What Happens When Your Career Stops Making Sense: Reclaiming Professional Identity in an Age of Upheaval
"I don't know who I am in my work anymore."
The sentence lands like a confession. I hear it whispered in coaching sessions by brilliant, accomplished women who've built businesses, led teams and shaped industries. Sometimes it comes with tears, sometimes with frustrated laughter. But it's always loaded. Because it's never just about the job.
Behind the polished LinkedIn updates and professional facades, more and more leaders are sitting with a quietly devastating truth: their professional identity - the story they've carried, embodied, and lived into for years - is starting to unravel. And they're terrified about what that means.
Some are navigating redundancy after years of loyal service and stellar performance. Let go not because they failed, but because entire organisations are in survival mode. Others are watching their roles shift into something unrecognisable and wondering when the work stopped aligning with their values. Many are hanging on in jobs that slowly erode their spirit, staying put only because financial insecurity feels even scarier than professional disconnection.
And then there are the founders and seasoned consultants, the self-made entrepreneurs who've poured everything they've got into building something meaningful, only to watch clients vanish and contracts stall as global pressures ripple through every sector.
In each case, the disruption isn't just economic. It's existential. A quiet, profound rupture in professional identity. A question whispered in the dark:
"If I'm no longer who I was in my work… then who am I now?"
WHY PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY CUTS SO DEEP
We like to think we're pragmatic about work - that it's "just a job," a means to an end. But let's be honest: work has never been just work. It's personal. It always has been.
When someone asks, "What do you do?" we don't just answer with our occupation. We answer with our identity. Our relevance. Our value in the wider ecosystem. Our careers become shorthand for our self-worth, woven so tightly into our sense of self that when they shift, we feel like we're losing pieces of who we are. So when the job changes, or disappears altogether, the internal disorientation can feel seismic.
Here's what we don't talk about enough: the psychological whiplash of professional reinvention. We frame it as a career pivot or a personal brand refresh, but behind closed doors? It's often heartbreak. A crisis of belonging.
That's why smart, high-performing people get paralysed in the face of change. It's not just about the uncertainty. It's grief. We grieve the clarity we used to have. The confidence that came from knowing exactly where we fit. The identity that once felt solid and unshakeable.
And often, underneath that grief, is shame. That corrosive inner whisper that says:
"You should have figured this out by now." "Reinvention is for beginners." "Your uncertainty equals failure."
But here's the truth: you haven't failed. The world changed. The systems shifted. The rules got rewritten while you were out there excelling at the old game.
Now, you're being called, yet again, to evolve.
And that's not failure. That's leadership. That's courage. That's growth.
This isn't just about finding a new job or niche. It's about finding your footing again. Your voice. Your value. Your sense of meaning. And yes, that journey can feel uncomfortably vulnerable, especially if you're used to being the steady dependable one.
THE WORK JOY MYTH THAT'S MAKING EVERYTHING HARDER
There's also something else that isn't helping: the relentless pressure to find "joy" in our work.
We've spent the last decade marinating in the gospel of passion and purpose. (Guilty as charged, I've preached it too.)
"Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life." "Find your why." "Live your calling."
And yes, I'm all in for meaningful, values-led work. But this idealisation of joy as a constant state has become its own kind of burden.
Because what happens when the joy fades? When the work that once lit you up now feels misaligned, irrelevant, or just plain exhausting? When systems shift and you no longer recognise the terrain?
What if, right now, joy feels like a luxury you can’t afford?
Right now, a lot of people are holding on by the skin of their teeth. They're navigating upheaval, reinventing in real-time, trying to survive in landscapes that feel more like mazes than missions. And so joy, in the traditional sense, can start to feel indulgent. Naïve. Like something that belonged to a more optimistic version of the world.
And yet… I don't think we're ready to give up on it completely.
Maybe joy doesn't need to look like fireworks and flow states anymore. Maybe in this season, joy looks like quiet alignment. Like being able to show up without pretending. Like finishing the day and still feeling like yourself.
Maybe joy is simply remembering that you still have agency, still have value, still have the right to want your work to feel like it belongs to you.
And if that's the new shape of work joy, then yes, I still believe in it. And I think we need it now more than ever.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR PROFESSIONAL SELF GOES MISSING
There's no one-size-fits-all blueprint for rebuilding your identity after job loss, business burnout, or a slow drift into misalignment. But here are a few truths I've come to trust, through my own evolution, and from walking alongside hundreds of other leaders in theirs:
YOU ARE NOT YOUR JOB - EVEN IF YOU LOVED IT, LIVED IT, AND BLED FOR IT
When the external scaffolding falls away - the title, the inbox, the income - come back to what's unshakable inside you.
