Are you the type of manager who likes to get better? Optimize what it does? Progress? Evaluate your leadership skills with the Leadership Wheel diagnostic tool. It’s a tool that I developed that allows you to get an overview related to your leadership role at a moment in time. This tool combines the different dimensions and leadership skills of the Unique philosophy of executive coaching services.
Doing the Leadership Wheel exercise helps you get a clear view of what is happening in the six different areas of your leadership by organizing and evaluating them. Thus, the wheel represents the state of things at a time.
Following this inventory, you can easily place your energy where it is important for you and thus increase your positive impact significantly.
The Six Areas of the Leadership Wheel
WARNING
Some of the questions below are “big” questions. It is completely normal not to be able to answer everything! Just keep in mind that in all areas related to leadership, the depth to which you can go is endless! It’s more about how satisfied you are with yourself right now, not where you are in your journey. This is an important nuance!
The three dimensions of leadership
my person
This is about how you manage YOURSELF. That is to say: the way you manage your emotions, your energy, your stress. How well do you maintain a positive impact on yourself and others during times of stress or emotional strain? How do you rate your self-knowledge? What are your values, your strengths, your interests, your ambitions? What are you doing to achieve your goals in life?
My relationships
The sphere concerning others includes the following dimensions of communication: making oneself understood, listening, curiosity through questioning, validating (rather than making scenarios), having the courage to say what is, having the necessary difficult conversations, and managing conflict. In addition, there is benevolence and empathy.
My goals
Here it’s about being able to have a vision, set clear goals, and make them happen. Plus, it’s about being open to new ideas, thinking outside the box to achieve your goals, and motivating your team to achieve them (and motivating yourself!). Then, recognize performance, and know how to give both positive and readjustment feedback, at the right frequency! (Not once a year during the annual evaluation.
The three families of leadership skills
Leadership
As a leader, how well do you know how to engage each person on your team? Mobilize your group? Does your team have a common, shared goal? Does everyone understand what their impact is on others? Do they really work as a team, or do you stay at the center of everything and be the person who coordinates everything that needs to be coordinated? How clearly do you delegate with positive results?
Management
Management skills are key in a leadership role! You must know how to manage both the human side and the more technical part of management! It seems that “management” is unloved in our time, but it is necessary! A good leader knows how to follow up at the right time, coordinate, schedule, manage a budget and apply good change management practices daily.
Agility
Agility is a leadership skill linked to your ability to make decisions and take actions with full knowledge of the impacts and consequences of these, on you, others, and the organization (these are the three dimensions of leadership!). For example, are you more reactive or are your actions and decisions, quick or not, taken as best you can with the general topo?
The reaction is an instinctive response, agility includes stepping back, even 2 nanoseconds. Also, how deep do you go to transform things? Rather at the source versus on the surface. More about the need than the symptom? Also, with whom do you cooperate in your organization, or outside your organization even if it does not give you anything, strictly speaking, concretely in the short term. Then, how far do you go outside the box when it’s relevant?
Make your Leadership Wheel
Instructions
Draw the wheel as in the summary image (appearing a little above). A circle, with six parts and a scale from 0 to 10 inside. Then enter the domains (the 3 dimensions and the 3 families of leadership skills).
Then, for each area, indicate with a cross your current level of satisfaction. 0 means you are not at all satisfied and 10 means you are extremely satisfied.
- Connect the dots together to form a “spider’s web”. It is then possible to visualize the satisfaction you experience for each of the six domains and by domain.
- Take a moment to analyze your wheel and choose one of the six areas you want to work on.
The item chosen should be the one that will make the biggest difference to you.
As you know, observations are good, but to observe transformations there is only action.
So, I invite you to answer the following 3 questions:
#1: If you had a significant improvement in the selected area. What new results would you observe in this area?
For example: in my management, I would find that I was no longer chased after in the files because of my delay, I would proactively make my deliverables at the right time!
#2: What does this result mean to you?
For example: peace of mind and better relationships with colleagues
#3: What are the 3 things you could do to get what you just listed in question 2?
For example:
First, I must take a moment to organize my week so I’m going to set aside 1 hour every Monday morning to take stock and organize my schedule.
Then, I will make sure that I fully understand the expectations and deadlines. For each file, I will ask these questions. Immediately, I will create a list of files for which this information is not clear, and I contact the people.
Finally, I think that if I made work plans, I would be less surprised by the magnitude of the task. Tomorrow morning, I have 2 hours free and I’m going to analyze a bit where I am to “update” myself.
Of all the plans you make, make sure you have milestones, and deadlines, and schedule them!
To move forward on your plan, ask for help, and get trained!
In conclusion
Perform this leadership or executive coaching wheel exercise frequently. Do not hesitate to set quarterly reminders, for example, to see your progress… or not! It’s never too late to act.
