Right now, a lot is sitting outside your control.
Policy is shifting. Funding is uncertain. Decisions are being made that directly affect your business — without your input. It’s tiring. And it’s easy for your thinking to get pulled into what you can’t influence.
This is where the idea of locus of control becomes useful.
Not as theory, but as a way to steady your leadership, refocus your energy, and keep your business moving in the middle of change.
What the Model is and Why it Matters Now
Locus of control is a well-established psychological concept, developed by Julian Rotter in the 1950s. It describes how we interpret what drives outcomes in our lives and work.
At its core, it asks a simple question:
Do I believe my actions influence what happens, or do I believe outcomes are largely driven by forces outside me?
From that, two orientations emerge:
- Internal locus of control — focus on what sits within your influence: how you respond, what you prioritise, how you run and lead your business. Action and responsibility.
- External locus of control — focus on what sits outside your influence: systems, policy, timing, other people. Circumstance and constraint.
Most people move between the two. It shifts with pressure and environment.
In stable conditions, this distinction is useful.
In uncertain conditions like these, it becomes essential.
Because where your attention goes will shape how your business responds.
How Can We Use This Model In Your Business
1. Start with your own thinking
Before you lead a team, you need to steady yourself. If your thinking is looping on what you cannot influence, that’s a signal, not a failure.
Bring it back to a simple question:
What is actually in my hands this week?
- Utilisation
- Service mix
- Cash discipline
- Team communication
- Leadership standards
This shift is small but powerful. Composure returns and decision-making improves.
2. Use it to prevent drift
In uncertain times, conversations drift. They move toward frustration, speculation, and “what should be happening.” Left unchecked, this creates emotional fatigue and slows decision-making. Use the model as a boundary.
You can acknowledge what’s happening externally, clearly and honestly, then deliberately return the conversation back to:
- What we can decide
- What we can adjust
- What we will do next
It keeps you and the business moving forward.
3. Lead it out loud with your team
Your team is feeling this too. If you don’t name it, they will fill the gap themselves, often with uncertainty or concern.
Keep it simple in team settings:
- Name the external pressures
- Separate what’s outside vs inside your control
- Land on one or two clear actions
Over time, this builds a different kind of culture. One where people understand that the environment may change, but how we operate does not.
4. Protect agency inside the business
A real risk during prolonged uncertainty is learned helplessness, when people begin to feel that their effort no longer makes a difference.
You’ll see it in small ways:
- Less initiative
- More waiting
- More commentary, less action
Interrupt it early by modelling ownership, clarifying expectations, and linking effort to outcomes.
5. Steadiness becomes the strategy
Your team is not expecting certainty right now. They may not be as well informed, concerned and invested as you the Business Owner in this moment.
However, they are watching for something else.
- Are decisions being made?
- Are priorities clear?
- Is the tone measured, not reactive?
- Has the boss got it all under control?
When you stay anchored in what you can control:
- Decisions become cleaner
- Meetings shorten
- Emotional volatility reduces
- People stay engaged and trust the process.
This is how culture stabilises, not through words, but through steady leadership.
Ten-minute Take-home Activities
1. The Control Reset
Draw two columns:
- Left: Everything currently on your mind about the business
- Right: Circle what is within your control this week
Then ask:
What are the three actions that sit fully in my control right now?
Do those first.
2. The Team Conversation Shift
At your next team or leadership meeting:
- Name one external pressure affecting the business
- Ask: What remains within our control?
- Agree on one action to take this week
Keep it simple. Repeat it regularly. This is how you retrain the conversation and the culture.
You can’t settle everything that’s happening around you right now. But you can settle how you lead through it. When you bring your focus back to what’s actually in your control, things start to shift.
Decisions feel clearer. The team settles. The business finds its footing again.
Not perfectly, not overnight, but enough to move forward.
And right now, that’s what matters.
Book a Power Call.
We’ll look at your business together, find the next clear step forward and get you back in the driver’s seat.