🔹 What values hold steady across roles?
🔹 What instincts follow you into every room?
🔹 What kind of impact do you create without even trying?
That’s your essence. That’s your power. It was never just about the role. It was always you.
SEE CHANGE AS CONTINUATION, NOT BETRAYAL
So many people worry that pivoting means abandoning everything they've built. But what if your next move isn't a departure, it's a deepening?
What if the question isn't "What should I do next?" but rather,
🔹Who am I becoming now, and what does this season of my life want from me?
When we lead from that question, we open ourselves to curiosity, creativity, and evolution - the foundations of true reinvention.
RELEASE THE MYTH OF THE STRAIGHT LINE
Careers don't move in tidy arcs. They meander. They spiral. They pause. They swerve into surprise choreography you didn’t audition for.
If your journey feels chaotic you’re not off track. You’re just human. Some of the most powerful careers I've witnessed were shaped not by perfect planning, but by brave people willing to follow the breadcrumbs.
EMBRACE YOUR PORTABLE VALUE
Your title, industry, even your business model are all changeable containers. But your skills, your leadership, your ability to build trust, make meaning, see patterns, and create movement? Those are portable. They go wherever you go.
🔹Start asking yourself: "What do I carry?" Not just, "what do I do?"
That’s your continuity. That’s your career capital.
BUILD YOUR RUNWAY, THEN TAKE FLIGHT
Courage doesn't always have to mean free-falling. Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is build stability first and leap later.
Take care of your practical needs first. Make space and then, when the fog clears just a little, start to reimagine.
🔹What would a more aligned version of your work look like?
🔹What small step could you take toward that vision?
Follow the flickers of possibility - especially the small ones. They’re often the start of everything.
HONOUR THE GRIEF (EVEN WHEN OTHERS DON'T)
It is normal to grieve the loss of work or even loss of clarity. It's the loss of rhythm, purpose and identity. And grief doesn't like to be rushed or rationalized away.
Feel it all: the anger, the fear, the sadness, the hope. You don't have to rush it or make it look neat. You can hold sadness and hope in the same breath, and still move forward.
TRUST YOUR INTERNAL COMPASS OVER EXTERNAL APPLAUSE
Most of us grew up chasing gold stars, craving the next nod of approval, the next promotion, the next "well done." But if your self-worth is tied to other people’s approval, you’ll never feel free.
Now might be the moment to tune into something deeper — your own knowing, your own alignment. The path won’t always be clear. But it will be yours.
THIS ISN'T THE END. IT'S AN INVITATION TO BEGIN AGAIN.
If you're in the in-between space where your old identity no longer fits and the new one hasn't fully arrived yet, know this:
You are not lost. You're in motion.
You are not behind. You're becoming.
And while this might not be the chapter you expected to write, it might be the one that reconnects you to your own voice - your power, your clarity, and your leadership. Evolved.
LET'S MAKE THIS PERSONAL… AND PRACTICAL
This is the point when many people go quiet. They isolate. They power through. Trying to convince themselves that they're the only one going through this.
Your are not the only one. And you do not have to navigate this season alone.
If you're ready to move from confusion to clarity, from exhaustion to alignment, here are two powerful ways we can work together:
THE POWER EVOLVED: VIP INFLUENCE & IMPACT DAY
A focused, one-day immersive reset for senior women leaders and change-makers who need space, strategy, and high-level support to deepen their leadership and accelerate their impact.
THE POWER EVOLVED: STRATEGIC RESET
A more spacious, three-part coaching experience that helps you realign your work, energy, and leadership focus for the season ahead. Includes tools, coaching, and a personalised 90-day plan you'll actually want to follow.
Both are designed for leaders like you: ambitious, human-centric, high-performing, perhaps a little world-weary, but ready for something truer.
You're allowed to want more. You're allowed to evolve. To become the next version of yourself - even if you’re still figuring out who she is
If that’s where you are, I’d be honoured to walk the next part of the path with you.
Let's write the next chapter of your leadership story together, one that feels made for this evolving version of you.
#Leadership #CareerTransition #ProfessionalIdentity #WorkJoy #ExecutiveCoaching #WomenInLeadership #CareerPivot #ProfessionalGrowth #LeadershipDevelopment #Reinvention #LeadershipEvolved #PowerEvolved #HerPowerEvolved #ExecutiveCoach
