| The wheels of life | | Print | |
| Written by Noel Posus |
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One of the quintessential coaching models around is generally known as "The Wheel of Life" and if you don't already know about it and use it, you'll find it one of the most useful, creative and practical tools in your coaching toolkit. The wheel or circle shapes have been used throughout history to represent the never-ending cycle of movement, human evolution, spirituality, the stars and much more. You can see numerous examples from ancient calendars, astrological charts and mandalas through to diagrams used in psychology and the personal and professional development movements. The Wheel of Life was first reference in the coaching world by Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House and Phil Sandahl in their book, Co-Active Coaching (ISBN 0-89106-123-1, Davies-Black Publishing, 1998 - page 20) and that early version had eight environments of: Career, Money, Health, Friends & Family, Significant Other / Romance, Personal Growth, Fun & Recreation, and Physical Environment. Essentially, you have the client measure their current "satisfaction" (on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is the highest and sits at the outer rim of the wheel) in each of the different environments of the wheel. This is simply a "snap shot" in the moment where you're getting the client to measure (evidence, although subjective) of their current state so that you're able to work together to define the desired state and be able to measure it when you get there via the process of coaching. Many coaching schools teach the Wheel of Life tool in various ways. Some have six environments, some have more than 20 areas of exploration. Some are looking to have the ideal on the outer edge of the wheel, while others have the ideal in the centre. Some are very one dimensional and are used for quick measures while others can be multi-dimensional (wheels on top of wheels) for much more in-depth and holistic exploration. The format I've been using for years (see resources comment) has ten environments: • Health (mental, physical and emotional) Not only do you ask the "coachee" about their current level of satisfaction in each environment, but you can also ask deeper questions about the levels of positive or negative energy, attitude and/or effort they're investing in each environment. You can check to see how resourceful they feel in each. And ultimately, you can ask a very simple question about how important each area is and how committed the coachee is to changing it. Remember though that this is NOT a "work/life balance" wheel! That is a trap that many coaches and their clients fall in to. The wheel is a measurement tool for "the moment" and you can measure these components as often as you like and be able to track growth and progress. But it is not appropriate to think that someone achieves "balance" and then that's it. The wheel is always moving, just like we are in life. Some days, weeks, months, etc are better than others; sometimes we have a greater sense of balance than other times; and when we do achieve our "perfect 10" in any environment, we can then redefine what "10" looks like and set new goals and begin to work toward them. The entire purpose of Wheel of Life tools is to help raise the awareness of both the coachee and the coach about the current situation, the desired situation, and to inspire questions to help bridge the gap. The wheel tool is about promoting a conversation, not labelling a person. Resource - If you are interested in researching more on this topic and potentially adding a number of different types of "Wheels of Life" tools to your coaching toolkit, you can check out www.TheWheelsOfLife.com. You'll find 13 different wheel tools and their own e-books and 65 tutorial videos on how to use these tools. Disclosure: This is one of my websites. You can also explore the other great tools others have created by simply typing in "wheel of life coaching tools" in an internet search. There's heaps out there! The next issue of "Coach the Coach" will begin a series on understanding the five different roles a coach can perform in addition to being the "purist" coach. If there are any topics you'd like me to cover in this column, please feel invited to email me directly with your requests through my website (see link in bio).
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