Rocket Surgery

WARNING — PSYCHOBABBLE AHEAD

For a while now I have been working on this mental model of how much control I have over various things in my life. I’m no psychologist, sociologist, or whatever, but I now advance for your amusement what I call my “Three Spheres Model”.

In the Three Spheres Model, there are three concentric spheres - the Sphere of Control, Sphere of Influence, and the Sphere of Concern. Each outer sphere includes the inner sphere(s).

The Sphere of Control includes those subjects that I control where I can unilaterally do what I want. The Sphere of Influence encompasses all the areas where I can make some impact, but I cannot get my way without cooperation from others (or the environment). The Sphere of Concern encompasses everything that I care about. Outside these three spheres is the world that I either don’t know about or care about.This isn’t profound in itself, and it is certainly simple enough to understand, but when things are viewed in the context of this model one gets interesting insights.

For example, in a recent engagement as a consultant for a client, I was brought in to do coding for a project that the client was managing, not me. In this scenario, my Sphere of Control was small, because I could not do very many things without getting approval or at the least getting a quick review from the people at the client site, to give them an opportunity to wave a red flag. However, at this same engagement, my Sphere of Influence was very large, because I had built a rapport and sense of trust with these people, who greatly respected my opinions, expertise, and advice. In practice, if I wanted something changed, I could pretty much count on getting it by recommending it — but it was not up to me. And of course, there were things that I was concerned about, but I knew there was no way I could influence (such as the impact of certain mandates on the project) - the items in the Sphere of Concern.

It should be apparent to even the most casual reader that leadership, then, consists of expanding one’s Sphere of Influence. This should be differentiated by increasing one’s Sphere of Control. More control does not make more of a leader. To paraphrase John C. Maxwell, leadership is influence, no more, no less. Increasing one’s control does not increase one’s influence — the more you can simply do without other’s consent, the less you are leading and more you are controlling. As such, I call the part of the Sphere of Influence that excludes the Sphere of Control the “Leadership Shell”. The extent to which you can get what you want from everyone without mandating it unilaterally is the extent of one’s leadership ability.

The outer part of the Sphere of Concern that excludes the Sphere of Influence I call the “Frustration Shell.” These are the things you care about but can’t change. A key skill I continually work on is keeping this shell as thin as possible, ideally by expanding my Sphere of Influence. But sometimes, it is appropriate to reduce your Sphere of Concern - also known as picking your battles or recognizing “Serenity Prayer” moments. Pushing issues outside the Sphere of Concern (into the “don’t care zone”) is sometimes a prudent and wise way to go.

To increase the size of one’s Sphere of Concern, however, is to increase one’s sensitivity, empathy, and consideration — and as such is a worthwhile endeavor. Hopefully, one will also correspondingly increase their Sphere of Influence on the same topic so as to avoid feeling helpless and impotent to make a difference.

I have found this model helpful for me. When I encounter an issue or situation, I look to see how far from the center of the spheres the issue lies. Accurately judging how much control, influence, and concern I have for the issue is sometimes a challenge, but I’m getting better at it. Once I know where the issue is in my model, I have a better idea how to deal with it. It also has helped me to focus my attention on where the benefits to life really are - thickening the Leadership Shell and thinning the Frustration Shell.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 11:10 am and is filed under Management and Leadership.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.