What if how you were leading had gradually changed without you really noticing? Suddenly you realise you are working more hours than ever before, you feel like you alone are carrying the weight of your business or function, your team has stopped really showing up and holding themselves to account for delivering the work and you’re starting to wonder if you’re the right person for the job. This is the experience of so many leaders I coach and it’s not surprising given the volume and complexity of change we’re all dealing with in 2026.
Disruption means leaders everywhere, be they seasoned or new to the role, are having to dig deep to determine the best way to navigate multiple changes. While AI is prompting a rethink of how people work, how businesses are structured and possibly what they deliver, geopolitical disruption, financial uncertainty in the market, an aging population and government policy changes are also creating enormous uncertainty and upheaval for organisations. These shifts or critical inflection points represent a turning point for leaders and organisations. They require a different approach to leadership that moves beyond providing certainty, and for leaders across all sectors, it requires a different way of seeing their role.
The Deloitte 2026 Global Human Capital Trends survey reports that 7 in 10 business leaders say their primary competitive strategy over the next three years is to be fast and nimble—to quickly adapt to and capitalize on changing business, customer or market needs. That requires a different skillset entirely from the leadership based on long planning cycles and stable markets and somewhat predictable execution.
Deloitte’s 2026 State of AI in the Enterprise report found that although 74 per cent of organisations want AI to grow revenue, only 20 per cent have. Technology is only as powerful as the human scaffolding around it. The missing piece is leadership that focuses on the people to work with the technology, people to respond to changing customer buying patterns, to use data to anticipate what might be emerging next and where the opportunities for growth might be.
Letting go of certainty
For many this is challenging. The old ways of leading, the systems and structures that have been so carefully constructed to support that leadership approach, are no longer fit for purpose. The role of leaders in this time of inflection is rapidly evolving and there is a level of discomfort with that.
For leaders used to being across all the detail and having all the answers in case anyone especially their boss asks, letting go of this can feel risky. Watching the team struggle to make decisions can be excruciating when the leader has a firm view on the way forward. Deviating from a well thought through strategic plan or not pulling cost out of the business immediately may feel both risky and negligent. Who am I as a leader if I am not in control and certain of the long-term plan?
What’s being asked of you
It is in these moments that I encourage the leaders I work with to pause and ask what is required of me in this role in this context? Together we explore the assumptions they have about leadership and their role. In exploring this, leaders are able to sit with the changing nature of their role more easily. For some it’s a mindset shift and for others it requires skill development and a greater awareness of how they show up.
When leaders respond to their people’s desire for certainty by taking control (or trying to) and inserting themselves into the middle of operations the greater the workload they take on and the less authority they give their teams to act. The leadership competencies most valued in this period of uncertainty and changing customer and employee expectations are less about operations and more about strengthening connections with their people. The leader’s role is to align the team around the way forward, the problems to be solved, how they’ll work together, where the opportunities for growth are and how best they could structure their part of the business to deliver.
The role of leader is now to support their people to develop, to embrace the change rather than fear it, to be excited about the future as uncertain as it is. It’s the natural evolution of leadership and it takes courage.
