A story about navigating change when the next step isn’t mapped out for us
Why Self-Coaching Is Becoming an Essential WorkLife Skill wasn’t something Archie had given much thought to until his manager told him there was going to be considerable scope to shape what his role became.
Archie was an operations manager for a growing events and experiences company.
He had spent much of his working life in operations in one form or another.
He had started in hospitality, moved into events and gradually taken on broader responsibilities.
Different organisations.
Different roles.
Different challenges.
Change wasn’t new to him.
In many ways, adapting was one of the things Archie did best.
He knew how to walk into a complicated situation, understand what was happening and work out what needed to be done.
But this change felt different.
The company was reorganising.
Technology was taking over some of the processes that had previously required significant amounts of manual work.
Responsibilities were moving between teams.
New areas of work were emerging.
Archie’s role wasn’t disappearing.
It was becoming less clearly defined.
His manager seemed genuinely positive about that.
“There’s going to be quite a bit of scope for you to shape what your role becomes.”
Archie nodded.
It sounded like an opportunity.
It was an opportunity.
But as he walked back to his desk, one question followed him.
Shape it into what?
When the Next Step Isn’t Obvious
Archie thought about previous changes in his working life.
They hadn’t necessarily been easy.
But often there had been something tangible to respond to.
A vacancy.
A promotion.
A new organisation.
A manager suggesting he take on greater responsibility.
An opportunity that appeared because somebody needed a particular problem solved.
Archie made the decisions.
But there had usually been something in front of him to decide about.
This time, nobody was offering him a clearly defined next role.
His manager couldn’t tell him exactly what his work would look like a year from now.
Nobody could.
The organisation itself was still working some of that out.
Archie had been given something that sounded liberating but felt surprisingly difficult.
Possibility.
Without a map.
Looking at What Was Disappearing
At first, Archie concentrated on the parts of his role that were changing.
There were processes he had once spent hours overseeing that now required far less of his attention.
Reporting had become increasingly automated.
Information that once had to be gathered from several places could now be seen almost instantly.
Some decisions that used to come through Archie were being made closer to where the work happened.
Other responsibilities had moved to different teams.
None of this had happened overnight.
But when Archie looked at his role as a whole, he could see how much had shifted.
He found himself thinking about what he used to do.
What he no longer did.
What might disappear next.
It wasn’t fear exactly.
It was more a sense of uncertainty.
For years, Archie had understood his value partly through the responsibilities he carried.
Now some of those responsibilities were changing.
So where did that leave him?
A Different Question
One evening, Archie sat down with a notebook.
He had been trying to work out what his new role should be.
But every time he did, he found himself starting with the role he already had.
What would remain?
What would go?
What could replace it?
This time he tried something different.
At the top of the page he wrote:
What do I want to take forward with me?
The question shifted his attention.
Not everything that had brought Archie to this point needed to remain in exactly the same form.
But that didn’t mean it had lost its value.
He thought about what he had become particularly good at.
Seeing problems before they became expensive problems.
Remaining calm when plans changed at the last minute.
Understanding how one decision in one part of an operation would affect three other parts.
Knowing when a process was useful and when following it rigidly would make a situation worse.
Helping people think through something when there wasn’t an obvious answer.
Archie looked at the list.
Very little of it appeared in a job description.
Yet increasingly, these were the things people came to him for.
What Are People Coming to Me For Now?
Archie began paying attention.
A project manager asked him to look at plans for an event because something didn’t feel right.
A colleague wanted his perspective on a supplier problem.
Someone relatively new to the company asked if Archie had ten minutes to talk through a decision.
His manager brought him into a conversation between two teams that couldn’t agree on how responsibilities should be divided.
None of these things involved the operational processes Archie had been thinking about losing.
They involved judgement.
Perspective.
Experience.
Connecting things.
Seeing consequences.
Helping other people navigate uncertainty.
Archie had been measuring the changing value of his role by looking at what he used to do.
He hadn’t been paying enough attention to what people increasingly needed him for.
So he wrote another question:
What am I becoming useful for now?
Experience Doesn’t Stand Still
Experience can be easy to think about as accumulation.
The longer we work, the more situations we encounter.
The more knowledge we acquire.
The more things we learn how to do.
But experience can also change in value.
Something we once needed to do ourselves becomes something we can teach another person to do.
Knowledge we once used to complete a task becomes judgement we use to make a decision.
A problem we once solved after it happened becomes something we learn to anticipate.
Expertise doesn’t necessarily disappear when the work around it changes.
Sometimes it changes form.
