What Leaders Are Changing About Their Role to Keep Teams Effective in 2026
Flexible Leadership: Leaders must adapt from rigid structures to embrace flexibility in decision-making and team collaboration.
Multi-Generational Teams: Managing diverse teams requires self-awareness and adaptability to shift leadership styles effectively.
Strategic Mindset: Effective leaders transition from executing tasks to focusing on vision and future direction.
Emotional Intelligence: Leaders are increasingly acting as counselors, prioritizing morale and psychological safety within their teams.
AI Advocacy: Leaders must champion AI adoption while ensuring their teams understand its effective application.
The role of a leader has never been static, but the pace of change right now is forcing a more fundamental reckoning. Between AI reshaping workflows, tighter budgets, and teams that span multiple generations with vastly different expectations, leaders are finding that the habits and instincts that once made them effective are now working against them. The leaders who are keeping their teams strong aren't just adjusting their tactics — they're unlearning deeply ingrained defaults and rebuilding how they show up entirely.
From Rigid to Flexible — Letting Go of Structured Thinking
For many experienced leaders, structure and clear role definition have always been a source of control and confidence. But that rigidity is increasingly becoming a liability. Pam Butkowski, SVP of Horizontal Digital, describes the tension: "as a leader right now, a growing pain for myself is that things are really ambiguous right now. And so I need to be a little bit less rigid about things like, 'this is my team's job, and that is your team's job' because everybody just needs to start working together right now." For Butkowski, the work is intensely personal — "I need to un-train the part of my brain that's rigid and planning-oriented and start to be a little bit more go with the flow."
I need to untrain the part of my brain that’s rigid and planning-oriented and start to be a little bit more like, go with the flow.
That un-training extends beyond day-to-day flexibility into how leaders make decisions under pressure. Susanne Madsen, Director and Co-founder of The Project Leadership Institute, coaches leaders to examine their default patterns before those patterns make decisions for them. "The problem is when we are on autopilot we do what we've always done," she says, noting that whether a leader's default is to decide alone or to over-consult the team, the key is awareness: "whatever my default is, can I become aware of that default so that I don't just choose it because it's comfortable for me." What Madsen is calling for is genuine style flexibility — "finding out, is this a moment to push? Is it a moment to pause? Is it a moment to let others step forward?"
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Whatever my default is, can I become aware of that default so that I don’t just choose it because it’s comfortable for me.
Adapting to a Multi-Generational Workforce
Flexibility isn't only about ambiguity and decision-making — it's also about people. Today's teams are more generationally diverse than at any previous point in most leaders' careers, and the management styles that worked in earlier eras often don't translate. Jeff Chamberlain, Manager of Broadband Services and PMO at Frederick County Government, speaks candidly about the adjustment he's had to make: "When I started in leadership roles, I tended to not worry about the cross-generational stuff that exists now."
His standards haven't shifted — "I do still demand availability, status updates, and excellence" — but how he leads people toward those standards has changed. Chamberlain acknowledges that he was "struggling with a directive management style in a multi-generational organization" and ultimately had to shift his approach. This kind of self-awareness and adaptability is a necessary shift that happens at a point in most leadership careers, though it takes many by surprise.
From Operator to Strategist — Less Doing, More Thinking
One of the most significant mindset shifts for leaders, particularly founders and executives, is stepping back from execution and into vision. Derek Fredrickson, Founder & CEO of The COO Solution, works with leaders who struggle to make this transition, and he's clear about what needs to change: "the mindset shift is realizing you are not meant to run your own company. You are meant to focus on the vision, focus on the future, focus on the ideation. That's what got your business started." The practical implication, as Fredrickson frames it for his clients, is "you need to be doing less, better, and less doing and more thinking" — a reorientation that frees up the team to scale rather than waiting on a leader who is stuck in the weeds.
The mindset shift is realizing you are not meant to run your own company. You are meant to focus on the vision, focus on the future, focus on the ideation. That’s what got your business started.
Becoming a Counselor — Leading the Emotional Side of Work
As AI tools take over more of the administrative and analytical work that once filled a leader's day, what remains is increasingly human. Michael Gold, Founder and Fractional Head of Delivery, has felt this shift in his own practice: "I find myself much more a counselor than I think I had ever considered myself before." The emotional dimension of leadership — managing expectations, checking in on morale, keeping people motivated — was always present, but Gold notes that "counselling and motivation were always part of leadership, but it's even more now."
Counselling and motivation were always part of leadership, but it’s even more now.
Part of leading the emotional side of work means creating the conditions where teams feel safe surfacing problems early. Johanna Rothman, Owner of Rothman Consulting Group, Inc., points to a specific behavioral shift that makes a measurable difference: consciously controlling the reaction to bad news. "If you get bad news, make sure you do not frown or put your head in your hands or anything like that," she advises. And when a negative reaction does slip through, Rothman recommends naming it clearly — "I'm not upset with you, bearer of bad news, I'm so glad you told me... I am upset at the bad news." The result, she says, is that "people are very willing to bring me bad news" — which is exactly the kind of psychological safety that keeps problems from festering.
Modeling the Human Skills You Expect From Your Team
Leaders can't ask their teams to develop capabilities they aren't actively demonstrating themselves. Laurel Sim, President and Managing Partner at Taleo Project Services, makes this point with clarity: if teams need to "be more empathetic, they have to be stronger listeners with more critical thinking skills, they have to be proactive, intentional — that means that that's what their leaders need to give." The implication is direct — "we need to emulate what we expect of our teams." For Sim, this isn't just a leadership philosophy, it's a strategic imperative: "we have to be really intentional, focused on the people so that the people can then be focused on the success."
We have to be really intentional, focused on the people so that the people can then be focused on the success
Championing AI Adoption — Becoming a Vocal Advocate for Upskilling
Perhaps nowhere is the leadership role evolving more visibly than in how leaders are positioning themselves relative to AI. Some are becoming outspoken advocates for adoption within their teams. Varun Anand, CEO of EduHubSpot, describes his approach with characteristic energy: "I have been shouting on top of my voice in all meetings, 'learn AI, learn AI'" His message to his team is carefully framed — "I did not say to anyone that, hey, your job will be done by AI, but I want them to use AI to do their job effectively." The goal isn't to alarm, it's to equip.
But advocacy for AI adoption doesn't mean pushing implementation before the groundwork is laid. Marcus Glowasz, Executive Coach and Advisor at Projects and Data, offers an important counterbalance. While he notes that leaders and their teams are "quite excited to get up to speed with AI," he consistently returns to a foundational principle: "you have to understand it before you actually use it."
Self Awareness of One's Leadership Keeps Teams Effective
Across all of these shifts — from rigidity to flexibility, from directive to adaptive, from operator to strategist, from administrator to counselor — a consistent throughline emerges. The leaders keeping their teams effective right now are the ones willing to examine their own defaults, let go of what no longer serves, and show up differently. That work is uncomfortable, ongoing, and deeply personal. But as the leaders in this piece make clear, it's also non-negotiable.
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