Hit a wall? Questioning your career? Start with a values audit

In my coaching practice, I work with high-achieving professionals who care deeply. They’ve spent years building a career that looks exceptional on a resume – hard work, milestones hit, titles that make their families proud. Yet despite doing everything “right,” they find themselves facing a disconnect, feeling stuck, unsure of how to fix it or where to go next.

That disconnect is far from rare. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report found global employee engagement has fallen to just 20 per cent, its lowest level since 2020, with manager engagement down nine points since 2022.

Mental Health Research Canada’s 2025 study found 39 per cent of Canadian employees now report feeling burned out often or always, up from 35 per cent two years earlier. And Deloitte’s global Gen Z and Millennial survey found roughly four in 10 respondents have turned down an assignment or an employer over a clash with their values. Its findings suggest younger workers aren’t abandoning ambition so much as redefining it, prioritizing steady progress, sustainable workloads, clear support and financial stability over climbing at all costs.

The stress and burnout we’re seeing aren’t only about hours or workload, though obviously those matter. They’re about misalignment: the compounding cost of saying yes, repeatedly, to goals and expectations that were never really theirs to begin with.

When it comes to careers, I’ve seen misalignment show up in a few recognizable forms. Sometimes it’s the wrong career, chosen because it felt safe or expected rather than energizing. Sometimes it’s the right career in the wrong culture – work they enjoy, worn down by office politics or a workplace that preaches values it doesn’t practise. And sometimes the person has changed: becoming a parent, moving through grief or any significant shift that means a role that once fit no longer does.

When I work with a client, one of the first things we do is a values audit, a starting point in a much broader body of work. Values are the core beliefs and driving principles that guide a person’s choices and their definition of success – an internal compass for what matters most. It can sound like table stakes, but many people have never fully examined theirs.

We often begin with stories of when they felt most alive – some about work, others about travel, hobbies and the people who mattered to them. Then we look at which values emerge, some of which may have been overridden for years. Once they can see where their values and their daily reality diverge, clients decide what to do about it.

Some find they can make their role fit: with a clearer view of the gaps, they ask for what they need and get it. Maybe that’s more say in decisions, work that better matches their goals and how they think, a clear progession plan or more space for the parts of life outside of work. Others find the compromise too costly to keep carrying and chart a different path. Ultimately, it’s about bringing how they work and live into line with what they value.

If you’re feeling something similar, here’s where I’d start:

1. Recall the stories: Think back to moments of real aliveness – and, just as usefully, moments of real depletion. Both point toward your values. Write them down.
2. Separate values from “shoulds”: Not everything pulling at you is yours; some of what we call values are inherited. Ask whether a task or goal energizes you when you work toward or complete it, or whether it’s just quieting a fear of disappointing someone.
3. Audit your work and life against them: Where are you in alignment and where are you ignoring your values? That gap is usually a signal of where to shift.

This isn’t work individuals should have to do alone. Organizations serious about engagement and mental health in the workplace need to view their people through a whole-person lens and support leaders in having real career conversations, ones that go beyond output and performance to ambition and what matters to each person. Done well, that pays off for employees and organizations alike.

Dana Rahat is the founder of UPGRADE, a whole-person, human-first coaching practice specializing in career, leadership and life transitions. She is an ICF-credentialed coach and a Positive Intelligence (PQ) Mental Fitness Coach.