As we approach a new year, I’m urging leaders and managers to pause and reflect - it’s time for strategic, actionable thinking about how we’ll lead into 2026. Expectations at work have changed, people have changed, and the way organisations respond needs to change too.

I’m sharing the five people challenges that simply can’t be ignored if you want a work culture where employees thrive, not just survive. You'll also hear my suggestions about where to start for each challenge to make a real difference for the year ahead.

The reality facing us? Emotional exhaustion is everywhere, often hidden behind the facade of resilience. High output does not mean high wellbeing - it's all too easy to misinterpret performance and overlook quiet depletion within teams. If left unchecked, this erodes empathy, creativity, and ultimately, results.

I’m seeing manager capability gaps widen, especially as they avoid difficult conversations or rely on tech for easy, yet superficial, solutions. Managers are now the critical link between strategy and reality. They need practical support to become skilled communicators who coach rather than instruct - tackling feedback, boundaries, and emotional intelligence head-on.

With more of us working hybrid or across multiple sites, culture is fragmenting. Belonging, consistency, and trust now hinge on intentional daily habits, observable behaviours, and rituals that build connection, even at a distance. Culture is built moment to moment: in tone, clarity, and follow-through, not slogans on the wall.

The world is also less predictable - dealing with brittleness, anxiety, non-linearity, and incomprehensibility. Thriving teams need to practise flexibility, foster trust, adapt quickly, and ensure shared understanding.

Finally, a warning - there’s often a gulf between what leaders believe is happening and the lived reality for their teams. Listening, curiosity, consistent communication, and small intentional changes matter more than ever.

Ask yourself: Where are the cracks? Where do the opportunities lie for your leadership, your management approach, and your team’s ability to perform at their best? When people thrive, business thrives. Let’s start that journey now.

Download the free resource: Leading in 2026 - The 5 Critical People Challenges and Actions for Thriving, High-Performing Teams

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To reduce the anxiousness experienced in our BANI world, this discussion framework could prove helpful: Tackling Anxiety Collectively: Team Discussion Framework

Explore ways to build resilience: 13 Skills to Build Resilience

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No sidelines. That’s the phrase Gareth Weir digs into as we explore leadership, management, and the connections across our working world. Gareth is the Deputy Ambassador at the British Embassy in Seoul, and he’s just recorded a TEDx talk challenging the myth that it’s enough to stand on the edge and watch the world go by.

Growing up in West Africa with teachers for parents, Gareth’s early experience with diverse cultures shaped his view that we’re all far more connected than we admit. Whether it’s a mobile phone made across continents or the food on our plate, nothing is truly isolated anymore. Gareth believes that real leadership starts with recognising this interdependence and embracing the messiness of reality.

Curiosity, as Gareth sees it, isn’t a soft skill - it’s a strategic tool for managers and teams. Listening loudly and deliberately seeking what’s unsaid shifts conversations from the superficial to the substantial. If we want thriving, high performing teams, we have to ask ourselves: what might I be missing? Creating the space to challenge assumptions and actively invite diverse perspectives should be woven into our workplace governance, not just left to chance.

Gareth also shares why maximum challenge followed by maximum loyalty is at the heart of great decision making. Leaders must signal their intentions, flex their style, and be open about when they’re directing and when they’re co-creating. Building trust, prioritising connection, and respecting the hidden system beneath any organisation are essential to wellbeing, alignment, and lasting influence.

If you’re questioning what it means to be a courageous leader in today’s world - this conversation will help. Connection isn’t just about feeling good; it’s vital for high performance, psychological safety, and tackling the toughest problems together.

Gareth’s reflections on shadowing, co-creation, and practical curiosity offer plenty to take away. For those looking to build work cultures where people thrive, this is not one to skip.

Gareth Weir has worked as an entrepreneur, in the private sector and public sector. He is fortunate to have lived and worked in a range of countries and contexts. Gareth is currently the UK Deputy Ambassador to the Republic of Korea.

