Leadership Predictions for 2026: Designing Work Where People Can Do Their Best

Leadership is refocusing on its fundamental roots of leading people. Two clear predictions for 2026 reveal why this shift is already underway, but how ready are today’s leaders to adopt the intentional practices that support it?

There is a growing recognition across the executive space that the years ahead may test leaders in ways that strategy alone will struggle to solve. Structural uncertainty, shifting workforce expectations, and fast changes in technology are converging to reshape how organizations operate. These factors also affect the overall perception of what leadership should look like at the top. 

In 2026, quiet redesigns will matter just as much as bold innovations, influencing long-term organizational performance through shifts that are easy to overlook but difficult to replicate – how leaders steward human capacity, how they distribute decision-making, and how they build organizations capable of adapting at speed.  

Matt Dallisson, Managing Partner at Signium in London, weighs in:

“The fundamentals of leadership aren’t disappearing, but the context around them is changing. It’s no longer just about performance outcomes. It’s about whether they can shape organizations that are healthy, adaptable, and able to scale. What we expect to take center stage in the year ahead are the principles of human sustainability and leaders who empower their people to perform. That’s where the real leadership distinction will be.” 

Prediction #1: Human sustainability is a leadership priority 

Recent research underscores how pervasive burnout has become at all levels of the workplace. According to data gathered by Kapable, 79% of employees report experiencing work-related stress, often accompanied by physical fatigue and mental exhaustion. What’s more, 65% of leaders report experiencing burnout symptoms as a result of overwhelming workloads and feelings of isolation – a pattern that erodes resilience and decision-making capacity across teams. 

“These pressures show up indirectly,” suggests Dallisson. “Organizations will experience workforce burnout in the form of increased turnover, absenteeism, error rates, slower innovation, and compromised customer experience. It’s becoming clearer to boards and investors that workforce health isn’t a side issue. It’s central to how well an organization can perform and sustain itself.” 

Leaders will rethink how people experience work 

The conversation in many executive teams is beginning to move beyond traditional engagement metrics and perks toward a deeper, structural question: Does our operating model strengthen people’s long-term capacity to perform, or does it deplete it? 

This broader view of human sustainability treats workforce health, capability, and resilience as core business conditions rather than merely HR outcomes. Leaders shift attention to work design, task allocation, managerial capability, and psychological safety. The focus is less on isolated engagement scores and more on understanding whether the day-to-day work experience enables people to perform well over time. More boards and investors are asking leaders to articulate how these conditions are being created and protected. 

Leaders will be expected to track hard-to-measure metrics  

In organizations that take human sustainability seriously, leadership dashboards in 2026 may include: 

• Signs of burnout and overall energy levels 

• How safe people feel to speak up and how teams are working together 

• How people move through the organization and how quickly they grow new skills 

• How well managers support healthy, sustainable performance 

• Forward-looking signals that show how people are doing, rather than after-the-fact sentiment 

“Although difficult to measure, these benchmarks take us beyond asking whether people like their jobs,” says Dallisson, “They show whether the organization is designed in a way that protects well-being and supports people’s ability to perform over the long term.” 

Leaders are becoming “energy stewards” 

Instead of managing only output, more line managers and senior leaders will be expected to steward human energy: 

• Recognizing signs of strain early 

• Modelling healthy work behaviors 

• Establishing norms around availability and responsiveness 

• Encouraging sustainable ambition rather than endurance culture 

“For performance to be truly sustainable, managing energy needs to be treated as part of the performance system itself,” Dallisson explains. “When a device begins to run out of battery life, we plug it in and restore its power. People need the same.”  

What leaders should be asking about human sustainability 

Human sustainability becomes real when leaders examine the conditions they create. These questions can help guide that reflection. 

• What early signs would tell you your people are working sustainably, not just coping? 

• Where does your operating model depend on personal endurance instead of good design? 

• How often do you discuss workforce health alongside strategy, risk, and investment decisions? 

“These are questions about leadership intent,” Dallisson reflects. “They reveal whether you’re creating the conditions for people to thrive – or simply hoping they will.” 

Prediction #2: Empowerment brings decision-making closer to the work 

Traditional hierarchies are proving too rigid for the speed and complexity of today’s environment. Recent research on agile leadership highlights the limitations of top-down structures, noting that organizations require leadership models that enable adaptability, collaboration, and faster responses to change. Agile leadership supports this shift by promoting empowered, autonomous teams, reducing dependence on hierarchical escalation, and enabling decisions to be made closer to real-time information. 

Leaders become system designers, not chief problem-solvers 

In empowered operating models, leadership value shifts from solving problems personally to designing systems in which problems surface and resolve quickly. 

• Clarifying direction and priorities 

• Setting decision rights and guardrails 

• Ensuring frictionless interfaces between teams 

• Building cultures where escalation happens for the right reasons, not all reasons 

“It not only empowers the employee to be able to innovate and initiate solutions autonomously,” says Dallisson. “But the leaders themselves experience the relief of shared decision making, allowing teams to run with projects where they have the capability and mandate to do so. This is smart leadership at work.”  

Leaner corporate centers allow for smoother decision-making 

More organizations are refocusing the corporate center on a small set of responsibilities that truly shape the business: setting direction, deciding where to invest, building leadership and culture, and managing the risks that matter most. 

As part of this shift, layers that mainly exist to re-check decisions or add extra approval steps are being streamlined. Modern AI tools now give leaders real-time visibility into performance, making it possible to stay informed without slowing teams down or pulling decisions back to the center. 