Archie began to see that parts of his role becoming less necessary didn’t automatically make him less necessary.
But it might require him to think differently about where he could contribute.
And nobody else could do all of that thinking for him.
Self-Coaching and Self-Navigation
Managers can play an important role in helping us develop.
Organisations can provide learning, opportunities and pathways.
Colleagues can share perspectives.
Mentors and coaches can help us see possibilities we might not see ourselves.
All of that matters.
Archie’s manager had given him something valuable: permission and opportunity to help shape what came next.
But she couldn’t tell Archie what he wanted to carry forward from his experience.
She couldn’t decide which parts of his work still energised him.
She couldn’t know what he wanted to learn next.
And she couldn’t determine what kind of contribution Archie wanted to make as his role changed.
Those questions belonged partly to him.
This is where self-coaching becomes a WorkLife skill.
Not because we have to navigate everything alone.
But because increasingly, there are moments in our working lives when the next step isn’t mapped out for us.
We need to participate in finding it.
What Is Changing and What Does It Ask of Me?
Archie began using another question:
What is changing — and what does that ask of me now?
Sometimes the answer was practical.
A new system meant he needed to learn a different way of working.
Sometimes it involved letting go.
There were responsibilities Archie had continued holding because he had always held them, not because he was still the best person to do them.
Sometimes the answer was about development.
If more of his contribution was going to involve helping teams work across boundaries, he wanted to become better at facilitating those conversations.
And sometimes change created space.
Less time overseeing processes meant more time could be spent anticipating problems, improving how different parts of the operation worked together and developing other people.
Archie began to see the changes around him less as a description of what his role was losing and more as information about what it might become.
That didn’t answer every question.
It gave him better ones to work with.
A Different Conversation With His Manager
When Archie next sat down with his manager, he didn’t ask:
“What do you think my role is going to become?”
Instead he said:
“I’ve been thinking about where I seem to add most value now and where I think I could contribute more.”
His manager listened.
Archie talked about the situations people increasingly brought him into.
He talked about the operational knowledge he wanted to retain and the responsibilities he thought other people were ready to take on.
He talked about the problems he was interested in solving.
And he talked about some things he wanted to become better at.
His manager brought another perspective.
She could see changes happening elsewhere in the organisation that Archie couldn’t.
She knew what the business was likely to need.
She could identify opportunities he didn’t yet know existed.
Together, they began shaping something.
It wasn’t entirely Archie’s answer.
It wasn’t entirely his manager’s.
It was better because they both brought something to the conversation.
Self-coaching hadn’t replaced good management.
It had helped Archie arrive ready to participate differently in it.
Working Lives Are Becoming Less Mapped
There have always been unpredictable working lives.
People have always changed direction, lost jobs, created businesses, retrained, adapted and found themselves somewhere they never expected to be.
But many of the structures around work continue to change.
Roles evolve.
Technology changes how work is done.
Organisations restructure.
People move between employment, independent work and different combinations of the two.
New kinds of work emerge while others change or disappear.
Our own priorities change too.
What we wanted from working life at one point may not be what we want from it forever.
In that environment, knowing how to follow a path is useful.
Knowing how to navigate when the path becomes less obvious may be even more so.
Self-coaching can help us do that.
To notice what is changing.
To recognise what we’re learning.
To question assumptions about what should come next.
To understand what we want to carry forward.
To identify what we may need to let go.
To see where our value is evolving.
And to take greater responsibility for participating in what comes next.
Becoming a Better Navigator
Six months later, Archie’s role still didn’t fit perfectly into a neat description.
That bothered him much less than it once would have.
He had stepped back from several operational responsibilities.
Other people had grown into them.
He was spending more time on operational strategy, solving problems across teams and helping colleagues develop their judgement.
Some of the changes worked well.
Others needed adjusting.
There were still things Archie didn’t know.
There would be more changes.
He knew that too.
Every so often he returned to the question in his notebook:
What is changing — and what does that ask of me now?
The answer wasn’t always obvious.
But Archie no longer expected it to be handed to him.
That may be one reason self-coaching is becoming such an essential WorkLife skill.
Not because managers no longer matter.
Not because organisations should stop developing people.
Not because we should navigate our working lives without support.
But because no manager, organisation, career plan or job description can anticipate every change our working lives will bring.
Sometimes there will be a clear next step.
Sometimes there won’t.
Self-coaching doesn’t give us a map for an unpredictable working life.
It helps us become better navigators.
Continue Exploring Self-Coaching
Read more Professional Self-Coaching stories and explore practical self-coaching resources in the Professional Self-Coaching collection
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