6 key skills your leaders need to succeed in 2026

This could be a challenging year ahead for UK businesses, and leaders need a blend of human-centric  skills and technological acumen to thrive.

So what skills should you develop in your leaders this year? 

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to lead with empathy and regulate emotions has always been important, however as the pressure goes up and employee resilience drops this becomes even more important. EQ assessments and coaching for your top leaders is a great way to build this.

Adaptive Leadership

Leaders need to adapt and respond quickly to changing environments and economic challenges, whilst also continuing to spot opportunities and provide strong leadership leaving employees feeling safe and focused.  Proactively building resilience in your leaders and teaching them how to navigate change, both for themselves and their teams, is key.

Digital and AI Fluency

Making the most of AI capabilities will be a key competitive differentiator this year, as will be understanding and managing its risks and limitations.  Leaders don’t need to be the experts, but they do need sufficient understanding to put in place the right people and adapt the tech strategy within their business. Senior highers for Chief AI Officers are on the rise and employee AI upskilling is essential.

Strategic Thinking

In a fast-moving and challenging business environment, leadership can easily become reactive.  Leaders' strategic thinking needs to be supported and encouraged to prioritise time to identify trends, think creatively and anticipate and prepare for challenges ahead.  Mentoring and Coaching sessions can create this space for this as well as giving leaders sufficient people in their immediate team so they can delegate most of the execution leaving more time for thinking.

Building Psychologically Safe Environments

Honest feedback is on the decline and people worried about losing their jobs in an insecure market are likely to agree with management rather than challenging them.  Both of these factors contribute to under-performance and increased risk as people don’t speak up when they see problems or help their colleagues to become better at their jobs.  Fostering radical honesty, proactively creating a feedback culture and encouraging people to raise issues and flag mistakes will keep your business safe and also reduce stress levels.

Purpose and Stewardship

Employees still need a vision to get behind, and shareholders need to feel an organisation is in safe hands.  When effective leaders connect personal values to their organisational mission it gives all stakeholder confidence in their long-term plans and commitment.  Leaders can work with HR and Internal Comms to define and communicate a clear vision and make sure this is consistently referenced by leaders in an authentic way throughout the year.