It’s time for a leadership pulse check in the new year! The NOW District Wellness Wheel Annual Self-Assessment was designed precisely for that purpose: as a tool to be revisited each year to identify areas for change and gauge how we are growing against those goals. Recently, the LCMS has strengthened its emphasis on worker wellness through both resolutions and a Synod-wide focus on wellness (resources can be found on a dedicated webpage here).
If you completed the Wellness Wheel Annual Self-Assessment in 2024 (we sure hope you did!), you’ll be able to compare and see how your wellness goals have developed over the past 365 days. If you didn’t, this could be the year to give it a try! Find out how you are doing by taking the assessment here. It takes about 10 short minutes to complete. ALL leaders in NOW District ministries are encouraged to use this tool to self-assess and build some goals for the coming year.
Hundreds of leaders have taken the assessment since it first launched in 2020. And it makes a huge difference. Just ask Director of Ministry Leadership Dust Kunkel, who coaches leaders in wellness goals.
“There are a number of reasons this assessment helps me,” he said. “First, just the simple act of taking 10 minutes to review where I feel I am in the eight wellness categories serves as a benchmark, a nice moment to stop in January or February and take stock. Second, I’ve found it much easier to set goals because I can tangibly see where I ‘fit’ in each of the wellness categories. Third, the two-page results sheet that I receive in my inbox has been great for conversations with my wife and with friends and colleagues who support me. I get a lot done each year, and it often starts with the 10 minutes using the Self-Assessment Wellness Wheel.”
The Self Assessment targets eight areas: Spiritual Health, Family Health, Career & Leadership Development, Stress Resilience, Social Involvement (Outside of Vocation), Physical Health, Financial Health, and Coaching and Mentors. Ministries, priorities, and capacities all change. Tracking those changes can be a powerful tool in the hands of a reflective leader. The process is simple: Once an individual completes the assessment, he or she is emailed a confidential copy of their results. After a couple of years of doing this, we can compare each year’s results against others and see what has changed and what has not. The longer a leader is engaged with the annual reflection process, the more detailed the picture of wellness becomes. Finally, the results provide simple “starters” for accountable conversations with trustworthy friends and colleagues.
The Wellness Wheel is an easy-to-use, confidential, online resource available to all ministry leaders in the NOW District (that’s YOU!). Consider using it as a foundation for setting new personal and professional goals for the year — and beyond.
There are also many other NOW District options available for wellness. Visit the Leader Holistic Wellness page for more info.