Two Circle Theory of Leadership

There is clearly a hunger for understanding leadership which for many is very abstract and difficult to personalize. I want to share with you a simple framework, I call it “two circle theory of leadership”, that I have shared with many early career employees.

Regardless of where you are in life and what you do for a living, we all have a job scope. For each job, there comes with a job description, either written or more likely implicit. I call that scope the small circle. On the other hand, you most likely know that many things are completely outside of the scope of your job, defined by the space outside of the big circle. In an ideal world, the boundary would be clearly defined and the two circles would be the same. In real world however, those two circles do not overlap and there is always a gap between the two circles. When the job is well defined, the gap tends to be small. When the job is not as well defined, the gap can be very big. Regardless of the situation, how you handle the in-between space can define your success or failure in your career.

One can certainly focus on the small circle and do everything well within your defined boundary. On the other hand, it is also clear that you have to ask for permission first if you want to venture outside of the big circle. If you want to excel and be a leader, you have to be proactive and demonstrate your leadership in defining, leading, driving the activities between the two circles. The mistake early career employees often make is that they are afraid of taking initiatives outside of the small circle and would instead wait for instruction or ask for permission even when they have the capacity and capability to perform tasks in the middle space. The right approach often requires employees to proactively engage their managers or simply take the initiative to perform the tasks.

There are ways to demonstrate leadership in any situation, but the in-between space is the best place to do so by forcing yourself to stretch your capability, learn new skills, establish your credibility, and expand your sphere of influence.