You are good at your work. The evidence is there. And yet – something is not moving the way you expected. The gap between what you are capable of and what your current situation allows is a clarity problem, not a skills problem.

The clarity you need starts here.

Book your 30-minute discovery now

I respect your privacy and confidentiality.

The problem is not your ability

The common thread is a feeling, not a profession. Something has to change, but it is hard to name what.

People come at turning points: returning from a career gap and unable to find footing again, stuck in a role that no longer fits who they have become, carrying ambition they have not been given room to use, or simply feeling that the next step is somewhere they cannot yet see.

The work is for people who are functional, capable, and quietly dissatisfied – who know there is more in them than their current situation allows.

“At first I didn’t know what to expect. I doubted that talking could change anything. And I wasn’t sure I had anything worth saying about myself. I was wrong on both counts.”
– Business professional

Twenty years of the same questions

I know what it feels like to carry ambition in an environment that does not quite see it yet. I also know what changes that – and it is rarely what the person expected when they first walked in. I am Esko Lehtme – design executive and career coach. Twenty years in design business, leading teams since 2012, coaching professionals one-on-one since 2023.

The most common thing I hear after a first session: “I already knew that. I just hadn’t said it out loud.”

People who find their way to coaching usually come through someone else – a colleague, a friend, someone who went through it and could not stop talking about it.

How it works

Sessions are one-on-one – in person in Tallinn when possible, over video when not.

Coaching

I ask questions people have not asked themselves before. The answers are already there – the deep work during the session is creating the conditions to find them. I do not give advice. I listen carefully, ask the next question, and reflect back what I hear. The pace is set by what emerges.

“You always guide me into the discomfort zone to find answers within myself – without ever saying them to me.”
– Team lead

Mentorship

Mentorship works differently. I share experiences and anecdotes from my own career openly – including the failures. Where it helps, I bring in frameworks, tools, and references.

In coaching, the client finds their own answers. In mentorship, I offer mine as material to work with. You decide what fits.

“You ask questions I wouldn’t have thought of myself – even though the answers were already inside me. You never handed me the answers. You helped me see them.”
– UX designer

A simple plan

Book a free discovery conversation

We talk for 30 minutes. You share where you are. I share how I work. We find out if this is the right fit – for both of us. Ask me anything – this conversation goes both ways.

Map out your sessions

Based on what emerges, we agree on the focus, the schedule, and your development goals.

Meet regularly

I ask the questions. You find the answers. The direction gets clearer with each conversation.

What this work does

Professionals who go through this leave with something they did not come in expecting: a confidence in their own judgment they had not felt in years.

Some apply for roles they had been circling for years – and spend weeks preparing, because the direction is finally clear. Some have the direct conversation with their manager about the thing they had been avoiding. Some start the business they had been calling just an idea. Some shift positions entirely, retrain, and build toward something that fits who they have actually become.

They know what they want – and can say it out loud.

“Your approach, your flexibility, your uncomfortable – meaning necessary – questions, your warm presence. Every session felt psychologically safe. I could talk without a mask.”
– Architect

Questions before you decide

What should I actually evaluate before I decide?

I invite you to interview me too. Ask how long I have been coaching, what domains and positions I have worked with, what I have gotten wrong as a coach, and what I am working on in my own development right now. None of that is off limits. And pay attention to how it actually feels to talk to me, trust that instinct as much as any answer I give you.

Is this therapy?

No. This is coaching, or mentorship if that fits what you need better – we figure out which one early on, based on what you are looking for. Coaching starts from the position that you are whole and resourceful already, not that something in you needs diagnosing or fixing. Mentorship is more direct: I share what I have learned, where it helps. Neither one is teaching, and neither is therapy. If something you bring up would be better served by a therapist, I will say so directly.

How is this different from talking to a friend, family member, or my manager?

Friends and family care about you, but that is exactly the problem – they have a stake in what you decide, so they end up either protecting you or nudging you toward what is easiest for them. A manager has an even more direct reason to hold back: they evaluate you, and what you say can shape that evaluation. I do not have a stake in your outcome beyond your own growth, and nothing you say here follows you into tomorrow’s meeting or your next family dinner. I am also not building a friendship with you. My role is to work for your benefit alone, guided by the goals and perspective we establish together, not by what keeps a relationship comfortable. That is what makes it possible to say things out loud that would not come out anywhere else.

How is this different from talking to AI?

AI can be useful for organizing your thoughts. But it does not know you, has no stake in what happens to you, and will not remember what you said last week unless you paste it back in yourself. That lines up with what research on AI coaching actually finds: AI holds up well on structure, consistency, and even surface-level empathy in text, but humans still lead on emotional depth and trust, on navigating ambiguity, politics, and identity, and on accountability under real stakes – exactly the territory a career turning point lives in. Insight is rarely the hard part. Applying it in the room, under pressure, days after the session ends, is. I bring twenty years of navigating that exact organizational reality, right now, plus a working relationship that continues from one session to the next, not a conversation that resets every time.

Is this confidential?

Yes. What you share with me stays between us. I will never disclose that you are a client, or what we discuss, without your explicit agreement. The one exception: if we decide together that outside perspective would help your development, I may interview a small number of people you choose and name yourself, to bring back feedback for your growth. That only happens with your consent, using your list, for your purposes. I follow the ICF Code of Ethics.

What if I do not know what to talk about?

That is normal, and not something you need to prepare for. I ask the questions. Most people arrive with a vague feeling, not an agenda, and that is enough to start with.

Where do we meet, and in what language?

Online or in person, in a neutral office in Tallinn – whichever works for you. In Estonian or English, whichever you think better in.

What stays the same if you do not

The next opportunity will come and go before you have worked out what you actually want. The role that does not fit will still not fit tomorrow. And that gap between what you are capable of and what your situation allows does not close by waiting – it just keeps growing, quietly, in the background.

Clarity takes the right conditions and the right questions.

Find the clarity your career needs.

The first conversation costs nothing. Thirty minutes to find out if this is the right fit – for both of us.

Book your 30-minute discovery now

I respect your privacy and confidentiality.

Not ready to book yet?

Want to think alongside me before booking? The newsletter is where I share the thinking behind the work.

Author

Esko Lehtme

Design executive and coach. I write about design leadership, design careers, and self-development – from practice.