Training is only effective and reasonable if learned things are applied in practice afterwards. But that’s exactly the difficult part! Visible learning transfer which is documented and therewith controllable isn’t easy to get. Targeted learning transfer measures, provided pre and post a training – for a example on a learning transfer platform – can do the trick. In our new series “Learning transfer in practice” we present just these transfer measures. Today: A reflection work on the circle of influence.

Reflection work: Circle of concern vs. circle of influence

You are a leader, who is supposed to manage a team? But you feel like you cannot act the way you want to or the way people expect you to? Because there are so many things that hinder you?

Never fear – you are in good company! Especially when we overtake a new role in the organization, we can feel insecure. We try to find orientation and meet all expectations. And sometimes it happens that we focus on things that we can´t influence. Like the mood of other, expectations, financial crises or the market situation. If we concentrate on these things we will find ourselves caught in the circle of concern. If we stay too long in this circle, our mood and motivation will decrease, we feel tensed, stressed and incapable of action.

Step into your circle of influence

Take your time and think about all the things keeping you caught in the circle of concern. Recognise them and then let them go. Because you need space for new things! Think about tasks or processes that you can actively influence. Just you, on your own!

For example the motivation of your team raised with little positive measures or effective communication and delegation achieved by applying tips & tricks. Work on those topics in a proactive way and observe yourself: What changes? What happens to your motivation? How does this influence your environment? And your performance? Yes… Great!! Welcome to your circle of influence! And even more… Focusing on this issues, you can optimize things instead of thinking about things you cannot influence. By working on these tasks in a proactive way, you increase your circle of influence and that’s how you will initialize change. Because this proactive energy will also help you to carry your environment away!

Maybe you ask yourself now: Ok, what can I do with this information immediately?
Well, reflect on your daily tasks and working environment. What is keeping you from being successful? What makes your day complicated, what are your special challenges? Awareness is the first step! Then choose one thing outside and on thing inside your circle of influence, write them down and bring them with you to the workshop – there we’ll work on them further.