As 2025 comes to a close, it’s the perfect time to reflect on your professional development to date and where you want to go in the new year.

I’ve found that the best way to prepare for the future is to look to the past and review the data. Workforce trends for the upcoming year will be determined by where we end the year. Use these studies to shape your strategy and get prepared for 2026.

Here are the top workforce trends for leaders in 2026 and how your business can get ready for everything to come.

1. AI & The New Career Currency

In a 2025 Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey conducted by PwC, more than half of respondents reported using AI at work in the past year. It gets a little more complicated when you look at the 2025 Global Human Capital Trend, where Deloitte found that 54% of workers and leaders are concerned about the blurred lines between human and AI work. 

The same report notes that many organizations recognize the need to reinvent the role of the manager and have identified a central tension as AI reshapes tasks and job design. These studies show that organizations are actively thinking about how to manage AI adaptation and create an AI-human collaborative environment. 

In fact, a recent large-scale empirical analysis of 12 million US online job vacancies found that AI doesn’t necessarily eliminate jobs but instead drives demand for AI-complementary skills such as digital literacy, teamwork, and resilience.  

This coincides with a low economy and a hiring freeze. With these constraints, many companies are focusing on building internal job marketplaces. Instead of hiring externally, organizations are beginning to ask: Who within already has some of the skills for this role, and can we help them build the rest? 

The Future of Jobs Report 2025, published by the World Economic Forum, noted that 63% of employers expect to invest in reskilling and upskilling to adapt to technological changes. 

The Takeaway for Leaders: Organizations will increasingly value internal mobility, upskilling, and preparing employees for an AI-enhanced workforce. Help your team adapt by using the right tools to aid their development. Continue to value human capacities like resilience, adaptability, social skills, and learning potential beyond technical/AI skills. 

2. Resilience & Middle Management Burnout

Middle management burnout has been a trending topic over the past few years. In 2026, middle managers will continue to face pressure points related to AI transformation, hybrid workforce management, and a changing workforce culture. 

Several recent studies and surveys identify mid-level managers as the most likely group to experience burnout. Caught between executive leadership and front-line workers, they carry the highest emotional and operational load. In HBR’s 2025 global survey of 600 mid-level and senior leaders, 87% report at least weekly burnout. However, only 50% say their organization supports their mental well-being. 

In the 2025 Global Human Capital Trend Survey, Deloitte found that organizations prioritizing human capabilities such as collaboration and emotional intelligence are nearly twice as likely to have employees feel their work is meaningful and twice as likely to report better outcomes. According to the Future of the Jobs Report published by the World Economic Forum, 57% of employers see well-being as a top attraction. 

The Takeaway for Leaders: The need to develop resilient leaders and monitor employee burnout is greater than ever. Support your teams in building self-awareness, developing EQ, navigating transition, and creating sustainable performance. 

3. Hybrid Work & Evolving Team Dynamics

According to a Robert Half survey of HR managers, 24% of new U.S. job postings in Q2 2025 are hybrid, and 12% are fully remote. This report confirms that hybrid work has become mainstream, with 88% of U.S. employers providing some hybrid options. However, organizations might prefer in-person presence for senior positions, with only 31% of new senior-level postings being hybrid.

We’re now in the “new normal” of hybrid work. Hybrid environments will prompt discussions about communication cadence, role clarity, meeting cadence, and decision-making speed, thereby reshaping the need to manage team dynamics. 

Managing a hybrid workforce is not simply about managing in-office vs. remote employees; it’s about fostering team collaboration and inclusion, helping remote workers gain visibility through accountability and performance management, and building trust and a new culture.

The Takeaway for Leaders: These trends point toward a need for leaders who value career autonomy and manage hybrid teams more effectively.  By understanding team communication dynamics and collaboration patterns, leaders can gain clarity into how their team works and prepare the team for hybrid readiness. 

4. Psychological Diversity & Belonging

In July 2025, DHR Global surveyed executive leaders to understand how organizations are approaching inclusive leadership. They found that 41% of companies reported that internal DEI language is shifting toward inclusive culture, belonging, and leadership accountability.

A recent HR Trends & Engagement Survey conducted by McLean & Company found that employees who feel they can “be themselves” at work are 5.7 times more likely to be engaged than those who don’t. Those same employees are 70% more likely to stay with their employers. 

Despite the strong correlation between engagement and belonging, the same study reported that only half of HR leaders report that they are increasing their investment in belonging-related initiatives. 

Belonging as a significant engagement effect: Employees who report a strong sense of belonging are nearly 22x more likely to be fully engaged. 

The Takeaway for Leaders: This trend is pushing organizations to measure psychological safety, sense of belonging, and employee management. Understanding and addressing employees’ distinct needs through TTI’s DISC, 12 Driving Forces, and EQ, leaders can reveal and build psychological diversity, especially in global and multicultural environments.  

5. Leadership & Future Readiness

Nearly every major 2025 leadership study, including MIT Sloan, World Economic Forum, and HBR has listed self-awareness as the foundation for future-ready leadership because workplaces are shifting toward more complex, turbulent, and adaptive structures. 

However, there’s a notable gap between organizations' recognition of the need to prepare leaders for the future of work and their actual progress. For example, the 2025 Global Human Capital Trends noted that 73% of organizations are reinvigorating the role of the manager, but only 7% are making significant progress. 

In a recent study on the Growth Leaders Mindset, McKinsey noted that adaptability, courage, and empowerment are strongly linked to outperforming peers in innovation and long-term value creation. 

In 2026, leadership development will focus on developing human-centric and adaptive leaders. Increased awareness and improved communication will make the difference between success and failure. 

The Takeaway for Leaders: Organizations need to prepare leaders to navigate a complex, AI-influenced, and hybrid work environment. Leadership development is shifting from training to identifying work. Assessment can help leaders understand blind spots in self-awareness, develop a personal leadership brand, build emotional intelligence, and foster team trust. 

Leading with Confidence in 2026 

As these trends reveal, 2026 won’t reward businesses that simply react—it will reward those that intentionally prepare. The coming year will ask leaders to blend human insight with technological readiness, support their people through rapid change, and build cultures where belonging and adaptability fuel performance.

Whether you’re navigating AI integration, strengthening hybrid teams, or developing the next generation of managers, the organizations that thrive will be the ones that invest in understanding their people and leveraging their potential.