LinkedIn: Gareth Weir

Insight to Action: Lead Like a Diplomat: Practical Lessons in Curiosity, Connection & Courage

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The Human Factor Behind High-Performing Teams

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What does it really take to build a work culture where employees genuinely belong and perform at their best? The conversation with Megan Carter - Head of People at Blenheim Palace and Pye Homes - clears away the gloss and gets down to the essentials.

Even when joining an organisation with positive foundations, it’s easy for teams to fall into silos or lose sight of shared purpose. The solution, as Megan points out, lies in clear values and a lived approach to leadership. It’s not about a strategy sitting idle, but about the everyday behaviours, especially from leaders, that help people feel heard and valued.

A high-performing workforce is sustained by fostering human connections, regular feedback, and authentic listening. I loved hearing about their ‘You said - we did’ process, which isn’t just an HR tick-box exercise, but an ongoing cycle of feedback and collective action. Their very low staff turnover and positive atmosphere are the results of intentional engagement, employee forums, and a culture where everyone’s voice matters.

It isn’t hierarchical; it’s approachable, personal, and rooted in day-to-day interactions - remembering names, checking in with genuine concern, and encouraging emotional intelligence. The three pillars - Grow, Give, and Belong - run through everything they do, helping ensure that everyone’s potential is supported, community connections are strong, and each person feels they matter.

Too often, people talk about work culture as a set of slogans or initiatives, but as Megan shared, it’s the little things - regular check-ins, supporting managers, empowering employees to solve problems together - that add up to a thriving, resilient workforce.

If you’re a leader or manager, don’t shy away from honest feedback, keep role modelling the behaviours you want to see, and remember: sustainable success is always collective. When your people thrive, so does your business.

Megan Carter is a People Director dedicated to shaping positive working environments and fostering strong, inclusive cultures that drive innovation and inclusivity. She prioritises wellbeing and personal growth for organisational success.

LinkedIn:

Megan Carter

Blenheim Palace

Pye Homes

Insight to Action Building a Culture of Belonging and Excellence - Downloadable Resource

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The Emotional Needs Audit (itstimeforchange.co.uk)

Tomorrow's Workplace - Building workplaces around employee emotional needs (itstimeforchange.co.uk)

Building...

Burnout isn’t just about dramatic crashes or sudden breakdowns - far more often, it creeps in slowly, going undetected until leaders and high performers find themselves exhausted, cynical, and detached. It’s an uncomfortable reality, particularly in workplaces where relentless pace and hyper-productivity can masquerade as success.

I spoke with Dr Claire Plumbly, psychologist and founder of Plum Psychology, who specialises in helping professionals recover from burnout. We challenge assumptions around burnout - as Claire says, it isn’t simply a workload issue, and it’s certainly not a badge of honour. Burnout can exist on a continuum: you can be hitting every marker for burnout and still function, still deliver. That’s often missed by leaders and managers, especially when high output is mistaken for wellbeing.

The conversation moves beyond the familiar territory of “resilience” and “stress management”, and digs into the deep-seated organisational factors that keep burnout hidden or, worse, normalised. We explore how team culture, boundaries, and everyday interactions can either perpetuate burnout or be used to genuinely create thriving, healthy teams.

I’m all about provoking leaders to think differently. It isn’t enough to simply identify stress signs; the real impact comes from regular, genuinely caring one-to-ones, creating true psychological safety, and holding space for rest and reflection - rather than cramming more into every vacant minute.

Key takeaways are practical: model healthy boundaries, celebrate the power of pausing, and rethink what performance really means. Your self-worth and value cannot simply be measured by what’s ticked off a to-do list each day. Sustainable high performance comes from the rhythm and rituals of work, not the heroics of overwork.

Claire’s book and resources offer insight for leaders who want to support teams to feel connected, valued, and safe. Burnout flourishes in silence - the antidote is care, conversation, and culture. The show notes have the links you’ll need.

Let’s be clear: work should enable people to thrive, not merely survive.

