Two of the coaching tools I have used over the many years of my coaching are the life balance and work wheels these act as a good barometer of where people are up to in their lives. During my own career I used to use these wheels on a reasonably regular basis to see how I was doing in life. Once when I completed this exercise, of the eight segments, only money or finance was good, everything else was poor. In my assessment the wheel wouldn’t go round.
Let me explain. Both wheels are a circle split into 8 segments where the coachee writes down, in the case of the life balance wheel, l the eight most important things in their life at that time. They then score each segment accordingly between 1 and 10; the higher the score, the better their feeling of where they are at the moment. The work wheel works in a similar way and may be used to cover the functions of the coachee’s job, or if they are with me for career coaching the aspects of their work which they have enjoyed the most. If all the scores are say a 7, then the wheel will go round. If the scores are all 8s, even better. By using these tools, it brings to the attention of the coachee what is working in their life and work and maybe areas where it is not.
Hopefully I haven’t lost you so far. Why am I talking about this now? In August I saw a coachee after 4 years and it was really interesting to compare his wheels now as against 4 years ago. As you know, all coaching sessions are confidential so there is no way that you can be aware of who this coachee is and he has given me permission to use this as a mini case study. 4 years ago, the life balance wheel scores were good except for 2 vital areas: career and financial security, both scoring 2. The work wheel clearly showed why and definitely wouldn’t go round. It would have bounced all over the place. Hence, he was seeing me for career coaching as he knew something had to change.
In 2024 when the coachee completed his life wheel, he didn’t even mention finance. In his work wheel the one section that scored 1 was impacting on all of the other segments. For me it is a bit like Maslow’s theory, when we have shelter and all of the financial things we need, then we look for enjoyment and other things that matter to us. It is not what I think however but what the coachee thinks that matters!
If you want to see where you are in your life or career get in touch with me neil@nvwsolutions.co.uk and we can complete the life balance and work wheels to see where you are up to and what you want to do next.
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