ACTIV in Action – Aneesh’s Coaching Journey

Part 2 - CHOOSE: Exploration, Not Escape

When Aneesh’s company began its chaotic restructure, he was faced with questions no job description could answer:

What now? What matters? What kind of work still feels right when everything familiar is changing?

In the ACCESS phase of coaching, Aneesh had reconnected with his values and motivations. He uncovered a deep desire for integrity, trust, and transparency in both workplace culture and leadership. But knowing what matters is only the beginning.

CHOOSE is where insight becomes direction.

Now, Aneesh had to make sense of what he’d uncovered and begin shaping a future that honored his values and reflected how he wanted to work.

💬 The First (and Hardest) Choice

Before Aneesh could think about new roles or career paths, he had to make a far more difficult decision: to leave.

It wasn’t easy. Company 1 had been his professional home for years. There was history, familiarity, and the comfort of routines built over time. But the company was restructuring and that process wasn’t clean or kind.

The notices came in waves. The offers were inconsistent. Some employees were given severance, others a chance to stay under new conditions, and others were left in painful limbo. Aneesh was offered a position, but by then, the writing was on the wall. He wasn’t just witnessing a transition; he was witnessing a slow unraveling.

Like many navigating a major workplace transition, Aneesh wasn’t only grieving his own uncertainty, he was grieving for his friends and colleagues too. That’s the unspoken reality of workplace change: it’s rarely just professional. It’s personal. Emotional. A mix of loyalty, loss, and the ache of watching others suffer.

Choosing to walk away wasn’t about escape, it was about alignment. But it came at a cost.

✨Values in Alignment

Before choosing a new path, Aneesh needed clarity on what really mattered to him. That’s the work of the ACCESS phase. ACCESS reconnects you with your values, motivations, and deeper goals.

During ACCESS, integrity emerged as his guiding principle. For Aneesh, integrity meant accountability, commitment, discipline, and achievement. Closely tied to it were the values of transparency and trust. Together, these shaped what he desired in leadership and workplace culture.

Aneesh’s values became his guide. Not just for what he wanted to do, but for how he wanted to work with others.

As his journey would reveal, holding firm to these values would become more than a guide. It would become a test.

What Is ACTIV?

Aneesh’s coaching journey followed the ACTIV framework, a five-phase process designed to guide individuals, leaders, and organizations through workplace transitions with clarity and confidence:

• ACCESS – Reconnect with your values, motivations, and deeper goals

• CHOOSE – Make decisions that reflect who you are and where you want to go

• TAILOR – Shape a path that fits your unique strengths and circumstances

• IMPLEMENT – Move forward with intention and confidence

• VALIDATE – Reflect, assess, and realign as needed

Each phase builds on the last. But it always begins with ACCESS — and from there, movement becomes possible.

EXPLORATION OF OPPORTUNITIES (CHOOSE)

With a deeper understanding of his values, Aneesh moved into the CHOOSE phase. This wasn’t about narrowing options — it was about expanding them. Guided Exploration encouraged him to explore the full landscape of possibility without self-censorship.

We reflected on his past roles:

✔️What had energized him?

✔️What had drained him?

✔️ What was missing from those experiences?

One theme surfaced again and again: Aneesh naturally thought in terms of process. He was energized by structure, comfortable in systems, and often sought out ways to improve workflows and operations. He thrived when there was a clear framework — and when he could contribute to making it better.

That orientation toward process opened up several paths. One that stood out was Project Management.  Project Management was a field grounded in structure, coordination, and systems thinking. It seemed to match his strengths and offered a next step that aligned with how he worked best.

Aneesh made a choice to move forward, to try something that made sense, based on what he now understood about himself.

🟢 Insight

CHOOSE is the intersection of what was, what could be, what must be, and what you want to become. That’s when the path becomes clear.

📌 What’s Next

In our next post, we enter the TAILOR phase — where choice becomes design. We’ll explore how Aneesh began shaping a path that not only made sense on paper but felt right in practice.

Need a Guide Through Your Own Transition?

If you’re standing at your own intersection and ready to explore what’s next, I offer a Free 15-minute consultation to help you take the first step. Let’s talk.