“You will never outperform your inner circle,” Coach John Wooden once said. Highly-successful people and leaders have an inner circle of friends, family members, colleagues, and/or mentors that creates a core group of support. Over time, we develop our inner circle to meet our needs and help support us with our goals. The inner circle of people often impacts us more than we know as we rely on them to make progress toward our goals. Here are five ways our inner circle makes an impact on our work:
- Support: The first significant impact of our inner circles is their support for us as people above all else. We can rely on them to support us through both successes and failures. Although the support is often empathetic and caring, it can also look different and take the form of tough love, brutal honesty, and accountability. How effectively does your inner circle support your lifestyle?
- Challenge: The second key characteristic of a quality inner circle is their ability to challenge us and our thinking. It’s critical to have people around us that avoid simply agreeing with our ideas; we want them to push our thinking and challenge us to think in different ways. Challenging our thinking might be around decisions, future goals, or career opportunities. How consistently does your inner circle challenge you?
- Feedback: A third key aspect of an effective inner circle is its ability to provide feedback. The inner circle people often have unique skill sets, experiences, and perspectives, so their ability to provide feedback is invaluable. Not only should we ask our inner circle for feedback, but they should also feel comfortable providing it unprompted when necessary. How well does your inner circle provide quality feedback?
- Clarity: A fourth aspect of a quality inner circle is its ability to create clarity around life, career, and personal situations. High-performing people often need help clarifying certain aspects they encounter in life, and a quality inner circle asks effective questions and pushes us to explore different perspectives. Throughout our careers, leaders often rely on their inner circles to create clarity around significant life decisions. How well does your inner circle help create clarity?
- Experts: The final aspect of an effective inner circle is that it has a broad range of experts in their specific fields. While it is critical to have people in your own area, it’s insightful to see how others manage challenges and organize for success in other areas. A broad range of ideas allows us to see our challenges and successes from a unique perspective. How varied are the experiences and experts in your inner circle?
Creating, cultivating, and sustaining an inner circle is critical to success in life and work. Not only is it important for career goals and trajectory, but it also helps us stay grounded and fulfilled in our personal lives. Highly-effective leaders often rely on inner circles for consistent, thought-provoking feedback around important ideas and decisions. It’s critical to spend quality time cultivating an inner circle of excellence.
How effectively have you developed an inner circle of excellence?