Career Coaching Frameworks I Use Every Day

A few months ago I was coaching a senior engineer at Cisco who'd just been passed over for a leadership role. He was frustrated, a little angry, and convinced the system was broken. "I've done everything right," he told me. "I hit every metric. I delivered every project. What else do they want?"

I asked him a question: "Who outside your immediate team knows your name?"

Silence.

That conversation led to one of the most productive coaching engagements I've had. Not because I told him anything revolutionary, but because we worked through a set of frameworks that gave him language for what he was feeling and a structure for what to do about it.

These are the frameworks I come back to in every coaching conversation. None of them are original to me. But the combination, and the order in which I use them, has been refined through years of coaching and my own career journey.

Framework 1: The Personal Advisory Board

Early in my career, I felt like I had to do everything myself. Asking for help was weakness. Figuring it out alone was strength. That mindset cost me years of unnecessary struggle.

The cheat code to your career is building out your bench of advisors. Four distinct roles, each serving a different purpose:

Peers accelerate you into a new role. They're the ones doing similar work at a similar level who can share what's actually working on the ground. When you transition to a new team or a new company, peers are your fastest on-ramp.

Mentors share their lived experience. They've been where you're going and can help you avoid the mistakes they made. The best mentors don't give advice... they tell stories and let you draw your own conclusions.

Coaches help you define goals and develop mindset. Unlike mentors, coaches don't need domain expertise in your field. They need expertise in you. A good coach asks questions you haven't thought to ask yourself.

Sponsors advocate on your behalf in rooms you're not in. This is the role most people neglect and the one that often matters most for career advancement. Sponsors don't just support you... they put their reputation on the line for you.

Most people have one or two of these roles filled and the others empty. The exercise I do with every client is a simple audit: map your current advisory board. Who fills each role? Where are the gaps?

My engineer had strong peers and one good mentor. Zero sponsors. Zero coaches. That's a common pattern for technical people... deep peer networks, shallow advocacy networks.

Framework 2: The 3E Model

Education. Exposure. Experience. Three dimensions of career growth that need to work together.

Education is what you know. Courses, certifications, skills, domain knowledge.

Exposure is who knows you. Networking, visibility, personal brand, thought leadership.

Experience is what you've done. Projects, stretch assignments, new responsibilities.

Most people over-index on one dimension and neglect the others. The perpetual student (all Education, no Exposure) keeps collecting certifications but wonders why nobody notices. The networker (all Exposure, no depth) knows everyone but can't deliver when opportunity arrives. The doer (all Experience, never promoted) ships more than anyone but never tells anyone about it.

Your skills open doors. Your visibility creates opportunities. Your track record closes deals. Miss one and the whole system breaks down.

The diagnostic is simple: which E are you neglecting? That's usually where your career is stuck.

Framework 3: The Values Hierarchy

This one goes deeper than the others, and I usually introduce it after we've done the tactical work.

The hardest career decisions aren't between good and bad. They're between good and good. The promotion that pays more but means less time with family. The startup that excites you but risks your financial stability. The role that aligns with your skills but not your interests.

Pros and cons lists don't work here. Both options have valid pros. Both have real cons.

What actually works: knowing your values hierarchy. Not just what you value, but what you value MORE when two values conflict.

I value both security and growth. But when forced to choose, which wins? I value both impact and income. When they conflict, which do I prioritize?

Most people never do this work. So every big decision feels impossible. They flip-flop. Second-guess. Regret. When you know your values hierarchy, hard decisions become clearer. Not easy... but clearer.

Putting It All Together

The order matters. I start with the advisory board audit because it's concrete and actionable. Then the 3E assessment because it reveals the structural gap. Then values work because it provides the foundation for everything else.

My engineer started with the advisory board exercise. He identified two potential sponsors and began building those relationships intentionally. Then we did the 3E assessment and saw his Exposure gap clearly. He started doing one internal presentation per month. Within six months, he got the leadership role.

Same skills. Same track record. Different visibility. Different advocacy. Different outcome.

These frameworks aren't magic. They're tools for making the invisible visible. And once you can see the gap, you can close it.