Many more we can only worry about. The Circle of Influence holds what we can actually affect. Around it lies the wider Circle of Concern: everything we care about, from the economy to the mood in tomorrow's meeting. The idea is simple. Put your energy into the inner circle, and watch it grow.

Where it comes from

Stephen Covey drew the two circles in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989), in the chapter on his first habit, "Be Proactive." Proactive people, he wrote, focus on the inner circle, and as they do, it tends to expand.¹ In the same chapter he sorted our problems into three kinds: those we control directly (our own behavior), those we control indirectly (other people's behavior) and those we cannot control at all (the past, situational realities).

That sorting lives on in the version most people know today, with three rings: control at the center, influence around it, concern on the outside. The picture travels widely through coaching, classrooms and therapy rooms. No single originator is known. Most sources describe it as a later adaptation of Covey's work.

Concern the economy, the weather, the news Influence my team, my boss, my clients Control my words, my time
The three-ring version most people know today. Covey himself drew two circles; the control ring at the center grew out of his own sorting of problems. A quick test for the week ahead: in which ring does your biggest worry sit?

Older roots

The thought is far older than the book. The Stoics built much of their philosophy on it. Some 1,900 years ago Epictetus opened his little handbook by separating what is up to us from what is not, and Seneca and Marcus Aurelius come back to the same line again and again.² The Serenity Prayer asks for the serenity to accept what we cannot change, the courage to change what we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.³ And psychology later found that people who expect their own actions to make a difference tend to feel more motivated at work.⁴

Where it goes wrong

The model is sometimes heard as "stay in your lane." It works best with open eyes on the outer circles. When something out there worries you, say so early, and say it to the people who decide.⁵

A close relative

For people who develop others, we use a related model: the Circles of Growth. Five circles, from Me to World, show where developing others begins and how far it reaches.

Talent Takeaway

  • List what is on your mind this week.
  • Sort each item: control, influence or concern.
  • Pick one thing you control and do it today.
  • For one worry in the outer ring, ask: is there a part I can influence after all?

¹ Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people. Free Press.

² Epictetus. Enchiridion, ch. 1. https://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html See also Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, and Seneca, Letters to Lucilius.

³ The Serenity Prayer is traditionally attributed to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Versions circulated from the 1930s and 1940s, and its early history is debated.

⁴ Ng, T. W. H., Sorensen, K. L., & Eby, L. T. (2006). Locus of control at work: A meta-analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(8), 1057–1087. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.416 The study looks at locus of control: whether people expect outcomes to follow from their own actions. Those with a more internal locus tend to report better experiences at work and greater motivation.

⁵ Dutton, J. E., & Ashford, S. J. (1993). Selling issues to top management. Academy of Management Review, 18(3), 397–428. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1993.9309035145 On how and when people raise concerns with those who decide.

Further reading: Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 80(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0092976