Better conditions will enable better team-driven decisions 

Empowerment only works when the teams closest to customers have the support they need to make good decisions. That includes: 

• Clear outcomes, so people understand what they are accountable for 

• Access to timely information, not filtered or delayed through layers 

• Strong leadership at the next level down, not just at the top 

• The ability to weigh options and act quickly when situations change 

As organizations move toward this model, many are strengthening their internal capabilities. Rather than relying heavily on external advisors, they are building teams that can solve problems, redesign processes, and support change from within. This helps teams move faster and gives leaders a more accurate picture of what is happening on the ground. 

Modern transparency heightens accountability 

As more work happens through digital tools, leaders can see patterns that were once hidden: how quickly teams respond, how decisions flow, where collaboration works well, and where it gets stuck. This kind of visibility helps leaders understand what’s really happening in the organization, not just what is reported upward. 

As these insights improve: 

• Leadership behaviors become easier to see 

• Problems such as bottlenecks or unhealthy team dynamics surface sooner 

• Succession and development decisions rely more on evidence and less on opinion 

• Teams can be trusted with greater autonomy because oversight doesn’t require extra layers of control 

The result is a system where empowerment becomes both smarter and safer, grounded in real information rather than assumptions. 

Risk leadership shifts toward strategic resilience 

As organizations empower teams to act faster and closer to their work, the way leaders approach risk has to evolve as well. Boards and stakeholders now expect senior leaders to be fluent in the major non-financial risks shaping performance, from cyber and AI to climate, geopolitics, and reputation. Risk can’t sit in a single function; it becomes part of everyday leadership. 

Empowered operating models work best when leaders build capabilities such as: 

• Scenario planning, so teams can prepare for multiple outcomes 

• Pre-mortem discussions, which surface vulnerabilities before they become failures 

• Clear, shared triggers for when a decision needs to be escalated 

• Shared responsibility for resilience across the top team, not just the risk function 

All of these help organizations move quickly without becoming fragile, ensuring that empowerment and resilience grow together. 

What leaders should be asking themselves 

Moving decision-making closer to the work puts leaders and their teams to the test. These questions help leaders understand whether their organization is actually ready for greater empowerment at the level where the work actually happens. 

• If you took out one management layer tomorrow, which decisions would naturally move closer to the customer? 

• Where does your current level of control genuinely protect value, and where does it create unnecessary delay? 

• How ready are your business units to take on more decision authority if the environment demands it? 

“Empowerment has become an overused slogan,” Dallisson says. “But in its true form, empowerment is a reflection of how confident you are in the system you’ve built, and how much trust you place in the people closest to the work.” 

The Enablers: Four leadership principles that support both predictions 

Leaders don’t need dozens of new tools to support human sustainability and empowered ways of working. A handful of disciplined practices can shift how people work, how teams respond, and how resilient the organization becomes. 

1. Leadership duos and trios 

There is an evolving view in some organizations that the role of CEO is now too big for one person. More boards are considering leadership combinations: CEO–COO, CEO–CTO, CEO–CHRO, or small “trios” that balance business, technology, and people strengths. These units share responsibility for strategy, transformation, and culture, creating a more stable and rounded leadership core. 

2. Internal capability as the new engine of change 

Companies are relying less on external consultants and more on their own people to drive transformation. Internal strategy and change teams, supported by talent marketplaces that match skills to projects, are becoming the backbone of work redesign, AI adoption, and faster, empowered decision-making across the organization. 

3. Behavioral transparency as a feedback loop 

With so much work now happening digitally, leaders leave clearer “signals” about how they lead, including how they communicate, collaborate, include others, or create bottlenecks. When used responsibly, these insights help organizations spot strengths, identify risks earlier, and coach leaders with evidence rather than opinion. Ethical governance and privacy safeguards remain essential. 

4. Learning fast becomes a core leadership skill 

Experience still matters, but it loses relevance quickly. The leaders who stand out are the ones who learn new things fast, adapt their approach when the context changes, and aren’t attached to “how we’ve always done it.” Boards look for evidence that senior leaders can update their thinking, try new ideas, and reinvent themselves when needed. 

Organizations do better when their people do better 

The organizations that experience real momentum in 2026 will be those that take a deliberate approach to how leadership works. They will protect human capacity, strengthen the conditions for good decision-making, and build operating models that allow teams to move with confidence rather than caution. This requires thoughtful design, consistent governance, and a long-term commitment to the health and capability of their people. 

For many leadership teams, the work begins with elevating human sustainability onto the board agenda, treating workforce energy, capability, and well-being as core components of business performance. It also involves revisiting how decisions flow through the organization: understanding where choices can be made faster and closer to the work, and what support or clarity teams need in order to carry that responsibility well. 

A more intentional approach to top-team design is another part of the shift. Instead of relying on individual heroics, organizations benefit from leadership combinations that balance business, technology, and people strengths. The same principle applies to capability building, investing in internal strategy teams, cross-functional project groups, and talent marketplaces so they can mobilize skills quickly without waiting for external help. 

In closing, Dallisson shares;

“At its fundamental core, leadership is still very much about people. “It’s about creating an environment where others can succeed, instead of relying on hierarchy or authority to force outcomes. Organizations do better when their people do better. The leaders who embrace that truth will exceed performance expectations in the years to come.”