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COACHING TOOLS
The Identity Wheel
A simple but effective tool to consider where you are in life and where you want to get to
What is the Identity Wheel?
Life happens. We never stand still at work, home, family, or other contexts. Our direction changes, and we continue working through our lives, but how often do we stop to consider where we are and whether that’s where we planned for it to be?
As a coach, many conversations start with a general discomfort about where my clients are in their lives. However, the discussion is often unstructured, without a way to quickly bring focus and attention to the critical issues. When you spend a lot of time coaching, you start to notice the patterns and what could be a long process of pinning down actionable points becomes easier when you have a framework for the discussion.
My framework is the Identity Wheel, based on the most common areas of life that require attention. It could be more academic and perfect, but it is free to use in your practice and to develop further. If you do use it, please let me know.
If you practice the Relationship Away Day, it’s a great structure for that. Using it when changing jobs is also critical, so its sibling, the Job Wheel, integrates this work.
How is the Identity Wheel structured?
The Identity Wheel’s structure is simple and allows us to review different elements of who we are, scoring them simply and consistently. Our scores can change each time we run the tool, reflecting how life evolves.
To score yourself, print out a copy of the Wheel, get your colouring pens out and fill in the segments using the following guide for each level:
- There’s a big issue here, and I need to do something now
- Things aren’t great, and it’s a priority to do something
- On the whole, things are OK, but there are improvements I can make
- I’m doing well, and no significant change is needed
It’s not scientific, but it is meaningful.