Dr Claire Plumbly is a Clinical Psychologist, author of Burnout: How to Manage Your Nervous System Before It Manages You, and founder of Plum Psychology - a team of psychologists offering trauma-informed burnout recovery both in-person and online. Through one-to-one work, intensive-therapy, and workshops, she helps busy professionals shift out of survival mode and into sustainable success.

LinkedIn: Dr Claire Plumbly

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Website: www.plum-psychology.com

Insight to Action: Burnout Intervention - Downloadable Resource

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Have you ever found yourself frustrated by the endless “Top 10 Ways to Lead” lists, only to realise that thriving teams and high-performing cultures aren’t built by ticking boxes? In this special episode of Beyond the Water Cooler, I’m sharing my recent guest appearance on Battling with Business, where I joined Gareth Tennant and Chris Kitchener to dive into what truly helps people and organisations flourish.

We explored why leadership is far more nuanced than a job title or a generic playbook - it’s an ongoing commitment to understanding individual needs, being curious about what motivates others, and creating meaningful, authentic connections. Genuine interest and thoughtful feedback unlock unseen potential and build the trust every great team needs.

Our conversation covered:

• The real meaning of leadership as a set of daily behaviours
• Why curiosity and empathy are essential for team performance
• Building psychological safety through vulnerability and honest questions
• How feedback helps uncover hidden strengths and encourage growth
• Creating connection - whether through personal stories or simple, agenda-free chats
• What leaders can do to protect and support their teams, especially under pressure
• The vital role of trust in high performing cultures

We talked openly about the everyday challenges leaders face when building psychological safety, especially in times of stress, and shared practical ideas for scaling healthy cultures in large organisations. Ultimately, we agreed - it’s the small moments, genuine conversations, and intentional focus on people that create workplaces where everyone can thrive.

If you’re passionate about leadership, management, and nurturing working environments where people perform at their best, this discussion offers fresh, practical insights you can take away today.

In the Battling with Business podcast, Gareth Tennant, a former Royal Marines Officer, and Chris Kitchener, a veteran of the software development world, explore ideas and concepts around teams and teamwork, leaders and leadership, and all things in between. It’s a discussion between a former military commander and a business manager, comparing and contrasting their experiences as they attempt to work out what makes teams, leaders, and businesses tick.

LinkedIn:

Gareth Tennant

Chris Kitchener

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Demystifying Psychological Safety | It's Time for Change

Rethinking Leadership | It's Time for Change

Leadership. It’s at the heart of every conversation I have about workplace culture and team performance. This latest episode of Beyond the Water Cooler is no exception. I’m joined by the fabulous Rich Hanrahan, co-founder of RPNA, to pick apart the link between leadership, wellbeing, and organisational output - and, as you might expect, the conversation is packed with insights that anyone in management or working with teams needs to hear.

Rich shares findings from his recent report focused on wellbeing across the government sector. But here’s the thing - its recommendations and lessons aren’t just for that field. As Rich so clearly spells out, the biggest impact we can have on employee wellbeing is by improving the quality of leadership at all levels. It’s not about adding another standalone ‘wellbeing programme’ - it’s about embedding thoughtful, people-focused leadership into the very fabric of how we work.

We challenge the numbers-driven approach to engagement surveys - that relentless focus on scores, rather than real conversations. Rich’s view? Be curious, not just competitive. Create space and time for meaningful discussions. That’s where managers can really support teams and where real improvement lives.

I loved exploring findings like 88% of frontline staff wanting to contribute more. Imagine if we actually asked people what they want to get involved with and gave them the space to help shape change! But there’s a flip side: discomfort remains, with 69% of frontline staff not feeling emotionally safe with their first-line manager. For me, this underlines the crucial need for managers to focus as much on the people side as they do the numbers, and to create a culture of genuine psychological safety.

And then there’s conflict. As Rich points out, much of it grows out of people caring deeply. If we can reframe conflict as healthy disagreement and tackle its systemic causes, we’ll see teams thrive - not just survive.

This is an episode for anyone wanting to create a workplace that’s about more than ticking boxes. If you care about happy, motivated, high-performing teams, this one’s for you.

