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The Wheel of Life
In the Career Wheel (below), there are eight sections that represent satisfaction at work. They break down like this:
Values
Do your values match those of your company’s? Do you find your company’s vision and what it’s aiming to achieve worthwhile and important? Do you feel motivated to perform well?
Purpose
Does your job relate to the wider purpose of your company; can you see where it fits in and makes a difference?
Goals: Do you have clear goals? Do you know how you’re doing, what you’re doing well and how you need to improve?
Talents
Do your talents match the work you do? Do you feel competent and confident in your job? Are your talents being fully utilised?
Control
Do you feel a sense of control over what you do? Do you have freedom to make choices and take responsibility in the way you need? Are you involved and consulted? Do you have the resources you need to do your job well?
Belonging
Do you feel a sense of belonging? Do you like the people you work with? Does the company’s culture match your needs?
Recognition
Do you feel appreciated? Are your opinions sought and listened to as you would like? Are you paid appropriate to your role and performance?
Growth
Does your job give you the opportunity to grow? Are you being stretched, challenged and supported as you’d like? Do you see a bright future ahead?
How to use the wheel
Give each part a rating out of ten. A score of ten would mean you’re fulfilled and fully satisfied; 5 would mean there’s a significant amount missing, score one and that’s an area you are totally unhappy about.
Put a mark on the relevant spoke of the wheel for your score in each part. Take at least half an hour over your Career Wheel, giving yourself time to evaluate each area thoroughly. Be scrupulously honest. When you are finished, join the lines together.
How big and how smooth is your wheel?
Is your wheel smooth but small, or big in some places but small in others?
Example 1: A perfectly smooth wheel
In this wheel all areas score highly and the wheel is smooth - this is ideal but not very common!
Example 2: A more typical wheel
Some areas score highly, others less well.
Now decide what this means for you, and what you’d like to do about it. What areas are most important to you? Decide what actions you could take to achieve higher scores in these areas.
Take Talents, for example: in the wheel above, talents scored 10 because they matched this person’s current work well, but not all her talents were being recognised or utilised and she felt an increasing restlessness about this. So the question for her was: how can she get her company to recognise and make better use of her?
Decide what areas you can and will tackle. What actions will you take, and what timescale will you complete those actions in?
Are there any areas that you feel you can’t tackle? If so, it may be a signal that it’s time to tackle moving jobs.
