Raising Leadership Standards For 2026

"We are in a new era of leadership. In fact, we're experiencing what I believe to be the biggest leadership inflection point that I've seen in my career as an executive advisor and foresight strategist. The clues and cues are everywhere. And quite frankly, they are not random occurrences, industry-specific or momentary disruptions. The past few years have accelerated shifts in the workforce, cultural norms and even everyday living."

"Everything from pandemic-forced adaptation, quiet quitting, a mass exodus of talent, loosely defined remote work and teams operating in a continuous state of urgency to the unplanned-for succession cliff demonstrates the growing complexity of work-and amplifies the urgency for leadership to be redefined. The gap between what leadership requires and what leaders have been equipped with is widening in real time. Leaders at every level are being asked to make decisions in environments that they are simply not prepared for."

Workplace conditions have shifted dramatically, driven by pandemic-forced adaptation, quiet quitting, remote work ambiguity, and a mass exodus of talent. Traditional leadership models are failing because leaders' responsibilities are changing faster than the systems that support them or because supporting systems and practices are absent. Critical failures include unstructured loss of decades of institutional knowledge when Baby Boomers exit, treating culture as a 'soft' people function rather than a predictor of financial performance, and centralized power that cannot sustain the required pace of decision-making. Leaders at every level face environments for which they are not prepared, creating an urgent need for a redefined leadership standard that accommodates complexity and shared foresight.

Read at Forbes