Stephen Covey: Move From a Concern to an Available Action
A community problem or a difficult workplace process occupies your attention.
Choose, practice, reflectA practical lesson
The Lesson
A community problem or a difficult workplace process occupies your attention. You may care deeply about the whole issue while having only a few immediate ways to contribute. Map those ways before choosing where to spend your next hour.
FranklinCovey’s official explanation of Stephen R. Covey’s Habit 1 distinguishes the Circle of Concern from the Circle of Influence. It encourages attention to work a person can affect. Habit 1, official FranklinCovey explanation. The 7 Habits, official course overview.
Concern and influence answer different questions. Concern asks what matters to you. Influence asks where an action, request or collaboration could make a difference. A problem can belong in both. It may require direct action on one part and partnership on another.
Keep the map realistic. Having influence does not mean controlling the result. An email may be ignored, a meeting may take time and a proposal may need revision. You are choosing a contribution with a clear purpose, rather than assuming individual effort can solve every structural problem.
Reflection
- What issue do I care about?
- Which part can I act on directly?
- Where would collaboration or a formal request be more appropriate?
Practice
This is an original SelfGrowthVideos exercise inspired by the ideas above.
- Write one concern and describe its practical effect.
- List direct actions, possible requests and longer-term collective work separately.
- Choose one action that fits your role, resources and available time.
- Set a follow-up point and identify who else may need to be involved.
If shared equipment is often missing, you can label the storage place, ask the team about a checkout record or raise the need for replacement equipment. Different parts of the problem need different kinds of influence; doing all of them alone is not required.
Review
At the follow-up point, ask what changed and what response you received. Is the next step a direct action, a request or collaboration? Keep the wider concern visible while adjusting your contribution to what you learn.
Go Deeper
Explore the Stephen Covey teacher profile and the Leadership learning hub. Choose one related idea to try before collecting more material.