Clarity Instead of Chaos: How Coaching Helps You Make Career Decisions?

In most jobs, we rarely run out of tasks. More often, we run out of clarity about the road ahead: stay in your role or accept a promotion, remain in the organisation or look for something new, invest in a side project or let it go.

Pros and cons lists, conversations with people you trust, yet another spreadsheet - all of this helps, but only up to a point. Then a familiar feeling shows up: “The more I think about it, the less clear it becomes.”

Coaching isn’t a magic answer to every dilemma. It is a structured process of working with a decision - where, through questions, exercises and a bit of distance from the situation, you turn chaos into a map: with directions, criteria and concrete next steps. Research on leadership coaching shows that a well-run process increases self-awareness, goal clarity and confidence in making career decisions.

Below, you’ll see how coaching supports career decisions - step by step.

Decisions from “that’s what you do” - where work chaos comes from

Many career decisions don’t happen because you truly want them, but because “that’s what you do”, “it’s the natural next step”, or “everyone else is doing it”.

At CMLS, I put it plainly: decisions often stem more from external expectations than from your own priorities, and making conscious, values-aligned choices is often a challenge.

The effect?

• you take on projects that don’t bring you closer to what really matters,

• you say yes to promotions you don’t want, because “it would feel wrong to refuse”,

• you stay in a role that stopped developing you a long time ago - because “at least it’s stable”.

On the cognitive level, something else is happening too: you’re trying to solve several problems at once - financial, image-related, family, development. Your brain goes into overload, and that’s when mental shortcuts take over (“I’ll choose whatever is safest”, “I’ll stay, I’ve already invested so much”).

Research on executive coaching shows that working with a coach helps you notice these shortcuts, question the automatic “that’s what you do”, and make decisions that are more aligned with your values and long-term goals.

Coaching as a safe space to think out loud

Coaching is a structured process of working towards a goal. Through questions, simple exercises and small tasks between sessions, you organise your thinking, decisions and habits so that the outcome really shifts.

A key element is a safe, confidential space where you can:

• say out loud things you wouldn’t say to your manager or team,

• admit doubts (for example, “I’m not sure I even want to be a manager”),

• test different scenarios without immediate consequences.

Executive coaching is often described as one of the most effective tools for leader development precisely because it creates time for reflection, understanding your own decision patterns and consciously choosing a direction - instead of reacting to the noise of everyday work.

A coach is neither your advisor nor your boss. They don’t pull you in “their” direction. They take care of the thinking process - asking questions, helping you see the consequences of different choices, and returning to what you initially declared as important.

From context to decision: Context → Goal → Plan

At CMLS we follow a simple but demanding path: context → goal → plan.

In career decisions, it looks roughly like this:

1. Context - what is actually going on here?

   • What does your current situation look like?

   • What is fact (contract, structure, scope of responsibility), and what is interpretation?

   • What are the real constraints - and where do you still have influence?

2. Goal - what do you want, not only what you want to avoid?

   • Where do you want to be professionally in 12-24 months?

   • How do you want to feel at work - more in charge, calmer, more ambitious?

   • How will you recognise that the decision you made was “good enough”?

3. Plan - what moves will you make in the coming weeks?

   • Which options are actually on the table (A, B, C - and sometimes D: “I’m staying for now, but on different terms”)?

   • How can you test these options safely (a pilot, a conversation, a side project)?

   • What goes into your calendar as a concrete action, not just “I need to think about it”?

This kind of approach combines classic coaching models like GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, Will) with a practical business lens: fewer abstract reflections, more specific scenarios and decisions over time.

Three levels of clarity coaching can bring

Good coaching doesn’t end with a one-off “lightbulb moment”.

Change happens on three levels:

1. Clarity in your mind - I know what I’m aiming for Instead of a vague “I want to grow”, you name something specific: for example, “Within a year I want to move from expert to project lead in area X.” Your self-awareness grows - research shows this is one of the key outcomes of coaching and the foundation for better decisions.

2. Clarity in your emotions - I see what pulls me forward and what holds me back Career decisions are rarely purely rational. Fear of change, loyalty to the team, the need for financial security all play a role. Coaching helps you notice your emotions without putting them in charge. It develops emotional intelligence, which both researchers and practitioners point to as crucial for the quality of leaders’ decisions.

3. Clarity in your calendar - I know what I’m doing tomorrow Without action, even the best decision stays on the slide deck. Coaching ends with a concrete plan for the coming days and weeks - an email, a conversation, an analysis, a test. This builds a sense of agency, keeps momentum, and lowers the risk of getting stuck in overthinking.

When coaching isn’t the right answer?

It’s just as important to be clear about when coaching won’t help with career decisions:

• when you expect ready-made advice (“tell me what to do”) - a coach won’t replace your manager or an expert consultant,

• when you don’t want to take responsibility for implementation (“someone else has to change this”),

• when the main topic is clinical in nature, related to trauma or depression - then psychotherapy, not coaching, is the appropriate route,

• when the relationship with the coach starts to look like dependency - the purpose of coaching is to strengthen your independence, not to create a long-term feeling of “I can’t decide anything without my coach”.

A good practice is a clear coaching contract: defined goal, number of sessions, working principles, and boundaries of responsibility. It protects both sides and is a reminder that coaching is a process with a beginning and an end - not a relationship “without limits”.

Summary

Decision chaos rarely comes from a lack of intelligence or competence.

More often, it arises because:

• you’re trying to satisfy several systems of expectation at once (“company - family - myself”),

• you mix facts with interpretations,

• you act under time pressure, without a map or clear criteria.

  
  

Coaching doesn’t “decide for you”. Instead, it helps you:

• organise the context - see what is fact and what is a story in your head,

• name the goal - what you really want in your work and professional life,

• build a plan - which concrete steps you’ll take, and when.

  
  

Clarity instead of chaos doesn’t mean 100% certainty and guarantees. It means good enough clarity to:

• make a decision aligned with yourself,

• understand its consequences,

• and have a plan for the next weeks.

In today’s dynamic world, that level of clarity is often the biggest advantage - for you, and for the organisation you work with.