What does good leadership look like in 2026?

Is your head spinning? Mine too.

As HR professionals, I think we can all agree that we’re currently living through an especially disruptive period.

On one end, AI is transforming everything, with many businesses pouring heaps of money into new tools with the hope that it’ll revolutionise the way they work.

Then we have the Employment Rights Act 2025, which rewrote the legal framework overnight, with even more changes coming later this year.

With everything going on, there’s a fundamental need for business leadership to adapt, and HR must be driving this change.

This is exactly why we assembled a dream team of HR experts for a panel discussion at the CIPD Festival of Work.

Joining me on the stage at CIPD Festival of Work were:

• Stephanie Kelly, Chief People Officer, IRIS Software Group
• Kerry McAtkin, Senior HR Director, IRIS Software Group
• Lauren Alexandra, Director of Learning & Development at IRIS Software Group, on behalf of Wunderlab

In this blog, I’ve summarised our discussion, pulling the key takeaways for those who couldn’t attend or simply need a quick recap.

Leadership must adapt

Now, given the rise of AI and the introduction of the Employment Rights Act, it’s not a question about whether leadership needs to change.

Without a doubt, it does.

Instead, the conversation for HR professionals should focus on equipping their business leaders for this new era.

Take a minute and consider: can you identify where leadership is failing before it costs you?

The businesses that get it right will have a genuine competitive advantage, and HR professionals must be at the forefront of this shift.

The leadership revolution

During our discussion, Stephanie explained why this isn’t just another period of change for leadership.

“During my 25 years in HR, I’ve never seen anything like this.

“You get very used to economic cycles: boom and bust, the war for talent and then pulling back and controlling costs.

“Now we have great economic uncertainty and geopolitical unrest across the Middle East and Ukraine, and on top of that, this incredible paradigm shift that AI will bring with it.

“It is a very unusual and difficult time for businesses, and therefore challenging for leaders to manage.

“What makes it feel revolutionary is the layering effect.

“It’s several changes arriving simultaneously.

“AI, the Employment Rights Act, hybrid working, rising expectations.

“Frankly, the skills that made someone a good manager in 2019 are not the same skills they need in 2026.

“We need to equip leaders with the new skills they’re going to need in this very ambiguous and, for some, quite worrying time.”

Helping interpret change

Lauren expanded on Stephanie’s point.

“More information, more opinions, more tools, more communication channels.

“The challenge is interpretation.

“Leaders are spending less time deciding what to do and more time trying to understand what’s actually happening.

“The leaders who will thrive aren’t necessarily the most charismatic or technically capable.

“It’s now about creating coherence when everyone around them is experiencing noise.”

What does modern leadership look like?

The need for evolution is clear, but what does ‘great leadership’ actually look like in 2026 and beyond?

Well, during the panel, our experts shared the skills that are at the top of their list.

Flexibility

Stephanie emphasised resilience, positivity and curiosity.

“Leaders need to really amp up whatever their particular leadership style is.

“The Daniel Goleman model is still relevant here.

“Do your teams need more involvement in decision-making? More camaraderie? More vision? More direction?

“The best leaders flex their style up and down according to what their team actually needs, so that everyone feels they have the right support to navigate these uncharted waters.”

Relationship between people and technology

Kerry focused on the relationship between people and AI in the workplace.

“Social and human skills come much more to the forefront when AI is doing more of the routine work.

“I have been using Claude at home to design a meal planning app, and that skill — asking the right questions, iterating and getting a useful output — is directly transferable to the workplace.

“I have now built a small agent that drafts communications for my director, rather than me spending hours reformatting his emails.

“The boundary between how we use technology at home and at work is dissolving, and that is actually a huge opportunity.

“Technology is everyone’s responsibility now. 

“The question of creating capacity is no longer just about increasing headcount; it’s also about the use of technology and automation.” 

Curiosity and good judgment

Lauren shared her views on leadership behaviours.

“An industry has been built out of leadership behaviours, and those frameworks are important.

“But what I see separating strong leaders from those who are struggling in this period is often more fundamental.

“Curiosity and good judgement, used together.

“Can a leader be clear about what’s happening, what matters, what’s changing and what isn’t?

“People tolerate uncertainty, but they can’t tolerate confusion.”

Psychological safety

From my perspective, psychological safety is key.

Leaders who genuinely offer a safe space to listen and not judge will be the ones who catch those quiet worries before they become absences, underperformance or grievances.

Great leaders reassure people that change creates opportunity, not just threat.

The pressure on HR

Our recent research found that 62% of HR professionals have seriously considered leaving their role in the past year.

Additionally, 59% say they’re working beyond contracted hours often or always to keep up, with 45% experiencing feelings of being overwhelmed by workload and 41% reporting emotional exhaustion. 

Clearly, HR professionals are stretched thin.

So, when the people responsible for building great leaders are under this much pressure themselves, what’s the next step?

During the panel, Kerry explained: “When you are responsible for building great leaders, you also need to look outside yourself for how you build your own capability.

“You can’t pour from an empty cup.

“Whether that is an MBA, external coaching or simply making time for your own learning, investing in yourself isn’t a luxury; it’s how you stay effective.”

Stephanie added to Kerry’s point, covering the role better systems and processes play: “HR teams are being asked to solve a leadership crisis whilst managing their own burnout.

“This is where technology matters.

“We found that HR professionals lose an average of 3.4 hours per week to system inefficiency.

“That is over 22 working days a year per person lost to admin that shouldn’t exist.

“Time that could be spent on coaching, having data conversations and proactively offering support.”

Among the HR professionals we surveyed who are considering leaving the profession, 85% said better technology would make them more likely to stay.

Technology investment is a retention strategy for HR itself and is worth putting in front of any finance director who questions the business case.

What can HR do now?

To finish the session, our panel was asked: if someone in this room goes back to their desk on Monday and wants to start doing something differently, what is the something you’d tell them to do?

It was a great question to end on, with a huge array of opportunities.

Summarising the advice from our panel of experts, the key takeaways were:

• Control your diary: we are often really reactive as HR professionals, but you have to carve out space rather than jumping from need to need.  
• Look at your data: examine absence, attrition and engagement signals at a team level, and you’ll almost certainly find clusters that confirm something you’ve already sensed.
• Think carefully about AI: if everyone is seeking their thinking only through AI, there’s a real risk we flatten companies into the average.
• Have the conversations you’ve been putting off: every HR leader knows a manager who poses a risk, so don’t wait for it to become a formal process.

For those HR professionals looking to make a change and implement modern HR software, check out our solutions here.