Understanding and Creating Your Own Career Wheel
Your career isn't just about one thing. It's far more complex than that. And often one area of your career might be thriving, while other areas need increased focus. And the balance is constantly shifting. Completing a Career Wheel provides you with a powerful snapshot to help direct where to focus your energy and target your career goals.
What is a Career Wheel?
A Career Wheel is a visual representation of satisfaction levels across different areas of your career. The model helps you to quickly, and graphically, identify areas where you may choose to devote more energy to raise overall satisfaction levels when it comes to your work. It provides an overarching view of each segment, side-by-side, to help direct focus.
A Career Wheel consists of several segments, each representing different aspects of your career, such as skill development, passion and enthusiasm, challenge, flexibility, salary and benefits, career progression, personal growth, and work-life balance. This holistic approach allows you to assess your current career situation across each of the areas, and identify the segments for improvement.
The primary purpose of the career wheel is to facilitate self-reflection and career exploration. By breaking down various components of a career, it helps you gain clarity over your professional life, and to make informed decisions about your future by creating more targeted goal setting.
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Components of a Typical Career Wheel
A typical career wheel is divided into eight sections, each focusing on a crucial aspect of career satisfaction: At The Coaching Tools Shop, we use the below categories,
Passion and enthusiasm: Assessment of your personal passion and enthusiasm for your job. How much do you love the work you get to do? How enthusiastic do you feel about approaching work each day?
Challenge: Evaluation of the level of challenge and stimulation in the current role. How challenged do you feel? How often are you stretched outside your comfort zone?
Flexibility: Opportunities for flexibility in work arrangements and schedules. How flexible is your work? How well does the flexibility suit your current lifestyle?
Salary and benefits: Reflection on financial compensation and your benefits package. How satisfied are you with your salary and benefits?
Career progression: Opportunities for advancement and growth. How many opportunities exist for career progression?
Personal growth: Alignment of personal growth goals with career opportunities. To what extent does your career provide you with opportunities for personal growth and development?
Work-life balance: Assessment of how well current work supports your personal life. To what extent are you satisfied with your work-life balance?
Skill Development: Opportunities for learning and developing new skills.
You can change these headings as you choose to measure the elements of your career that are important to you.
How to Complete Your Own Career Wheel
Step 1: Either draw your own wheel and identify the 8 segments you want to measure, or choose from one of the many templates available online. We have a free interactive Career Wheel available, or you can print our Career Wheel templates, coaching questions and resource guide.
Step 2: Fill in the percentages that represent your overall levels of satisfaction from 0% at the center of the model to 100% at the outer rim. For example, ask how satisfied you are with your salary and benefits (on a scale of 1-100%)
Step 3: Once you have completed the ratings, shade in each section of the wheel to get a clear picture of the overall look of your wheel. Alternatively, you can complete an interactive wheel online that shades the segments automatically. You can then create PDF and download your Career Wheel Report.
Step 4: Use coaching questions to explore the insights from your completed wheel. For example: What do you notice about your completed wheel? What story does it tell? What’s the biggest gap that stands out?
Step 5: Given your current Career Wheel, list the top three goals within your areas of focus. Set a time to review your Career Wheel in 3-6 months time.
Benefits of Using a Career Wheel
The career wheel serves as a powerful tool for individuals at any stage of their career. Here are some key benefits:
Facilitates comprehensive career exploration: By assessing multiple dimensions of your career, the career wheel helps you uncover new opportunities and interests that you may not have previously considered.
Enhances clarity and focus in career goals: The wheel's structured format allows you to visualize your career landscape, making it easier to identify strengths and opportunities.
Promotes holistic career planning: It encourages a balanced approach to career development, ensuring a varied range of aspects in your professional life are considered.
Don’t Judge a Career Wheel by it’s Cover
The coaching conversation and reflection process that sits around a career wheel is important, as you can’t judge a wheel by the way it looks. For example, a recent coaching client completed their wheel and the results shown below, demonstrate low ratings across skill development, personal growth and career progression. At first glance, you might assume this person is in need of a more motivating career, yet in reality, this individual was in the last chapter of their career getting ready for retirement. Work-life balance and flexibility were their top priority, and so they were relatively pleased with their career wheel based on what they want right now.
Examples of Career Wheels in Practice
Real-world applications of the career wheel can vary widely. For instance, some individuals may use it as a one-time assessment tool during career transitions, while others might revisit it regularly to track their progress and adapt their goals. There are different approaches and formats:
Visual Diagrams: Some may prefer a colourful, artistic representation of their career wheel to make the process more engaging. This can be achieved with a large piece of blank paper and coloured pens to create a hand-drawn wheel.
Digital Tools: Various apps and online platforms, like The Coaching Tools Shop, offer interactive career wheel templates that can be completed, and saved for ongoing reflection.
Integrating the Career Wheel into Your Career Planning Process
The career wheel can be seamlessly integrated into your overall career planning. For example, you can:
Incorporate the completion of a career wheel into goal setting: Use insights from your wheel to set specific, measurable goals that align with your career aspirations.
Use the career wheel as a tool for decision-making and prioritisation: When faced with career choices, refer back to your wheel to determine which options align best with your assessed satisfaction levels.
Review and adapt over time, based on career progression: As your career progresses, revisit your career wheel regularly to reassess your satisfaction and make necessary adjustments to your goals and plans.
The career wheel is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to take charge of their career path. By providing a structured framework for self-assessment and exploration, it empowers you to make informed decisions and pursue a fulfilling careers. Whether you are just starting out or looking to pivot in your career, the career wheel can guide you toward clarity and success.
