A Brief Description of the Flashlight Career Development Coaching Model

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The Flashlight Career Development Coaching Model (the Flashlight Model in short) offers a human-centred approach to career conversations, connecting theory with practice. This model brings together several key concepts to form a practical framework applicable across contexts, from individuals to groups and teams.

Effective career development coaching requires a way of holding a conversation that allows for structure while remaining open to wherever the client needs to go. Just as a flashlight cuts through darkness, this model helps illuminate the path ahead without dictating the journey. The five core elements of the flashlight include: Foundation-building, Opening, Exploring, Closing and Implementing, framed within a broader context of Adaptability and Environmental influences. The Flashlight Model integrates the International Coaching Federation’s definition of coaching and core coaching competencies with an Active Engagement approach (Amundson, 2018) to career conversations and Hope-Action Theory (Niles, Yoon, Amundson). What follows is a visual representation of the model, along with a brief description of each component.

Foundation-building

The foundations of the coach and coaching conversation are the power sources in the flashlight. There are two significant influences here: Mattering and Creative Presence. Mattering (Rosenburg, McCullough) reminds us that how we show care shapes identity, both our own and that of the people we care about. When people feel they matter, how they see themselves changes. Creative Presence (Fruhling) is a way of being when working with others. It is tuned in, imaginative, and responsive in the moment. It invites new perspectives, discovers hidden meaning, and creates space for possibilities to emerge. Creative Presence allows the career coach to stay with their client in liminality, trusting that the best way forward will emerge.

Opening

Opening a career conversation well means resisting the urge to move too quickly. Slowing down to prepare well together not only helps you better understand who you’re working with, but also helps develop a trusting partnership with your client. Taking time to discuss the coaching relationship is an investment that pays off throughout the work you will do together and provides an anchor point to revisit as needed.

There are three key elements of the Opening. Readiness acknowledges that clients often arrive at a coaching session in very different places. Pausing to ensure readiness by acknowledging competing demands, emotions, or practical concerns helps create space to focus on the work ahead and ensures the time can, in fact, be used well. The Approach invites consideration of the necessary modality and a discussion of how the coach and client hope to work together. Finally, Focus invites wayfinding into the conversation. Mapping out an overarching direction and clarifying what is most important to focus on gives both the coach and client a sense of shared purpose as the work begins.

Exploring

The Exploring phase in this coaching model is the moment the light begins to fan out, and what is unseen begins to take shape. Clarity and new insights emerge as the coach and client engage in the work of discovery together. With exploring, the coach and client engage more deeply with the topic, often working in liminality and maintaining a view of the client as a whole person, each with their own wisdom and insights that help inform the conversation.

Exploring asks the coach to be responsive to the client’s needs and requires the use of foundational skills (active listening, curiosity, powerful questions, etc.) alongside strategies such as metaphor, storytelling, pausing, and more. Tools and interactive resources such as workbooks, card sorts, and other tactile learning supports, can also be used to support the conversation. During the Exploring phase, it is important for coaches to be mindful of their foundations, focus on the person, be willing to engage creatively, and make adjustments as needed.

Closing

Closing a session with a client takes time and consideration, and has two key elements: Planning and Commitment. Rather than an abrupt transition (or just running out of time), Closing is a deliberate shift towards clarity, consolidating what has emerged and looking ahead to what comes next. The topic identified earlier in the session is revisited, insights are named, plans shaped, and commitments considered and expanded on to strengthen accountability. During the Closing, the client turns awareness into meaningful action and engages in forward momentum.

In the Closing, the role of the coach may change based on the modalities discussed in the Approach and working agreements established. The coach needs to maintain awareness of the level of prescribing or directing that may arise in a more advisory role, instead focusing on supporting the client in imagining possibilities, making plans for next steps, and committing to the plan. Central to this is helping the client think through what they need in order to follow through, supporting commitment rather than good intentions alone.

Implementing

When a coaching session is finished, the coach’s contact with the client may be limited, but the work can continue. Supporting the client’s autonomy is central to this phase, as is recognizing that outcomes rarely follow a straight path. When plans are not executed, when commitments are abandoned, or actions are stalled, there is often valuable learning to be uncovered and explored in follow-up conversations.

There may be active implementation of the developed plans, with the client taking concrete steps forward. Reflection and continued insights may also occur for both the coach and the client after the session, sparking new ways of thinking that weren’t accessible during the coaching conversation, and, for the coach, an opportunity to consider the approaches used, strengthening practice over time. Finally, the coach may contribute resources or referrals to support next steps as a more active participant in the client’s implementation. This should be done thoughtfully, ensuring any support offered expands the client’s capacity to move forward rather than creating a reliance on the coach.

Environmental Influences

Effective career development coaching begins with understanding the broader system (Environment) in which a client operates, and how it shapes who they are. Equally important is the knowledge that both the coach and the client can shape the identities, experiences, and hopefulness of the people around them. The Environment invites ongoing self-awareness, identifying what the client already knows and what they wish to shine the light on and explore further. Sometimes this means scanning the horizon, and sometimes looking closely at the roots underfoot to understand what is immediate and present. Together, these perspectives support a client in moving forward with vision, grounded self-knowledge, and hope.

Adapting

Adapting acknowledges that things don’t always go according to plan, and while this can feel like a failure, it is more accurately a natural opportunity for learning and growth within the career development process. Clients often find themselves in a liminal space, uncertain and in transition. Though this space may be uncomfortable, it holds potential for learning and growth when explored with a career development coach.

When things don’t go as planned, the coach and the client can return to the partnership, reflecting together on what’s working, and what might be experimented with, or approached differently. This is not a detour from the work, but a continuation of it. Adapting means being willing to move the flashlight, shift attention to light up different parts of the client’s situation, and make sure that what needs to be seen is brought into focus.

Next Steps

This is only a brief description of the Flashlight Model, in many respects just the “tip of the iceberg”. I am putting this forward with the hope of engaging with others in further discussion, training, and speaking opportunities. I look forward to continuing the dialogue.

Learn more about the 4-week Flashlight Model: Practical Coaching Skills for Career Development Conversations online course HERE.