Circles of Control, Influence, and Concern
I certainly did not invent the concept of the Circles of Control, Influence, and Concern. Still, I did learn about these ideas early in my career (I believe from Stephen Covey), and it has proved a go-to framework for thinking about the work of building a startup.
Leading a startup is profoundly challenging because there are so many dimensions and factors to consider, balance, and manage to bring the business to life and transform it into a success. As founders, we often must creatively tackle problems we do not yet fully understand, make decisions on less than perfect information, and manage our emotional reactions to the journey. For me, when figuring out a path forward through uncertainty, it is imperative to sort through the things I can and cannot control. Otherwise, it is too easy to be sucked into worrying about those things I cannot control rather than bringing my focus to bear on those that I can.
So, if you are unfamiliar with this framework, let me start with a brief introduction. Imagine a target with three rings nested within one another. At the center of the target is your Circle of Control. The next ring is your Circle of Influence. And the final ring of the circle is your Circle of Concern. The idea is to place yourself at the target’s center and recognize that as you move outward from that center point, you have decreasing levels of control until, for things in your Circle of Concern, you may be worried about them, but you cannot impact them.
Next, you start sorting the things on your mind into the nested circles. Things you are concerned about but have NO ability to influence belong in your Circle of Concern. Examples of things that are often in our Circles of Concern as startup leaders are the weather, political and economic environments, news reports, others’ social media posts, VC funding trends, government policies, sunk costs, inflation rates, and decisions I made in the past. These things create an environment that can impact us, but we cannot affect it.
Your Circle of Influence includes things you may be able to affect somehow. For example, you can sometimes influence the motivations, thoughts, opinions, and actions of others that you can interact with (if you can’t interact with them in any way, then don’t they belong in your Circle of Concern?). When you are working in a team, there are many joint plans and tasks that rightly fall within your Circle of Influence as collaborative problem-solving takes place. I can also influence processes and policies at work, my reputation, my commitments, the stories about what we are doing that we are telling others, and the relationships we are building.
In my Circle of Control are the things in my world and my startup’s world that I directly control. Chief amongst these are my own internal attitudes, thoughts, and responses. Someone once pointed out that “responsibility” breaks down into “response-ability,” or our ability to control our reactions to things. I can manage my own actions, my work ethic, my integrity, my thoughts, my words, and my mindset—anything within myself. Even though something bad might happen, I can still control my reaction to it.
Mentally, when I am trying to figure out what to do to move the ball forward in life and in my startup, I find using this framework of the nested Circles of Control, Influence, and Concern, can help me figure out what I can do – and what I can only worry about but not do anything about.
Application example #1
As a venture-backed startup CEO, one of my responsibilities is raising money and managing relationships with both current and potential venture investors. When I think abstractly about applying my Circles framework to this part of my job, my Circle of Concern extends to understanding the concerns and priorities of the partnerships in my investors and prospective investors (check their websites!), the VC investing trends in my sector (read articles!), and learning where each VC is in its funding cycle (ask during the initial meeting!). Moving inward, my Circle of Influence encompasses my VC investors’ representatives on my Board of Directors. These are people who dig deep into my business during due diligence, maintain vigilant attention to our progress and challenges, and are engaged in trying to help me succeed. While I certainly cannot control them, I am in a position to influence them by being intentional about understanding their needs and priorities, and working to engage them effectively and appropriately by providing the information they need and listening for the helpful nuggets they can offer. My Circle of Control includes what I can control and describe, mostly internally to myself. These are things like choices I make about what to communicate, who to include, what to prioritize as it relates to my investors, and making plans that will find the sweet spot between what my startup needs and what my investors need. I pay attention to all three circles, but I focus my energy more heavily and frequently the further to the Circles’ center I get.
Application example #2
When you have a startup that develops a strategic partnership, the relationships between myself as CEO, my startup team, and our strategic partner’s team also illustrate a progressive spectrum of control. Again, my Circle of Control centers on controlling my own thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and reactions. I can never totally control others, but I have a decent chance of controlling myself. My Circle of Influence is strong when applied to my startup team because I have control or influence over defining and executing our goals, priorities, responsibilities, and contractual arrangements. Also, in my Circle of Influence, albeit to a lesser extent, is the influence I can have on our partner, usually through building solid relationships, discovering and promoting points of alignment, and delivering on our promises. Further out, my Circle of Concern will include areas I want to know about but likely cannot strongly influence, such as my partner’s investors’ priorities, business environment, resources, business objectives, and opportunities.
Ultimately, I find this circles framework valuable in reminding me to keep an awareness of those Circle of Concern areas that provide context and challenge to what I am doing while focusing my energy and actions on the Circle of Influence and Circle of Control areas that I can actually do something about.
