Why Career Clarity for Employees Matters More Than Ever

Have you ever found yourself thinking, “I know I want something to change in my career… I just don’t know what”?

If you have, you’re not alone.

In workshops all over the world, I hear the same thing from employees at every level. They want to grow. They want to feel more fulfilled. They want to make a difference. But when it comes to answering the simple question “What do you want from your career?”, they get stuck.

And here’s the truth I share with them.

It’s very hard to move forward when you’re not clear where you’re going.

That’s why career clarity is the first element in my COMPASS framework. Before ownership, mindset, relationships, visibility, or success, we start with clarity. Because without it, every career conversation risks becoming vague, frustrating, and ultimately unproductive.

In this post, I want to explore what career clarity for employees really means, why it’s so hard to find, and how you can bring more of it into the career conversations in your organisation.

The quiet frustration of “I don’t know”

Let me take you into a conversation I’ve had many times.

I’m running a Career Compass Masterclass and invite participants to reflect on what they want from their careers over the next one to three years. There’s a pause. People look down at their notes. Someone shifts in their chair.

Eventually, a hand goes up. At that point, someone usually says:

“I don’t know what I want, Antoinette. I just know I don’t want this.”

There’s usually a ripple of laughter. Not because it’s funny, but because it’s familiar. Many people have more clarity about what they don’t want than what they do.

The problem is, that’s not enough information for a meaningful career conversation. Imagine going to a travel agent and saying, “I’d like to go somewhere that isn’t cold, isn’t busy, and isn’t expensive.” They might smile politely, but they don’t have enough to work with.

Managers feel the same. They want to support their people. They want to have career conversations that count. But when the other person can’t say what they are aiming for, the conversation quickly runs out of road.

Career clarity is what gives that conversation direction.

What career clarity is – and what it isn’t

Clarity does not mean having a detailed five-year plan mapped out in a neat Gantt chart. The world of work is changing too fast for that. Very few people can accurately predict where they’ll be in five years, and that’s OK.

Instead, career clarity for employees means having enough of a picture to make good decisions now.

That might include:

• A sense of the kind of work that energises you
• The skills and strengths you want to use more often
• The impact you want to have
• The conditions you need to do your best work (flexibility, challenge, stability, learning)
• Some possibilities for “what next”, even if they’re not fully defined

In my Career Conversation Model, I talk about three simple steps:

Learn from the Past → Dream about the Future → Take Action

Clarity sits at the intersection of those first two stages.

You look back and ask, “When have I felt most alive at work?”
You look forward and ask, “What kind of difference do I want to make?”

From there, you start to see patterns and possibilities. That’s clarity in action.

Why career clarity for employees is so hard to find

If career clarity for employees is so important, why do so many people struggle with it?

In my experience, there are three common barriers.

1. We move too fast to think

To begin with, most organisations are busy. People are juggling meetings, targets, inboxes, and family responsibilities. Reflection often feels like a luxury. We rarely stop long enough to notice what is working for us and what isn’t.

Clarity requires space. It needs a pause. Without that, we live on autopilot.

2. We’re afraid of choosing “wrong”

In addition, sometimes people do have a sense of what they’d like to do next, but they’re afraid to say it out loud. What if it’s unrealistic? What if they’re not good enough? What if they choose a path and regret it later?

So, they hover in a grey zone of “I’m not sure”, which feels safer in the moment but creates more anxiety over time.

3. We’ve absorbed other people’s expectations

Finally, it’s very easy to absorb unspoken rules about what a “good” career looks like. For some, that might mean a linear climb up the hierarchy. For others, it might be moving into management, even if they love their technical work.

When our real preferences don’t match those expectations, clarity can feel uncomfortable. It may mean redefining success on our own terms.

The cost of unclear career conversations

As a result, when clarity is missing, everyone feels the impact.

For employees, career conversations feel frustrating. They might leave thinking, “That was nice, but nothing really changed.” Over time, that leads to disengagement and eventually, resignation.

