The new year has begun, and in place of a workplace resolution, I am pondering my leadership goal for 2026.
These annual leadership goals are not official. They are not reflected in my performance review. They are not SMART because it can be tough to measure improved leadership (vs management) performance with a number.
So, how do you approach the goal of improving your leadership skills?
I started with self-reflection. I have spent a lot of time shoveling snow during December, so I used some of that time to ponder on what I could do differently to improve how I lead my team.
After reflecting on what I could do better, and mentally crossing off the items I have already tried to do better and failed, the list was quite short – OK – nonexistent.
(While shoveling) I remembered that Strengths-theory says you should focus on improving existing strengths rather than addressing weaknesses. Since I have taken the IPD course Leading with your Strengths – based on the text Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Roth, I know that my leadership style is Execution – I lead by follow-through and being consistent. And, even though I agree with the theory, I am not inspired to form a leadership goal on my ability to “make things happen.” And I smile when I read, “As much as possible, avoid being in team situations with lackadaisical colleagues,” (p.216), but it does not inspire a goal either.
At this point, I decided to do some research on what leaders need to do for the future. One of the reasons the leadership topic is so interesting to me is that in leadership, best practice keeps evolving.
According to my research, here are the 2026 leadership trends (in no specific order) that you could use to help you set a goal.
1. Determining AI Work Vs Human-Centered Work
As a leader, you need to learn enough about AI to figure out how to balance AI-Generated work with Human-Centered work. When and how should AI do the work, and when and how should people do the work? And, as a leader, how are you coaching your team to use AI most effectively? And how are you influencing your organization’s AI policies?
2. Managing Culture
Culture management is a big arena. This means that you are directly shaping your workplace culture to be flexible and adaptable, innovative and focused on growth, inclusive and welcoming, and balanced to encourage wellness. You may want to pick just one of these cultural elements to set your goal. Review the Middle Manager article series for ideas on how to intentionally shape workplace culture.
3. Communicating Effectively
Yes, “better communication” almost always tops the list for what workers in organizations want from their leaders. The fact that it stays on the list year after year indicates that we have not figured this out yet. Communication is a big, often undefined, topic, so you probably need to be more specific about your goal than be better at communication. One IPD course that could help you out is Leading Teams through Change. You will learn how communication skills help your individuals, teams, and stakeholders make crucial transitions for your organization’s growth.
As my leadership goals started to emerge, I consulted my text Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Roth. The book contains development strategies for each of the strengths. Most of the suggestions for these strengths tell me to spend time developing my skills in coaching and mentoring others. This gives me a starting point for melding my strength of mentoring with the injection of AI into the workplace. Because my leadership style is Executing, I need a bit more pondering to put some concrete actions to that starting thought.
As I return to shoveling, I am pondering what jobs can be done by AI, and which jobs survive AI. While I have not checked with AI to see if this is a correct assumption, it does seem that an AI skill gap is that it cannot do the work of a leader. Fellow leaders, let’s be worthy of our work. Let’s set leadership goals to lead our teams in ways that AI can never match.
Sources:
6 Leadership Goals Every Leader Should Set for 2026
10 Essential Leadership Tips for 2025
The Biggest Leadership Trends for 2026 and Beyond
The Five Leadership Article You Should Read in 2025
Five Leadership Recommendations that will Reshape Development in 2026
Six Emerging Leadership Shifts and How to Leverage Them in 2026
