If the gap between what you are capable of and what your job allows will not close on its own, start with one free hour of real coaching – no cost, no pressure. One-on-one coaching for professionals at turning points.

The clarity you need starts here.

Free. Once per person. Real coaching from the first minute.

Book your free hour now

I respect your privacy and confidentiality.

What changes

Clarity on what you actually want – specific enough to act on, not just a feeling you cannot name.
Confidence to say it out loud – to your partner, to a manager, to yourself.

Create the plan you own - in your own words, designed for action.

What staying still costs

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. The tension does not solve on its own – it keeps growing quietly in the background.

People come to me at turning points. Some returning from a career break unable to find satisfaction, stuck in a role that no longer fits who they have become, carrying ambition they need to fulfill, or simply feeling that the next step is somewhere they cannot see yet.

“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

What actually happens in a session

Sessions are one-on-one – over video, or in person in Tallinn when possible. Your first hour is free, online.

Coaching

I ask questions people may 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, 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

Twenty years with similar 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.

I always look at you and your situation as a whole, not separating career from the rest of your life. Everything that goes around you has impact on your work performance and presence. And any decision you make about your career influences other areas of your life. We focus on finding balance.

“Esko asks good questions that open up your thinking, and he also listens well.”
– Design professional

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 has worked with me.

Who benefits most

You already have at least a few years of professional experience and an academic degree behind you. You are working out what comes next – whether that means climbing further, moving into leadership, or changing direction entirely. You appreciate reflection and open feedback.

What it costs

This first hour is free.

If it makes sense for both of us to keep working together, we will discuss the details at the end of the session. When we do agree on ongoing work, we will set up the schedule and logistics. I send an invoice with a Stripe payment link, and if you need to stop partway through, I refund whatever you have not used – no questions asked.

A simple plan

Think about your focus

Before you book, take a minute to think about what you actually want out of this hour – a decision, a conversation you have been avoiding, a direction you cannot quite name yet. You will be asked for it when you book. Naming it is already part of the work.

Book your free hour of coaching

Pick a time that works, and it is set.

Show up and work it through

This is real coaching – I ask the questions, you find the answers, and you leave with something tangible. If it makes sense to keep working together afterward, that is a conversation we can have at the end of the session.

What this work does

Professionals who invest in coaching will develop a confidence in their own judgment, they design their future and take action.

Some apply for roles they had been desiring for years, getting the direction finally clear.
Some have that direct conversation with their manager about the topic they had been avoiding.
Some start the business they had been calling just an idea.
Some shift their position entirely, retrain, and move toward the direction that fits who they have actually become.
Some develop leadership presence and authority.

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

What my clients have accomplished

Started acting on their problems after months of indecisiveness.

“I had the knowledge but was not moving. Our conversations helped me start moving.”
– Design professional

Took charge of their work and life.

“I can choose what I want from my career and my future, instead of just waiting to see where I fit.”
– Team lead

Turned scattered ideas into a real plan

“Notes scribbled into notebooks and sheets actually turn into real to-do lists, with proper deadlines.”
– People manager

Stopped analysis paralysis

“Just start, and do not overthink it. See where it takes you.”
– Corporate professional

Find the clarity your career needs.

It costs nothing. One real hour, so you leave with something either way.

Book your free hour now

I respect your privacy and confidentiality.

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?

Your free first hour runs online, over video. If we keep working together after, we can move to in person in a neutral office in Tallinn, or stay online – whichever works for you. In Estonian or English, whichever you think better in.

What if I need to reschedule?

Life happens. Use the reschedule link in your booking confirmation to move the session to a time that works for both of us.

What happens after the free hour?

Some people are done, and move on with what they found in the session alone. Some want to keep working together. If that is you, we talk about what that looks like then – there is nothing automatic waiting at the end, and no pressure either way.

How do I pay?

I send an invoice with a Stripe payment link. No separate account or app needed.

What happens when a package ends?

We talk about it in the last session. Some people are done and move on with what they found. Some renew. There is no auto-renewal, and no pressure either way – I would rather you leave with something real than stay for a wrong reason.

What if I need to stop partway through a package?

Say the word, and I refund whatever you have not used. No justification required, no partial-hour arguments. You paid upfront for convenience, not to lock yourself in.

What if I am a student?

I wrote this page for professionals with a work track record already. If you are a student, I offer free shadowing instead – message me on LinkedIn to ask about it.

Find the clarity your career needs.

It costs nothing. One real hour, so you leave with something either way.

Book your free hour now

I respect your privacy and confidentiality.

Author

Esko Lehtme

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