DON'T ALLOW DILUTION OF YOUR CONTROL.

Initially, East India Company obtained permission from the Emperor Jahangir to trade in India. Slowly they built godowns and hired shooters to protect their godowns during the period of other emperors. Finally, they made fort-like godowns and recruited a large army to capture the whole India in a systematic and planned way.

Charles Seymour, MP, in the Jeffrey Archers novel " First Among Equal" appointed his right-hand man Mr. Clive Reynolds to look after his family bank in which the family had 4% shares but controlling power. Mr. Reynolds slowly made insignificant looking changes in the management of the bank and appointed his men in a systematic way. In due course, Mr. Reynolds became so much powerful that he double crossed Charles Seymour.

A popular idiom exhorts," Never allow any person to catch your fingers lest he would catch your wrist."

 Therefore silently and carefully keep an eye on even minor developments taking place in your circle of influence. Tactfully thwart all the major or minor attempts that may cause dilution of your control else one day you may find to your utter dismay that you have been thrown out of the steering wheel.

Once I read a famous idiom," Offence is the best defense." 
Therefore, try continuously to increase more and more control in your circle of influence and also expand it by leaps and bounds. Your friends and colleagues will help you best by the win-win theory. Please also read people management section of our lovely blog to get insights into getting along with people by the win-win method.

This theory is also applicable to self-management. 
Suppose you get up at 5.30 a.m. one day, the CHILD in you may suggest that there is no harm in sleeping one hour more today. If you oblige yourself, you may find that slowly you have become late riser. Therefore if you get up at 5.30 a.m. please try to set new target 5.25 or 5.20 a.m. and so on.