2026- The Year of Intentional Leadership

Some organisations will enter a new financial year with fresh budgets and renewed ambition. Others will be closing down the books, preparing for a March year end and managing the familiar intensity that comes with it. Regardless of where your organisation sits in the financial calendar, one thing is broadly true. Most people have had a break. Minds have paused. Perspective has shifted.

For organisational directors and senior leaders, this moment matters more than we often acknowledge. January is not simply a restart. It is a rare point of clarity. The operational noise briefly lowers. The emotional residue of the previous year is still present. This is the point at which patterns can be challenged before they quietly re establish themselves. Enter 2026, the year of "Intentional Leadership".

The risk, of course, is defaulting to pace. Leaders return refreshed but immediately step back into familiar habits. The same meetings. The same priorities. The same tolerance of friction, fatigue and workarounds that no longer serve the organisation or its people.

At board and director level, leadership impact in the year ahead will be shaped less by strategy documents and more by choices made early. What you pay attention to. What you question. What you no longer accept as inevitable. Before plans harden and diaries fill, it is worth creating space for reflection that is both personal and organisational.

The opportunity is different. This is the moment to decide not what you will do more of, but what you will do differently.

Five questions every leader should ask at the start of the year

1. Where are we expending leadership energy without shifting outcomes

If effort feels high but progress feels slow, the issue is rarely capability. It is usually focus, clarity or governance. What would change if you addressed the root constraint rather than adding more activity.

2. Which decisions are still sitting at the wrong level

Bottlenecks at the top create delay, dependency and disengagement. What decisions could safely move closer to delivery without increasing risk, and what does that require from you as a leader.

3. What behaviours are we quietly rewarding that undermine our stated values

Culture is shaped by what is tolerated, not what is written. Where are performance conversations avoiding the real issues, and what signal does that send across the system.

4. Where are we designing change for efficiency rather than for people

Transformation that looks good on paper but feels exhausting in practice rarely sticks. How well do your change plans reflect the lived reality of those expected to deliver them.

5. If we were starting again, what would we stop doing altogether

This is often the hardest question. Legacy processes, committees and reporting cycles persist long after their usefulness has expired. What would genuinely free capacity and attention if you were willing to let it go.

None of these questions require a new framework or consultancy intervention to answer. They require honesty, courage and a willingness to challenge your own leadership patterns as much as the organisation’s.

The start of the year is not about optimism alone. It is about intentionality. Directors who use this window well set a different tone for the months ahead. One that values clarity over busyness, trust over control and impact over tradition. The organisations that move forward this year will not necessarily be the ones that do more. They will be the ones that choose better.

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