For managers, unclear conversations are draining. They want to help, but they don’t know how. They can feel as if they are failing their people, even when they’re doing their best.

For organisations, the cost is significant. Talent is underused. High potentials leave because they can’t see a way to grow. Roles remain unfilled because no one can see themselves stepping into them.

By contrast, when people have even a little more clarity, everything starts to shift. Conversations become more focused. Development plans feel more meaningful. Opportunities can be matched more effectively.

How to help people find career clarity

The good news is that managers and HR leaders don’t need to have all the answers. In fact, they don’t even need to know the destination.

Their role is to create the conditions for clarity to emerge.

In my programmes, I share practical tools from my Career Conversation Toolkit and Career Compass Workbook that help people do exactly that. Here are a few simple starting points you can try straight away.

1. Start with the past, not the job description

For example, instead of asking, “What role do you want next?”, try:

• “Tell me about a time you felt proud of your work.”
• “What projects have you enjoyed most in the last year, and why?”
• “When do you lose track of time because you’re so absorbed in what you’re doing?”

These questions help people learn from the past, which is the first step in the Career Conversation Model. Patterns begin to appear – strengths, values, interests – which give useful clues about the future.

2. Invite them to dream, without committing

The word “dream” can feel indulgent in a busy corporate environment, but it is incredibly powerful. It opens up new thinking.

You might ask:

• “If there were no constraints, what kind of work would you love to be doing in three years?”
• “What sort of problems would you like to be solving?”
• “What would a really good year at work look like to you?”

The aim is not to create a fixed plan. It is to generate ideas and possibilities. Once ideas are on the table, you can explore what might be realistic and what small steps could move them in that direction.

3. Help them name what matters most right now

Career clarity for employees is not only about the long-term. It is also about what matters in this particular season of life and work.

Questions that help here include:

• “At this stage in your life, what matters most to you?”
• “Is it progression, flexibility, learning, impact, or something else?”
• “What do you want more of in your role over the next twelve months?”

When people can name what matters most, decisions become easier. They can weigh options against clear criteria instead of vague feelings.

4. Turn insights into simple themes

As you talk, listen out for recurring themes. You might hear:

• “I like variety”
• “I want to see the impact of my work”
• “I love solving complex problems”
• “I need some flexibility around my caring responsibilities”

Reflect those themes back. You could say:

“It sounds as though variety, visible impact, and flexibility are really important for you. Have I got that right?”

That simple reflection is often the moment where clarity “clicks” into place.

Career clarity for employees and the COMPASS framework

You might have noticed that many of these questions and reflections link directly to Clarity, the first point on my COMPASS framework:

• Clarity – understanding who you are, what you want, and what matters
• Ownership – taking responsibility for your development
• Mindset – staying adaptable in a changing world
• People – building relationships that support your growth
• Amplify – making your strengths and aspirations visible
• Success – defining what success means to you
• Small Steps – turning insight into action

Without clarity, the rest of the COMPASS becomes much harder to apply. With clarity, everything else becomes more powerful.

Ownership becomes a conscious choice, not a vague intention. Mindset work becomes targeted, not general. Relationships can be built strategically, not randomly. Success can be defined in a way that feels authentic, not imposed.

One small step you can take this week

If you are a manager, HR leader, or employee reading this, I’d like to leave you with one simple step.

Before your next career conversation – whether it’s with your manager, your direct report, or even yourself – take a moment to reflect on this question:

“What do I want more of and less of in my work over the next year?”

You don’t need a perfect answer. A few words or phrases are enough. More learning. Less firefighting. More collaboration. Less isolation.

Bring that into the conversation. Share it, explore it, refine it together.

It might seem like a small thing, but in my experience, that kind of clarity is often where real change begins.

Because when people own their careers with clarity, organisations thrive.

Want to go deeper?

If you’d like to help managers in your organisation hold career conversations that start with clarity and lead to action, you might find my book Confident Career Conversations helpful.

You can get a free chapter that explores the foundations of effective career conversations and introduces the Career Conversation Model in more detail.

➡️ Get your free chapter and start creating career conversations that count.