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Most clients expect their careers to move like a staircase.
One step after another, always upward.
When the climb slows, stalls, or turns sideways, they assume something’s wrong with them. And that shows up in your coaching room as panic:
“Why can’t I keep up?”
“Did I miss my shot?”
“Everyone else is moving ahead—what’s wrong with me?”
Nothing’s wrong. They’re just in a different season.
I’ve been in this work long enough to know: careers don’t move in straight lines. They move in cycles.
When you name the season, clients stop blaming themselves for being off track. They see that what they’re going through is normal. And once they know the season, you know how to coach your clients with context.
Rest and reflection
Every field has a quiet season.
For clients, it often looks like being between roles, coming off a tough stretch, or admitting a misfit they’ve ignored for years.
This season gets mistaken for failure. In reality, it’s recovery time and a chance for clients to rest and think more clearly.
When the noise drops, the questions surface:
What kind of work actually restored me?
What did I tolerate just for the paycheck?
Where did I push too far?
As coaches, our role is to help clients see this pause as part of the process, not proof they’re broken.
We need to watch our scope: if every session circles back to panic or past trauma, it’s time to bring in mental health support.
Growth and experimentation
After quiet comes curiosity.
Clients start testing small moves: a new course, a side project or a stretch assignment.
Progress is uneven. Some attempts stall.
That’s normal - he point of this season isn’t to get everything right. It’s to shorten the gap between curiosity and evidence.
I’ve seen clients rediscover skills they’d forgotten they enjoyed like teaching, problem-solving, building or persuading.
When they can say, “I tried this, and here’s what I learned,” it builds both insight and confidence.
Our job is to normalize the mess.
Not every move has to pay off.
Each attempt is proof they can still adapt and that confidence is what carries them into the next role.
Flourishing and momentum
Sometimes everything lines up—skills, role, values, timing—and the client hits stride.
They walk in taller. Work flows. Results pile up.
It’s a rewarding season, but also the one most easily taken for granted.
Clients may say yes to too much because they can.
And they often forget to capture their wins before the season shifts.
This is where you step in.
Encourage them to save emails, track results, and collect feedback now.
Those records will make the next transition easier.
Remind them that momentum lasts longer when it’s paced, not stretched thin.
Harvest and transition
Every strong run eventually slows.
Then comes the nudge—sometimes chosen, sometimes forced:
What’s next? What do I let go of?
Clients often resist naming this season until layoffs, reorganizations, or burnout leave them no choice.
That’s why I like “harvest” language. It puts focus on what they’ve gained, not just what they’re losing. Questions I use:
What did this role add to your skills?
What relationships do you want to carry forward?
What beliefs did you outgrow here?
Harvest is both celebration and pruning.
Clients leave with more focus and energy for what’s next.
The trap is treating every month like momentum
Constant flourishing looks good online. In real life, it burns people out.
Seasons aren’t excuses for no progress.
They’re context. And when clients honor the context, three things happen:
Their choices get smarter.
Their timing improves.
Their confidence holds up longer.
And candidly, your coaching gets sharper too.
One question to anchor a session
If you want a single tool to carry forward, try this:
“Which season are we in right now, and what would honoring it look like this month?”
Not forever, just this month.
That frame is enough to shift the tone of a session:
Rest feels purposeful.
Growth feels manageable.
Momentum feels sustainable.
Harvest feels constructive.
Coaching with seasons in mind
When we coach through the season, we are giving clients an orientation.
Once clients can locate themselves, everything else gets easier: planning, outreach, even pressing pause.
But it’s not just clients who are going through seasons, we are too.
So, what season are you in right now?
I’m in a harvest-into-growth moment where I’m finalizing a new course I’m launching, building a new website and sketching a keynote I’m delivering soon.
If you’re willing, hit reply and tell me where you are. I’d love to hear how the rhythm is showing up in your coaching room.
Talk soon,
Heather
The Coach for Career Coaches
2 ways to work with me:
Join the next cohort of my fully online FCD (Facilitating Career Developments) course here
Apply for 1:1 coaching if you want honest feedback and real-time support to improve your client outcomes.