Aneesh’s Journey Part 4 – IMPLEMENT: Navigating Workplace Career Alignment

Every journey shifts when you take the first step toward alignment.

Editor’s Note: This post is an updated repost from June 2025, revised for clarity and alignment with the ACTIV coaching framework.

Aneesh didn’t come to coaching looking for a career overhaul. He entered coaching in the middle of a company-wide transition that had shaken everything familiar—his role, his team, and the culture he once trusted.

At first, the focus was on navigating the immediate change. But as we moved through the coaching process, something deeper emerged. Aneesh began to recognize what wasn’t working now—and what had quietly misaligned long before the upheaval. Coaching helped him name both his losses and the lessons he had learned.

Through ACCESS, he reconnected with the values and motivations he had set aside. In CHOOSE, he made the bold decision to step away from Company 1.In TAILOR, he shaped a plan that reflected his strengths, needs, and long-term goals.

He took a flexible role at a small tech company where he could explore new responsibilities, including project management. He had done the work. He had made the plan.

Now he was ready to IMPLEMENT—putting that plan into motion.

But real life isn’t a controlled environment. And implementation often reveals the truths that planning alone cannot.

What Is the ACTIV Coaching Framework?

The ACTIV framework supports individuals, leaders, and organizations through change with clarity and purpose. It includes five phases:

• ACCESS – Reconnect with your values, motivations, and deeper goals to uncover what truly matters.

• CHOOSE – Make intentional decisions that reflect who you are and where you want to go in your workplace transition.

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

• IMPLEMENT – Take action with clarity and confidence, putting your chosen path into motion.

• VALIDATE – Reflect on progress, celebrate wins, and refine the plan to stay aligned with your goals.

Every ACTIV phase builds on the last. But it all begins with ACCESS, where reflection turns into direction. Through workplace transition coaching and the ACTIV coaching framework, you gain both structure and flexibility to navigate change with clarity and purpose.

Dysfunction Clouds Discernment

By the time Aneesh entered the IMPLEMENT phase, he had a solid plan. He had taken a flexible role at a small tech company where he could wear multiple hats and gain broader experience. During the day, he was gaining hands-on exposure to new responsibilities. At night, he was pursuing his project-management certification, committing significant time and energy to a possible new direction.

One of those responsibilities included overseeing a small external project. It wasn’t a formal project manager role yet, but it was an opportunity to test the waters, apply what he was learning, and see whether project management truly aligned with who he was becoming.

He told me he felt both “excited and nervous” stepping into this opportunity. On paper, it seemed ideal: flexible, practical, and aligned with the path he was investing in through his evening coursework.

But almost immediately, friction began to surface.

The company’s structure was loose. Expectations were vague. And performance gaps weren’t addressed. They simply fell to whoever cared the most.

Most of the time, that was Aneesh.

In one session, he summed it up this way:

“It’s hard to know if a role is the right fit when you’re spending all your energy managing chaos.”

The noise of dysfunction made it nearly impossible to hear his own internal voice. Instead of asking, Do I belong here? he was stuck in, What else can I try?

Together, we began to distinguish the signal from the noise. Not to judge the company, but to help Aneesh hear himself again.

🔄 The Tom Situation: A Case Study in Career Alignment Insight

One conflict became the turning point.

Tom was responsible for a critical reporting task on Aneesh’s project. Despite multiple respectful requests, Tom repeatedly ignored deadlines.

Aneesh tried everything:

✔️ Asking kindly and directly

✔️ Offering to streamline the process with automation

✔️ Checking for obstacles

✔️ Escalating through the appropriate supervisor (which politics rendered useless)

Eventually, he negotiated compliance:

“This task might not matter to you, but others will. Help me here, and I’ll support you when those come up.”

Tom agreed. The task got done. But it drained Aneesh in a way that revealed more than it resolved.

He still wanted to contribute meaningfully but in this environment, he didn’t feel he could. Instead, he found himself managing resistance, negotiating accountability, and carrying emotional labor that didn’t align with how he wanted to work. 

That’s when a deeper truth surfaced.

☁️When the Cloud Lifts: Seeing Your Values Clearly

Aneesh always felt most fulfilled in environments where initiative came naturally, collaboration was mutual, and teammates shared a commitment to doing what needed to be done, not just what was asked.

In an early coaching session, I asked him how he defined integrity in his work. He paused for a moment, then said:

“Integrity isn’t just doing what you’re asked. It’s anticipating what’s needed, seeing the bigger picture, and acting before someone has to tell you.”

That insight shaped the entire discussion that followed.

He realized he had stepped into a role where his strongest value, integrity expressed through proactive ownership, was not shared by his colleagues. And even in a more structured organization, a project management role would still require asking others to meet expectations they didn’t necessarily hold themselves.

He was comfortable offering support, tools, and structure. But he didn’t want a role where he had to constantly motivate others, enforce standards, or carry the emotional labor of accountability.

This wasn’t just about the company. It was about alignment.

He put words to it in a way that marked a shift:

“I realized I wasn’t evaluating the work anymore. I was just trying to manage people who didn’t share the same expectations. That’s not who I want to be in my career.”

Naming it changed everything.

This part of Aneesh’s journey highlights the real challenges of navigating workplace career alignment, especially when misalignment emerges during the IMPLEMENT phase.

CHOOSE Revisited - Navigating Workplace Misalignment

Instead of pushing forward on a misaligned path, Aneesh returned to the choices he had explored earlier.

One rose to the top: data visualization—a field that combined his analytical thinking, clarity-driven communication style, and desire to make complex information usable.

It had been on the list from the beginning. Now, with deeper clarity, he chose it.

He re-entered the TAILOR phase to design a new plan and stepped into IMPLEMENT again. This time energized, aligned, and confident.

⚠️From Misalignment to Meaning in Workplace Transition Coaching

Many professionals never reach this moment.

Aneesh could have completed his project management certification, earned the credential, and still felt unfulfilled—never realizing the misalignment wasn’t about capability, but about values.

Coaching surfaced two essential truths:

Your values matter. Your career must align with them—or you will always feel out of sync.

This is where transformation begins. Not with doing more, but with understanding what truly matters most.

📌What’s Next

In the next post, we’ll enter the VALIDATE phase—where Aneesh reflects on what he’s learned, strengthens his new direction, and continues building a career that fits who he is, not just what’s available.

🔗Need a Guide Through Your Own Workplace Transition?

If you’ve been doing everything “right” and still feel misaligned or unfulfilled, you’re not alone.

Coaching doesn’t give you the answers. It helps you hear yourself more clearly.

🗓️ Book a Free 15-minute consultation and let’s explore what your next step might look like.