Effectiveness 3.0 – Step 3: Drawing the Larger Circle

High level effectiveness in life requires at least the first two steps of: Articulating and focusing on Core Purpose and actively applying the insight that “What you Sow is also what you Reap.”  Those two steps discussed in the last blog are all too rare and not taken by the vast majority of people in the business world nor in their their personal lives.  Applying them makes a huge difference in the quality of your life as well as your personal impact.  Now, to take it to the next level of personal efficacy and power and in order to be able to apply it consistently in your personal as well as professional life it really helps to add some additional steps.

Step 3 in Effectiveness 3.0 is what the poet Edwin Markham called, “drawing the larger circle.”  It is based on the deep insights in his poem: “He drew a circle to shut me out, heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.  But Love and I had the Wit to win, we drew a circle that drew him in.”  Greater effectiveness in life, both personally and professionally is dependent upon being able to “draw the larger circle” when others are busy drawing smaller ones.  In the words of Stephen Covey, you focus on creating “Win/Wins” while others are thinking or acting out of “Win/Lose” frameworks.  The deep insight here is that in any on-going relationship, whether at home or at work, any “Win/Lose” ultimately becomes a “Lose/Lose” proposition.

The essence of greater power is being able to find the larger framework within which you can create a WIN out of what others frames as a LOSE or WIN/LOSE.  Drawing the larger circle is what Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu did in South Africa versus what Milosovitch did in Serbia.  It requires cultivating the largeness of heart and imagination to see the greater good and to see how by drawing the larger circle we create a sense of being in it together and pulling each other through.  Thinking about and practicing drawing the larger circle, the bigger framework helps you to become someone who creates winning solutions with others, increasing your influence, personal power and the willing engagement of others so that you can be even more of a wholehearted leader and power in this world.