How to find joy in your career using self-coaching

Executive overview

Most people know they want more fulfilment at work but have no process for getting there. David Novak, former CEO of Yum Brands, argues that joy — defined as high-energy happiness — is the most reliable compass for career decisions.

The framework starts by identifying what drains you (joy blockers) and what energises you (joy builders), then distilling everything into one single biggest thing to act on. Self-awareness is the prerequisite; the process makes it actionable.

Joy is the destination finder: clarify what gives you energy, remove what saps it, then pick one thing to change.

What self-coaching actually looks like

• Self-coaching is the practice of applying the same curiosity to yourself that good leaders apply to others.
• High self-awareness — knowing what makes you tick — is the starting point, not the outcome.
• Novak's 1997 decision to refuse a co-leader role at the Yum spin-off is the central example: he knew working for someone he couldn't learn from would kill his energy, so he pushed back, made his case, and eventually got the top job.
• The lesson: self-coaching is what allows you to act on self-knowledge under pressure rather than just complying.
• Novak also self-coached himself to seek out Warren Buffett when he lacked investor experience — identifying the gap, finding the right person, then going directly to the source.

Joy blockers and joy builders

• Joy blockers are the specific things that sap your energy: a difficult boss, too much travel, lack of growth, misaligned values.
• Joy builders are what make your best days — memorable accomplishments, the kind of work that feels like a hobby.
• The exercise: write down your worst days at work, at home, and personally. What specifically happened? Then do the same for your best days.
• Look at the ledger. Compare where you actually spend your time against what energises and drains you.
• The assessment surfaces whether the gap is fixable within your current role or requires a bigger change.
• Everyone has some blockers; the question is whether they dominate. If your biggest blocker is the people, but you love the company, the answer may simply be moving teams.

Finding the quiet to do the work

• Self-reflection requires intentional time — it cannot happen in the noise of daily life.
• Pascal's observation applies: most people avoid sitting quietly alone, which is precisely where this work happens.
• Novak's 3x5 card exercise: write down "what am I today" and "what do I need to be tomorrow" — covering personal style, behaviours, and professional skills.
• Do it annually. Share it with people who matter to you. Put it somewhere visible (he puts his on the refrigerator).
• He ran quarterly coaching sessions with his top 50 executives at Yum Brands anchored to their 3x5 cards — modelling vulnerability by sharing his own areas of development first.
• Example: Novak recognised his conviction and passion could intimidate people. His card named "tempered passion" as something to work on, and he made that visible to his team.

The single biggest thing

• After mapping blockers and builders, the next step is identifying one thing — the change with the most potential impact on your joy and career.
• One thing forces prioritisation. It focuses thinking. It produces clearer, more measurable action.
• Novak borrowed the concept from his internal leadership programme "Taking People With You": every attendee had to arrive with the single biggest thing that could most impact the company.
• The single biggest thing changes as your career progresses — it is not a permanent answer but the right next question.
• Early career Novak: just get in the door. Later: become the best possible leader for a company he could build. Then: make Yum the defining global company that feeds the world.
• Trying to pursue seven or eight goals simultaneously produces less over time than zeroing in on one, gaining traction, then moving to the next.

When the answer isn't clear

• Not everyone can immediately identify their single biggest thing — that confusion is itself useful information.
• In those cases, recruit "assistant coaches": people who know you well and can reflect back your strengths, blind spots, and what they'd do in your position.
• The favourite question: "What would you do if you were me?" You don't have to follow the advice, but hearing it sharpens your own thinking.
• Sometimes the honest single biggest thing is: get to know myself better before I can decide anything else.

Self-awareness as a leadership gap

• Novak cites research suggesting roughly 75% of leaders believe they are highly self-aware, while only about 25% of their direct reports agree.
• The gap is the problem. Leaders who overestimate their self-awareness are the hardest to coach.
• The blocker/builder exercise and the 3x5 card practice are practical correctives — they force specificity rather than vague self-assessment.
• Being specific matters: "I travel too much and never see my family" is actionable; "I'm not happy" is not.

Joy in practice

• Warren Buffett's autobiography was called Tap Dancing to Work because he never felt like he was working — his curiosity about business was inseparable from the work itself.
• That is the target: work that functions as a hobby, not an obligation.
• Novak's own career transition — from not knowing what a CEO really did to running a global company — happened because his single biggest thing shifted when the opportunity appeared.
• The framework does not require having a grand plan. It requires honest self-knowledge and one clear next step.