As Neil’s Wheel has moved further into the consciousness of coaching practitioners, we’re seeing a remarkable story continuing to emerge. How it is helping, nurturing, growing and supporting many people to achieve wonderful things, within themselves, within their work, and within the wider community. We have some very inspiring insights for you straight from the coaches themselves, demonstrating just how powerful people’s experience of Neil’s Wheel has been for so many.
Speaking with coaches Lydia Stevens, Barbara Bates and Stephanie Marisca, one of the major themes that emerged was how there is indeed no ‘one way’ of using the Wheel, and how it’s the very simplicity of its format that is allowing for such great change. Another was the great joy all of these coaches have found in using the Wheel and witnessing its transformative effect on their clients – what a wonderful experience to have the privilege of being part of. Read on for how Neil’s Wheel has shaped the lives of both these coaches and of their clients…
Lydia Stevens – Leadership Coach, Thinking Partner and Guide
Lydia has shared Neil’s Wheel primarily with clients who are transitioning from a traditional career to a purpose driven career, and she has seen how it helps them to unpack their own thinking, values and priorities. She has particularly enjoyed the fact that every time she uses the Wheel it unfolds in a different way. In conjunction with ‘Ikigai’ (what you love, what the world needs, what you’re good at, and what you can be paid for), Lydia’s experience of Neil’s Wheel’s focus on purpose and calling seems to have been profound. And the fact that the Wheel itself is super flexible has had a tremendous impact – ‘I love no rules’.
Lydia also uses Neil’s Wheel as a training tool for coaches in climate and biodiversity coaching, which they then go on to use with their own clients. Because Lydia’s work is all around environment, purpose and social and economic values, using Neil’s Wheel fits well with the philosophy that she works with. She has used it both at the beginning and at the end of coaching sessions as a means of getting to the depth of her clients’ perspective and positioning.
Lydia herself and her clients have found the website incredibly useful, the Wheel itself being easy to understand and open to interpretation. Overall, she is looking for ‘tools and techniques to help frame interactions for us with each other as a living species, and integrate our footprint and impact’ – Neil’s Wheel provides this in an extraordinary way. For her it has helped people to explore beneath the philosophical discussions of the planet and its threats and to let go of the intellectualisation. ‘It’s saying in my heart, what do I really care about, what’s mine to do, how do I move forward – it’s a very dynamic way of meeting your client where they are in relation to something such as climate change’.
Barbara Bates – Accredited Executive & Personal Coach, Harrison Professional Coach, Writer
Barbara’s first thought on learning about Neil’s Wheel as a new tool for coaching was ‘what’s so special about it?’, but she was about to find out…. For a start she has found the Wheel particularly useful in climate related and systemic conversations; her clients have said it has both given them insights and enabled them to move on. Barbara found that it stimulated discussion in surprisingly effective ways, and personally has enjoyed the overarching themes the Wheel suggests that gets to the heart of many climate related issues. The blank segment for any other thoughts that may arise provided an opportunity to think as widely as possible – by the end of using the Wheel Barbara concluded ‘I’m doing better than I think’.
Barbara’s biggest learning from experiencing the Wheel was the importance of the coach keeping out of the way and enabling the Wheel and the coaching process to do their work. She found that in this way the client is being given the space to think. Indeed, feedback from one of her clients was that it gave her scope for powerful reflection between sessions, and that she gained insight into each of the segments in a way that allowed her to move forwards. An important revelation that came to Barbara as she was coaching was to let go of ‘what if the client doesn’t think I can perform, I’ve got to get results, I’ve got to get a high ROI’, which is all true but it’s important to let go of these thoughts while in a session or your energy is in the wrong place. She also enjoyed the fact that you can divide the Wheel into two and score where you are now and where you want to be – a great tool for prioritising.
Barbara is currently suggesting the use of the Wheel in a Reciprocoach peer coaching round, and it has sparked a number of insights for her client there. She is also using it as a resource for a coaching programme in her coaching shop, describing Neil’s Wheel as ‘brilliant’. She enjoys the way there’s an element of counter coaching to it – you’re not supposed to come up with an agenda and in a way the client has been given an agenda, but if there’s something else they want to talk about then there’s room for it. In her own words, ‘One of the thoughts in my session was who’s little old me to do all this, but actually it’s not little old me, it’s big old everybody – I found that a really helpful insight’.
Stephanie Marisca – ICF Master Certified Coach
As a life and leadership coach, Stephanie has done a lot of executive work and mentor coaching – she was introduced to Neil’s Wheel fifteen years into her career. She found a freshness to it, and a language that sparked a different curiosity to all other wheels she had seen up to that point. It is now an essential part of her toolbox.
Stephanie has found that every time she uses Neil’s Wheel, there is always something that happens that the client didn’t expect – ‘it’s like a new idea comes in, a new awareness, a shift in their perception of themselves’. She enjoys and looks forward to this part of the process, anticipating at what point the shift will happen – it happened to her personally as well. She believes that this allows clients to examine something much deeper inside themselves that they weren’t aware of – ‘I love that the Wheel brings people to a deeper understanding of themselves, and takes them to a place where they didn’t think they were going to be’.
Stephanie has found that Neil’s Wheel is richer than most tools that are similar to it, and as such it’s not something she’d include in an intake package. She has witnessed the value of the client choosing to engage with the Wheel and gain the advantage of further exploration and discovery with their coach. Moving through the process with them, she has seen how the Wheel can shift perspective enough for clients to have the courage, agility and flexibility to meet themselves where they are at that moment and who they want to be going forwards. This is clearly quite a profound experience to witness.
Stephanie has an online coaching community called The Coaching Café, with whom she has shared Neil’s Wheel as a topic. She also introduces it to clients whenever she thinks it could be useful for them, and as soon as she thinks someone can gain from it – ‘I’m always sharing it’. One massive impact she witnessed was from a client who was a senior executive, on talking through the ‘Enabling Greatness in Others’ segment – it made him understand so differently how he was being as a leader, and completely changed the trajectory of the coaching. Clearly this had a big effect on the client, as well as Stephanie herself – ‘I really feel like the Wheel was a big piece of that shift that happened. It motivates me and inspires me to want to use it more.’
It was a joy to chat to Lydia, Barbara and Stephanie, and to learn how Neil’s Wheel is working in such a powerful way for both them and their clients. Their experience tells a powerful story – how the Wheel is enabling people to align what’s happening within themselves and the effect they want to have at work and in the world. It is helping people to have deep, meaningful, sometimes difficult conversations, and to emerge restored and enlightened. The enthusiasm with which people embrace this tool, and use it to encourage great exploration and gentle revelation, is deeply inspiring. It has clearly had a great and positive effect since its introduction to the coaching world, and as these interviews prove, very much continues to do so.