As a career coach, you know that the journey to a fulfilling career is more than just matching skills to job descriptions. It’s about tapping into the deeper “whys” that drive a person forward. To help our clients succeed at challenging goals, we must first help them develop and envision a desired future. Identifying what we want to grow into is a vital first step to igniting the drive to get there, and it serves as a powerful reminder of why the hard work is worth it when the path gets tough.
This post will explore the unique human factors to consider when guiding clients through decisions about their career direction. We will cover how to help them envision their future, tap into their internal motivators, and understand the interplay between personal and professional identity. By the end, you will have a clearer framework for supporting your clients as they navigate these critical life choices.
The first step in coaching for career direction is helping clients build a vivid picture of their desired future. This isn’t just about a job title; it’s about the life they want to lead.
Start by asking them to imagine their life ten years from now. Prompt them to consider the professional they want to become. Then, explore the different facets of that reality to co-create a shared vision.
You can use powerful questions to guide this exploration:
This line of questioning encourages internalization through self-persuasion. Your clients are effectively talking themselves into a commitment to their goals. Once they know where they want to go and why it matters, you have primed them for the next stage: goal striving.
Motivation is one of our most powerful internal resources. It gives us fuel for the road. Tapping into our intrinsic motivators naturally activates us and gets us started on the challenging journey of goal attainment.
However, motivation can be fleeting, much like an emotion. It comes and goes, and we can’t always rely on it to be present. This is where self-discipline and habits come into play. Developing the ability to self-manage goal-oriented behaviors—to do what needs to be done even when we don’t feel like it—is how we make progress toward our desired outcomes.
Think of motivation and self-discipline as tag-team partners.
With enough repetition and consistency, these goal-striving behaviors can become habits. They become so ingrained and automatic that they no longer feel effortful. They transform into urges that lead us to continue the desired behavior without even thinking about it. To achieve important, long-term goals, we need to be able to use all three: motivation, self-discipline, and habits.
According to Self-Determination Theory, developed by psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, there are two primary types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. As coaches, we aim to help clients identify self-concordant goals, which are rooted in autonomous or “want-to” motivators.
Intrinsic motivation comes from within the person. The purest form stems from interest or enjoyment in the task itself.
Extrinsic motivation comes from an outside source. Some forms are internalized (“want-to”), while others are not (“have-to”).
Studies consistently show that intrinsic motivation enhances performance, problem-solving, creativity, and conceptual understanding. Conversely, certain extrinsic motivators can undermine intrinsic drive by thwarting the fundamental human need for autonomy. The goal is to tap into the “want-to” motivators:
We can use open-ended questions to help clients explore and connect with their intrinsic motivators.
These questions guide clients toward goals that feel authentic and aligned with who they are, increasing the likelihood of long-term success and satisfaction.
Person-job fit refers to the alignment between a job’s characteristics and an employee’s personal needs and abilities (Tims, Derks, & Bakker, 2016). This includes two types of fit:
Research shows that a good person-job fit enhances job satisfaction, performance, and engagement while reducing stress, burnout, and turnover intentions (Bayona, Caballer, & Peiró, 2020; Chhabra, 2015; Laschinger & Grau, 2012).
Importantly, job fit is dynamic. It must be proactively managed over time to be maintained (Kim, Schuh, & Cai, 2020). As we learn and grow, we can outgrow a role, even one that was once a perfect fit. When that happens, it can contribute to a decline in our well-being at work.
A career is often intertwined with our identity. Professional Identity Formation (PIF) is the transformational process of internalizing a profession’s core knowledge, skills, and values, leading an individual to “think, act, and feel” like a member of that community (American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, n.d.).
This process is an iterative cycle of construction and deconstruction. As Shiva Sarraf-Yazdi and colleagues (2021) note, students “refine, reject or internalize new values, practices and behaviours while reexamining pre-existing ones.” We enter a profession with our existing personal identity, and through socialization and experience, we integrate professional norms to develop a new, evolving professional identity. This process continues throughout a career, leading to professional maturation.
Ultimately, our work can provide a profound sense of mattering, purpose, or a calling.
As coaches, we can help facilitate a sense of calling by helping clients clarify their vocational identity, find meaning in their work, and build career commitment.
Your role as a career coach is to create a space for exploration and self-discovery. By guiding clients to envision their future, connect with their intrinsic motivators, and understand the dynamics of identity and job fit, you empower them to make career choices that are not just strategic, but also deeply fulfilling. You help them find not just a job, but a path that aligns with their authentic self and provides a lasting sense of purpose.