Rich holds a Masters Degree in Coaching, Mentoring & Leadership. He believes in leadership that transforms wellbeing and results. He co-founded RPNA to help leaders and their teams flourish on the jagged frontier of the future of work, as they adopt new technology, adapt to change in societal expectation of work and service, and reimagine the future of their organisations.

LinkedIn:

Rich Hanrahan

RPNA

Website: www.therpna.co.uk

Downloadable Resource

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Joining the Dots (itstimeforchange.co.uk)...

When we talk about people thriving at work, the conversation must go well beyond policies and perks. In this final episode of season 11, I’m wrapping up with my high-level reflections on what truly matters when it comes to leadership, management, and fostering a work culture where employees are not only high performing, but actually want to show up and contribute.

From working with organisations of all sizes and across many industries, a pattern has emerged – five consistent challenges surface time and again: managing stress, masking in leadership, team performance, feedback, and navigating change. None are unique, but left unaddressed, they hold back even the most well-intentioned businesses.

Here’s my honest take: tackling stress is not about “surface fixes” but about looking at the whole system, listening, and acting. The organisations making a real difference are those creating space for genuine conversations about what’s driving stress, and then actually planning to reduce it.

Then there’s masking in leadership. So many leaders share their hidden anxieties and pressures with me – but rarely with anyone else. Yet the moment leaders show some vulnerability, authenticity spreads. This isn’t soft: it’s the pathway to real collaboration and trust.

Team performance? It starts with unpicking day-to-day behaviours, getting clear on shared values, and involving your people in defining what excellence really looks like. Simple, practical activities lead to immediate improvements because it's meaningful - it avoids box-ticking.

Feedback remains a sticking point for most – too often avoided, occasionally brutal, seldom continuous. Building a “feedback culture” isn’t about frameworks alone, but about making space for honest, regular dialogue all through the business.

And finally, change. Successful organisations realise that the human side of change is not a nice-to-have, but the glue holding everything together. Trust, psychological safety, and regular communication build resilience throughout.

As ever, my passion is about putting the human factor first so that people, and therefore organisations, can truly excel. Thanks for joining me this season – I can’t wait to return with even more practical insights in September!

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B4 People Ecosystem Blog: Change is Challenging

Leadership Labs | It's Time for Change (itstimeforchange.co.uk)

For free resources that you can use for yourself or your team, check out: itstimeforchange.co.uk/category/resources

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Do you know the difference between strategy, tactics, and operations?

This conversation with Gareth Tennant, Director of Decision Advantage, brings clarity. And he should know, having two decades’ experience as a Royal Marines officer. His insights into intelligence, decision-making and organisational learning are invaluable.

Gareth helps us understand why muddling strategy, tactics and ops can leave us feeling exhausted and directionless. Most of us go through our days making decisions on autopilot. We rarely stop and consider how we make those decisions, and how our habits around leadership and management shape the very culture of our organisations. That is a problem.

The notion of rigid hierarchies and knowing the answers is replaced with psychological safety, the power of “mission command”, and knowing that leaders shouldn't micromanage. In fact, giving people genuine responsibility – with the right support and training – is what enables teams not just to cope, but to excel, even in the face of uncertainty.

This episode is packed with stories, practical ideas (including why “war gaming” isn’t just for the military!), and heaps of fresh energy around what work success can look like. If you really want to know how to help your people perform brilliantly and feel proud of what you’re building together, do tune in.

Thank you to Gareth's wife for the introduction through a rather serendipitous Battle Box gym class!

Enjoy!

Gareth is a former Royal Marines Commando who specialised in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. Using hard fought lessons from his experience in combat, he now works with clients helping them make better decisions through a combination of more effective sense making and through the cultivation of coherence across disperate teams within organisations.

LinkedIn:

Gareth Tennant

Decision Advantage Consulting

Website: www.decisionadvantage.uk

X: @Battlingwithbiz

Leadership Labs | It's Time for Change (itstimeforchange.co.uk)

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Battling with Business Podcast

Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal

For free resources that you can use for yourself or your team, check out: itstimeforchange.co.uk/category/resources

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