Tip: This is a great exercise for business and career/executive coaches to ease clients into thinking about their personal lives – which of course will benefit their careers and businesses in the long run. When we work on where we’re already doing well – this spins off into other areas in our lives and lifts them too. And high scores suggest areas where a goal could really give your clients a boost. Low scores point to areas where a goal could be identified to raise their score. The Wheel of Life is a great way to help a client who is struggling to identify goals. Tip: Try this one on yourself – you may be surprised – where do YOU need to be kinder with yourself? Get them to score HOW compassionate they are currently – and to identify an action for the top 3 areas that need kindness or compassion most. Ask your client to list 8 areas where they could be more kind or compassionate with themselves. There aren’t many of us who couldn’t do with more self-compassion. AND it’s also important to do a ‘sanity check’ that the gap is 1) fillable and 2) that it’s a skill they are able or want to fill! Tip: It helps to clarify whether each gap is a skill or knowledge gap.

Then identify action steps for each ‘gap’.

What are the Top 8 skills and knowledge gaps your client has that get in the way of that job, promotion or new career? Ask your client to identify their gaps and then score out of 10 where they are on the road to filling this gap. Tip: This is great homework – to identify areas to bring to the session and work on. a ‘Finance’ wheel could include saving for a house, budgeting, focusing on buying needs and not wants, saving for a rainy day, paying off debts, getting a pay-rise etc. Take one of the segments and then using a blank wheel ask them to write out a further 8 areas that make up that segment for them. Use the wheel to drill down into a single wheel segment and help your clients understand their lives and issues more deeply. Tip: Ask how could they bring more of each area into their lives? Help them find multiple wins – where one action raises their score across a number of areas. Then ask your client for an action or commitment for each segment. There are different ways to score this – you could ask them to score how satisfied they are with each area, or how MUCH each area excites them, or how much they WANT to ‘do’ or feel drawn to each area. The Wheel of Happiness, Fun or even Joy! Does your client need help to create more happiness, fun or joy in their life? Well, ask them to identify 8 areas or things that are fun or make them excited or happy. Tip: Ask, which area frustrates or stresses them out the most? Are there any surprises? How could they lower their scores? What actions could they take to lower their frustration or stress? Then review and coach them around the scores. Then ask them to score each area out of 10 as to how much each area adds to the stress in their life. Start with a blank wheel and ask your clients to list the top 8 areas that stress or frustrate them most. The Wheel of Stress (or Wheel of Frustration). It’s like looking back over an old journal and seeing how far you’ve come! Improved scores demonstrate concrete value from coaching and create tangible progression. Use it monthly or quarterly with your clients, as both a check-in to see how they’re currently doing AND as a way for them to see how they’ve improved and grown. When used on a regular basis The Wheel of Life is a great tool to measure progress. Here are 10 Fresh Ways for Using the Wheel of Life in Your Coaching Practice: Not only that, but the “Wheel of Life” may just be the most powerful and flexible coaching exercise in our coaching toolbox! So, as it’s one of my favourite tools I’m excited to share some new ideas below for how you can use “The Wheel of Life” in your coaching practices. Sometimes I think we coaches get so used to seeing “ The Wheel of Life” that we forget it’s still new for most of our clients.

Wheel of life coaching toool